alone outnumbered him at least by 50,000;
combined they were more than three times as powerful as all his forces.
His only hope, therefore, was in attacking them separately. Thus he
chose to strike first at Samsonoff's army which was much farther spread
out than Rennenkampf's, and would find it much more difficult than the
latter to keep open its main line of retreat and supply. Its left rested
on Soldau, its right on Frankenau, while its center had been pushed
forward to Allenstein through Soldau, and southeast from it ran the only
direct railroad to his Polish base by way of Mlawa. Three other lines
centered there, one in the west from Thorn, one in the northwest from
Eylau (connecting with Danzig and Koenigsberg), and one in the east from
Neidenburg, which from there run north to Allenstein and northeast to
Johannisburg and Lyck. Apparently centering his efforts on pushing his
advance, Samsonoff had neglected to secure the former two roads.

On August 26, 1914, Von Hindenburg occupied both and took Soldau
Junction. The shortest line of retreat had now been cut off to the
Russians, whose forces were scattered over a considerable territory, and
on account of lack of railroads could not be concentrated quickly or
efficiently at any one point. Though a determined effort was made on
August 27, 1914, to retake Soldau, it was foredoomed to failure.
Samsonoff's left was thrown back on Neidenburg, making his front even
more unwieldly than before.

At this time the German front was very short, its left being at
Hohenstein, about halfway between Soldau and Allenstein and slightly
northeast of Tannenberg. But it made up in activity what it lacked in
length. In vain the Russians tried to break the German ranks and open up
a road to the northwest. Much blood was spilled on both, sides during
three days' fighting, but the German line held. In the meantime the
Russians had evacuated Allenstein, feeling the imperative need of
shortening their front. This gave Von Hindenburg the railroad that ran
almost parallel to the Russian front as well as the splendid main road
that runs alongside of it. Commandeering every available motor vehicle
from the entire surrounding countryside, he immediately extended his
line and swung around the Russian right as previously he had swung
around their left. Almost every road, rail or otherwise, that was of any
importance was now in the hands of the Germans and along them could be
sent men and guns with