Dennis Wheatley - Duke de Richleau 07 (73 page)

On their return to the
ante-room they found it empty, and settled down in arm-chairs round a wood fire
that was smouldering in the grate. Fleischmann brought a bottle of brandy and
some glasses over from a side table, and old Lanzi produced his enormous
cigars. Then he said to the liaison officer:

“The Germans always were
a set of boors, but there must be some special reason for this shocking display
of ill-manners. Why are they behaving in such an extraordinary way?”

“It is the battle,
Herr Oberste Baron”
replied Fleischmann, pulling a
face. “The XVIIth Corps under von Mackensen is reported to have been completely
smashed and is in full retreat.”

“What!” exclaimed Lanzi. “It’s
not possible! You cannot really mean that those Russian oafs have inflicted a
defeat on the German army?”

“It’s not quite as bad as
that—yet. The 1st Corps under von Francis have done brilliantly, and von Below’s
1st Reserve Corps have done pretty well too; so the position may be stabilized
to-morrow. But there is certainly cause for grave anxiety.”

“We know next to nothing
about this front,” the Duke remarked, “so it would be best if you tell us what
has happened from the beginning.”

“Jawohl, Herr Oberst Graf”
The Captain bowed. “This, then, was the position. You will know that the central
section of this front has a natural defence consisting of the Masurian Lakes
and marshes which extend for about sixty miles, with the fortress of Lötzen in
their centre. That barrier cannot be crossed, so to invade East Prussia the
enemy forces must strike north of it through Gumbinnen or south through
Tannenberg; or, should they do both, they must for some days be separated by
the lakes, so that neither half of them could come to the assistance of the
other.”

De Richleau nodded. “Count
Schlieffen saw that. When he made his major plan against France he made a
subsidiary plan for this front. He laid it down that the remaining eighth of
the Germany army should deploy centrally behind the lake screen, so that its
whole weight could be thrown either north or south against the first Russian
army to cross the frontier. He assumed that the Russians would split their
forces, so the Germans would be equal in numbers to the first invading army and
be able to defeat it. Then, with the excellent system of lateral railways they
have built here for the purpose, they could switch their forces and take on the
second Russian army with an equally good hope of defeating that.”

“Exactly!” agreed
Fleischmann. “And the Russians
have
split their forces. Their 1st Army under General Rennenkampf, is advancing
against us from Kovno in the north, and their 2nd, based on Warsaw, is coming
up from the south. Unfortunately, von Prittwitz lacked the courage to leave one
of his flanks temporarily exposed: so, instead of following Schlieffen’s plan,
he spread his army out. He sent his 1st Corps, under von Francis, right
up
north; his XXth Corps, under Scholtz, down to the south; and kept von Mackensen
and von Below with the XVIIth and 1st Reserve Corps in the centre behind the
lake barrier.”

“He must have been crazy,”
grunted the Duke. “Splitting his forces like that meant that whichever of his
flank corps was attacked it would have to fight four times its numbers.”

“That would have been the
case if it had not been for General von Fran
ç
ois.
He is a real tiger. I wish to God that he was
C.
in C.
instead of the fat boy—that’s what everyone here calls von Prittwitz. Anyhow,
when Rennenkampf’s army started to pour over the frontier on the 17th and 18th,
von Fran
ç
ois
came here and raised hell. Apparently, von Prittwitz’s orders are to hold the
Russians as well as he can, but not to commit himself so heavily as to risk a
major defeat, which would prevent him from retiring behind the Vistula and
stabilizing a front there. He wanted to retreat at once, but von François
became downright insubordinate and refused to let him. I gather there was a
terrific scene, and von Fran
ç
ois
got the best of it. He not only bullied the
C.
in C.
into ordering the XVIIth Corps north, but the 1st Reserve as well, with the
intention that all three Corps should stand and fight at Gumbinnen.”

“Now let’s hear about the
battle,” put in Lanzi, helping himself to another brandy.

“It was joined at dawn
to-day,
Herr Oberste Baron.
Von François’s Corps was farthest north, of course, and he took the Russians by
surprise. They say he gave them a terrific pasting, then succeeded in getting a
cavalry division round their flank, which is playing merry hell with their
transport and communications. Von Below, at the other end of the front, also
did well, and drove back the Russians opposite him. It’s the centre that is the
trouble. Apparently, von Mackensen failed to achieve surprise and found the
Russians on his front dug in. Nevertheless, he sent his troops in to attack
them. They were shot down in droves. The survivors panicked and fled. He and
his staff went up to the front and tried to stop the rout themselves. But it
was no good. Our centre has been broken wide open.”

Lanzi simply could not
understand it, but De Richleau could. He knew that the bravest and best
disciplined troops in the world could not stand up to machine gun fire from
prepared positions, and that von Mackensen was not the only General who would
learn that before he was much older.

They talked on for
another hour. Occasionally one or two officers came in, had a quick drink and
hurried out again. Every room
in
the house was ablaze with light; orderlies continually scurried up
and down
stairs and along the corridors. Outside, in the broad
sweep of the drive, motors and motor-cycles constantly came and went. It was
about a quarter past ten when the plump figure of the
C. in C.
appeared in the doorway. Only the
Duke and the two Austrians were in the room at the time. They at once stood up,
and De Richleau said:

“May we offer our
sympathy to your Excellency on this temporary set-back. It is disappointing,
but more than offset by the fine performance of your 1st Corps.”

Von Prittwitz made no
direct reply. He stood glowering at them for a moment, then he barked:
“Herrshaft!
It is useless for you to remain
here. You are wasting your time. I have just received news that General
Samsonov’s army has crossed our southern frontier in force. I have no intention
of allowing myself to be cut off. I have just ordered an immediate retirement
to behind the Vistula.”

Snapping his heels
together, he made them a jerky bow, turned on his heel, and marched off.

“Behind the Vistula!”
gasped Lanzi, his blue eyes popping. “But that means giving up the whole of
East Prussia. He must be out of his senses.”

“To order a retreat of a
hundred and fifty miles after only one day of battle is certainly an
extraordinary step,” the Duke agreed. “Of course, with practically the whole of
his army intact, he will be quite safe there. But I wonder what All Highest War
Lord Willi Hohenzollern will have to say about this. I shouldn’t like to be in
von Pritwitz’s shoes when he has to explain matters to his Kaiser.”

Lanzi puffed out a cloud
of blue smoke. “Well, it seems this is the end of our mission. We’d better
start back tomorrow.”

“I suppose you had, but I
shall not have the pleasure of accompanying you,” the Duke said quietly. “Our
C. in C.
asked me to go on from here with a
personal letter to General von Moltke.” He turned to Captain Fleischmann and
added: “Perhaps you would be good enough to arrange transport for me to
Aix-la-Chapelle.”

Jawohl, Herr
Oberste Graf
,”
replied the
Captain.

After a moment, Lanzi
said: “You’ll have to go via Berlin, won
’t
you?
I think I’ll go with you that far. As I can’t take back any German proposals
for assisting our offensive, it won’t make any odds if I don
’t
turn
up at Przemysl for a few days. It will be quite enough to send a wire, saying
there is nothing doing. A visit to Berlin will take me only two or three
hundred miles out of my way, and I’m paying the rent
for
a flat there for a pretty little Fraulein. It’s quite a
long time since I’ve seen her, and this seems too good a chance to be missed.”

“That’s just as you wish,”
smiled the Duke. And, although neither of them could know it, this casual
decision to spend a night with a young trollop whom he had almost forgotten,
was to cost Baron Lanzelin Ungash-Wallersee his life.

But they were not
destined to leave for Berlin next morning. At nine o’clock Captain Fleischmann
brought them a message that General Hoffmann, the Chief of the Operations
Section of the 8th Army H.Q., would like to see them, and took them to a big
room at the back of the house, in which the General was working.

He was a
square-shouldered man with a broad forehead, dark hair and a small moustache.
He looked as if he needed a wash, and his eyes were a little bleary: but he
spoke with crisp decision.

“Herrschaft!
The
C. in C.
is indisposed and has
asked me to see you for him. It is most regrettable that you should have
arrived here at such an unfortunate moment for us, but I can assure you that
our situation is by no means as desperate as it appears. You have probably
heard rumours this morning that a retirement to the Vistula has been ordered.
They are entirely without foundation.”

“The
C. in C.
told us himself last night that he
had ordered it,” put in Lanzi, with a regal disregard for tact.

“Oh, did he?” the German
looked momentarily disconcerted. “Well, as a matter of fact, he did. But my colleagues
and I persuaded him that it would be impossible to carry out such a movement
without first lighting another battle. General Samsonov’s army is eighty miles
nearer to the Vistula than we are, and would cut us off before we could get
there. If you will give me your attention for a moment, I will show you what we
intend to do.”

Standing up, General
Hoffmann turned to a big map behind him, on which both German and Russian
formations were marked. Pointing to a group of flags to the north of Gumbinnen,
he said:

“There are our 1st Corps
and a Cavalry Division, under General von François. With those forces he
inflicted a severe defeat yesterday on Rennenkampf’s right wing. By it he has
carried out, to a degree that I consider adequate, the first move in Count
Schlieffen’s Plan II. General von Mackensen’s XVIIth Corps in the centre was
very roughly handled, but it has been rallied a few miles back, and he has
succeeded in closing the gap. To the south, General von Below’s 1st Reserve
Corps inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. In consequence, I do not believe
that Rennenkampf will be ready to strike again for some days to come.”

He coughed, then went on:
“Now, these are our intentions. Without a moment’s delay, we shall bring the
1st Corps back by rail to K
ö
nigsberg,
down the Baltic to Marienburg, then south-east through Deutch
Elau.
The XVlIth Corps will make a flank march behind the lakes in the same
direction. The 1st Reserve Corps will follow it, and both will come up on the
left of the XXth Corps, which has not yet been in action. So, with our four
Corps deployed in the neighbourhood of Tannenberg, we shall meet Samsonov and
smash him.”

“I find your proposals
most interesting,
Herr General
,”
murmured the Duke. “But are you quite happy that General von Francis will be
able to extricate himself for this new move?”

“Yes!” came the
unhesitating reply. “I am confident of it. He has already shown qualities of
Generalship which have proved an inspiration to all who know him.”

“This move of his 1st
Corps, by rail, though? They will have to come nearly two hundred miles, from
one end of the front to the other. With their guns and war stores that is a
terrific undertaking. Most staffs would need a week to work it out before the
troops could begin to entrain.”