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On the 26th of August, the Germans launched their attack. They placed their best divisions on the flanks, and they easily drove back the Russian flanks. I say thin, not weak. For it was composed of men with hearts and wills of steel. Behind them were their homes, wives and children, parents and relatives, and everything they had. It was the 10th Corps, brave East and West Prussians. The Russians were unaware that they were entering into a trap until it was too late. The German artillery pounded the Russians, and they smashed the advance, the divisions of the Tsar were soon in disarray.

The commander of the 2nd army ordered his men to retreat, but it was too late. The Germans had outflanked the Imperial Russian units, and they had effectively trapped them.

The Russian army disintegrated and suffered appalling casualties, and it was every man for himself. Samsonov knew that his army was surrounded and that he was no longer in control. He resigned his command, went into a nearby forest, and shot himself. The Germans had secured a remarkable victory.

The Russian 2nd army was effectively finished as a fighting force. The German army effectively removed the Russians from the area to the north of the Masurian Lake. It is estimated that over 42, Russian soldiers were killed, up to , taken as prisoners at Tannenberg's Battle. The German losses were far less. The Russian defeat shocked the West. One British Field Marshall declared it to be the greatest defeat suffered by any army in the world.

However, many historians have taken a more nuanced approach to the battle. It was "a major victory but far from decisive. Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg moved the 8th army, which was reinforced by divisions from the west. The 8th army once more battered the Russians with their artillery and attacked them on the flanks. The Russian commander left East Prussia to avoid being encircled and annihilated. The battle was no actually fought at Tannenberg's village, but Von Hindenburg had named the battle after the German defeat in the battle of that name in the middle ages.

According to Hindenburg, the German defense of East Prussia was remarkable given the disparity in the two armies. However, Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg did not have enough men to go on the offensive. However, the Russian army was never again to threaten German territory. Tannenberg allowed the Germans to concentrate their forces in the west. They are widely seen as the saviors of the nation.

Their victory and later successes allowed them to eventually become the German Army commanders and the de-facto military dictators of the Reich by On the face of it, the Battle of Tannenberg was a great victory. However, this German victory may have come at a cost. Not long after the great victory at Tannenberg and as the Germans were sweeping the Russians from all over East Prussia, they suffered a defeat in the west. As a result, many historians have questioned if the Battle was such a great victory for the Germans.

The battle was a strategic victory for the Germans in the east. This was although they were outnumbered. One of the main reasons for the victory was the German guns' undoubted superiority and especially their heavy artillery. The Germans were able to obliterate entire units and caused near panic in the ranks of the Russians. Another factor for the success of the German was the leadership of Von Hindenburg and Ludendorff. They retrieved a near-disastrous situation and developed an effective strategy that exploited their strengths and the Russians' weaknesses, especially their relative lack of mobility.

The German generals adopted a classic military tactic first used by Hannibal to weaken the center and strengthen the flanks to encircle the enemy. By contrast, the Russians are poorly lead, and there was a great deal of confusion in the command structure.

The Russians at the battle were poorly supplied as their supply lines came under strain and could not supply the army with the supplies needed. This hampered their ability to fight the Germans at Tannenberg's battle.

It is usually deemed inadvisable to split an army at any time, but especially in enemy territory. The Russians split their forces when they should have concentrated their forces either north or south of the Masurian Lake. Then there was the role of intelligence in the battle. The Russians had little or no intelligence on the German army and its movements. Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg knew exactly what the Russians were planning and their aims.

It ensured that Russia would never again menace German territory, and it allowed the Germans to concentrate their forces on the western front. It was also important as it was the beginning of the rise of Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg, who eventually came to control the German army.

Drum retired in when he reached mandatory retirement age. Three American divisions were landed by sea at the Western end of the beaches, and two more were landed by air. On Utah Beach the assault troops made good time, but Omaha Beach came nearest of all of the five landing areas to disaster. The two American airborne divisions that landed were scattered all over the landscape, and caused considerable confusion amongst the German soldiers, as well as largely securing their objectives, albeit with units completely mixed up with each other.

First Army captured much of the early gains of the Allied forces in Normandy. Once the beachheads were joined up, its troops struck west and isolated the Cotentin Peninsula, and then captured Cherbourg.

When the American Mulberry harbour was wrecked by a storm, Cherbourg became much more vital than it had been thought it would be. After the capture of Cherbourg, First Army struck south. In Operation Cobra , its forces finally managed to break through the German lines. The newly established Third Army was then fed through the gap and raced across France. First Army followed Third Army and helped to surround the Falaise pocket. When the Germans attacked during the Battle of the Bulge , First Army found itself on the north side of the salient, and thus isolated from 12th Army Group , its commanding authority.

In Operation Lumberjack , First Army closed up to the lower Rhine by 5 March, and the higher parts of the river five days later. On 7 March, in one of the great strokes of luck of war, First Army found an intact bridge across the Rhine at Remagen. It crossed the river in force quickly. Whilst some elements of First Army concentrated upon reducing the Ruhr pocket, others headed further east, creating another pocket containing the German Eleventh Army.

First Army reached the Elbe by 18 April. There the advance halted, as that was the agreed demarcation zone between the American and Soviet forces. First Army and Soviet forces met on 25 April. Twenty years later, in , First Army relocated to Fort Meade , Maryland and took over the responsibilities of Second Army , which was inactivated. In , First Army's mission changed from training and preparation of active units to Army Reserve units. In a reorganization, five divisions carried out that training and support mission:.

In , Headquarters First Army relocated to Fort Gillem , near Atlanta, Georgia and became responsible for the training and mobilization of all Army Reserve and National Guard units in the United States and providing assistance to the civilian sector during national emergencies and natural disasters. In the latter role, First Army's contributions during the Hurricane Katrina disaster was a rare bright spot in leading federal relief efforts in the aftermath of the storm.

Its commander, Russel L. In the 21st century, First Army was subjected to more changes as base closures and force structures were instituted to modernize, economize and change its mission. Its former quarters at Fort Gillem was to transition to a single national location for the mobilization and demobilization of Army National Guard and Reserve units. In a second change, as part of the Transformation of the United States Army program, First Army exchanged its civilian assistance mission for the training and support missions for military units in the western United States formerly held by US Fifth Army.

Fifth Army then became U. Army, North with responsibilities for homeland defense and domestic emergency assistance. First Army inactivated its training divisions, reflagging them as separate training brigades under two commands.