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.