Battle of Żydaczów begins

According to the British chronology of the war, 10 June 1915 saw the beginning of the battle of Żydaczów, a small town on the river Stryj, just before it flows into the Dniester. The same dates, 10–22 June, are given by the official German list of battles used in divisional histories. On that day the German-Austrian South Army of General Alexander von Linsingen launched a new attack along the Dniester, upstream. It was meant to strike the flank of the Russian forces that for two days had been pushing its left wing back towards Stryj.

Crisis on the Dniester

A week earlier everything had been going Linsingen’s way. After taking Stryj his troops reached the Dniester, on 5 June crossed the river at Żurawno, and on the right wing occupied Kałusz and Stanisławów. The Russians understood, however, that the crossing at Żurawno was the most dangerous point of the front in Galicia for them. Their Eleventh Army under General Dmitry Shcherbachev, reinforced by the fresh VI Corps, attacked on 8 June near Żydaczów and Mikołajów the corps of the Hungarian general Sándor Szurmay, stretched out over more than 50 kilometres. Szurmay’s brigades lost half their strength in hand-to-hand fighting and fell back. By the morning of 9 June Linsingen saw the Russians only 12 kilometres from Stryj. In the evening the Russians also broke through the front at Bukaczowce, on the north bank of the Dniester, and the German corps of General Felix von Bothmer withdrew from the bridgehead back across the river during the night. Such was the finale of the Battle of the Stryj, which gave the South Army Stryj but not a crossing of the Dniester.

A new plan

Linsingen quickly rearranged his forces. Bothmer, with the German 3rd Guards Infantry Division, 1st Infantry Division and 48th Reserve Division, the Hungarian 40th Honvéd Division and the Austro-Hungarian 1st Cavalry Division, was to strike west along the Dniester towards Żydaczów, into the flank and rear of the Russians attacking Szurmay. The corps of General von Gerok, with the Hungarian 38th Honvéd Division, which according to the Austrian official history numbered only about 1,100 rifles after the fighting of the previous days, and half of the Austro-Hungarian 19th Division, was to watch the river between Ostrów and Żurawno. Stanisławów and the approaches to Halicz were guarded by the German 5th Cavalry Division and the corps of General Hofmann, about 7,000 men strong. To help the South Army, the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army of General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin turned its left wing north, towards the Dniester.

The first days

10 June brought Linsingen a little respite. The Russians, exhausted by their attack of the previous days, hardly moved. Bothmer, who had brought his troops back to the south bank without hindrance, attacked from the line Żurawno – Nowe Sioło. On the army’s left wing General Berndt’s detachment pushed the Russians back towards Litynia (PL), while from the west the Austro-Hungarian 4th Cavalry Division, sent by the high command, was approaching. On 11 June Bothmer’s troops came up to Żydaczów, and the German 1st Division stormed a Russian bridgehead opposite Hołeszów. Both sides, however, were exhausted. Szurmay’s corps most of all, in which the 128th Honvéd Brigade had dwindled to the strength of a battalion. The Russians had no intention of giving up the south bank of the Dniester without a fight.