The Year 1915 Illustrated/Winter and Spring Campaigns in the East

PACE will not permit of more than the merest outline of the fighting which took place in Poland, East Prussia and Galicia during the winter and spring months of the year. At the beginning of January the Russian armies were holding a line 900 miles long extending from the Carpathians to the frontier of East Prussia. They had successfully resisted two attempts by von Hindenburg on the Polish capital of Warsaw, and during the early weeks of the year they foiled the enemy a third time, repulsing a succession of desperate frontal attacks on the Bzura and Rawka rivers.

Whilst these engagements were being fought out, the Russian northern armies had pushed forward into East Prussia once more, over a front of twenty to thirty miles. But this occupation of conquered territories did not last long, for the Germans launched a force, estimated at half-a-million men, at the invaders and by the middle of February they had cleared the whole of East Prussia of the Russians and were attempting a new attack on Warsaw from the North. This fourth attack on the Polish capital was checked in a series of engagements on the rivers Niemen and Narev, which culminated in the battle of Przasnysz on 26th February, when the German offensive was broken. This victory of the Russians was all the more remarkable by reason of the fact that they were greatly outnumbered by the enemy and their supply of equipment and munitions at Przasnysy was at one time in serious danger of exhaustion. It is said that men were flung into the firing line without rifles, armed only with a sword-bayonet in one hand and two bombs in the other.

The condition of Poland after these incursions of the Prussian hordes has been only imperfectly known in the West. The people inhabiting an area seven times larger than Belgium have endured even greater suffering than the inhabitants of that unhappy country. The situation has in a measure been described in the words of a Polish appeal to the civilised world.

From the banks of the Niemen to the summits of the Carpathians fire has destroyed the towns and villages, and over the whole of this huge country the spectre of famine has spread out its wings. All labour and industry have been swept away. The ploughshare is rusted; the peasant has neither grain nor cattle. The artisan is idle; all works and factories have been destroyed. The tradesman cannot sell his wares; there is no one to buy. The hearth is extinguished, and disease and misery prevail. The aged and infirm have no shelter from the cold and hardships of the winter weather. Little children, stretching out their hands to their mothers for bread, receive in answer only tears.

The battles of the Carpathian passes
The Russian position in the Carpathian Passes in January was briefly as follows: After a temporary check, Brussilov had regained possession of the crest of the Dukla Pass and of the Lupkof, and the Russian line was close up to the Northern foothills. Further East they had over-run the Bukovina and were endeavouring to bring Rumania into the struggle. Had their military demonstrations in this region brought about the political result they desired the whole course of the Eastern campaign would probably have been altered, for the plains of Hungary would then have been open to attack from two sides. The Hungarians appear to have realised this and made their preparations accordingly.

On 13th January, Count Berchtold had resigned his portfolio as Minister of Foreign Affairs and his place was taken by Baron Burian, a Hungarian nominee of Count Tisza, whose influence in the military policy of the dual Empire has been very marked as the war has proceeded. That the Russian invasion of the Bukovina had been planned mainly as a demonstration to Roumania was made evident when the forces sent there were seriously menaced by the Austrains. A single division found itself opposed by four corps, and the result was a foregone conclusion. By the middle of February, the Austrians had driven the Russian left back, and had occupied Czernowitz, and on the 3rd March they took Stanislau and threatened the Russian main communications. Reinforcements then arrived and saved the Russian situation and the Austrians were driven back to the line Kolomee-Czernowitz.

Meantime the other Carpathian passes, from the Dukla to the Vyzkof, had been the scenes of many sanguinary conflicts, the opposing forces fighting for the crests in snow which was often three or more feet deep. East of the Lupkof the Austrains were everywhere victorious and General von Linsingen pushed his forces forward in the direction of Stryj and Lemberg. At Koziowa he was held up by Brussilov in the early days of March, and as the Austrian left had been little progress on the Dukla and Lupkof their offensive was brought to a stand. The position in the Carpathians on 21st March was somewhat as follows. The Russians held the Dukla and were in an advanced position on the Lupkof; they also occupied the Northern foothills of the range in front of the Rostok and Uzsok passes. All the passes to the right of the Uzsok were held by the Austrians who had advanced to Stanislau only to be driven back to Czernowitz. Then on the 22nd March, the Fortress of Przemsyl fell to the Russians after an investment of nearly seven months.

The Fall of Przemysl
We have seen that in the early stages of the war in the East, the Russian Campaign in Galicia had so far succeeded that Lemberg had been gained, the fortress of Przemysl had been invested and Cracow threatened. Then came the first assault of von Hindenburg upon Warsaw, when Ivanov retired behind the San and the investment was temporarily broken. This took place about the middle of October. The ring closed round it again about the 12th November and never relaxed until the capitulation of the garrison on the 22nd of March. The Austrian attempt to raise the siege by an advance through the Carpathians had failed, and provisions running short and sorties by the garrison proving ineffective, there was no other course open to General von Kusmanek but to capitulate. Before doing so, however, he ordered the complete destruction of the guns and munitions remaining in the city. A series of terrific explosions on the morning of the 22nd notified to General Selivanov and his staff what was taking place. Even the horses which had not been slaughtered for food were shot and the four principal bridges over the rivers San and Wiar were blown up. After the surrender, the Russians entered the city and made prisoners some 120,000 men, including 2,600 officers. Over one thousand guns were captured, but the bulk of these had been rendered useless.

The condition of things prevailing in Przemysl during the siege has been in part made known by the diary of a Russian prisoner. Food appears to have been fairly plentiful up till December, after which famine created privations, especially among the civil population. A fowl cost 24s. and bread was not to be had at any price. By March, a cow was selling for £140 and a dog for 50s. Serious charges were made against the extravagance and greed of the officers of the garrison who continued to indulge themselves in riotous living whilst the civil population was on the verge of starvation.