With the war on the Western Front stalemating, Paul von Hindenburg, Commander-in-Chief of the German armies in the East, and his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff, came up with a plan. The idea was to decisively defeat the Russians in East Prussia, so that overwhelming power could then be transferred to the Western Front. The battle that ensued was called the Second / Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

On 7 February 1915, Hindenburg attacked attacked in the south lakes in a blizzard. He quickly pushed the Russians back by 70 miles and out of most of east Prussia. Two days later he attacked in the north lakes and had the Russians on the run. However, one corps of the Russians fell back into the primeval forests around Augustow(present day Poland) and held on for another 10 days before surrendering. This delay allowed three other corps to escape the German encirclement. Shortly thereafter, the Russains counter-attacked and ended the German initiative. The Russians took horrendous numbers of casualties and captured, but their willingness to take great pain had stopped a total rout.

Hindenburg was a viewed as the saviour of East Prussia to a weary German nation, but his grand plan of delivering a crushing blow that would remove the need for heavy forces in the east had not been completed. In the south, near the Carpathian mountains, the offensive had stalled early. The Germans had to continue on two fronts for most of the remainder of the war. Hindenburg's great rival, Falkenhayn, the German Chief of Staff, was against the plan, but had to concede under a withering attack on his reputation by Hindenburg himself. Eventually, Hindenburg would ascend to take Falkenhayn's place, with Ludendorff becoming the Quartermaster General.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

I have had a great ride in this area, but I was lost worse than Cooter Brown somehwere west-northwest of Suwalki, near the Russian border, in the area that Hindenburg's northern prong would have attacked through on 9 February 1915. A buddy and I spent 3 hours riding through some beautiful country, but I can't tell you where exactly. However when we did find ourselves again, we travelled through the Augustow area, then west through the middle of the lakes and can highly recommend it as well.

Book Recommendation: Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Michelin Poland Map from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Accor Hotels in the Olsztyn area

After a nearly unopposed beach invasion at Anzio and an impressive beachhead built up over a week, the Allied forces began their breakout from Anzio on 30 January 1944.

Background

The decision to heavily fortify the intial beachhead, rather than advance on the Alban Hills, was the source of great rancor between British and Americans. The British Chiefs of Staff who planned the attack and General Henry Wilson who gave the orders for Anzio thought they had made it clear that it was their intent to get to the Alban hills ASAP. The Alban Hills commanded the road to Rome and would be the meeting place with the rest of the main assault coming up from the Cassino area further south. General John Lucas (US VI Corps commander), who would command the Anzio campaign, and his commander General Mark Clark (US Fifth Army Commander), who would lead the US push from Cassino, thought the orders only meant a link up point and the timing would be determined later. Lucas and Clark also thought German counter-attacks would make getting to tha Alban Hills almost impossible immediately. Their idea was to fortify the beachhead to the point of impregnability, then move out. This is what they did. However, the Germans were not lax. They spent the week building up a force of 70,000 to oppose the breakout.

The Attempted Breakout 30 January 1944

In the early morning of 30 January 1944, the Rangers of Colonel William O. Darby, began the assault by getting within a kilometer of their objective of Cisterna. That would be as close as they got that day. they were found out and ambushed which drove them to ground. By mid morning, they were being attacked by tanks of the Herman Goring Division and tried a fighting retreat. By noon, only 6 out of 767 Rangers in the attack made it back to friendly lines. The US 3rd Division continued the attack, but still were a mile away from cisterna by end of the day 31 January.
The other prong of the breakout was to capture the town of Campleone near the Alban Hills. Here the British 1st Division and a regiment from the US 1st Armored Division pushed forward with great difficulty. They spent a lot of time just reaching the start line, because of mines and obstacles. Over two days, theygot tantalisingly close, but once again the Allied push was stopped short of the town objective.
The Allied high command was surprised by the lack of progress and this led them to think the German were preapring a major counter-attack soon. The Allies rushed to re-enforce the Anzio beachhead.
Whether clark and Lucas were correct about the intial speed of the push out of Anzio or not is immaterial, but the fact remains that the Germans did not counter-attack quickly or decisively and this made the decision to stay near the beachhead potentially catastrophic.

Motorcycle Ride Recommendation

Check out this ride from Nettuno to Cisterna to the Alban Hills and back down to Anzio going through Aprilia.

Book Recommendation: Anzio: The Friction of War from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

Map Recommendation: Michelin Italy Regional 563 from AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com

On 26 January 1945, Audie Murphy conducted the action near Holtzwihr, France that led to his receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. The citation for the award tells it best;

"2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy's objective."

From the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Web Site

Books

Motorcycle Ride

Start at the point where Murphy was wounded whilst operating the .50 cal. Then head over the Rhine to the Schwarzwald east of Freiburg for some beautiful woodlands and some great switchbacks. Finish in Freiburg. Its a great university town with lots of old world charm.

Maps

On 18 December 1916, the Battle of Verdun* ends after 10 months and almost a million casualties. The Germans had cynically wanted a protracted struggle with the hopes that it would drive the French (and by the French submission, the British) to the bargaining table. The Germans got exactly 1 half of what they wanted...the protracted bit, but the French had more fortitude than expected. The war was to continue for almost 2 more, gruelling years.

*Battle of Verdun ends, http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=17 (last visited Dec 18, 2006).

Books from Amazon.co.uk

Motorcycle Ride

Check out RealClassic.co.uk's trip around Verdun for some great ideas for riding in the area. There are some great pictures of classic bikes at the museum they visited.

Maps

In 1937, The Imperial Japanese Army, enraged that the Chinese might actually fight back in Shanghai, arrived in Nanking on December 13th. The result was the single worst atrocity of the WWII era.

Books from Amazon.co.uk