The German offensive of the past ten weeks had erased all of the Russian gains of the
war, re-invigorated the Austro-Hungarian army, and put the Russians into full retreat week
after week. What more could go wrong for Russia? Well, how about this- this week Germany launches
a new offensive.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War
Last week German Southwest Africa unconditionally surrendered the entire colony to South African
forces, the Russians had finally halted General Mackensen’s colossal force for a while and
had also dealt the Austro-Hungarian Imperial forces a nasty defeat, the British had successfully
defended Lahej at the mouth of the Red Sea, while on the Black Sea Coast in Trabzon, the
Armenian genocide continued.
I’m going to start off with some numbers today, since this is going to be kind of a
technical episode.
The Germans announced that for the month of June- last month- in the Eastern Theater from
the Baltic to the Pilica, they’d taken 25,595 Russian prisoners, and in the Southeastern
Theater from the Pilica to Bukovina, 140,650. The Austro-Hungarian general staff reported
taking 194,000 prisoners during that same period, so that’s a total of 360,245 Russian
prisoners taken... in one month. Of those men, 1,051 were officers. They also took 180
big guns and 684 machine guns. Russia was in big trouble. In fact, on the 16th in Petrograd,
the new Russian Minister of War Alexei Polivanov declared at a meeting of the council of ministers,
“I consider it my duty to declare to the council that the country is in danger. Where
our retreat will end, only God knows.”
I want to look at the disposition of the Russian troops now, since we haven’t really done
that and it might get confusing at times. They looked like this.
The Russian 5th Army under General Plehve held the line from Riga to Kovno. The 10th
Army under General Radkevich from Kovno to Osovets, and the 12th Army led by General
Churin and including Siberian Corps, from Osovets to the Orzhits River.
From there, General Litvinov held the line down to the Lower Vistula River, and from
there, the 2nd Army under General Smirnov in Warsaw, held it to Guru Kalvariya. General
Evert, stationed at Ivangorod, held the front with the 4th army from northwest of the city
to about 16km south of Lublin. The 3rd army under General Lesh held it from there to south
of Chelm. The 13th army under General Gorbatovskiy from there to Vladimir-Volynsk.
General Brusilov and his 8th Army held the line from northeast of Sokal to west of Solotschiv.
The 11th army under General Shcherbachev from there to Nyzhniv, and finally, the Russian
9th army under General Lechitskiy from there to Khotin.
That is one hell of a front line, and it was going to get messy. This week on July 14th,
a great German offensive designed to go all the way from the Baltic to Bukovina begins.
The Germans move toward Riga- one group toward Kovno and another toward Shavil.
Now, one thing to remember here is that the Austro-German troops further south who had
been fighting the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive since May 1st, and taking huge amounts of
territory from the Russians, had been halted last week. They took some time to recuperate
and were back in action this week.
In the south The Austrians cross the Dniester River in Bukovina. Further north, the Russians
fell back in Poland toward the Narev River as on July 15th, the Germans announced the
occupation of the city of Przasnysz. Over 20,000 more Russian prisoners were taken in
a few days. As for General Mackensen, the man behind Gorlice-Tarnow, his phalanx was
also moving on, taking Krasnostav at the end of the week with 6,370 prisoners.
It’s amazing the amount of ground the Central powers had taken or re-taken this summer,
but if we look further south, to Gallipoli, we see one offensive still going nowhere.
There had been plenty of action in June and July at Cape Helles and this week, British
General Aylmer Hunter-Weston and his French counterpart Henri Gouraud were going to try
again. This time the British would attack the Achi Baba Nullah sector supported by both
British and French artillery; meanwhile combined French and British troops were going to try
to take the Turkish trenches that remained on the Western bank of Kereves Dere. One attack
to begin at 7:30 AM; the other just before 5 PM. So the first attack began after a preliminary
artillery barrage and as the French and British secured the first two lines of Turkish trenches,
confusion began to descend. It was because what looked like the third trench line- the
final objective- turned out to be only about two feet deep and undiggable so they eventually
had to retire since there was hardly any cover. The second attack still went off as planned
and it followed the exact same pattern: artillery barrage, bloody attack against resistance,
confusion when the third trench again turned out not to be a third trench, and then eventually
a retreat and consolidation at the second trench line.
The next day saw more attacks and violent counter attacks and the Turks would take a
total of nearly 10,000 casualties, far more than the Allies, but they could easily bring
up reserves, so you have to realize that at this rate of taking territory, it would take
the Allies years to actually take Achi Baba or Kilid Bahr, two major goals. Here’s Major
General Granville Egerton’s assessment of the events of July 12th and 13th: “the fighting
of this battle was premature and at the actual moment worse than unnecessary- I submit that
it was cruel and wasteful. The troops... were tired and worn out... it was well known to
the higher command that large reinforcements were arriving from England... was it not therefore
obvious that the exhausted garrison at Helles should be given a fortnight’s respite?...
if the conception of the battle was wrong the tactics of the action were worse. The
division of the attack... was positively wicked.”
It was, quite simply, a waste of lives. Even General Hunter-Weston himself wouldn’t be
there for much longer, actually. He began to suffer the effects of heat stroke and was
evacuated home soon after. He may have had serious flaws as a general but really the
overall responsibility for the doomed and pointless attacks at Helles in June and July
lay with the man in overall command, General Sir Ian Hamilton. Here’s a little side note
that tells you what the men thought of the attacks: twice during July, British forces
refused to advance at Gallipoli.
But this week the British had indeed taken two trench lines, but at a cost of thousands
of men. That couldn’t realistically continue; it was a stalemate. And not the only one,
as the endless stalemate of the Western Front continued.
Up in Belgium, the Germans attacked on the Yser canal, taking heavy losses and failing
again to capture the left bank. At the other end of the front, Kaiser Wilhelm’s son Crown
Prince Wilhelm’s forces were again stopped in the Argonne, but a new attack captures
the French line at Vienne-le-chateau and the heights of La Fille Morte.
And here are a few notes to round out the week:
Venice was bombed for a fourth time by Austrian airplanes on the 11th; on the 14th Montenegrins
hold off an Austrian attack at Grahovo, and on the 11th, the Turkish interior ministry
instructs that depopulated Armenian villages be settled with Muslim immigrants. Also this
week the German government took control of the German coal industry, and in Britain the
national registration bill passed the House of Lords.
And that was the week. The Germans beginning a new offensive in the north, while they and
their allies mercilessly continue an old one in the south, The British, French, and Turks
losing thousand of men basically for nothing at Gallipoli, the Belgians holding off the
Germans, but the French not faring quite so well.
But however bad things were at Gallipoli, they were nothing compared to what was happening
to the Russians. I mean, not just losing close to 400,000 troops as prisoners in a month-
and that’s not the dead or wounded- Russian casualties had topped a million in early 1915.
Just the officer losses by the end of 1914 were greater than the number of total officers
at the beginning of the war. One source says 50 percent more. Who was going to replace
them? Who was going to lead or inspire the troops? Promotion from within the ranks was
often counter-productive since over half the troops were illiterate. Many at home who had
the education got deferments. There were even fewer Non-commissioned officers. The desperate
need for replacement troops meant that loads of new soldiers arrived after two or three
weeks training without weapons, and all of those prisoners being taken by the enemy meant
vital equipment being taken by the enemy that wasn’t replaced. Russia had millions of
men and almost endless land, but would that be enough? And how many millions of men must
be lost before the Germans and Austrians could be stopped? And with Germany launching a new
ambitious offensive it would only get worse. By this point in the war, we were now looking
at death and destruction on a scale never before imagined.
But don’t get the wrong picture here - the Russians were certainly not incapable of anything.
Just in February the Austrians were afraid the Russians were invading the homeland. Who
knew that the Russians were better prepared for mountain warafare in winter? Check out
how that went right here in our episode from Week 29, right here.
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