Battles of Stryj and Drohobycz begin

The British chronology of the war records under 18 May 1915 the beginning of the battles of Stryj and Drohobycz. Behind this lies the fighting of the German-Austrian South Army of General Alexander von Linsingen, which after the breakthrough at Gorlice came down from the Carpathians into the foothills and ran into a new Russian defensive line in front of Stryj, Dolina and Drohobycz. According to the Austrian official history, the first attacks on this line began as early as 16 May, and 18 May was the third day of attacks that brought no decision.

From the Carpathians to the foothills

The South Army, made up of German and Austro-Hungarian divisions, had been fighting in the Eastern Carpathians since January. All winter it had tried in vain to break through towards Stryj, and only in April did it take the fortified Zwinin ridge. Everything changed after the Battle of Gorlice. When Mackensen’s troops moved east through western Galicia, the Russian armies in the mountains were threatened with being cut off, so they began to withdraw northwards. Linsingen ordered a general attack for 12 May. On the night of 13–14 May the German 1st Infantry Division and an Austro-Hungarian brigade occupied Skole, and on 15 May the Austro-Hungarian 131st Brigade, after a short street fight, drove the Russians out of Bolechów.

On the same day the German corps of General Felix von Bothmer approached Stryj, and the Austro-Hungarian corps of General Sándor Szurmay on the army’s left wing passed the burning oil wells of Borysław and occupied the hills north-west of the town. The wells had been set on fire by the retreating Russians so as not to leave the oil to the enemy. On 15 May the South Army took more than 5,000 prisoners. The troops advanced slowly, however, because the Russians had destroyed the roads and bridges behind them and the artillery could not keep up with the infantry.

The new Russian line

The reports of 15 May left no doubt that the Russians had halted their retreat. Their Eleventh Army under General Dmitry Shcherbachev, the same army that had besieged Przemyśl in the winter and moved into the Carpathians in the spring, dug in on a line running from the area of Perehińsko through the approaches to Dolina and Stryj to the hills east and north of Drohobycz. Further west, beyond the marshes of the Wielkie Błoto, stretched the positions of the Russian Eighth Army, which covered the approaches to Przemyśl and Lviv.

The stakes were high. Stryj was an important railway junction, through which ran the line from Hungary across the Carpathians to Lviv. The area of Drohobycz and Borysław was the most important oil field in Galicia and in the whole Habsburg monarchy. For the Russians, holding this line meant covering the flank of the armies fighting on the San and in front of Przemyśl.

Fruitless attacks

Between 16 and 18 May the attacks of Szurmay’s corps near Drohobycz achieved almost nothing. Only on 19 May did its left wing, together with a detachment sent by the neighbouring Austro-Hungarian Second Army, make progress near the village of Litynia. On 20 May the inner wings of Szurmay’s and Bothmer’s corps stormed strong Russian positions east of Drohobycz and took about 1,800 prisoners. Bothmer, on the other hand, tried in vain to break through to Stryj, the Austro-Hungarian corps of General Hofmann fought for every scrap of ground near Bolechów, and at Dolina the troops of General von Gerok’s corps failed to break the Russian defence. According to the Austrian official history, between 16 and 20 May the situation of the South Army changed nowhere in a decisive way.

Further east still, on the Prut and near Nadwórna, the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army of General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin was fighting hard in the same days. Neither its attack nor the Russian thrusts towards Kołomyja and Nadwórna succeeded, and around 20 May the fighting in this sector died down.

Linsingen concluded that attacks made separately by individual corps at different points of the front would not break the Russians. He decided to concentrate as many forces as possible in one place and deliver a single powerful blow towards Stryj. The preparations took another week. Stryj fell on 31 May, and in the first days of June the Russians withdrew from this sector behind the Dniester. The British chronology closes the battles of Stryj and Drohobycz on 3 June.