Russians take Memel
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Eastern Front
- Date:
- 18 March 1915
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Tags:
- Russia, Germany, East Prussia
On the evening of 18 March 1915 Russian troops entered Memel (today Klaipėda), the northernmost town of the German Empire. The British chronology of the war says that the Russians took the town “again”, because under November 1914 it had recorded an earlier capture. The sources do not confirm that entry. The March raid was in fact the first and only time the Russians entered Memel during this war.
A raid from Courland
After the defeat in the Winter Battle of Masuria the Russian field army never returned to East Prussia. In the far north, where the province bordered on Courland, both sides held only weak second-line units. The Memel district was defended by the German Landsturm, according to Lithuanian studies about 800 men.
The advance began on 17 March, according to Lithuanian historians in the morning and in a snowstorm. On 18 March several Russian columns crossed the border simultaneously from the north and the east. According to a German communiqué they comprised seven militia (opolchenie) battalions with six to eight old guns, several squadrons of cavalry, two companies of marines, a battalion of the 270th Reserve Regiment and frontier guard units from Riga and Libau, in all between 6,000 and 10,000 men. Lithuanian studies state that the whole force was commanded by Major-General Potapov. The German Landsturm fell back from the border to Memel and then through the town onto the Curonian Spit.
The Russians in the town
The Russian troops entered Memel on the evening of 18 March and were quartered mainly in the barracks. The following evening the Russian commandant summoned the chief burgomaster to the town hall and took him hostage, and soon afterwards three other inhabitants. According to a German report of 25 March, groups of soldiers roamed the streets, arresting people, breaking into houses and looting food shops, watchmakers’ workshops and a jeweller’s. The report admitted that the commandant tried to restrain his soldiers and finally had them confined to barracks. The Russians, for their part, accused the inhabitants of firing on soldiers from windows and roofs.
The march itself caused greater damage. According to German figures, many buildings along the roads by which the Russian columns came were burned, and 15 villages were badly damaged. The Russians carried off many inhabitants deep into Russia, including women and children, and killed several. Lithuanian studies speak of a much larger number of civilian victims in the district as a whole, but exact figures are lacking.
The threat of reprisals
The German Supreme Army Command responded as early as its communiqué of 18 March. It announced that the towns of the occupied part of Russia would pay heavy contributions, and that for every village or estate burned on German soil three villages or estates would go up in flames in the Russian territories occupied by the Germans. Every fire in Memel was to be avenged by burning Russian government buildings in Suwałki and other occupied provincial capitals. The Germans admitted the capture of Memel itself in a communiqué only on 20 March. Meanwhile German reinforcements were already heading for the town, and Russian rule was to last only a few days.
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Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
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- 22 February 1915 · Eastern FrontEnd of the Second Battle of the Masurian LakesOn 22 February 1915 the Germans declared the winter battle in Masuria over. The Russian 10th Army left East Prussia, but most of its corps escaped.
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