Cracow had successfully resisted assault, and seemed likely to hold out against the best efforts of the Russians. The gateway to Silesia had been closed. Hindenburg had achieved one of his chief objects in forcing the central Russian forces back. He had paid a huge price in men in order to establish a deadlock of warfare in trenches, about midway in the big bend of the Vistula. Nevertheless, from the German viewpoint, the result achieved was worth it.
If the battle for Silesia had been won in November, 1914, by General Russky and General Ivanoff on the field in front of Cracow, Italy and Rumania might have been brought into the fight by their continued advancing movement. Austria and Hungary thus might have been attacked and overcome by huge forces from three sides. If Austria-Hungary fell, the overthrow of Germany might have been threatened. Hindenburg's strategy had put this out of the range of possibility.
It was such developments as have been mentioned that caused the Russian commander in chief to decide on Hungary as the next object of attack. He planned to bring direct pressure upon Vienna and Budapest and so force first the Hungarians and then the Austrians to ask for terms of peace. If they did not, he counted on Italy and Rumania entering the war and assuring victory for the Allies.
On Christmas Day, 1914, under such conditions, began the great battles of the Carpathians, which continued for many months to be a crisis of the war. The Russians were outnumbered, but their position was favorable. On December 25 they advanced on the Dukla Pass. Meanwhile fierce fighting continued at various points in Galicia. In the neighborhood of Tuchow, south of Tarnow, the Russians, on observing the advance of the Twenty-sixth Austrian Brigade, slipped past on parallel roads and surprised the Austrian rear. The Russians opened fire with machine guns and virtually annihilated the whole brigade. In two days' fighting in southern Galicia, near the Carpathians, the Russians captured more than 4,000 prisoners, including a major of the General Staff and five other officers, besides three heavy guns and two machine guns. In this region the Russians were moving small detachments through the mountain passes.
Many spectacular engagements took place during the development of the Russian offensive among the mountain spurs of the Carpathians. On Christmas Day, 1914, two Russian infantry regiments, under a murderous fire and wading waist deep in the icy water of the River Jasiolka, dislodged by bayonet charges the Austrians from their line and took as prisoners four officers and 150 men. On the same day an inferior force of Austrians surprised a Russian detachment and took 4,000 prisoners.
In another engagement south of the Vistula, in the region of Tarnow, the Russians drove back the Austrians from the Tuchnow-Olpiny line. The enemy abandoned ten rapid firers and the Russians took prisoner 43 officers and more than 2,500 men. The next day, December 2, 1914, continuing the pursuit of the Austrians, the Russians captured 8 machine guns and about 1,000 prisoners. The Russians occupied the heights near Siedfizka, on the left bank of the Biala River. This gave them possession of a twenty-mile strip of territory separating the two Austrian forces.
Late in December, 1914, all attacks by the Austrians in the territory between the Pilica and the upper reaches of the Vistula ceased and the Russians assumed the active offensive in this region. They cleared the left or easterly bank of the Nida River by the capture of an obstinately defended Austrian position which was taken by storm.
South of the Vistula, or astride it on the front from Opatow across the Biala River to Biecz, the Russians took prisoners 200 officers and 15,000 men in their sweeping process. A retreat of Austrians in Galicia along the Lisko-Sanok-Dulka-Zmigrod front was precipitate, the nature of the country favoring them, the corridor-like valleys and passes preventing the Russians from pursuing them over parallel roads or harassing their flanks. Only six roads cross the Carpathians, two of which are little more than mountain trails. Owing to the unbroken character of this region, the Russian cavalry was able to do little scouting, while the extreme cold interfered with the work of aeroplanes.
In western Galicia the Russians made progress in spite of the almost impassable condition of the country due to mud, driving the enemy from the front of Stromnik-Gorlice-Jasliska, taking guns and a large number of machine guns.
The year of 1914 closed with the Russian troops advancing in western Galicia, having stormed several fortified works of the enemy, east of Zakliczyn, making prisoners of 44 officers and 1,500 soldiers, and capturing 8 machine guns.