Russia had suffered devastating defeats over the course of the war, from Tannenberg in
1914 to the Austro-German Offensives of last year, which cost the Russians thousands of
miles of land and hundreds of thousands of men. And after the disastrous Russian March
offensive this year the general belief among the Central Powers was that Russia was no
longer capable of meaningful offensive action.
.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War.
Last week the Austro-Hungarian Imperial army continued its advance in northern Italy, the
German and British navies had a mighty clash at the Battle of Jutland, and the Germans
opened a new battle in the Ypres salient.
Let’s head west first then, to see what went on over there.
At the beginning of the week a Canadian counter attack failed to retake the lost territory
but closed the gap in the lines that had left the road to Ypres open.
But the real news in the west this week was at Verdun, where the German took Fort Vaux.
It had held out for three months. The French defenders fought in subterranean passages
with the overpowering stench of rotting corpses that couldn’t be buried. They fought for
the final week under an enormous bombardment of artillery and gas shells. Finally they
were down to their last 12 gallons of water. 600 survivors of the fort were captured, but
Verdun did not fall.
This is French Commander Sylvain Reynal’s account of the end, “Toward 2300 our artillery
ceased abruptly, and the night passed away in silence, more nerve-wracking for me than
the storm of battle... I took a tour of the corridors. What I saw was awful. Men were
overcome with vomiting, for so wretched were they that they had reached the point of drinking
their own urine. Some lost consciousness. In the main gallery a man was licking a small
wet streak on the wall. 7th June! Day broke. And we hardly noticed it. For us it was still
night, a night in which all hope was extinguished. Aid from outside, if it came, would come too
late. I sent my last message, the last salute of the fort and its defenders to their country.
Then I returned to my men, >>it is all over, my friends. You have done your duty, all of
your duty. Thank you.<<” (Hart p. 205)
The final surrender was at 6 AM.
And while that chapter was coming to an end in the west, a new one was beginning far to
the east.
Russian General Alexei Brusilov believed that with careful preparation, victory was possible
over the Austrians. He had even been allowed to prepare such an offensive, and he had considered
the problems of attacking entrenched positions defended by artillery and with reserves ready
to stop a breakthrough. His solution was to attack on a wide front, which would deprive
the enemy the chance to mass reserves, and to advance his lines as near as possible to
the enemy by digging saps as close to 75 paces. This was a big improvement over the past Russian
failures of attacking on a narrow front with a mile of no-mans land between them and the
enemy. He also would use the forerunners of storm troops - highly mobile assault troops
to probe and harass the enemy’s weak spots.
The Brusilov offensive was ordered at 1 AM June 4th, 1916. It began at four AM with a
1,938-gun barrage from the Pripet Marshes down to Bukovina. When it stopped the Austrians
rushed to their forward lines, but there was no Russian advance. Just observation. Then
the shelling began again. Colonel General Alexander von Linsingen, in charge of Army
Group Linsingen, which included the Austrian Fourth Army at the north end of the front,
sent messages for his generals to get their reserves ready to counter attack after the
Russian infantry had broken against the superior Austrian positions. Overall, the Russians
had around 650,000 men on the front, Austria-Hungary and the German Südarmee had around 500,000
total, and Linsingen thought that any shortfall in numbers was more than made up for in the
quality of his men and their positions. He was wrong.
The Russian artillery stopped at around noon, but the infantry didn’t attack until six
PM. They were repulsed along much of the line, but the situation had changed. For example,
near Sapanov the artillery had produced few casualties but it had done its planned job
- destroying long stretches of defensive obstacles and stretches of trenches, and disrupting
communications of the Austrian 2nd Army. When Russian armored vehicles appeared out of the
dust along the Tarnopol-Lemberg railway line, the Habsburg defenses were thrown into disarray.
This allowed the Russian infantry to push in.
Along the southern half of the front, things went badly for the Austrians. The Russians
artillery barrage had again destroyed defensive obstacles so the Russian infantry was upon
the defenders before they could even get organized. The 79th Honved Infantry Brigade completely
collapsed - 4,600 of its 5,200 men became prisoners or casualties. 15 battalions of
reserves were rushed in, and by 3 PM the initial advance had been stopped, but the Russians
- as meticulously planned - broadened the attack and sent additional forces to roll
up the Austrian lines. This attack headed toward Okna and by six PM the Russian 9th
Army had had overrun Czarny Potok and taken over 11,000 prisoners. It was nightfall and
exhaustion that stopped the advance for the day, with the Austrians digging in in open
fields five km behind their original lines, having lost a third of their artillery.
Dmitri Scherbatschev’s 7th Army launched an attack toward Jazlovice and though the
Austrians held them off on the 6th and both sides took around matching casualties, the
Russians had far more reserves and by 10 PM the Austrian commander reported that his men
were no longer capable of defense. The next morning 7,000 troops surrendered on the spot,
others fled to positions beyond the Strypa River. The word went up the line that the
battle for the Strypa was lost. By the end of the week Russia had taken 30km along the
southern front.
That was the southern end of the front.
At the north end, toward Lutsk, where the infantry had sapped to within 45 paces of
the enemy, the Russians rose from the ground on the morning of the 5th and swarmed over
the Austrians. Whole units surrendered without resistance. Officers deserted and fled to
the rear and the advancing Russians took dozens of field guns. By the afternoon, the Russians
were pressing into the third trench lines in the center of the Austrian 4th army. At
10 PM, the official Austrian retreat began as heavy rains came down.
The retreat did not halt until it had reached the eastern bank of the Styr River near Lutsk
- 75km from the original positions. Some units actually continued to fall back. Austrian
army chief of staff Conrad von Hotzendorf appealed to his German counterpart Erich von
Falkenhayn for aid, Falkenhayn said that would only happen if the Russians diverted troops
down from the far north and told Conrad to bring men over from the Italian front.
By mid afternoon on the 6th the Austrians were again broken and in full retreat, 38
more guns were captured, and the road to Lutsk was open. The Austrian Fourth Army, by this
time, numbered only 27,000 men. Fighting on the 7th at the bridgehead at the Styr was
again a disaster for the Austrians, and on the night of the 7th, the Russian 8th Army
crossed the Styr River and as the week ended, the advance continued.
Different sources have different specific totals for the numbers of prisoners taken,
but the Chronology of the Great War lists 65,000 for the week. That’s a lot lower
than many other sources.
Things were looking grim for Austria in the east, but further southwest it seemed their
fortunes were also turning for the worse.
Conrad’s Trentino Offensive in Italy seemed to be running out of steam. On June 3rd, the
Sardinian Grenadiers were driven off of the most southern peak of the Asiago plateau,
but this was the last Austrian achievement of the whole week, and on the 9th, Conrad
withdrew a division to send east to fight the new Russian offensive.
But it wasn’t just Russia that was kicking off something new this week.
In the Middle East the Arab Revolt was proclaimed June 8th. Sharif Hussein began it outside
Medina, but its initial actions were failures. They had 50,000 men, sure, but only 10,000
with rifles, and they were driven off by the Ottomans. That day British advisors, including
T.E. Lawrence, landed at Jeddah. It was yet another new front to the war.
And here are two important British notes to round out the week. On June 5th, the HMS Hampshire,
en route to Archangel in Russia, was mined off the Scottish Coast, British Secretary
of State for War Lord Kitchener and his staff all drowned. And on June 8th, conscription
replaces voluntary enlistment in Great Britain.
And we reach the end of a busy week of the war. Action in northern Italy, the Germans
gaining a prize at Verdun, a revolt that would have big consequences beginning in the Middle
East, the death of a major player in the British war effort, and Russia rising, seemingly from
the dead, to wreak havoc on the Austrians.
And how often have we seen it in just under two years of war? Overconfidence. Just knowing
that the enemy can’t possibly beat your men. We saw it at Gallipoli, we saw it at
Kut, we certainly saw it when the Austro-Hungarian Empire repeatedly failed in its Serbian invasions.
You’d think that after it happens time and again, a few more people would learn something,
especially someone like Austria that’s done it time and again, but they haven’t; not
so far. And now they’re on the run, losing five figures worth of men each day. Perhaps
now a few more will learn. But probably not.
If you want to learn more about Aleksei Brusilov, check out our episode right here.
Our Patreon supporter of the week is Monica Taylor - which also has her birthday this
week. Happy Birthday from me and the whole team to you, Monica.
Please support us on Patreon to keep this show running and allow us to make it even
better.
See you next time.