![]() ![]() Malga did not have any connection to Tannenberg, but there was a tangential connection to military history. Translations of some reviews from Polish to English yielded a few details. This needle in a haystack search took in the most rural roads. I hoped to find any military sites from the battle that I may have overlooked. While planning this trip to the Samsonov monument, I spent the night before scrutinizing Google Maps in the cauldron area. Needles & Haystacks - A Polish Ghost Town The cauldron - Detail of troops positions on the final day at Tannenberg Alexander Samsonov would not be one of them. ![]() Of an estimated 150,000 Russian troops, 92,000 ended up prisoners of war. Most took the first option as statistics show. Russian forces in this cauldron had only two choices, either surrender or risk being killed or wounded. A map of battle movements on the final day showed a circle where remnants of the Russian 2nd Army were surrounded by German forces on all sides. Following the highway southward we were entering what I surmised was the cauldron. A possible defensive position left from the battle. In a field located on the fringes of this small village were what looked like a series of man-made earthworks. (*More on visiting the Tannenberg Memorial site in a later post). There were traces in the area where this once gigantic symbol of uber-German nationalism stood. Passing through the town we made our way to where the Tannenberg Memorial stood from 1927 - 1945. After a few minutes of staring cluelessly at a spot-on Google Maps where the cemetery was supposedly located, me and my travel companion drove on into Olsztynek. Stopping by the roadside and wandering around in scrub brush did not reveal anything. I thought this would be an easy find, but it proved otherwise. It was right beside the highway coming into town from the north. The first was a military cemetery supposedly on the edge of Olsztynek. They offered portents of difficulties to come despite cooperation from the weather. I assumed the drive to the Samsonov Monument would be easy, so I planned a few stops along the way. General Alexander Samsonov was feeling the fear, heat, and confusion as the German 8th Army rendered the final devastating blows to the Russian 2nd Army. ![]() They could not look to their commander for leadership, he was as beaten as the soldiers. Bedraggled, lusting for water, and at the point of complete exhaustion, thousands of confused Russian soldiers tried to fight their way out of an ever-tightening German vice. The weather could not have been better. The sky was also clear and cloudless on August 30, 1914, the final day for the Battle of Tannenberg. The trees were beginning to bloom and greenery added splashes of colors to the ground. The sky was blue and cloudless, the air crisp and cold. Since it was Sunday, the rest of Olsztyn was still asleep. It was already daylight in Olsztyn (Allenstein). I awoke an hour after dawn from a deep sleep. As such, I planned to use mine while making the final journey to the spot where Russian General Alexander Samsonov committed suicide. Our minds are the only time machine available to humans. In this sense, the past is not only a time and place, but also a feeling. While time travel has yet to be invented, imagination and an intimate knowledge of history can bring us as close to the past as we will ever be. We might not be able to repeat the past, but we can reimagine it. Time passes statistically, but mentally it is an entirely different matter. It was exactly 108 years and 8 months since the Battle of Tannenberg's final day. On Sunday April 30, 2023, my thoughts turned to war. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |