Germans take Różan and Pułtusk

On 24 July 1915 a German war communiqué announced that the army of General Max von Gallwitz had “in a fierce, irresistible assault” captured the fortresses of Różan (PL) and Pułtusk on the Narew and forced a crossing of the river between them. The reality was less spectacular, but just as dangerous for the Russians. After several days of heavy fighting for the outer lines of both bridgeheads, the Russian 1st Army abandoned them during the night of 23–24 July and withdrew to the left bank of the Narew, burning the bridges behind it. In the morning the Germans entered both towns, and their divisions were already on the other side of the river.

On the Narew

After breaking through the Russian front at Przasnysz the Germans crossed successive Russian positions within a few days and on 18–19 July reached the Narew. The Russians fell back to the bridgeheads at Pułtusk and Różan and behind the river itself. The summer was dry, the Narew could be forded in many places, and the marshy meadows in the valley had dried out. Without taking Pułtusk or Różan, through which good roads ran, a crossing would nevertheless not give the Germans much.

Gallwitz decided to take both bridgeheads. Pułtusk was to be attacked from the north and west by General Otto von Plüskow’s group, Różan by XIII Corps with three divisions, while XVII Corps was to cross the river between the towns. The heavy artillery was hauled along sandy roads from Przasnysz, and the guns of the heaviest calibres from railway stations in East Prussia. On 20 July, as the Germans were preparing the assault, the Russians unexpectedly counter-attacked between Różan and Pułtusk. The attack was repulsed, but Gallwitz had to regroup his troops and postpone the assault by two or three days.

Różan

The Różan bridgehead had an inner ring of modern forts, built at the beginning of the 20th century, and an outer line of trenches, divided into sectors by switch lines. According to Russian studies it was defended by about one and a half divisions of XXI Corps against three German divisions. The Germans took the sectors one after another, each time concentrating all their artillery on them. On 20 July they took hill 132 on the southern edge of the bridgehead, on 22 July the 4th Guard Division stormed the fortifications and the village of Miłony, and on 23 July the 3rd Infantry Division took the fortifications in the woods in the north-eastern part of the bridgehead. By the morning of 24 July the whole outer line was in German hands.

There was no assault on the forts. The Russians did not wait for it and withdrew to the other bank during the night, setting fire to the bridge and, according to Polish studies, to the town as well. The forts themselves were not taken in battle. The Germans entered Różan early in the morning of 24 July, but the crossing of the river in this sector went badly for them. Units of the 3rd Division began crossing by the captured bridge only towards evening, and the 26th Division suffered heavy losses trying to cross at Dzbądz and had to look for a crossing further downstream. During the night of 23–24 July, upstream of Różan, at Kamionka, soldiers of the German 2nd Division forded the Narew under the fire of Russian machine guns and seized a small bridgehead on the other bank.

Pułtusk

The Pułtusk bridgehead consisted of an inner line of trenches with several old forts, on the hills where in December 1806 the battle between Napoleon’s troops and the Russians had been fought, and of an extensive outer belt of trenches in the woods and on the sandy hills north and west of the town. On the morning of 23 July, after five hours of bombardment, German reserve divisions, supported by Landwehr and replacement units, went into the assault. By noon they had taken the outer trenches north of the Pełta stream, suffering enormous losses in some battalions. After the defence was broken at Wojty-Trojany, the Russians fell back to the inner line in the evening. At the same time the 1st Guard Reserve Division was crossing the Narew at several points above the town, and XVII Corps between Pułtusk and Różan.

The threat of encirclement sealed the fate of the bridgehead. According to Russian studies, at about 10 p.m. General Alexander Litvinov ordered the 1st Army to withdraw behind the Narew and destroy the bridges. The Russians abandoned the inner line and the town during the night, and by 7 a.m. on 24 July had occupied a new position on the left bank. At dawn the German sappers who were to cut the wire in front of the forts instead set about repairing the broken bridge. By the evening of 24 July the Germans already had several bridges on the left bank and a wide bridgehead from Pułtusk to the area of Różan. According to a German communiqué, since 14 July the troops fighting between the Niemen and the Vistula had taken about 41,000 prisoners.

Retreat from Warsaw

The loss of the Narew line opened the way for the Germans south, towards the Bug and Siedlce, into the rear of the Russian armies defending Warsaw. The commander-in-chief of the North-Western Front, General Mikhail Alekseyev, already had permission to evacuate Warsaw. On 24 July he issued a preliminary directive for a general retreat of the 12th, 1st, 2nd and 4th Armies to the line Łomża–Ostrów–Węgrów–Siedlce. The 1st Army was to hold the Germans on the Narew at all costs, so that the 2nd Army could withdraw undisturbed from beyond the Vistula. Litvinov therefore prepared a counter-attack. Russian documents date these events by the Julian calendar to 10 and 11 July.