Fighting on the Niemen

The fighting on the Niemen was the last act of the German counter-offensive in East Prussia in 1914. After their victory at the Masurian Lakes, the German Eighth Army entered Russian territory and at the end of September tried to cross to the eastern bank of the Niemen. The attack collapsed within a few days. The Russian Tenth Army went over to the counter-attack, and the fighting moved into the woods of the Augustów Forest, in what is today north-eastern Poland.

Dates

The British chronicle of the war states that the German offensive on the Niemen began on 25 September and was broken off on 29 September. These dates are used on this page. Russian and Polish literature usually describes the same events as part of the wider Augustów operation (the Battle of Augustów), whose limits are drawn in different ways: from about 25 or 28 September to 3–5 October, and sometimes longer. Older Russian sources give dates in the Julian calendar, thirteen days earlier, which makes comparisons even harder.

After the Masurian Lakes

In mid-September 1914 the Russian First Army under General Paul von Rennenkampf, beaten at the Masurian Lakes, withdrew across the East Prussian border and on beyond the Niemen, to the area of Kovno. The German corps following it occupied part of the Suwałki Governorate, including Suwałki and Augustów, and in the north reached Mariampol and Kalvarija.

Soon afterwards the balance of forces in the east changed. The Austro-Hungarians, beaten in Galicia, were retreating behind the San and asking the Germans for help. Paul von Hindenburg and his chief of staff Erich Ludendorff took most of the Eighth Army’s forces to Silesia, where the new Ninth Army was being formed to strike into the Kingdom of Poland. On 18 September General of Artillery Richard von Schubert took command of the weakened Eighth Army in East Prussia. According to Russian estimates, he had at his disposal the equivalent of about seven infantry divisions and one cavalry division, reinforced by Landwehr units.

On the other side the Russians were quickly rebuilding their strength. Along the Niemen, from Kovno to Grodno, stood the new Tenth Army under General Vasily Flug, fed with corps brought from the interior of Russia, including from Siberia and Turkestan. The Niemen, wide and covered by the fortresses of Kovno and Grodno and by the forts of Osowiec on the Biebrza, formed a natural line of defence.

The attack on the Niemen

The Germans wanted to forestall a Russian offensive and tie down as many enemy forces as possible, to ease the operations of the Ninth Army in Poland. At the end of September their units reached the Niemen and tried to cross the river in several places: near Druskininkai and Sapotskin in the south, close to Grodno, and further north, between Olita and Kovno. In the same days German siege artillery shelled Osowiec, but the fortress held out.

The crossings failed. The Russians defended the eastern bank in strength and had a numerical superiority that various sources put as high as two or three to one. The units that managed to get across to the other bank were thrown back. At the same time the command of the Tenth Army began a manoeuvre that threatened to cut the Germans off: while part of its forces pinned them frontally on the Niemen, the corps of the left wing advanced through the Augustów Forest towards Augustów and on towards Lyck, into the rear of the German units standing on the river.

The threat of encirclement decided the fate of the attack. According to some accounts, as early as 26 September the Eighth Army command ordered the troops to withdraw from the bend of the Niemen towards Suwałki. The British chronicle of the war recorded 29 September as the day on which the German offensive on the Niemen was finally broken off.

The counter-attack at Augustów

The Russian attack moved deep into the Suwałki region. In the woods around Augustów heavy, chaotic fighting went on, often with the bayonet. The Russians retook Augustów on 27 or 28 September (sources give different dates), and at the beginning of October entered Suwałki. Schubert concentrated part of his forces in the area of Suwałki and Augustów, hoping for a decisive battle, but in the face of the enemy’s superiority he had to fall back. By mid-October the front had moved back to the East Prussian border, and the Russians again entered the eastern edges of the province.

Casualties

Casualty figures are uncertain and hard to separate from the losses of the whole autumn campaign. Russian accounts speak of the capture of several dozen guns and several thousand prisoners, and put the Tenth Army’s own losses in the Augustów operation at about 20,000 killed, wounded and missing. The German losses given in some Russian sources, amounting to several tens of thousands of men, appear exaggerated.

Significance

The fighting on the Niemen closed the period of German victories in East Prussia in 1914. After Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, the initiative on this sector returned to the Russians. Schubert, criticised for indecision and at odds with the commander of I Corps, Hermann von François, was recalled on 8 October, and François took command of the Eighth Army. The Russian Tenth Army, commanded from October by General Thadeus von Sievers, held on in the eastern edges of East Prussia, in the area of Lyck, until February 1915, when the Germans crushed it in the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes.

For the inhabitants of the Suwałki region and the area around Augustów, September and October 1914 meant the front passing through several times, requisitions and destruction. The first autumn of the war was not the last. In February 1915 another, even bloodier battle rolled through the Augustów Forest.