Thread: Tannenberg
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Old 1 July 2003, 05:14 AM   #7 (permalink)
HistoryDude
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The consensus seems to be that the victory was attributed jointly to air recon and SigInt, as the russians were chatty on the ol' Marconi.
Excellent point about the "radio chatter." Most accounts I've seen on Tannenberg attributed the Germans' intelligence advantage to the ability of listening in on Russian communications. One book I remember off-hand is S.L.A. Marshall's exhaustive WW1 monograph, but I know I've seen it in other places.

I would think that Tannenberg presented a much different situation for recon purposes than the Western Front, because the battle was very fluid and dynamic as opposed to the static trench warfare in France/Belgium. Therefore, air recon might not have been enough just by itself, since it was at the beginning of the war when there were fewer planes and the air war was in its "learning stages"?