Tannenberg 1914

by John Sweetman

Release Date: 28 October, 2002

Edition: Hardcover

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Well Written Book about Key Battle

Tannenberg 1914 by John Sweetman is a well written book describing one of the key battles of the First World War. In 1914 Russia and France had entered into an alliance which compelled Russia to launch offensive military operations soon after Germany began the war in the West. The purpose of Russia's offensive was to take pressure off the Western Front, give France some breathing room and force the Axis to fight a two front war.

While Sweetman questions the military significance of Tannenberg, he does a marvelous job describing the battle and how a German force, half the size of its Russian counterpart, could have destroyed one Russian army and severely crippled another. Sweetman writes well and gives the reader a good sense of hows, whys and wherefores. This is a book that is well worth reading especially since there has been a dearth of writings about the Eastern Front.

Tannenberg 1914: A Too Technically Dry Account

All the facts are here, and the too few maps are thinly adequate, but connecting the text's location references to locations on these maps proves a frustrating and irritatingly gap-filled task.

At the very least there should have been a separate map provided for each two pages of evolving military movement description. And these maps should have noted every location referenced in the text - a basic requirement which this book repeatedly fails to achieve.

In my opinion, the author should also have researched many more of the pivotal human beings on each side of the battle and provided anecdotes making their individuality more alive to the reader.

The only two figures in the event who are given even a small sense of dimension as separate individuals are Hindenberg, Ludendorf, and one or two Russian generals. All others, and most of the Russian leaders are described with little more than name, rank and/or a brief career history.

Of what the various battles must have been like as an experience for the participants, we learn nothing. (Perhaps I've been spoiled by John Keegan)

The result of these deficiencies makes this technical description an extremely arid read, but the text does fully supply basic information regarding military movements and their attendent mistakes, accidents of war, and consequences.

If I had it to do over, I'd look around for other accounts of this campaign before buying this one.