The Eastern Front was geographically open and suited to the preferences of the
belligerent generals in 1914. Russia invaded East Prussia using the First and Second Armies
(Tenth in Reserve), intent on overwhelming the numerically weaker German Tenth Army and
taking pressure off the Western Front by forcing redirection of German forces to combat the
Russian invasion. 17 Russia also planned to knock out Austria-Hungary from the War, so they
could focus on the Germans, akin to the Schlieffen Plan in its grand strategic goals. 18 Four
Russian armies were arrayed against the Austro-Hungarians in response to their invasion of
Serbia, who was Russia’s ally. 19 The Russian invasion was scuppered at Tannenberg, in which
the German Eighth Army tactically eviscerated the Second Russian Army and drove back the
First and Tenth. 20 Despite the greatest tactical defeat of 1914, the Russians had scored the
greatest strategic victory, diverting German forces, derailing the Schlieffen Plan and the
immediate threat Germany posed on the Western Front.
The Western Front in 1916 was home to the great campaigns of Verdun and the
Somme, where technology that had been developed since the outbreak of war was put to
extensive use. On a static and non-manoeuvrable front, envelopment was exchanged for
breakthrough. German shock troop units were equipped with special weaponry such as
flamethrowers, machine guns, trench mortars, and hand grenades, to best enable them to
capture fortified positions and trenches. 21 These stosstruppen were deployed, to great
effect, behind what Gudmundsson calls a ‘rolling barrage’, otherwise known as a creeping
17 Douglas Boyd, The Other First World War: The Blood-Soaked Russian Fronts 1914-1922 (Stroud: Spellmount, 2014), p. 64 18 Strachan, p. 134 19 ‘Blank Cheque’, in The Outbreak of the First World War: Selected Documents, Ed. by Immanuel Geiss (London: Batsford, 1967), p. 77; Terraine, p. 22 20 Simkins, Jukes & Hickey, pp. 196-199 21 Bruce I. Gudmundsson, Stormtroop Tactics: Innovation in the German Army, 1914-18 (Westport: Praeger Publishing, 1989), p. 64
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