A 25-year-old soldier fought off 3 German soldiers at Tannenberg with nothing but a knife

The 1914 Battle of Tannenberg, which took place in what is now Poland from August 26 to August 30, 1914, was a pivotal battle of World War I. It saw a series of German victories in the east against Russia, where Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria were pitted against Russia, France, and Britain. <br><br>The 26th Division was a newly formed unit of the Imperial German Army, consisting of several thousand soldiers who were largely untrained and inexperienced. The unit was sent to Tannenberg to support the 1st Corps, which was heavily engaged with the Russian army. The division was given orders to attack a series of Russian trenches east of the village of Tannenberg. <br><br>The attack was poorly planned, and it was carried out without proper artillery or infantry support. At dawn on 27 August, the 26th Division charged the Russian lines, but it quickly became apparent that the Russians were heavily entrenched and well defended. <br><br>The advance stalled almost immediately, and the Germans took heavy casualties. After an hour of fighting, the Germans were pinned down behind a few small mounds of earth, and they were unable to move further. <br><br>Three German soldiers, led by a lance-corporal named Wilhelm Hoffman, were tasked with capturing three Russian machine guns and taking out the crews. However, as they approached the first machine gun, they found that it was guarded by three soldiers. Hoffman and his comrades decided to take out the Russian soldiers one by one, and they launched a surprise attack. <br><br>Hoffman stabbed one of the Russians with his bayonet, and another German soldier shot the second Russian. The third Russian soldier escaped and alerted the rest of the Russian troops. Hoffman and his comrades took cover in a nearby trench, where they came under intense fire from multiple directions. <br><br>Over the course of 90 minutes, the Germans in the trench were gradually picked off by the Russians. Hoffman was the last German soldier remaining, and he was the only one who still had his bayonet. The other soldiers had been shot or wounded, and they were unable to return fire. <br><br>The Russian soldiers charged the trench, and Hoffman stood up and charged them, stabbing several of them with his bayonet. He fought his way back to his own lines, killing several more Russians along the way. Hoffman then surrendered to a group of Russian soldiers, but he was executed on the spot.