TheCodeBreakers
But at headquarters that morning there arrived what at one stroke
lifted the burden from the minds of Ludendorff and Hoffmann and
permitted them to prepare one of the great military triumphs of the war.
It was a Russian intercept. It, too, was in clear, but this one was from
Rennenkampf to his IV Corps, and it read, in part:
The army will continue its attack. On August 25 it will reach the
Wiberln-Saalau-Norkitten-Potauren-Nordenburg line; on August 26
the Damerau-Peters-dorf-Wehlau-Allenburg-Gerdauen line.
Their maps told the Germans that Rennenkampf was still moving at
his snail's pace. The evidence of hasty German departure that the
Russian general had seen as he advanced leisurely upon their evacuated
positions had confirmed his erroneous opinion that the Germans were in
full retreat after Gumbinnen. He did not want to press them too much for
fear of forcing them to the Vistula before Samsonov could crush them.
annaabi.ee 
