The battle of Lemberg begins

On 17 June 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian troops stood before the last major Russian position covering Lviv. It ran along the Wereszyca (PL) river and its ponds, from the Dniester through Gródek to Janów, and on through the hills near Magierów towards Rawa Ruska. Street fighting went on in Gródek all day. The British chronology of the war records under this date the beginning of the third battle of Lemberg.

The pursuit

Two days earlier the armies of General August von Mackensen’s group had broken the Russian front at Mościska and Lubaczów. On the morning of 16 June it turned out that the Russians had left their trenches along the whole line. The pursuit began. Airmen reported that the roads to the east were jammed with columns of troops and transport, with villages and manor farms burning behind them. The commander of the Russian Eighth Army, General Aleksei Brusilov, whose divisions, according to the Austrian official history, often numbered only 2,000–3,000 bayonets, had no intention of giving battle in the open. He fell back to a position the Russians had been building for months along the Wereszyca and on the hills north of it. During the night of 16/17 June the Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment No. 102 from Benešov broke into the western part of Gródek.

On the Wereszyca

On 17 June General Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli’s Austro-Hungarian Second Army reached the western bank of the river and its ponds. The heaviest fighting took place in Gródek itself, where the 9th Infantry Division fought the Russians all day in the streets of the little town and only in the evening, together with Landsturm units, broke into its eastern part as well. In the south, at the confluence of the Wereszyca with the Dniester and near Komarno, the Austrians approached the river with difficulty, and at Lubień Wielki they had not yet managed to take the crossings. North of the railway to Lviv, XIX Corps ran into the main Russian line of defence at Wielkopole and fought hard for it until evening. On the army’s left wing IV Corps and the German Beskiden Corps reached the Russian positions near Janów.

The fighting took place in places well known from the previous year. It was here, in the Battle of Gródek and Rawa Ruska in September 1914, that the Austro-Hungarian attempt to retake Lviv had collapsed. This time the roles were reversed: it was the Russians who were defending the eastern bank of the Wereszyca, while their opponent had German divisions on his side and superiority in artillery.

At Magierów

In the north the German 11th Army advanced through wooded hills, on few and bad roads and over destroyed bridges. At about 1 p.m. its leading columns came under Russian artillery fire. The Austro-Hungarian VI Corps took the western part of the village of Wiszenka and the hill of Czarny Horb, but further on, on the hills near Horodysko, it saw strong positions where the Russians were feverishly digging trenches. It was the same in front of the German Guard Corps and the XXII Reserve Corps. By evening it was clear that this line could not be taken on the march. Mackensen decided to devote 18 June to bringing up heavy artillery and preparing a deliberate attack.

The same day the Russian supreme command and the headquarters of the South-Western Front conferred at Chełm. According to the Austrian official history the front was short of more than half a million rifles and more than half of the planned ammunition. It was agreed that the army must go over to the defensive and that the most important thing was to hold the westward-projecting front in the Kingdom of Poland. The surrender of Lviv was also considered. Five days later the city was in Austro-Hungarian hands.