Brusilov offensive winds down

The British chronology of the war on which our timeline is based ends the Brusilov offensive “approximately” on 17 August 1916 (4 August by the Julian calendar). Nothing happened that day to close the offensive, and fighting on the Eastern Front went on for many more weeks. The date does, however, capture well the change that took place in mid-August. The attacks on Kovel, the main objective of the summer campaign, finally collapsed, and the Russian command began to shift to other directions and to wait for Romania to enter the war. That is why on our battle page the offensive lasts until 20 September, in line with Russian historiography, while mid-August marks rather the beginning of its decline.

Bloody attacks on the Stokhod

From the end of July General Aleksei Brusilov’s South-Western Front repeatedly stormed the German and Austrian positions on the marshy Stokhod covering Kovel. The main striking force was General Vladimir Bezobrazov’s new Special Army, made up largely of the Guards. After the failed attacks of 28 July the Russians renewed the assault on 8 and 9 August. According to Russian studies, I Army Corps was thrown back by counter-attacks to its starting positions, and the guardsmen bled themselves white attacking a wood near the village of Kuchary. The Russian historian Anton Kersnovsky states that in these days I Guards Corps alone lost about 5,500 men. The Austrian official history notes that from 10 August the Russians on this sector confined themselves to the defensive. According to Russian studies the attacks on Kovel were halted on 11 August, while English-language studies state that Brusilov had given them up as early as 9 August.

Brusilov himself already knew by then that his front would not decide the war. In his memoirs he wrote that at the beginning of August he lost hope of help from the neighbouring fronts, while the enemy, despite enormous losses, had more troops facing his armies than he did himself. “I therefore continued the fighting on the front no longer with the former intensity, trying as far as possible to spare men,” he recalled, only to the extent needed to tie down as many enemy forces as possible and so indirectly help the Italians and the French. He also judged the Guards commanders harshly. He wrote that splendid soldiers suffered huge losses to no purpose, because their generals did not understand the realities of positional warfare.

A change of plans

In the south the Russians meanwhile won one of the last great successes of the summer. After a four-day battle fought from 7 to 10 August, General Platon Lechitsky’s 9th Army took Stanisławów on 11 August, and the German-Austrian South Army had to withdraw from the Strypa behind the Złota Lipa. On 11 August the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Commander, General Mikhail Alekseyev, instructed Brusilov to exploit the success on his left wing. From 12 August the operation against Kovel was to be conducted by General Aleksei Evert’s Western Front, to which the 3rd Army and the Special Army were subordinated. On 16 August Evert ordered both armies to prepare a new attack.

On 17 August Brusilov set his armies new objectives. The 8th Army was to strike towards Włodzimierz Wołyński, the 11th Army towards Brzeżany, and the 9th Army simultaneously towards Halicz and across the Carpathians into Hungary. The Austrian official history notes that Brusilov was still under the spell of the victory at Stanisławów. No date was set for the start of the attack for the time being. The Russian armies were tired, and their new blows were meant to coincide with Romania’s entry into the war.

That same day in Teschen, the seat of the Austro-Hungarian high command, the chiefs of staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf and Erich von Falkenhayn met. Conrad wanted to forestall the next Russian attack with a blow of his own, but there were not enough troops for a major operation, so only short counter-attacks were considered. According to the Austrian official history, Falkenhayn believed at the time that Romania would not enter the war until October, after the harvest had been gathered. He was wrong: Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary as early as 27 August, and Brusilov renewed the offensive along the whole front on 31 August. Neither this attack nor the September assaults at Kovel brought a breakthrough, however.