Just arrived from the Western Front, the Guard Reserve Corps deployed as Eighth Army's northern most regular corps. With garrison troops from the Posen and Königsberg fortresses to their left, the Guardsmen were expected to provide most of the attack impetus in their sector. But while the gaggle of Landwehr and Landsturm troops under the Posen fortress command pushed back the Russian III Corps in their sector, the Russian IV Corps unleashed a blizzard of artillery fire on the Guards and then sprang forward to the attack.

German accounts of the battle gloss over the poor performance of the Prussian Guard. The Russian attack thoroughly disrupted the Guards, and they played little role in the upcoming pursuit of First Army other than to stumble along behind the regulars and, in what had to be particularly galling, behind the reservists and even the Landwehr. IV Corps, having fulfilled its mission, pulled back in good order and would later conduct a seamless retreat back to Russian territory.