Sorry lads, was away for a few days. Thanks for keeping it alive!
Anyway, August 26th
Western Front-The Great Retreat continues, even as the French armies on the frontiers continue to stand off repeated and fierce attacks by German armies on the frontier.
The Battle of Le Cateau takes places when 2 divisions of the BEF under General Horace Smith-Dorrien make a stand at a small French village in order to halt the fast approaching German forces of the German general Von Kluck. At first the Germans thought it was a simple rearguard action instead of a defiant stand. The initial German troops attacked with no real organization, and were decimated by British artillery. By midday however the Germans realized what they were up against and put their superior numbers into full play, and by late afternoon the British flanks were broken. At the last moment a French cavalry division arrived to screen the British retreat, which was carried out in a highly organized way. The Germans had lost 5,000 men, but inflicted over 7,000 casualties on the British. Nevertheless, the Germans were given pause and forced to reorganize. This allowed the British 5 days free of harassment as they continued to retreat (out of the country, or so believed it’s commander John French).
Eastern Front-
The great Battle of Tannenberg begins. Since the 23rd, Samsonvo’s 2nd Army had been pushing the German XX Corps of the 8th army back. Despite their success, the Russians had by this point in time effectively run out of food, ammunition was scare, and communication completely broken down, forcing the Russians to communicate over open airwaves, allowing the Germans to effectively map their movements. Pushed on by theater commander Zhilinsky despite the fact that the 1st Army was in no position to cover his flanks, Samsonvo nudged his men forward…right into a German trap.
However, it was a trap that almost never sprung. Ludendorff and Hindenburg had arrived hours before, were poorly briefed on the situation, and to be honest most of the credit of the battle belongs with Max Hoffmann, who had given the exact orders of attack that Ludendorff eventually agreed to, setting the 8th army into motion for the attack before the famed duo even arrived at the front.
Once again, equal praise must be given to German general, Hermann von François, of the XVII corp which had been so instrumental to German operations in East Prussia up until this point, for having the gigantic balls necessary to tell Ludendorff to take a long walk off a short pier, that he was waiting for his heavy artillery to arrive before doing anything. This proved the correct decision, when the XVII corps was able to catch the Russian VI Corps in disordered marching position and drive it back to the border. On the Russian right, the German XX corps continued to block the movement of the Russian forces.
The Russian right flank was now open. Samsonvo recognized this, and ordered the Russian I corps to hold the line against the advancing XVII corps.
Battle of Galicia-The real action on the Eastern Front beings, as the Hapsburg armies advance from the city of Lemburg to attack Russian forces, even though they were heavily outnumbered, with over half the army still facing the Serbians. The battle of Komarow as it would come to be called, on paper was a stunning Hapsburg success, crashing into the flank of the Russian 5th Army, taking 20,000 prisoners, and seeming to push the Russian back and poise the Hapsburg armies for a clean push into Poland. But at the end of the battle, the Hapsburg flank was left wide open, inviting disaster.