Battle of Bolimów

The Battle of Bolimów, also called the Battle of Humin or of Wola Szydłowiecka, was the heaviest episode of the winter fighting on the Rawka and the Bzura. At the turn of January and February 1915 the German Ninth Army attacked on a narrow sector of the front near Bolimów, about 60 kilometres west of Warsaw. It has gone down in history above all because here, for the first time in this war, the Germans used chemical weapons on a large scale, firing some 18,000 tear-gas shells. In the frost the gas failed. The Germans captured several Russian positions, and over the following days the Russians tried in vain to retake them, losing tens of thousands of men.

Name and dates

On this page we use the dates 31 January – 6 February 1915. The German attack began on 31 January. The end date is set by the last Russian counter-attacks and the halt in fighting on both sides. Russian studies date the battle of Wola Szydłowiecka to 18–24 January according to the Julian calendar, that is 31 January – 6 February according to ours. Other sources give shorter or longer frames. Polish Wikipedia dates the battle to the single day of 31 January, and the battle calendars of some German divisions speak of the “Battle of Humin” on 31 January – 2 February, that is, only of the German attack. On the other hand, some studies, especially Russian ones, include in the battle the whole fighting on the Rawka and the Bzura from mid-January to the end of February.

Background

From December 1914 the Russian armies were holding the line of the Bzura and the Rawka. Earlier German attacks had gained only a few bridgeheads, and the front had settled into trench warfare. In January 1915 the German command on the Eastern Front, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, was preparing a large offensive in East Prussia. To prevent the Russians from moving their reserves there, the Ninth Army of General August von Mackensen was to make a strong attack in the centre of the front, on the Rawka. The area of Bolimów was chosen, through which ran the shortest road and the railway from Łódź to Warsaw.

On a sector a few kilometres wide, between Humin and Wola Szydłowiecka, Mackensen concentrated the divisions of General Kurt von Morgen’s I Reserve Corps and of XVII Corps. According to Russian estimates the German assault group had seven or eight divisions in the first line, supported by about 100 batteries, or some 600 guns, including 40 heavy batteries and two Austro-Hungarian 305 mm mortars. The Eastern Front had never before seen such a concentration of artillery. On the other side stood the Russian Second Army of General Vladimir Smirnov. The threatened sector was held by General Vasily Gurko’s VI Corps with the 4th and 55th Infantry Divisions.

Gas shells

The Germans decided to try out a new weapon at Bolimów. The chemist Hans Tappen of the Prussian war ministry, brother of General Gerhard Tappen, head of operations of the German general staff, proposed filling artillery shells with xylyl bromide, a powerful tear agent. After his name the agent was called T-Stoff, and the shells “T” shells. They were 15 cm howitzer shells which held several kilograms of liquid alongside the explosive charge. Trials were carried out at the Wahn range near Cologne at the beginning of January 1915. According to some Russian studies the Germans first used gas shells on the Rawka as early as mid-January, in far smaller numbers. For the attack at Bolimów about 18,000 of them were prepared.

Earlier, in October 1914 at Neuve-Chapelle, the Germans had fired shells with an irritant powder at the British, but hardly anyone noticed their effect. At Bolimów the aim was different: to concentrate so many chemical shells as to drive the defenders out of their trenches.

Course of the battle

31 January. In the morning the German artillery opened a hurricane bombardment of the Russian positions near Humin and Wola Szydłowiecka. About 18,000 gas shells fell on the trenches. In the frost, about –3 °C according to Polish Wikipedia, the xylyl bromide hardly evaporated. According to many accounts the Russians did not even notice that they had been shelled with gas. Russian reports did, however, mention the choking effect of the gas, and according to some sources the wind blew part of the cloud towards the German lines. After a bombardment lasting several hours the German infantry advanced. According to Russian studies, by late afternoon it had driven units of the 4th and 55th Infantry Divisions out of the first line of trenches.

1–3 February. Gurko received reinforcements, among them the 13th Siberian Rifle Division, and counter-attacked on the morning of 1 February. The Russian attacks, made in the snow and under the fire of German artillery, broke down with heavy losses. In the afternoon the Germans resumed their attack and took further strongpoints, including the buildings of Wola Szydłowiecka with its fortified distillery. According to Russian figures, by 2 February they had taken more than 6,000 prisoners. In time more than a dozen divisions came under Gurko’s command, several of them Siberian. To the north, on the Bzura near Borzymów, the Russian First Army of General Alexander Litvinov made a relief attack.

4–6 February. On the night of 3–4 February the Russians retook some of the lost trenches and the manor at Wola Szydłowiecka, but failed to recover the distillery or the other main strongpoints. A further German attack was stopped by the Siberian divisions. Around 6 February both sides halted their attacks. Hindenburg judged that the Ninth Army had done its job, and on 7 February the offensive in Masuria began.

Losses

Estimates of losses vary widely, because authors set the limits of the battle differently. Polish Wikipedia states that the Russians lost about 40,000 killed and wounded, and the Germans about 20,000. Russian figures for the area of Humin, Borzymów and Wola Szydłowiecka alone speak of about 41,000 killed, wounded and missing on the Russian side. Russian authors put German losses as high as 40,000. German sources give much smaller figures and describe the losses as slight in relation to the success achieved. During the battle the Germans took more than 7,000 prisoners.

Significance

Militarily the Battle of Bolimów decided nothing. The Germans took several strongpoints, but the front did not break, and the Russians lost tens of thousands of soldiers in fruitless counter-attacks. According to Hindenburg the attack served its purpose, because it tied down the Russian reserves before the offensive in East Prussia. General von Morgen noted, however, that the chemical shells had not had the expected effect: prisoners complained of watering eyes and headaches, but had not been put out of action.

Bolimów has gone down in history as the site of the first large chemical attack of this war. Its failure showed that shells with a liquid tear agent do not work in frost. German scientists, among them Fritz Haber, began to look for a more effective method. Soon it was proposed to release chlorine from cylinders, which, carried by the wind, would drift onto the enemy’s trenches. This method was used in April 1915 at Ypres, and in May again on the Rawka, at Bolimów.