End of the Battle of Limanowa

The British chronology of the war records under the date 17 December 1914 the end of the Battle of Limanowa–Łapanów. Most studies end it earlier. Polish historians and the Polish Wikipedia take 12 December, when the Russians abandoned Nowy Sącz, the English Wikipedia 13 December and the German 14 December. On our site we date the Battle of Limanowa to 1–12 December. Only the Hungarian Wikipedia, which covers all the operations in the Carpathians, extends it to 18 December.

Why 17 December

The British chronology does not explain its date, but it most probably counts the pursuit of the retreating Russians as part of the battle. On 17 December the Austro-Hungarian General Staff announced in Vienna that the latest news left no doubt: the resistance of the main Russian forces had been broken. The enemy, beaten on the southern wing “in the battle of several days at Limanowa”, and in the north by the Germans at Łódź and on the Bzura, and threatened from the south by troops advancing through the Carpathians, had begun a general retreat. For the Austrians this was the moment at which the victory at Limanowa became official and complete.

The pursuit

After abandoning Nowy Sącz, General Radko Dimitriev’s Russian Third Army fell back eastwards, behind the Dunajec. The Austro-Hungarian troops followed it. From the south, through the passes of the Low Beskids (PL), General Svetozar Boroević’s Third Army was still attacking; a few days earlier it had driven the Russians out of northern Hungary. According to Austro-Hungarian communiqués, by 14 December its units had retaken Dukla, and its advance guards had reached a line from Jasło to Rajbrot. Vienna stated that 31,000 Russians had been taken prisoner during the battle and the pursuit. Figures from communiqués must, however, be treated with caution.

On 17 December the Austrians attacked the Russian rearguards on a line from Krosno to Zakliczyn on the Dunajec. The retreat also extended to the front north of the Vistula. In the Kingdom of Poland, Austro-Hungarian infantry occupied Piotrków that day. A Russian communiqué of the same day claimed that the movements of the Russian troops had halted the further advance of the Austrians coming from beyond the Carpathians. At Przemyśl, on 15–18 December, the fortress garrison sallied out towards Bircza to meet Boroević’s army, but the relief did not come and the units had to return to the besieged fortress.

The limits of victory

The Russians had not been routed. They halted on the hills of the Rożnów Foothills, between the Dunajec and the Biała, brought up reinforcements and only a few days later went over to the counter-attack. In the last ten days of December they pushed Boroević’s army back into the Carpathians, and at Łowczówek, on 22–25 December, the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions fought a battle against them. The front in western Galicia froze on the line of the Dunajec and the Biała and remained there, with minor changes, until May 1915. The Battle of Limanowa pushed the Russians back from Kraków, but it did not decide the war in the east.