GREAT-WAR TRAGEDY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 79, 14 March 1936, Page 9

GREAT-WAR TRAGEDY

Officer Writes a Play I An unusual play about tho Battle of lannenberg has just been produced on German provincial stages. It is “The Other General,” by Hauns Gobscli, himself a staff officer with Hindenburg at Tannenberg. A battle drama without the smoke of battle, this play, while keeping strictly to historical fact, concentrates on the personality of General Alexander Samsonov who commanded the Second Russian Army defeated at Tannenberg by the Germany forces under Hindenburg and Ludendorff. The whole action is played out on tho Russian side: the German protagonists do not appear. General Samsonov has been entrusted with the leadership of the Second Army by the Czar. But he is also under the direct control of the Higher Command, Grand Duke Nicholas and General Shilinski, neither of whom appears on the stage.

When the Grand Duke orders an immediate attack in East Prussia, and General Shilinski orders Samsonov to march his army northwards, Samsonov protests that the plan is not workable, and that the Russians should be marching westwards towards the Vistula to meet the German forces.

But General Shilinski is ambitious and eager for fame, and insists that his plan shall be carried out. Samsonov is thus faced with a terrible problem. Should he disobey his superior or follow his own military instinct which tells him that the Shilinski plan is doomed to failure? He hesitates, is lost, and decides to obey. The results, as the world knows, were disastrous for the Second Army. Forty-eight hours too late, when he realises that his fears are only too correct, Samsonov—surrounded by officers swearing to be faithful to his leadership—decides to disobey and starts to march his forces westward. But it is too late. The Second Army is already encircled by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Through his devotion to the idea of blind obedience and discipline Samsonov has led an army of a quarter of a million to military defeat. Conscious of this tragic knowledge he wanders into the lonely Masurian forest and shoots himself. The play is a soldier’s play written by a soldier and full of soldiers, and is