Russians take Zaleszczyki

The British chronology of the war states that on 12 June 1916, 30 May by the Julian calendar then used in Russia, Russian troops took Zaleszczyki. This small district town in eastern Galicia lies in a tight loop of the Dniester, on its left, northern bank. On the other bank Bukovina began. The Russians did not have to fight for the town. The Austro-Hungarian official history states that the garrison abandoned the bridgehead during the night of 10–11 June, but does not record the exact day the Russians entered. Everything was decided by the defeat suffered on 10 June by the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army a dozen or so kilometres away, on the southern bank of the river.

The bridgehead on the Dniester

From the beginning of the war Zaleszczyki had been an important crossing of the Dniester. In the first winter of the war it was held by the Russians, and in the spring of 1915 the troops of General Karl Pflanzer-Baltin vainly stormed their bridgehead. The town returned to Austrian hands only in June 1915, when the Russians were retreating from Galicia after the breakthrough at Gorlice. From then on the Austrians held a strongly fortified bridgehead here on the northern bank of the river. East of the town the Seventh Army’s front ran along the Dniester and then turned south, through northern Bukovina towards the Romanian border. In June 1916 the Zaleszczyki bridgehead was held by the 21st Rifle Division of General Hadfy’s group.

The commander of the Russian Ninth Army, General Platon Lechitsky, did not intend to attack the bridgehead. He judged the fortifications on the Dniester too strong. He directed his main blow south of the river, between the villages of Okna and Dobronouc. On 4 June, the first day of the Brusilov offensive, his XI Corps broke into the Austro-Hungarian trenches there and took thousands of prisoners. The Austrians halted this attack with reserves. On the evening of 5 June Pflanzer-Baltin withdrew to the southern bank some of the troops that had been north of the Dniester, but Hadfy’s group remained in Zaleszczyki.

The breakthrough at Okna

On 10 June Lechitsky renewed the attack. At about half past ten the Russians broke through the front of the 305th Honvéd Infantry Regiment at Okna, and by noon they were far in its rear. In the afternoon the rest of the Austro-Hungarian positions on the hills further south fell. The troops of General Benigni’s group fell back in disorder, and the roads were choked with supply trains. Pflanzer-Baltin had no reserves left and had to order the retreat of the whole wing. The Russians announced that their Ninth Army had taken more than 18,000 prisoners that day. In Russian literature the fighting from 4 June is called the Battle of Dobronouc.

After this defeat the Zaleszczyki bridgehead no longer made sense. It was in danger of being cut off, because the Russian forces had advanced far to the west, towards Horodenka. During the night of 10–11 June General Hadfy withdrew the 21st Rifle Division to the southern bank and positioned it about 5 kilometres south-west of the town. On 11 June the Seventh Army’s troops fell back further west, and during the night of 11–12 June they broke contact with the enemy. Russian cavalry followed them, and the Russian XXXIII Corps crossed the Dniester. In July the American monthly “Current History” listed Zaleszczyki, Horodenka and Okna among the places whose capture by the Russians preceded the fall of Czernowitz.

Significance

The loss of Zaleszczyki was one of many in those days. By mid-June Pflanzer-Baltin’s Seventh Army had lost, according to the Austrian official history, 133,600 men, more than half its strength. On the Strypa, north of the Dniester, the Russian Seventh Army was attacking at that time General Bothmer’s South Army. The Austrians feared that after the Russians entered Bukovina, Romania would join the war on the side of the Entente. Lechitsky, however, did not immediately go west. He first turned south, against the troops defending Czernowitz.

Zaleszczyki remained in Russian hands for more than a year, until the counter-offensive of the Central Powers in the summer of 1917. In reborn Poland it became a well-known resort on the Dniester.