End of the Battle of Przemyśl

A British chronology of the war records under 11 June 1915 the end of the Battle of Przemyśl, which by its reckoning had lasted since 24 May. The fortress itself had then been in the hands of the Central Powers for eight days. German and Austro-Hungarian troops had entered it on 3 June. The British date therefore also covers the fighting that continued after the fall of the fortress to the east of it, on the road to Mościska and Lviv. Other sources end the battle earlier. The Austrian official history describes the “Battle of Przemyśl” from 24 May to 4 June, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1922 from 24 May to 6 June. On our site we describe this fighting as the recapture of Przemyśl, from the attack at Radymno to the entry into the fortress.

Fighting near Mościska

After leaving Przemyśl the Russians did not retreat far. On 4 June the Austro-Hungarian Second Army and the German Beskiden Corps finally broke through their positions on the hills south-east of the fortress. North-west of Krukienice (PL) a gap eight kilometres wide opened, and after weeks of assaults the Gaj hill near Husaków fell. The Russians, however, fell back only to the hills south and west of Mościska and again put up resistance. North of the highway the German XLI Reserve Corps on 5 and 6 June pushed them back at Starzawa and Czerniawa across the Wisznia river, with the help of the Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment No. 55. There the advance stopped. The Austro-Hungarian infantry, short of heavy artillery and ammunition, once again had to sap its way towards the Russian lines. On 9 June August von Mackensen’s headquarters halted these attacks until a new, great offensive.

North of Przemyśl, on the lower San, the last Russian counter-offensive was dying out at the same time. From the night of 31 May to 1 June the Russian Third Army had been attacking the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army and Mackensen’s northern wing. At Rudnik it pushed the Austrians back a few kilometres, but on 4 June its strength was exhausted. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, that day the Austro-Hungarian 59th Infantry Regiment repulsed an attack by four regiments of the Russian 61st Division at Tarnogóra.

Preparations for the march on Lviv

The fall of Przemyśl opened the way east for the Central Powers. The chiefs of the general staffs, Erich von Falkenhayn and Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, decided not to stop on the San and the Dniester, even though Austria-Hungary had recently also been at war with Italy. The objective of the new blow was to be Lviv. From 4 June new German divisions were detrained near Rzeszów: the XXII Reserve Corps, the 22nd and 107th Infantry Divisions and the Bavarian 8th Reserve Division. The Austro-Hungarian Third Army, which had fought at Przemyśl, was dissolved and its corps passed to the neighbouring armies. Mackensen was also given command of the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army, and the Second Army was soon to join him as well.

The plan was simple. The reinforced German Eleventh Army was to strike north of Gródek, towards Magierów, and outflank the Russian positions in front of Lviv from the north. Its right wing was to be covered by the Second Army, and its left by the Fourth Army, which first had to cross the San between Sieniawa and Ulanów. On 10 June Mackensen issued the order to attack. The Fourth Army was to cross the San from 12 June, and the main attack would begin a day later.

Russian armies at the end of their strength

On the other side of the front the mood was grim. According to official Russian figures cited by the Austrian official history, the armies of the South-Western Front lost 412,000 killed, wounded, prisoners and missing in May alone. Divisions were often at the strength of a regiment, hundreds of thousands of rifles were lacking, and above all artillery shells. Replacements reached the front without weapons and waited to take over the rifles of the killed and wounded.

The front commander, General Nikolai Ivanov, painted the situation in dark colours in a report of 5 June, but advised holding out as long as possible. He hoped that the Central Powers would eventually exhaust their stocks of ammunition, which they were using up in huge quantities. That same day he ordered the line from the Vistula near Tarnobrzeg to the Dniester to be held and pulled several corps into reserve, among other places near Lubaczów and Lviv. Over the following days the Russians hardly interfered with the enemy’s preparations. Mackensen’s new offensive began the day after the date on which the British chronology closes the Battle of Przemyśl.