End of the Battle of Chyrów
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Eastern Front
- Date:
- 2 November 1914
- Author:
- Natalia
- Battle:
- Battle of Chyrów
- Tags:
- Austria-Hungary, Russia, Galicia
On 2 November 1914 the Battle of Chyrów, which had been going on since 13 October, came to an end. For three weeks the Austro-Hungarian Second and Third Armies had vainly attacked the positions of General Aleksei Brusilov’s Russian 8th Army on the hills south of Przemyśl. On the last day of the battle the Second Army was still attacking, and its XII Corps came up close to Stary Sambor. During the night of 2–3 November, however, the Austro-Hungarian troops began to withdraw.
An order from the Vistula
The end of the battle was decided not by the fighting at Chyrów but by events several hundred kilometres further north. In the second half of October the Germans and Austrians had been defeated at Warsaw and Dęblin, and their armies were falling back westwards. The Russians could now strike from the north at the rear of the forces fighting on the San. As early as 27 October the Austro-Hungarian high command warned the army commanders that the situation on the Vistula was bad. A few days later the order to retreat arrived. For many soldiers who had been fighting for every hill for weeks it came as a complete surprise.
Retreat and pursuit
Brusilov quickly noticed what was happening. Airmen reported long columns of transport moving west, so he immediately ordered a pursuit. The Russian vanguard caught up with Austro-Hungarian rearguards and took thousands of prisoners. The Austro-Hungarian armies fell back towards the Dunajec and to the passes of the Carpathians, and within a few weeks the Russians had reached the approaches to Kraków and the Carpathian passes. The Austro-Hungarian command soon moved the Second Army by rail to the north, to the Częstochowa area, where it was to support the Germans in a new offensive in the Kingdom of Poland.
Przemyśl alone again
The retreat meant that Przemyśl, relieved only a few weeks earlier, would be encircled once more. On 4 November the authorities ordered civilians without food supplies to leave the city, and a few days later the Russians again surrounded the fortress. The Battle of Chyrów, paid for by both sides with enormous losses, gained Austria-Hungary nothing. The gains of the October counter-offensive were lost, and the front returned to the places that the Habsburg armies had reached after their defeat in the Battle of Galicia.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
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Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 13 October 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Chyrów beginsOn 13 October 1914 the Austro-Hungarian armies launched a general attack on the Russian Eighth Army at Chyrów and Stary Sambor. A hard battle began.
- 9 October 1914 · Eastern FrontRelief of PrzemyślOn 9 October 1914 cavalry of General Boroević's Third Army reached Przemyśl. After a failed assault the Russians drew back from the fortress behind the San.
- 4 October 1914 · Eastern FrontAustria-Hungary launches a counter-offensive in GaliciaIn early October 1914 the Austro-Hungarian armies advanced east from the Dunajec. They drove the Russians behind the San and relieved Przemyśl, then stalled.
- 30 October 1914 · Eastern FrontRussians take StanisławówThe British chronicle records the Russian capture of Stanisławów on 30 October 1914. The town had, however, been in their hands since early September.