United States or Tajikistan ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Without an overwhelming supply of artillery the "phalanx" plan would have been unworkable machine guns would exact too heavy a sacrifice of life. Ivanoff's chief object for the moment was to hold the enemy in check long enough to allow Przemysl to be cleared of ammunitions and supplies, and to withdraw the troops in possession of the place.
No further sorties were undertaken in that particular region. During January and February, 1915, very little fighting took place around Przemysl; sorties were useless as there was no Austro-German force anywhere near the fortress, and the Russians were tightening the pressure around it.
Dmitrieff, therefore, fell rapidly back, until the opening of the Dukla Pass was in front of his line, and the Russian army was once more safe. Meanwhile the renewed seige of Przemysl was going on with great vigor, and attracting the general attention of the Allied world.
Twenty-four thousand soldiers of the Przemysl garrison were killed during the long siege, according to dispatches from Petrograd. Twenty thousand more were wounded making the total casualties of the Austrian defenders 44,000 men.
The exit was under fire; since May 17, Przemysl had been invested from three sides, and the fourth was all but closed. From the northern side, guarded by the Bavarians under General Kneusel, twenty-one centimeter Krupp howitzers bombarded the Russian positions round Korienice and Mackovice, drawing ever nearer the forts commanding the road and railway to Radymno.
Yet she had not triumphed. She had captured enemy country, to be sure, she had driven France and the British ally which had so quickly come to the side of the French back towards the sea-coast, and she had hurled Russia out of East Prussia, and, after the sturdy advance of the Grand Duke Nicholas into Galicia and the fall of the fortress of Przemysl, had fallen upon him with mighty force, had discovered the Russians short of ammunition and of artillery, and had driven the forces of the Tsar back towards Warsaw and other cities.
Their centre under Linsingen was, however, held up by the Russians at Hill 992 near Kosziowa, and all efforts to dislodge the defenders failed. This defence saved Galicia for the time and prevented the relief of Przemysl, which otherwise would have been certain. For the Austrian right succeeded late in February in recovering Czernowitz, Kolomea, and on 3 March, Stanislau.
Yet they had fought well; in the losing game they were playing they were exhausting their enemies as well as themselves in men and munitions factors which are bound to tell in a long, drawn-out war. Above all, they still remained an army: they had not yet found their Sedan. No alternative lay before them or rather behind them other than retreat to the next possible line of defense toward Przemysl.
German troops were reported marching south toward Poland to assist the Austrians. The Russian successes in Galicia gave them command of the Galician oil-fields, upon which Germany largely depended for her supply of gasoline, which is a prime necessary in modern war. On September 21 the Russians began the bombardment of Przemysl, having previously occupied Grodek and Mosciska, west of Lemberg.
With the fall of Przemysl the only important fortified town in Austrian Galicia which was not in the hands of the Russians was Cracow, close to the German border. A large Russian army with artillery was released for action. The Russian left wing stretched from the province of Bukowina on the southeast to Tarnow and the Vistula River near Cracow on the west.
Word Of The Day