Battle of Baranovichi begins

On 2 July 1916 (19 June by the Russian Julian calendar) the Russian Western Front of General Alexei Evert at last began its summer offensive. According to the Austrian official history, at 4 a.m. the Russian batteries opened fire on the German and Austro-Hungarian positions east of Baranovichi and spent the whole day destroying trenches and wire. Russian studies state that the artillery preparation lasted from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. The difference probably stems from the different time used by the two sides. The infantry assault was planned for dawn the next day.

A belated main blow

In 1916 the Western Front was to deliver the main blow. It received the most troops and heavy artillery, and its objective was Vilna. Evert, however, discouraged by the March defeat at Lake Naroch, postponed the attack several times. When Brusilov’s armies broke through the Austro-Hungarian front in Volhynia on 4 June, he persuaded Stavka to let him strike at Baranovichi instead of Vilna, an important railway junction where Stavka itself had been located until August 1915. Preparations on the new sector took more than two weeks. During that time the Brusilov offensive was losing momentum and the Germans were moving division after division to Volhynia.

The attack was entrusted to the 4th Army of General Aleksandr Ragoza. According to Russian figures it assembled 19 infantry divisions and 2 Cossack divisions, about 340,000 men and about a thousand guns, including 258 heavy. The main blow was to fall on the Austro-Hungarian XII Corps of General Johann von Henriquez on the river Servech (PL), north of Baranovichi, with supporting attacks on the German Silesian Landwehr Corps near Darevo. Both corps belonged to the army of General Remus von Woyrsch. Their positions, built over ten months, had concrete machine-gun emplacements, deep dugouts and several belts of wire.

The enemy was ready

There was no surprise. The Russians were digging a network of assault trenches in front of their line, and their artillery had been registering for several days. The Austrian official history writes that from the last week of June the staffs of the Central Powers had no doubt where the blow would fall, and prisoners and deserters, who as usual crossed over before an attack, confirmed these assumptions. On 1 July Henriquez judged that he faced “a serious, determined and well-prepared attack” and several days of fighting. The army group commander, Field Marshal Prince Leopold of Bavaria, and Woyrsch gathered all available reserves behind the threatened sector, including German Landwehr regiments and a brigade made up of battalions from two reserve divisions.

On the evening of 2 July the Russian assault trenches filled with infantry. The first, reconnaissance attacks were repulsed. The same day the Russian 10th Army blew a large mine under the positions of the German 14th Landwehr Division at Smorgon, more than 150 kilometres to the north, and broke into the German trenches. This was meant to divert German attention from Baranovichi. The Germans quickly recovered, however, and in the fighting for the craters retook the lost trenches by 4 July.

The main assault at Baranovichi began before dawn on 3 July. The Russian infantry broke into the positions of the Austro-Hungarian 16th Division, but over the following week failed to break through the front.