TheCodeBreakers
perfectly consistent with an overall Russian directive that had been
found in the wallet of a dead Russian officer the day before. The
intercepts did not answer the crucial question of Rennenkampf s
intentions. But Ludendorff decided that, with this intelligence, the
likelihood of overwhelming victory over Samsonov was worth risking
defeat by Rennenkampf. The orders went out
to march the remaining troops facing Rennenkampf across the short
inner distance between the two pincers.
The march was getting under way next morning as Ludendorff and
Hindenburg appeared at headquarters in Marienburg. But Ludendorff
was not entirely free of anxiety about what he had done; second thoughts
disturbed him. His thin line of cavalry could have been easily pierced by
the Russian 1st Army. "Rennenkampf's formidable host hung like a
threatening thundercloud to the northeast," he worried. "He need only
have closed with us and we should have been beaten." Their defeat would
annaabi.ee 
