End of the battles of Stryi and Drohobycz

The British chronology of the war closes on 3 June 1915 the battles of Stryi and Drohobycz, which according to it had begun on 18 May. On that day there was no longer a continuous Russian defensive line in the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians. After the fall of Stryi on 31 May the Russian units still holding on east and north of Drohobycz withdrew towards the Dniester, and the troops of the German–Austrian South Army followed on their heels. The fighting on this sector was part of the wider Battle of the Stryi, which lasted until 11 June.

The pursuit from Drohobycz

The capture of Stryi by General Felix von Bothmer’s German corps had an immediate effect on the army’s left wing, which had stood before Drohobycz since mid-May. On 1 June the Hungarian 40th Honvéd Division of General Sándor Szurmay’s corps drove the Russians from the villages of Gaje Wyżne and Słońsko and reached Letnia. The 1922 Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that Szurmay’s left wing that day stormed the Russian line north-east of Drohobycz. Opposite the Austro-Hungarian 7th Infantry Division, however, the Russian XXII Corps held out all day. The commander of the South Army, General Alexander von Linsingen, even hoped to cut off its line of retreat across the Dniester.

That did not happen. During the night of 1–2 June the Russians abandoned their positions, and the 7th Division followed them through Litynia (PL). The 40th Honvéd Division pushed them back towards Horucko, and the Austro-Hungarian 1st Cavalry Division and Colonel Rehwald’s detachment, sent by the neighbouring Second Army, reached the bend of the Dniester west of Kołodruby (PL) by the evening. On 3 June the 40th Division occupied Horucko. North of Stryi the German Guard pursued the Russian XVIII Corps, which was falling back towards Żydaczów, and advanced towards Tejsarów (PL).

The bridgehead at Mikołajów

The Russians did not, however, give up the whole southern bank of the Dniester. They kept a bridgehead at Mikołajów, which covered the rear of their armies fighting at Przemyśl and on the road to Lviv. Linsingen did not want to stop for it. His main aim now was a blow eastwards, towards Żurawno and Halicz, into the flank of the Russian Ninth Army, which on the Prut was pressing the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army. On 3 June he therefore recalled the 40th Honvéd Division and the 1st Cavalry Division to Bothmer’s corps. Only the 7th Infantry Division, the Hungarian 128th Honvéd Brigade and Rehwald’s detachment remained at Mikołajów. They dug in near Rudniki, Medenice and Litynia, facing the Russians holding on to the southern bank of the river. Rehwald’s detachment suffered a local setback that day.

The oil basin

For the Central Powers the end of the fighting at Drohobycz was of great economic importance. The area around Drohobycz and Borysław was the most important oil basin of Galicia and of the whole Habsburg monarchy. The Russians, retreating in mid-May, had set the wells on fire there, and for two weeks their line had run just beyond the town. Now the front moved away to the Dniester.

Calm on the river did not last long, however. The Austrian official history points out that the Russians had no intention of giving up the bridgehead at Mikołajów easily and were bringing the fresh VI Corps from Warsaw into its vicinity. A few days later a dangerous Russian counter-offensive was launched from precisely here, which drove the South Army back across the Dniester.