CHAPTER LXX
AUSTRIAN RETREAT BEGINS
At this time the Russians were strongly established on the six-mile front of the left bank of the San River, between Nizko and Rudnik. The Austrian opposition there had been long and determined, but was finally broken early in November, 1914. The Austrians began a retreat along this front.
This retreat was such as to indicate less a general defeat than a general obedience to orders to withdraw. It is true that the Russians had been pressing with great energy upon the upper Vistula and San fronts, especially since the settlement of the main fight farther north against the Germans and mixed forces, but the Austrians were in possession of strong fortified positions which still were giving trouble to the Russians, in spite of their constantly increasing numbers.
It was now plain that the Russians had left the Galician front until the Vistula front had been cleared, when a proportion of the troops released there could proceed to add to the fighting force in Galicia, thereby causing the retreat of the Austrians along the whole front.
On November 5, 1914, the Russians achieved what the General Staff characterized as "the greatest victory since the beginning of the war." This was the recapture of Jaroslav. It was announced to the Allies by Grand Duke Nicholas in a formal message, which also stated:
"Following our successes upon the Vistula, a complete victory has just been gained by our troops along the whole of the front in Galicia. Our strategical maneuver has thus been crowned by what is incontestably the greatest success gained on our side since the beginning of the war. I am most confident of the speedy and entire accomplishment of our common task, persuaded as I am that decisive success will be gained by the allied armies." In the capture of Jaroslav the Russians took 5,000 Austrian prisoners.
During several days before the general Austrian retreat along the Vistula front began, they were engaged in furious attack, their artillery fire being especially severe. It was evidently a supreme effort. The last engagement was over an extended front, enormous forces striving to prevent the Russians crossing the San at a point near Monastryzek. It was reported that reenforcements pushing over the Carpathians in an attempt to aid them were delayed in the snow-filled mountain passes.
We will have a better understanding of Russian tactics as worked out in the activities just referred to, if we consider here an official statement issued by the General Staff about this time concerning them. It read:
"Fierce combats on the River San and south of Przemysl, which have been going on for more than three weeks, resulted on September 5 in the general retreat of the Austrians.
"On the preceding night the Austrians made a last effort to repulse our troops who were crossing the San. Until a late hour the enemy attacked on an extended front, taking the offensive in dense, successive lines, but everywhere they suffered enormous losses and were repulsed.
"On November 5,1914, the enemy's columns commenced to move from the San in the direction of Dukla Pass across the Carpathians and south of Przemysl, seeking everywhere to leave the battle front. We pursued them energetically all along the line.
"The abandonment by the main Austrian forces of the line of the San is the result of the victorious battle fought at the end of September, the original purpose of which was to block the offensive of the Austro-German armies against Warsaw and Ivangorod.
"At the beginning of October our troops were engaged along a front extending for 330 miles and passing through Warsaw, Kozienica, Przemysl, and Czernowitz. Toward October 20 we succeeded in gaining a decisive victory on the left bank of the Vistula in the region of Warsaw.
"Following up our successes during the last eighteen days, on a front of 380 miles, we broke the resistance of the enemy who is now in full retreat. This victory enables our troops to proceed to a realization of further tasks to inaugurate a new period of the war."
This announcement is embodied here, not only for such information as it contains which coincide with established facts, but that the Russian viewpoint toward such events and the purpose behind Russian activities may be manifest.
To the south of Przemysl on November 7, 1914, the Russians, having increased their activities in the region considerably, took 1,000 prisoners. Warfare about the fortress now seemed to be entering a new phase, which the Russians initiated with great artillery activity and an advance against Medyka. The Austrians responded with a closer concentration, with the fortress as their center. After the first attack on Przemysl, all damage to the fortress had been repaired and the outer forts strengthened by field fortifications, of a very strong character, and covered by battery positions.
A new railroad bridge was built at Nizankowice and communications with Chyrow, about twenty-five miles to the south, restored. Numerous trains had been used to transport wounded soldiers and useless Przemysl civilians southward and to bring back flour, Zwieback, and other supplies to the fortress. The arrival of many carloads of beer caused particular rejoicing.
On November 11, 1914, the Russians, advancing on Cracow from the direction of Jaroslav, occupied Miechow and Dynow. The forces operating farther south seized Lisko. It now seemed to the Russians that the enemy would not be able to make an effective stand east of Tarnow and the Dunajec River and so the Russians would find themselves once more on the lines they had been forced to abandon hastily six weeks previously, when the Germans first made their rapid advance to the Vistula. It was as a result of this campaign and the course of the Russians in conceding smaller successes in order to concentrate their forces at the most important point that the Austrians found themselves driven back now at every point, while the Russians advanced for the possession of the western part of Galicia. It was the hope of the Russians that their advance in Galicia would soon set free their Cossack divisions for a new invasion of Hungary.
On November 12, 1914, the Russians sustained a defeat near Czernowitz, capital of the Austrian province of Bukowina. The Austrians made an unexpected movement, crossing the Pruth, a few kilometers north of Czernowitz and suddenly attacking the Russian right wing. The Russians were completely surprised and after a short resistance decided to fall back upon their base, which seemed free. However, they were then taken under fire by Austrian artillery, which caused great losses among the Russian detachments. The battle field was strewn with corpses. Russian forces in the Stryj valley also were forced to retire with heavy losses by a surprise attack from an Austrian armored train and Austrian cavalry.
The Russian offensive in Galicia toward Dounaietz nowhere encountered resistance. The Russians occupied Krosno and inflicted heavy losses on the Austrian rear guard.
It should be noted that during the middle of November, 1914, the campaign on which the Russians were concentrating their attention was against the Austrians. The Russian campaigns had consistently adhered to the principle that in military operations important results are obtained by bringing every force to bear upon a single point until the desired end is accomplished. The Russians still followed this policy.
The operations in East Prussia and in western Poland were for the time being made secondary while all energy was devoted to pushing forward the campaign against Cracow. When they were now within fifteen miles of it, an appeal was sent by the city to the Germans for reenforcements. The civilians of the place removed themselves from the fortified area and the inhabitants generally fled the locality. The German colony left for Berlin and Bavaria.
Cracow was surrounded by a triple line of fortifications of which the outer line contained fifteen forts, eleven on the north, and four on the south bank of the Vistula. The defenses on the north were much stronger than those on the East, where the San River and the fortresses of Jaroslav and Przemysl were once regarded as a secure barrier against Russian advance. The Russians already had broken down that barrier and only two small streams lay between their eastern army and the last stronghold of Galicia.
On November 15, 1914, the Austrians defending Przemysl again attempted a sortie, this time with greater success than before. It forced back the Russians on the north side of the fortress to the heights of Rokietnica, with small Austrian losses. A second sortie was repulsed by Russian artillery and cavalry and heavy losses inflicted on the Austrians.
In Galicia we now find the Austrians west of the Donajec River, along the front from Tarnow to the Vistula. The Austrian line then followed the Biala River for a few miles until it cut across to take advantage of the Wisloka, north and south of Jaslo. From there east the Austrians were retreating into the passes of the Carpathians.
These latter troops were relatively small bodies, whose main object was to prevent the Russian cavalry from making raids into Hungary. Opposite Tarnow the Austrians were prepared to put up a most stubborn resistance, for they regarded the holding of this part of their line as essential. Unless they could hold back the Russians there, they reasoned, the latter would have a chance to break through and cut off the Austrian army that was retreating from Sanok and Jaslo. A Russian advance north of Cracow, they figured, would tend to cut off the entire Austrian army from its German ally. This was an object for which the Russians were striving.
Abandonment by the Austrians of Central Galicia and the gathering of their armies toward Cracow soon began to show results in the stiffening of their resistance to Russian advance. As the Austrians retreated westward their front decreased in length with consequent strengthening of their line. It was their desire that this strengthening should enable them to extend northward along the Warthe River, thus freeing some of the German troops for service in the army that was advancing from Thorn.
By the Russians a German advance in considerable force along the narrow battle front on the west bank of the river Vistula was regarded as a feint at the city of Warsaw, the intention of which was to draw Russian troops from their advance upon Cracow and distract attention from efforts to establish a strongly fortified defensive line from Kalisz to Cracow.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER LXXI
FIGHTING AT CRACOW
On November 20, 1914, the Russians were before the outer line of defenses of Cracow, with strong opposition to their further advancement. Meanwhile they were pushing forward minor columns of Cossacks into the passes of the Carpathian Mountains, intending that these should emerge, if possible, upon the Hungarian plains in raids similar to those which were made in the first Russian advance in September.
During the next few days following November 20, 1914, there was constant and hard fighting in the vicinity of Cracow, the Austrians reporting that they had taken three battalions of Russians prisoners. All reports showed a stiffening of the Austrian line, while the energy of Russian attacks was reduced by the diversion of troops to stem the Austrian invasion by way of the Vistula.
The Austrians were obliged, however, a few days later, to evacuate Neu Sandec, fifty miles southeast of Cracow, and an important railroad junction of the River Dunajec and the main line to Cracow. The Russians reported they took 3,000 prisoners and some machine guns. The capture of Neu Sandec revealed a new Russian advance, threatening the right flank of the Austrian army along the Carpathian Mountains. By this capture the Austrians were deprived of an important railway into Hungary. In order to stop this turning move it was necessary for them to weaken their campaign north of Cracow.
In the Cracow region the Austrians advanced on the north to Pilica, Wolbrom, and Miechow, about twenty miles from the Galician border. To the east the Russians advanced to within twelve miles of the fortress. In the fighting at Pilica and Wolbrom the Austrians claimed the capture of 29,000 Russians.
In the latter part of November, 1914, the Russians were successful in attack in Galicia along a line from thirty to sixty miles southeast of Cracow, taking more than 7,000 prisoners, thirty cannon, and twenty machine guns in one engagement. On November 29, 1914, the Austrians also scored a victory on the front extending from Proszowicz to Onszreniawa, fourteen miles northeast of Cracow, southward through Brzesko on the Vistula to Bochnia and Adsniez.
General Radko Dmitrieff's cavalry kept in close touch with the retreating Austrians, who were attempting to shake off contact with, the Russians and gain time to re-form their ranks back of Cracow. Part of the Austrian troops defeated on the San had retired beyond the Carpathians to recuperate while the Russians attacked the Austrian force southeast of Cracow.
At this stage of hostilities, the Russians estimated that the Austro-Hungarian casualties had amounted to 19,000 officers and 900,000 men. At the same time, it was estimated by the Austrians that the total Russian losses had been 760,000 in dead, wounded, deserters, and prisoners. Of these, 420,000 were attributed to the various battles against the Austro-Hungarian forces, and 340,000 to battles against the Germans.
The losses of the Russians in the campaigns against Austria-Hungary, as estimated for the various engagements, were as follows: Early raids, skirmishes, and frontier fighting, 15,000; Krasnik, Niedzfica Duza, Lublin, 45,000; Zamosz, Komarow, Tyszowce, 40,000; first battle of Lemberg, 45,000; second battle of Lemberg, 30,000; Rawa-Russka, Magierow, 30,000; offensive against middle Galicia, 15,000; offensive around Przemysl, 40,000; raising siege of Przemysl, 15,000; Carpathian invasions, 30,000; battles on the San beyond Przemysl, to date, 25,000; Medyka-Stari, Sambor, 40,000; outposts in the Carpathians, 15,000; last battles of the Vistula from Sandomierz to Ivangorod, 35,000.
On December 1, 1914, the Austrians had been driven from all their positions over a front about thirty-three miles long, which defended the Carpathian passes from Konecha Village, twelve miles north of Bartfield eastward—that is, on all roads leading through the Dukla Pass over the Carpathians. This was the lowest pass anywhere available across the mountain range and being also the widest, is in all respects best suited for military purposes. All armies that previously had invaded the present area of Hungary from time immemorial, via the Carpathian Mountains, had used the Dukla Pass.
A number of points along the line mentioned, where the Austrians had established defensive positions, were taken by the Russians, the most easterly being south of Mezolaborez. All were taken by assault. Many guns, Maxims, and prisoners were captured. An energetic Russian advance continued to push the Austrians back toward Cracow. The Austrians evacuated one position after another with large losses.
The Russian advance toward Bartfeld and Hammona, on the south slope of the Carpathians in Hungary, indicated an attempt to push forward a turning force around the south flank of the Austrian position, as it stood at that time. The damage caused by this raiding expedition was calculated to force the Austrians to meet it and so divert them from the main fighting line at Cracow. Evidence of this shift was shown in a reverse which the Austrians administered to the Russians at Hammona.
Early in December, 1914, Russia replied to reports that she was suffering from a shortage of recruits by declaring she could put two corps against every one that Germany brought into Poland and still have enough to carry on the campaign against Cracow as originally planned. Her two armies operating against that important objective point had linked flanks. Investment of the city was daily feared.
The southern army, which moved directly west on the Tarnow-Cracow line, had fought its way over every inch of the ground, making a record of forty-five battles in forty-five days. At least, according to old measures, these fights would be classed as battles. Under the stupendous conditions which surrounded this modern cataclysm, they probably range as little more than reconnaissances in force.
Back to the banks of the River Raba, the advancing Russians pushed the Austrian foe. Here in a position of considerable defensive value, the enemy made a determined resistance. But the Russians swept on. The Austrians made a stand soon afterward, outside the protecting radius of the fortress guns, in the angle made by the Raba and Schreniawa.
Przemysl about this time was reported to be in dire straits. Monsignor Joseph Sebastian Felczar, Archbishop of Przemysl, said, December 3, 1914, after he had left the city for the Vatican:
"Would to God my cathedral city might be spared the horrors of invasion but I feel I can hope no longer. Our garrison has resisted with stubborn heroism but the Russians outnumber them two to one. I got away only after long hours of wearisome wanderings across the Russian lines; the Muscovites had then already captured several of the outer ring of forts, besides other important vantage ground, and had hemmed round the whole fortress in a circle of steel.
"When I left Przemysl, indescribable desolation reigned there. The houses, palaces, and public buildings were reduced to dust heaps. Despite severe measures taken by the authorities brigand bands prowled among the ruins and pillaged such of the civil population as still remained. A never-ending procession of caravans traversed the streets, which were chock full of wounded and dying. The hospitals were overcrowded and the injured laid out in rows in the churches."
On December 4, 1914, the Russians, by the capture of Wieliczka, gained another step in their campaign for the possession of the broad passes to the south and west of Cracow. Wieliczka is a small town, about nine miles southwest of Cracow and three miles from the line of forts. It is built over salt mines, a short railway bearing the product thereof to the larger city.
On the northwestern side, the Russians were only a few miles from the city. It was only the Austro-German army, sitting in trenches and making occasional attacks on the Czenstochowa-Oilusz-Cracow line that prevented the complete encirclement of the place. The contest between these forces was mostly a slow artillery duel from day to day.
It was now the turn of the Germans to relieve the Austrians, if they could, from a critical position. For months before, the Austrians had been sacrificed in the interest of the German plan of winning a crushing victory in France, and during the retreat from Warsaw it was the Austrians who bore the brunt of the fighting as a rear guard. Again, when the Germans found themselves hard pressed between the Warthe and the Vistula, they flung the Austrian reenforcements to fresh defeat at Wienun.
It was the contention of Austrian military writer that in order to maintain an effective resistance to the Russians at this time and afterward, the Germans should continue to withdraw troops from the western front.
The Russians seemed to feel secure at this time in holding back the German forces in Poland and so were passing forward their campaign in Galicia, in an effort to interpose a wedge between the forces of the opposing nations.
Russia also had a special motive for exerting every effort to inflict some signal disaster upon the Austrians. It was only by such means that she could relieve the pressure on Serbia and thus save the smaller Slav state from being overrun by the victorious Austrians.
The Russian campaign against Cracow had been little effected by the fighting going on at Lodz. The Russian forces in the region of Cracow had a clear line of retreat, if retreat should be necessary, and were not needed for strengthening the resistance being made by the Russians at Warsaw, as troops from Central Russia could be moved to that threatened district by the available railroads, much more rapidly than armies could be sent overland from Cracow. The Russian forces in the vicinity of Cracow could best help in the defense of Warsaw, the Russian General Staff believed, by pressing their attack energetically and so keeping busy in that field a large force of Austrians and Germans.
On December 6, 1914, the defense of Cracow was stiffened by the arrival of a large body of German troops. All the magnificent trees which surrounded the place were cut down to afford space for the artillery and various new lines of fortifications and barbed-wire entanglements were constructed.
The Russians perceived a turning movement on the part of the enemy, south of Cracow, directed against the Russian left wing. Russian reenforcements which arrived found that the bridge over the Dunajec, near Kourove, had been destroyed, and that the heights on the left bank of the river were occupied by the enemy. Under a sustained fire by Germans, one of the Russian regiments crossed the Dunajec at a ford. They made their way through ice water up to their necks, and coming out on the other side, captured the heights by a vigorous assault. This assured and made safe the passage of the river by the other Russian troops.
On the following day, December 7, 1914, the Austro-Germans made an effort to counteract the advance of the Russians to Wieliczka, southeast of Cracow. By a dash toward Neu Sandek, on the headwaters of the Dunajec River, the Austrians attempted to outflank the Russians and thus force them to retreat from their advance position.
The Austro-German forces occupied the valley of the stream Lososzyna, and the fighting front extended from near Wieliczka southeastward to the Dunajec, about fifty miles in length. The Russian attack was successful, the losses inflicted upon the enemy, especially the German Twenty-fourth Corps, being very heavy. Several German heavy guns were knocked out, five field batteries were reduced to silence, guns and prisoners taken, and the Russians continued their attack.
In the next few days in December, 1914, events favored the Austrians. In West Galicia the south wing of the Russian army was defeated at Limanovo and compelled to retreat. The Austrians engaged in hot pursuit and took many prisoners. Austrian forces took Neu Sandec and again entered Grybow, Gorlice, and Zmigrod. The Austrians reported that the Russians had completely evacuated the Zemplin country.
A third incursion of Germans into Galicia was arrested by Russians on the very border of the province. Some maneuvering on the part of General Dmitrieff's corps sufficed to check the invading columns, although they crossed the Carpathians on a wide front extending between Wieliczka and the headwaters of the San River.
During the same week, the garrison of Przemysl made a series of attempts at sorties, but each time were driven back with heavy loss. The Russians captured several hundred prisoners and ten Maxims. It was learned later that increasing scarcity of provisions complicated by sickness was responsible for these tentative efforts to lift the siege. An unsuccessful attempt also was made by a force from the garrison to open the railway in the direction of Biercza, on the southwest.
It was asserted at Austrian headquarters that the total number of Russians captured by the Austro-Hungarians in Galicia within three days in the middle of December, 1914, was 33,000. After a battle at Limanowa, it was said, 26,000 were captured. The number of Russians killed was very large, according to report, 1,200 dead being found at Limanowa alone.
The problem of caring for prisoners had by this time become acute both for Austria and for Russia. According to the Russian Department of the Interior, which had charge of the maintenance of prisoners, there were then in Russia, exclusive of the Germans reported captured in operations under way in North Poland, 350,000 Austrian and German prisoners of war. Of this number only 100,000 were Germans, the rest being Austrians captured during the campaign in Galicia.
At Semipalatinek, on the Irtish River, near the borders of Western Mongolia, one small escort of Russian soldiers was serving as guard for 100,000 Austrian and German prisoners, whose prison walls consisted of four thousand miles of frozen steppes, separating them from the borders of their own countries.
The prisoners were brought by rail to Omsk, where they were embarked on steamboats for the thousand mile trip down the Irtish River to Semipalatinek. Here quarters were found for them in the big barracks erected for the mobilization of the Russian army and unoccupied since its departure for the front.
Every morning at eight o'clock the prisoners were released from the barracks and permitted to wander about at will. When they departed in the morning, they were told that unless they reported at the barracks by nightfall they would be locked out. At that time of the year, in such a bleak country, this would mean death, as there was practically no place where they could obtain shelter. The freedom of the prisoners during the day was absolute, even to the extent of accepting employment from local mining companies.
In the thick of its fighting in Galicia, Russia had another problem to deal with, which was the Russianization of the country. In the middle of December, 1914, arrangements were made under the auspices of a member of the Duma charged with national education in Galicia, for a large number of elementary school teachers in the native schools of Galicia, to attend at certain centers a series of lectures on Russian language and literature. Lember, Sambor, Tarnopol, Stanislavoff, and Chernovtsi were the first towns chosen for the opening of these courses. Besides this measure, Russia, in the following month, opened ten model elementary schools where all teaching was given in the Russian language. These were in small towns and villages.[Back to Contents]