Battle of the Stryj begins

The British chronology of the war records under 24 May 1915 the start of the Battle of the Stryj, which in its account lasted until 11 June. That day, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1922, General Alexander von Linsingen’s German-Austrian South Army began a two-day artillery bombardment of the Russian positions in front of the towns of Stryj and Dolina. The infantry went in to the assault on the morning of 26 May. At the same time, some tens of kilometres to the north-west, Mackensen’s army struck at Radymno, and Austro-Hungarian troops were attacking south of Przemyśl.

One blow instead of many

In mid-May the South Army came down from the Carpathians and ran into a new Russian defensive line running from Dolina across the approaches to Stryj to the hills east of Drohobycz. For several days individual corps attacked it separately, at different points of the front, without reaching a decision. Around 19 May Linsingen decided to concentrate as much strength as possible in one place and deliver a single powerful blow towards Stryj. The main weight of the attack fell on the corps of the German General Felix von Bothmer, made up of the German 1st Infantry Division and part of the 3rd Guard Infantry Division. Linsingen added to it the Hungarian 38th Honvéd Division from Szurmay’s corps and a brigade of the German 48th Reserve Division. To gather his forces he even ordered the surrender of ground taken on 22 May by the Austro-Hungarian 19th Infantry Division on the army’s right wing.

The German Supreme Command attached great importance to this attack. On 23 May the Chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, reminded Linsingen how important his advance now was. The fighting at Przemyśl was going slowly, the Russians had freedom of manoeuvre in eastern Galicia, and after Italy’s entry into the war it was feared that Romania too might strike at the Central Powers. After breaking through the front, Linsingen wanted to reach the Dniester and then turn east to relieve General Karl Pflanzer-Baltin’s Austro-Hungarian 7th Army, fighting on the Prut.

Forces and positions

On 24 May the South Army’s front ran from Hruszów on the Bystrzyca, east of Drohobycz, across the approaches to Stryj and the area east of Bolechów to the Dolina area. Facing it stood General Dmitry Shcherbachev’s Russian 11th Army. Sources assess the balance of forces differently. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Linsingen’s eight infantry divisions and three independent brigades faced five Russian divisions. The Austrian official history, on the other hand, states that the Russians had more infantry, about 100,000 rifles against 70,000, but were weaker in artillery and short of ammunition. The Russian positions, partly hidden in woods, were covered by deep belts of wire and by positions from which the attackers could be swept with flanking fire.

The attack stalls

The bombardment did not destroy these defences. On 26 May the Hungarian 40th Honvéd Division of Szurmay’s corps advanced a little near the village of Gaje, and west of Stryj the 38th Honvéd Division gained little ground. The German striking group gained almost nothing. At Dolina the left wing of General von Gerok’s corps broke into the Russian trenches at the cost of very heavy losses, but the next morning a Russian counter-attack took back all its gains. The Austrian official history judged the results of the attack unsatisfactory, although the article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica wrote of a successful first day. Both sources agree, however, that by the second day the attack had come to a standstill and it was necessary to turn to slow sapping towards the Russian lines.

The Russians went over to a counter-attack themselves. Between 28 and 30 May they pushed the Austro-Hungarian corps of Hofmann back across the river Świca and stopped only just short of Bolechów. On 31 May, however, Bothmer’s corps, after a short bombardment in which Austro-Hungarian 30.5 cm mortars also took part, broke into Stryj and took more than 9,000 prisoners. In the first days of June the South Army reached the Dniester and on 5 June seized the crossing at Żurawno, but a Russian counter-offensive a few days later forced Bothmer to withdraw back across the river.