Rava-Ruska

The Battle of Rawa (also written as -Rava, -Rawa-Ruska, -Rava-Ruska, or -Rava-Russka) was an early stage Great War battle between Austria-Hungary and Russia, between 3 September – 11 September, 1914.

The Russian armies had defeated their opponents and threw them back to the Carpathian Mountains. The battle was part of the series of engagements known as Battle of Galicia.

The Fourth Army commanded by Moritz von Auffenberg, victorious in the Battle of Komarow, was given order to turn south to aid the Third Army (Rudolf Brudermann) which had suffered heavy casualties. This had created a gap between the First (Viktor Dankl) and Fourth Armies, and the gap was exploited by the Russian Third Army commanded by Pavel Plehve. Near Rava-Ruska (Galicia, today Ukraine) nine Austro-Hungarian divisions clashed with nine Russian divisions. The units commanded by Auffenberg were barely able to escape encirclement for the price of lengthy retreat and large loss of men and equipment.

Blame for the defeat was put on Auffenberg though the movement to help the Third Army was an order by Conrad von Hötzendorf. Later during the war, Rava-Ruska was re-captured by the Central Powers armies on 21 June, 1915.

Timeline

The following timeline provides a simple chronological listing of events relating to Rava-Ruska.

1914

3 September	Battle of Rava-Ruska begins.
11 September	Battle ends.

References

Sources: Various material contemporary with the war have been used to compile The Great War On This Day and its associated Index.

Text has been transcribed from two out-of-copyright sources: Chronology of the War (1918-1920), and History of the Great War – Principle Events 1914-1918 (1922). Spelling of place names are original to British use at the time. Some typos have been altered or corrected for consistency. Duplicate or identical events between these sources have been amalgamated; as a result the date and wording may differ to the original texts.
Images come from scans or photographs of original sources, Wikimedia Commons, and the Imperial War Museum's online collections under the IWM Non-Commercial Licence. Attribution is given separately to the latter and do not come under the general licence of this site.
Advisory note: The information in these sources may not accurately represent up-to-date histories, present-day spelling of place names, or geographical boundaries. In some instances the language used may appear sexist or derogatory to the modern reader, and in rare cases, images may depict distressing scenes.
For further details and a full list of sources, click here.

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