Second Battle of Przasnysz begins

On the morning of 13 July 1915 General Max von Gallwitz’s German army group attacked the positions of the Russian First Army on both sides of Przasnysz. It was the main blow of the offensive that the Central Powers launched that day on the northern part of the Eastern Front. Five months earlier the Germans had already taken Przasnysz, but after three days they lost it to a Russian counter-offensive, in the First Battle of Przasnysz. Since then the front in northern Mazovia had stood still, and the Russians had built several lines of trenches here.

The fire of several hundred guns

The Germans prepared the attack carefully. On a sector about 30 kilometres long, between Grudusk and the Orzyc river, they concentrated three corps with seven divisions and about 800 guns with a large stock of ammunition. The Russians had several times less artillery here and suffered from a shortage of shells. During the night the German infantry moved up to about a kilometre from the Russian trenches. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg came to Gallwitz’s headquarters at Willenberg, and Gallwitz himself went to an observation post at Dzierzgowo.

At dawn, at about five o’clock, the artillery opened fire. The bombardment lasted several hours and ended with salvoes of mortars. Heavy shells smashed the shelters, burying the soldiers hidden in them, and the village of Osówka was completely destroyed. According to Russian accounts the 2nd and 11th Siberian Rifle Divisions lost up to a third of their men in the bombardment alone. Torrential rain delayed the infantry attack, which went forward only at about ten o’clock, while the artillery lifted its fire into the depth of the position ahead of the attackers.

The breakthrough

By noon the Germans had taken Grudusk and the whole of the first Russian defence line, and by evening also a large part of the second. According to various sources they penetrated the enemy’s dispositions to a depth of between a few and ten kilometres. XIII Corps got furthest, forcing the 2nd Siberian Rifle Division to retreat towards Krasnosielc. According to Russian figures about 5,400 soldiers were taken prisoner that day.

The commander of the First Army, General Alexander Litvinov, had no reserves with which to close the breach. During the night of 13–14 July his troops began to withdraw to a rear position, and the next day the Germans entered Przasnysz. Over the following days the Russians fell back, fighting, towards the fortified bridgeheads on the Narew.