Battle of the Gniła Lipa

The Battle of the Gniła Lipa was the first clash east of Lviv after its recapture by Austria-Hungary on 22 June 1915. While the German Eleventh Army turned north towards Lublin and Chełm, the Austro-Hungarian Second Army and the German-Austrian South Army were to push the Russians eastwards and cover that thrust from the direction of Podolia. After several days of stubborn fighting at Bóbrka and Bukaczowce, on 27 June the Russians fell back to the Gniła Lipa river, a left-bank tributary of the Dniester. Contrary to the expectations of the Central Powers, they defended themselves there with great tenacity. Only on 1 July did the South Army break their positions on the lower course of the river, and on the night of 1–2 July the Russians withdrew to the next line, on the Złota Lipa.

Name and dates

On this page we use the dates 27 June – 1 July 1915. The start date comes from the British chronology of the war on which our timeline is based. It records the Battle of the Gniła Lipa from 27 to 29 June. The Austrian official history divides this fighting differently. It calls the fighting from the South Army’s crossing of the Dniester on 23 June to the Russian retreat on 27 June the Battle of Bukaczowce and Bóbrka. The Central Powers’ troops reached the Gniła Lipa on 28 June, and the Austrian history counts the “Battle of the Gniła Lipa” proper from 29 June. It was decided on the evening of 1 July, and during the night to 2 July the Russians began to retreat. From 2 July the Austrian official history already describes the pursuit to the Złota Lipa. For this reason we take 1 July as the end of the battle. The British end date, 29 June, is therefore two days too early.

The Gniła Lipa had already been fought over in this war. At the end of August 1914 the Russians broke through the Austro-Hungarian defence here, which sealed the loss of Lviv. In 1915 the roles were reversed: it was the Russians who defended the high eastern bank of the river against armies advancing from the west.

Background

On 22 June 1915, after the recapture of Lviv, the Austro-Hungarian high command issued new orders. General August von Mackensen’s army group was to advance northwards, between the Bug and the Vistula. General Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli’s Second Army left his command and was to pursue the Russians eastwards, towards Busk and Firlejów. General Alexander von Linsingen’s South Army, which since May had been fighting on the Stryj and the Dniester, was to force the Dniester below Żurawno, cut off Halicz from the north and cross the lower Gniła Lipa. On the right wing the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army of General Karl Pflanzer-Baltin covered Bukovina and Czernowitz.

Facing them stood the Russian Eleventh Army of General Dmitry Shcherbachev with the VI, XVIII and XXII Corps, to its north the left wing of General Aleksei Brusilov’s Eighth Army, and near Halicz the XI Corps of the Ninth Army. The Russian supreme command had already decided to give up Galicia, but wanted to retreat slowly, to gain time to evacuate the rear and build new lines of defence. The commander of the South-Western Front, General Nikolai Ivanov, was to hold up the enemy on successive rivers of Podolia.

Course of the battle

At Bukaczowce and Bóbrka, 23–26 June. On the morning of 23 June, in thick fog, the South Army crossed the Dniester between Żurawno and Halicz. The Russians counter-attacked at once and tried to push it back into the river. They drove part of the Austro-Hungarian 19th Infantry Division into the Dniester. According to the Austrian official history it lost 72 officers and 2,600 men that day. Things went better for the left wing of General Felix von Bothmer’s German corps, in front of which the Russians abandoned the southern bank during the night. Bothmer got as far as the area of Chodorów that same day. For the next two days the Russian artillery, using a surprisingly large amount of ammunition, supported ceaseless counter-attacks. Colonel Bolzano’s brigade repulsed some sixteen attacks on 25 June. Even so, by the evening of that day almost all the South Army’s infantry was on the northern bank, and the German X Reserve Corps had taken Bukaczowce.

The Second Army, which set out eastwards from Lviv on 23 June, ran into Russians entrenched on wooded hills between Dziewiętniki, Dźwinogród and Żółtańce. On 24 June its attacks made no progress. On 25 June the Austro-Hungarian V Corps broke through the positions of the Russian VI Corps in front of Bóbrka, and the XIX Corps forced the Russians to flee from Dźwinogród. The Russians also tried to draw off enemy forces by striking at the Seventh Army on the Dniester and the Prut. According to the Austrian official history, on 25 June soldiers of the Russian III Cavalry Corps advanced to attack unarmed, with their hands raised, and only at the last moment pulled out grenades hidden in their pockets. In this way they took a Honvéd hussar regiment by surprise, but a counter-attack threw them back to their old positions.

On 26 June the battle reached its climax. The V Corps and the right wing of the XVIII Corps, in bloody fighting that lasted until the next morning, broke into the positions of the Russian VI Corps on the Biały stream. The fiercest fighting was in Bóbrka itself. The German X Reserve Corps pushed the Russian XXII Corps back across the Świrz (PL) river, and Bothmer forced his way towards Knihynicze. According to the Austrian official history the Second Army took 11,000 prisoners between 21 and 25 June, and the South Army 3,550 in the first three days of the crossing.

Retreat to the Gniła Lipa, 27–28 June. On the morning of 27 June the Central Powers’ troops found only rearguards in the Russian trenches. The pursuit began. The Austro-Hungarian corps reached Zadwórze, Wyżniany and Kurowice, and as late as 7 p.m. the 9th Infantry Division took the wooded hills near Świrz. Almost 2,700 Russians laid down their arms before the Second Army that day. At Żurów and Bukaczowce, however, the Russian XXII Corps could not be pushed off the eastern bank of the Świrz. On the right wing the Russians gave up the bridgehead at Halicz, which the Austro-Hungarian corps of General Hofmann entered without a fight. Airmen reported villages burning on the Gniła Lipa and trenches being dug further on, on the Złota Lipa. The Central Powers’ commands therefore concluded that the Russians would stop on the Gniła Lipa only briefly. On the same day, at Teschen, the chiefs of the general staffs, Erich von Falkenhayn and Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, confirmed that the main thrust was to go northwards.

On 28 June the South Army reached the Gniła Lipa at Rohatyn, Koniuszki and Bursztyn, and the Hungarian 51st Honvéd Division of the Second Army took Firlejów. Believing that the Russians had left only rearguards on the river, the corps began crossing at once. On the high eastern bank, however, they were met by heavy fire, although by evening parts of Bothmer’s and Kosch’s corps had managed to gain a foothold on it. Further north the Second Army ran into strong positions at Przemyślany, at Łahodów and in front of Gliniany.

Fighting on the eastern bank, 29–30 June. Linsingen was convinced that he faced only the Russian XXII Corps, covering the retreat of the rest of the army. On 29 June his troops found out otherwise. Bothmer’s and Kosch’s corps managed only to close up to the fiercely defended Russian trenches. The Austro-Hungarian 19th Division fought its way across to the eastern bank at Bursztyn. In the Second Army the V Corps crossed the river at Firlejów, Brzuchowice and Wołków, but got stuck in front of the Russian XVIII and VI Corps, and further north Austro-Hungarian divisions attacked in vain the Ciemna hill near Łahodów, from which Russian batteries shelled their ranks. On 30 June the German X Reserve Corps stormed the Russian trenches on the eastern bank, and the Austro-Hungarian 55th Infantry Division crossed the Gniła Lipa right by its mouth and occupied the former Halicz bridgehead. At Łahodów Austrian Landsturm and the Czech 102nd Infantry Regiment broke into the first lines on the Ciemna in the evening but could not break through them, and the attack of the V Corps bogged down on the marshy floor of the valley.

The decision, 1 July. In the morning the Russian Eleventh Army went over to a counter-offensive between Bursztyn and Firlejów. In the northern sector it pushed parts of the Hungarian 38th and 51st Honvéd Divisions back across the river. Exaggerated reports about the fate of the 51st Division prompted Linsingen to call for help, and Böhm-Ermolli, whose troops were exhausted and once again out of ammunition, ordered his corps to halt the attack in the evening. At the same time, however, the battle was decided in the south. Bothmer’s and Kosch’s corps and the Austro-Hungarian 19th Division, in fighting that lasted until dusk, drove the Russians from the line of hills north-east of Bursztyn. According to the Austrian official history, the Russian counter-attack was above all meant to ease the departure of the supply trains crowded in the valley of the Narajówka. Ivanov judged that the defence on the Gniła Lipa had been broken and ordered a retreat to positions prepared earlier on the Złota Lipa. On the night of 1–2 July the Russian XI, XXII and XVIII Corps began to withdraw, and in the morning the South Army set off in pursuit.

Losses

Complete loss figures were never compiled. The Austrian official history states that the Second Army alone lost about 10,000 men between 28 June and 1 July. Even before the battle its divisions had been badly thinned. On 26 June the 27th Infantry Division numbered only 4,000 rifles, the 40th Honvéd Division 2,600, and the 128th Honvéd Brigade a mere 800. The Austro-Hungarian 19th Division lost more than 2,600 men on 23 June, crossing the Dniester. The Russians lost many prisoners: thousands in the fighting at Bóbrka and Bukaczowce alone, and almost 2,700 on 27 June. Their losses in killed and wounded are not known.

Significance

The battle pushed the front away from Lviv and cleared the Russians from the Gniła Lipa valley. The Central Powers’ troops reached the Złota Lipa, where the South Army halted at the new Russian line of defence. The Russians showed once again that, although they were retreating and short of weapons and ammunition, they could put up stubborn resistance at every river and inflict heavy losses.

For the Central Powers’ command, however, the fighting east of Lviv was a secondary matter. What mattered most was Mackensen’s thrust northwards, between the Bug and the Vistula, which was to threaten the Russian armies in the Kingdom of Poland. At the beginning of July the Austro-Hungarian high command concluded that there were not enough forces for a second large offensive in Eastern Galicia. The South Army was to content itself with reaching the Złota Lipa, and the Second Army was to extend its front northwards to free German units for Mackensen’s attack. The most important operations of the summer of 1915, which decided the fate of the Kingdom of Poland, were by then taking place further north.