General August von Mackensen in the uniform of the Death's Head Hussars.

Generaloberst von Mackensen

7178

Verlag von Gustav Liersch & Co. Berlin, S.W.

Original Aufnahme von Gottheil & Sohn, Danzig



General von Mackensen

7178

Published by Gustav Liersch & Co. Berlin, S.W.

Original picture by Gottheil & Son, Danzig

Other views: Larger

General August von Mackensen fought on the Eastern Front.

In August and September 1914 he commanded the XVII Corps. In the Battle of Gumbinnen on August 20, the planned German convergence of three army corps was sequential, and each corps suffered heavy losses, particularly from Russian artillery.

In the Battle of Tannenberg, Mackensen's forces drove back the right wing of Samsanov's Second Army. With von Francois' success against the left wing, the center of the Russian Second Army was isolated and destroyed. The Germans took 90,000 prisoners.

Mackensen and François then turned on the left flank of von Rennenkampf's First Army near Lötzen in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

Elevated to command of the Ninth Army, von Mackensen attacked at Lodz on November 11, 1914. In five days, his forces pushed the Russian First Army back 50 miles, drove between it and the Russian Second Army, and turned the right flank of the Second Army, pressing it back against the city of Lodz. Responding to the danger in the Battle of Lodz, Russia abandoned its offensive against Silesia in southeast Germany.

Commanding the new Eleventh German Army and an Austrian army, von Mackensen launched the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive on May 3, 1915 with 950 guns and a four-hour hurricane bombardment along a 30-mile front, between the Polish border and the Carpathians. By May 4, the Germans had destroyed the Russian Third Army and broken through the Russian line.

On 6 October 1915, Austro-Hungarian and German troops under Mackensen invaded Serbia, conquering the country by the end of the year.

After Romania joined the Entente Allies and invaded Austria-Hungary, Mackensen commanded the Central Power Danube Army that invaded Dobruja on Romania's Black Sea coast.

For the rest of the war Mackensen commanded occupying forces in Romania.

National Affiliation: Germany