When the war started, the Russian army, in its invasion of Austria, had its full complement of officers, and because of the great capacity of its military schools, it was as well able as other nations engaged to make up for losses in battle. One sweeping and beneficial change that had been made was that promotion no longer went by seniority but entirely by merit: the higher the position the more rigid the tests. Incidentally, it was Russia's good fortune that the war came at a time when the noncommissioned ranks were full and it was possible to promote many of these men to fill vacancies in the commissioned service.
The use of Russian infantry on the battle fields, as we shall soon see, differed in no essential way from that common to other nations of Europe. An advance under fire was almost identical with that of other nations. A single company in attack would dispatch two platoons as a firing line, retaining two in reserve, each of the platoons in front providing its own protection for skirmishing, according to the nature of the ground.
If the cover was adequate, a few rifles were enough to locate the enemy, and either they could be reenforced or the front could be extended. If the ground were quite open, the two leading platoons were extended at once, so as to oppose the enemy with an equal extent of fire, and then advanced by rushes, each section covering the rush of the other by alternate firing. The two reserve platoons could be used either to outflank the enemy, if the nature of the ground permitted, or for direct reenforcement in any formation required.
As has been said, all the nations engaged in the great conflict pursued similar tactics in this respect, and the only advantage possessed by Russia in their use was that both her infantry and artillery possessed a much larger number of officers, who had been trained to understand how, against a powerful opponent, to carry out efficiently in practice and in times of great stress the theory which all nations held in common.
The observer of the battles in the Russo-Austrian campaigns will see that the Russian cavalry was inadequate, because its horses were too small, of inferior strain, and lacking the stamina needed in modern warfare. They were valuable, however, because of their large numbers, and the fact that during the winter months, being acclimated and to the country born, they were able to pick up a living in the snow when other horses would starve.
As regards field batteries, near the western Russian frontier and in Asia, nearly all of them had, when war was declared, eight guns. In most of the batteries in Asia the number of men maintained in peace was the same as in war.
Russian Invasion of Galicia.
The Russian army moved forward with adequate aerial corps. The keenest interest in military aviation had been taken in Russia during two years before the war. Grand Duke Alexander was one of the founders of the aviation school at Sebastopol, where two-thirds of the Russian aviation officers obtained their training. In the spring of 1914 the air fleet consisted of 16 dirigibles and 360 aeroplanes, while orders for 1,000 aircraft of different descriptions had been placed with various firms in Russia.