Battle of Tarnawka begins
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Eastern Front
- Date:
- 7 September 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Battle:
- Battle of Tarnawka
On 7 September 1914, in the Lublin region, in the fields around the village of Tarnawka south of Lublin, a battle broke out between Russian troops and the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army of General Viktor Dankl together with the German units supporting it. It was one of the hardest battles fought on Polish lands in 1914 and a turning point in the fighting on the northern wing of the Battle of Galicia.
From Kraśnik to Lublin
At the end of August Dankl’s army beat the Russians at Kraśnik and followed them north, towards Lublin. At the beginning of September, however, it halted on the hills of the Lublin Upland, from a dozen or so to several dozen kilometres from the city. The Russians meanwhile were bringing up reinforcements. Their 4th Army, now commanded by General Alexei Evert, was strengthened with fresh corps, including the elite Guards Corps. A new 9th Army under General Platon Lechitsky was concentrating on the Vistula. On 3 September the Russian front command issued the order for a general offensive.
The Austro-Hungarians, weakened by the August fighting, received little help. The German Landwehr Corps of General Remus von Woyrsch, made up of older reservists, crossed to the right bank of the Vistula and was temporarily placed under Dankl. Even so, the Russian superiority grew quickly. According to Austrian studies, around 7 September Dankl’s three corps faced seven Russian corps.
The blow
The Russians had begun attacking Dankl’s front as early as 5 September, and in the sector of the Austro-Hungarian V Corps, on the Bystrzyca (PL), the defence began to waver. From 7 September the heaviest fighting took place around Tarnawka, Giełczew and Zakrzew. On the Russian side the attackers here included the Guards and the Grenadier Corps, while the defenders were the Austro-Hungarian V Corps and the German 4th Landwehr Division.
What came next
The fighting lasted three days. According to Russian studies, on 8 September the Guards regiments broke through the defence in the Tarnawka area. Dankl’s army, threatened also from the east, where the Russian 5th Army was entering the gap between it and the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army, began to withdraw south. On 11 September the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, ordered the whole front to retreat behind the San. The fruits of the August victory at Kraśnik had been thrown away.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 6 September 1914 · Western FrontBattle of the Marne beginsOn 6 September 1914 the French armies and the British went over to the counter-offensive from Paris to Verdun. The battle that decided 1914 had begun.
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- 8 September 1914 · Balkan FrontSecond Austro-Hungarian invasion of SerbiaDuring the night of 7/8 September 1914 Potiorek's armies crossed the Drina again. Austria-Hungary meant to draw the Serbs out of Syrmia and avenge Cer.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 9 September 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Tarnawka endsOn 9 September 1914 the fighting at Tarnawka south of Lublin ended. Broken by the Russians, Dankl's army began to retreat southwards towards the San.
- 25 August 1914 · Eastern FrontEnd of the Battle of KraśnikOn 25 August 1914 the Austro-Hungarian First Army took Kraśnik and the Russian Fourth Army fell back towards Lublin. It was Austria-Hungary's first victory.
- 20 October 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Dęblin endsThe British chronology ends the Battle of Ivangorod, or Dęblin, on 20 October 1914. In reality the fighting there went on for another week.
- 2 September 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Komarów endsOn 2 September 1914 Plehve's Russian Fifth Army slipped out of encirclement towards the Bug. The Battle of Komarów ended in an Austro-Hungarian victory.