The Story of the Great War, Volume 4 / Champagne, Artois, Grodno; Fall of Nish; Caucasus; Mesopotamia; Development of Air Strategy; United States and the War

by Unknown

CHAPTER XXIII

THE STRUGGLE IN EAST GALICIA AND VOLHYNIA AND THE CAPTURE OF PINSK

The fall of Ivangorod and Warsaw was the signal for advance for which the southern group under Von Mackensen had been waiting. General von Woyrsch's forces pressed on between Garvolin and Ryki, northeast of Ivangorod. Other forces threw the Russians back beyond the Vieprz and gradually approached the line of the Bug River. Still farther south, on the Dniester, Austrian troops, too, forced back the Russians step by step. On August 11, 1915, Von Mackensen's troops attacked the Russians, who were making a stand behind the Bystrzyka and the Tysmienika. This hastened the Russian retreat to the east of the Bug.

Throughout the following days the story of the Russian retreat and the German-Austrian advance changed little in its essential features. As fast as roads permitted and as quickly as obstacles in their way could be overcome, the forces of the Central Powers advanced. With equal determination the Russian troops availed themselves of every possible, and quite a few seemingly impossible, opportunities to delay this advance. Every creek was made an excuse for making a stand, every forest became a means of stalling the enemy, every railroad or country road embankment had to yield its chance of putting a new obstacle into the thorny path of the advancing invader. Whenever the latter seemed to ease up for a moment, either to gain contact with his main forces or to rest up after especially severe forced marches, the Russians were on hand with an attack. But just as soon as the attack had been made the Germans or Austrians or Hungarians, or all three together, were ready to forget all about the temporary let-up and were prepared to meet the attack. Then once more the pursuit would begin.

During the drive on Brest-Litovsk, covering practically all of August, 1915, after the fall of Warsaw, the operations of Von Mackensen's southern group were so closely connected and intertwined with those of the central group that they have found detailed consideration together with the latter. During all this time the extreme right wing in Eastern Galicia did comparatively little beyond preventing an advance of the Russian forces at that point. With the fall of Brest-Litovsk, however, and the beginning of the Russian retreat along the entire front, activities in the southeastern end of the Russo-German-Austrian theatre of war were renewed.

On August 28, 1915, German and Austro-Hungarian forces under Count Bothmer broke through the Russian line along the Zlota-Lipa River, both north and south of the Galician town of Brzezany, about fifty miles southeast of Lemberg, and in spite of determined resistance and repeated counterattacks drove the Russians some distance toward the Russo-Galician border. At the same time other parts of Von Mackensen's army successfully attacked the Russian line at Vladimir Volynsky, a few miles east of the Upper Bug and somewhat north of the Polish-Galician border. The combined attack resulted in a gradual withdrawal of the entire Russian line as far as it was located in Galicia, aggregating in length almost 160 miles. These operations alone netted to the Austro-Germans about 10,000 Russian prisoners. This attack came more or less unexpectedly, but in spite of that was carried on most fiercely. By August 30, 1915, the right wing had forced the Russians back to the river Strypa and was only a few miles west of Tarnopol.

Farther north another army under the Austrian General Boehm-Ermolli encountered determined resistance along the line Zlochoff-Bialykamien-Radziviloff, where the Russians were supported by very strongly fortified positions. Still farther north the attack progressed in the direction of the strongly fortified town of Lutsk, on the Styr River, less than fifty miles west of the fortress of Rovno, in the Russian province of Volhynia. This fortress, together with Dubno, farther south on the Ikwa, a tributary of the Styr, and with Rovno itself formed a very powerful triangle of permanent fortifications erected by Russia in very recent times. The purpose for which they had been intended undoubtedly was twofold; first, to offer an obstacle to any invasion of that section of the Russian Empire on the part of Austro-Hungarian troops with Lemberg as a base, and secondly, to act as a base for a possible Russian attack on Galicia.

In view of these facts, it was surprising that on August 31, 1915, only three days after the resumption of actual fighting in Eastern Galicia, the fall of Lutsk was announced. The very form of the official Austrian announcement rather indicates that the Russians must have evacuated Lutsk of their own accord, possibly after dismounting and either withdrawing or destroying its guns. For the report states that only one—the Fifty-fourth Infantry—regiment drove the Russians by means of bayonet attacks out of their first-line trenches and then followed them right into Lutsk. This, of course, could not have been accomplished so quickly unless the Russians had already withdrawn at that point as well as everywhere else. At the same time their line was also pierced at Baldi and Kamuniec, which forced their withdrawal from the entire western bank of the Styr. German troops, fighting under General von Bothmer in cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian army of General Boehm-Ermolli, on the same day (August 31, 1915) stormed a series of heights on the banks of the Strypa, north of Zboroff, although they encountered there the most determined resistance on the part of the Russian forces.

The immense losses in men, guns, and materials which the Russians suffered throughout the month of August, 1915, in spite of their genius for withdrawing huge bodies of men at the right moment, will be seen from the following official statement published on September 1, 1915, by General Headquarters of the German armies. These figures do not include the losses suffered by the Russian armies which in Eastern Galicia were fighting against Austro-Hungarian troops.

"During the month of August the number of prisoners taken by German troops in the eastern and southeastern theatres of war, and the quantities of war materials captured during the same period, totaled more than 2,000 officers and 269,800 men taken prisoners, and 2,000 cannon and 560 machine guns.

"Of these, 20,000 prisoners and 827 cannon were taken at Kovno. About 90,000 prisoners, including 15 generals and more than 1,000 other officers, and 1,200 cannon and 150 machine guns were taken at Novo Georgievsk. The counting up of the cannon and machine guns taken at Novo Georgievsk has not yet been finished, however, while the count of machine guns taken at Kovno has not yet begun. The figures quoted as totals, therefore, will be considerably increased. The stocks of ammunition, provisions, and oats in the two fortresses cannot be estimated."

The fall of Lutsk had serious consequences for the Russians. With this fortress gone the entire line south of it was endangered unless promptly withdrawn. It was, therefore, not surprising that when on September 1, 1915, the left wing of the Austro-German forces crossed the Styr on a wide front north of Lutsk the entire Russian line down from that point should give way. That, of course, meant the evacuation of Galicia by the Russians. Brody, about halfway-between Lemberg and Rovno on the railroad connecting these two cities, was taken by Boehm-Ermolli's army on September 1, 1915, and these troops immediately pushed on across the border. General von Bothmer's forces, slightly to the south, kept up their advance from Zaloshe and Zboroff in the direction of Tarnopol and the Sereth River. Still farther south the third group under General Pflanzer-Baltin drove the Russians from the heights on the east bank of the Lower Strypa. The general result of all these operations was the withdrawal of the Russian front along the Dniester between Zaleshchyki in the south and Buczacz in the north, to a new line along the Sereth, starting at the latter's junction with the Dniester. But there the Russians made a stand. The hardest possible fighting took place on September 4, 1915, all along the line in Galicia, Volhynia, and on the Bessarabian border. Much of it was of the "hand-to-hand" kind, for both sides had thrown up fortifications and dug trenches, which they took turns in storming and defending.

One of the heaviest battles of this period took place on September 6, 1915, lasting into the early morning hours of the 7th, along a front about twenty-five miles wide, with its center about at Radziviloff, a little town just across the border of the Lemberg-Rovno railroad, a few miles northeast of Brody. There the Russians had strongly intrenched themselves. The fighting was most bitter, especially around the castle of Podkamen, which Boehm-Ermolli's troops wrested from the Russians only through repeated and most fierce infantry attacks and by means of terribly bloody hand-to-hand fighting. However, finally the Russians had to give way, leaving over 3,000 men in the hands of their adversaries. Farther south the armies of Generals von Bothmer and Pflanzer-Baltin, too, had to withstand continuous attacks of the Russians and more or less fighting went on all along the southeastern front as far down as Nova-Sielnitsa, a few miles southeast of Czernovitz at the point where the borders of Rumania, Galicia, and Bessarabia meet.

The result of the Austrian victory of September 7, 1915, near Radziviloff was the further withdrawal on September 8, 1915, of the Russian line, extending over fifty-five miles to the east bank of the Ikwa River, a tributary of the Styr, on the west about thirty miles northeast of Radziviloff on the Lemberg-Rovno railroad. This withdrawal, of course, seriously threatened this fortress, which, being on the west side of the Ikwa, was open to direct attack from the west and south as soon as the Russians had been thrown back beyond the Ikwa. And, indeed, the next day, September 9, 1915, brought the fall of the city and fortress of Dubno. Austrian troops under General Boehm-Ermolli took it by storm, while other detachments advanced to the Upper Ikwa and beyond the town of Novo Alexinez. This was as serious a loss to the Russians as it was a great gain for their enemies. For Dubno commanded not only the valley of the Ikwa, but it also blocked the very important railway and road that run from Lemberg to Rovno.

Farther south along the Sereth the Russian lines had been greatly strengthened by new troops brought up from the rear by means of the railroad Kieff-Shmerinka-Proskuroff-Tarnopol. This enabled the Russians to make determined attacks all along the river, which were especially severe in the neighborhood of Trembovla. General von Bothmer's German army at first successfully withstood these attacks in spite of Russian superiority in numbers, but was finally forced to withdraw from the west bank of the Sereth to the heights between that river and the Strypa River, which are between 750 and 1,000 feet above the sea level. But on September 9, 1915, the German forces advanced again and threw the Russians along almost the entire line again beyond the Sereth. Farther south on that river, near its junction with the Dniester, Austrian regiments under General Benigni and Prince Schoenburg stormed on the same day the Russian positions northwest of Szuparka, capturing over 4,000 Russians.

While Von Mackensen's army was pushing its advance toward Pinsk, the principal city in the Pripet Marsh region, along both sides of the only railroad leading to it—the Brest-Litovsk-Kobryn-Pinsk-Gowel railroad line—heavy fighting continued in Volhynia and East Galicia. West of Kovno the Russians were thrown back of the Stubiel River on September 9, 1915, by the Austrians. General von Bothmer's German army, which formed the center of the forces in Volhynia and Galicia, advanced from Zaloshe on the Sereth toward Zbaraz, a few miles northeast of Tarnopol. Before the latter town, which the Russians seemed to be determined to hold at any cost, new reenforcements had appeared and opposed the advance of the Austro-German forces with the utmost fierceness. In that sector they passed from the defensive to the offensive, and with superior forces threw back the enemy again from the Sereth to the heights on the east bank of the Strypa on September 10, 1915. But with these heights at their back the German line held and all Russian attacks broke down.

In spite of this they were renewed on September 11, 1915, with such strength that small detachments succeeded in gaining a temporary foothold in the enemy's trenches, where the bloodiest kind of hand-to-hand fighting occurred. At that moment General von Bothmer ordered an attack on both flanks of the Russians, who thereby were forced to give up the advantage which they had so dearly bought. However, this did not make the Russians lose heart. Again and again they came on, and so fierce were their onslaughts that the Austro-German line was finally withdrawn to the west bank of the Strypa on September 13, 1915. To the north, along the Ikwa from Dubno to the border, reenforcements were also brought up by the Russians and succeeded in holding up any further advance on the part of the Austrian troops. Especially hard fighting took place in the neighborhood of Novo Alexinez, a little village just across the border in Volhynia.

On September 15, 1915, Von Mackensen took Pinsk after having driven the Russians out of practically all the territory between the Jasiolda and Pripet Rivers. Considering that this city is, in a direct line, more than 220 miles east of Warsaw, this accomplishment was little short of marvelous, especially in view of the fact that the territory surrounding Pinsk—the Pripet Marshes—offered immense difficulties. However, the same difficulties were encountered by the retreating Russians in even greater measure, because, while there is some solid ground west of Pinsk, there is practically nothing but swamps to the north, south, and east of the city, the direction in which the Russian retreat necessarily had to proceed. It was thus possible for Von Mackensen to report on September 17, 1915, the capture of 2,500 Russians south of Pinsk.

In the Volhynian and Galician theatre of war the struggle continued without any abatement. Neither side, however, succeeded in gaining any lasting and definite advantages. One day the Russians would throw their enemies back across the Strypa, only to suffer themselves a like fate on the next day in respect to the Sereth. More or less the same conditions existed east of Lutsk and along the Ikwa, in both of which regions the Russians continued their attempts to drive back the Austro-Germans by repeated attacks.

After the conquest of Pinsk, Von Mackensen's army for a few days continued its advance from that town in a northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly direction. But here, too, the advance stopped about September 23, 1915, after some detachments which had crossed to the north and northeast of Pinsk, over the Oginski Canal at Lahishyn, and over the Jasiolda between its junction with the canal and the Pinsk-Gomel railroad, had to be withdrawn on that date. In this sector—from the Jasiolda to the Styr at Tchartorysk just south of the Kovel-Kieff railway—the fighting assumed the form of trench warfare, just as it did along the rest of the front south of the Vilia River. The front there was along the Jasiolda from its junction with the Oginski Canal, swung around Pinsk and east of it in a semicircle, through the Pripet Marshes, crossed the Pripet River at Nobiet and then continued in a southerly direction to Borana on the Styr, along that river for a distance of about twenty miles, across the Kovel-Kieff railroad at Rafalovka to Tchartorysk on the Styr.

Farther south the Russians gained some slight successes, and even forced the Germans to retreat to the west bank of the Styr at Lutsk. The fighting in that vicinity and along the Ikwa was very severe. Especially was this true in the neighborhood of Novo Alexinez, where, in very hilly country, the Russians launched attack after attack against the Austro-German forces, without, however, being able to dislodge them from their very strong positions. The battle raged furiously on September 25, 1915, when some Russian detachments succeeded in advancing a few miles to the southwest of Novo Alexinez into the vicinity of Zaloshe. However, the Austrian resistance was so strong that the Russians lost about 5,000 men. When on September 27, 1915, a German army under General von Linsingen had again forced its way across the Styr at Lutsk and threatened to outflank the right wing of the Russian forces, the latter finally gave way and retreated in the direction of Kovno. A Russian attempt to break through the Austro-German line, held by General von Bothmer's army, on the Strypa west of Tarnopol, was made on October 2, 1915, but failed. The same was true of attacks on the Ikwa west of Kremenet and north of Dubno near Olyka, made on October 6, 1915. These were followed up on the next day, October 7, 1915, with further attacks along the entire Volhynian, East Galician, and Bessarabian front.

At that time this front extended as follows: Starting at Tchartorysk on the Styr, a few miles south of the Kovel-Gomel railroad, it ran almost straight south through Tsuman, crossed the Brest-Litovsk railroad a mile or two north of Olyka, passed about fifteen miles west of Rovno to the Rovno-Lemberg railroad, which it crossed a few miles east of Dubno, then followed more or less the course of the Ikwa and passed through Novo Alexinez. There it turned slightly to the west, crossed the Sereth about ten miles farther south, passed through Jezierna on the Lemberg-Tarnopol railroad and crossed the Strypa at the point where this river is cut by the Brzezany-Tarnopol railroad, about fifteen miles west of the latter city. Again bending somewhat, this time to the east, it continued slightly to the west of the Strypa to a point on this river about fifteen miles north of Buczacz, then followed the course of the Strypa on both sides to this town, bent still more to the east, passing through Pluste, about ten miles southeast of which it crossed the Sereth a few miles north from its junction with the Dniester, coming finally to its end at one of the innumerable bends in the Dniester, practically at the Galician-Bessarabian border and about twenty miles northwest of the fortress of Chotin. Although the amount of territory gained by the Austro-Germans in the period beginning with the fall of Warsaw was smaller in that section than in any other on the eastern front, it was still of sufficient size to leave now in the hands of the Russians only a very small part of Galicia, little more than forty miles wide at its greatest width and barely eighty miles long at its greatest length.[Back to Contents]

CHAPTER XXIV

IN THE PRIPET MARSHES

A Great deal of the fighting after the fall of Brest-Litovsk, August 27, 1915, occurred in and near the extensive swamp lands surrounding the city of Pinsk and located on both sides of the River Pripet. To the Russians this part of the country is known as the Poliessie; its official name is the Rokitno Marshes, after the little town of that name situated slightly to the west, but it is usually spoken of as the Pripet Marshes. Parts of this unhealthy and very difficult region are located in five Russian governments: Mohileff, Kieff, Volhynia, Minsk, and Grodno, and these swamps therefore are the border land of Poland, Great Russia, and Little Russia. A comparatively small section of them has been thoroughly explored and their exact limits have never been determined. In the west and east the Rivers Bug and Dniester respectively form a definite border, which is lacking in the south and north, while to the northwest the famous Forest of Bielovies may be considered its boundary. According to a very rough estimate the Pripet Marshes are approximately one-half as large as the kingdom of Rumania; only one river of importance runs through them, the Pripet, from which, indeed, the marshes take their popular name. On both of its sides the Pripet has a large number of tributaries, among which on the right are: the Styr, the Gorin, the Usha, and on the left the Pina, the Sluch, and the Ptych. A large number of small lakes are distributed throughout the entire district. Quite a large number of canals have been built, one of which connects the Pina with the Bug, another the Beresina, of Napoleonic fame and a tributary of the Dnieper, with the Ula and through the latter with the Dvina. In this manner it is possible to reach the Baltic Sea by means of continuous waterways from the Black Sea.

It is very difficult to conceive a clear picture of this region without having actually seen it. In a way one may call it a gigantic lake which away from its shores has been filled in with sand to a small extent and to a larger extent has turned into swamps. It is densely covered with rushes, and out of its waters, which are far from clear, a multitude of stony islets rise up covered with dense underbrush. Its center is surrounded by an even more dense seam of pine forests. Its rivers and brooks are so slow that they can hardly be distinguished from stagnant waters. The only town of any importance within its limits is Pinsk on the Pina.

In a general way five railroad lines have been built through various parts of the Pripet Marshes; the most important being a section of the Rovno-Vilna railroad; two others of special importance to the Russian retreat were the Brest-Litovsk-Pinsk-Gomel and the Ivangorod-Lublin-Cholm-Kovel-Kieff road. The Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railroad also passes in its greatest part through the outlying sections of the Pripet Marshes. The effect of these swamp lands on the Russian retreat and the German advance, of course, was twofold: it increased the difficulty of the Russian retreat, throwing at the same time very serious obstacles in the way of the advancing Germans.

To the southward, and in a region very similar in all its characteristics, is the Volhynian triangle of fortresses: Lutsk, Dubno, and Rovno. Here too, during the fighting around these three places, the Russian and German armies had to contend with tremendous difficulties, which were caused chiefly by the fact that this part of the country, with the exception of a few sections, was almost impassable. This fact, undoubtedly, was primarily responsible for the decision of the Russian Government to locate these three powerful fortresses at that particular point, because the very difficulties which nature had provided became valuable aids to a strong defense against an invasion of Russian territory by Austro-Hungarian troops from the south.

The fortresses of Lutsk and Dubno date with their beginning as far back as 1878, at which time they were built according to the plans of the Russian General Todleben. A little later the fortifications of Rovno were added to this group, and one of the strongest triangles of Russia's fortifications was formed thereby. The sides of this triangle measure thirty, twenty-five, and forty miles respectively. The longest of these is the line between Lutsk and Rovno, with its back toward the Pripet Marshes. Of the three fortresses Rovno is the most important from a strategical point of view, for it defends the junction of three of the most valuable railroads, the railway leading from Lemberg into Volhynia, that running south from Vilna into Galicia, and the railroad which by way of Berticheff indirectly connects Kieff with both Warsaw and Brest-Litovsk. The three fortresses, therefore, acted as a wedge between the most southeastern and the Polish zones of operations. They secured the connection of any Russian forces in Poland with the interior of Russia, and made possible the transfer of forces through the protection which they gave to the various railroad lines necessary for such a transfer. On account of the conditions of the surrounding territory it was impossible for any attacking army to dispose of the fortresses by investing them with part of their available forces while the balance of them continued on their advance; for the only way to reach the country in back of the three fortresses was by way of the fortresses themselves, which meant, of course, that they would have to be taken first before the advance could be continued. Furthermore, the fortresses also acted as a barrier, protecting the approaches to Kieff, enabling the undisturbed concentration of an army in that protected zone while the enemy would be busily occupied in battering his way through the fortress triangle. The latter were still more strengthened by the Rivers Ikwa and Styr, which flow to the southwest and north of them.

The fortifications of all these three points were not of particularly recent origin, although they had been remodeled at various times since their original creation. Lutsk, a city of some twenty thousand inhabitants, is located on a small island of the Styr, and controls the Kovel-Rovno section of the Brest-Litovsk-Berticheff railroad. Some ten forts of various degrees of strength surrounded the central fortifications, forming a girdle of forts with a circumference of approximately ten miles. Dubno, southeast of Lutsk, a town of about fifteen thousand inhabitants, is located in the valley of Ikwa on its left bank, and protects the Brody-Zdolbitsa section of the Lemberg-Rovno-Vilna railroad, with its branches to Kovel, Brest-Litovsk, and to Kieff. The forts are not as numerous as at Lutsk, but are more advantageously located and, therefore, proved more difficult for the attacking Austro-Hungarian-German troops. Besides the Styr and Ikwa Rivers this comparatively small sector offers other natural advantages in the form of a number of smaller streams, the defense of which is greatly assisted by the marshy condition of their banks and the heavy growth of underbrush to be found there.

Rovno, the largest of the three cities, with about twenty thousand inhabitants, was first fortified in 1887, and as a railroad junction is even more important than either Lutsk or Dubno. Its fortifications are built to serve as a fortified bridgehead. They amount to seven forts of which five are located on the left bank of the Ustje and two on the right. These forts were built in the form of a semicircle, at a distance of four to six miles from the city itself and with a circumference of approximately twenty-five miles. Originally this group of fortresses undoubtedly was intended to act as a basis for a Russian invasion of Galicia and Hungary rather than as a means of defense against an invasion from these countries. And, indeed, in the earlier part of the war, when the Russians forced their way into Galicia and to the Carpathian Mountains, they fulfilled their purpose with greater success than they were destined to achieve now as a means of defense.[Back to Contents]