German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of generals von Hindenburg and Archduke Friedrich besieged Warsaw, and took it during the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. Austrians von Hötzendorf, Friedrich, and Pflanzer-Baltin form the bottom of the ring; the others are German. The flag and shield of Germany are on the bottom left; those of Austria and Hungary the bottom right.
Der Ring um Warschau, The Ring Encircling Warsaw.Bottom right: 5258; illegible logo bottom leftReverse: registration lines only.
"When Ludendorff detached a number of of divisions from Oberost to support Conrad (a technical device which he hoped would lead to a supreme command of both German and Austrian forces in the east, Falkenhayn promptly formed them into an independent army and ordered Ludendorff himself to report to it as chief-of-staff! Hindenburg was called in to write a personal appeal to the Kaiser for the return of his indispensable aide. A meeting took place at Breslau on 11th January, at which Falkenhayn's suave courtesy made a disagreeable impression '. . . it was all unsatisfactory and pointless, a contest of opinions settled beforehand', wrote Ludendorff in his diary."
Generals Paul von Hindenburg and his chief-of-staff Erich Ludendorff, commanding Germany's armies on the Eastern Front, insisted they could win the war by a victory over Russia before turning on the British and French on the Western Front. German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn had already watched German forces sweep across Polish Russia three times and be driven back. He had little faith these great advances and retreats would win the war. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf was Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, and Falkenhayn's maneuver would have had Ludendorff reporting to him. Oberost was Oberbefehlshaber der deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten — the Commander in Chief of the German armed forces in the East. Hindenburg and Ludendorff were at the beginning of their campaign against Falkenhayn. They would win it in 1916.
Suicide of the Empires by Alan Clark, page 74, copyright © 1971 by Alan Clark, publisher: American Heritage Press, publication date: 1971
1915-01-11, 1915, January, Ludendorff, Falkenhayn
