Second siege of Przemyśl begins
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- Eastern Front
- Date:
- 10 November 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Battle:
- Second siege of Przemyśl
- Tags:
- Austria-Hungary, Russia, Galicia, Przemyśl
On 10 November 1914, according to the British chronology of the war, the second siege of the fortress of Przemyśl began. Barely a month after its relief, Russian troops once again surrounded the fortress on the San. The encirclement took several days, so dates in the literature differ. Polish studies usually begin the second siege on 5 November, and other sources on 8 or 9 November, when the ring closed completely.
The army leaves again
At the beginning of November the Central Powers’ counter-offensive in Galicia collapsed. After the defeat of the Germans and Austrians on the Vistula, the Austro-Hungarian armies broke off the Battle of Chyrów and the fighting on the San and began to retreat westwards and into the Carpathians. For the second time Przemyśl was left alone. The fortress was to tie down as many Russian forces as possible and bar their way through Galicia, as it had done in the autumn during the first siege.
This time it was less well prepared. In October masses of field troops had passed through Przemyśl and drawn on its depots, and the stocks could not be fully replenished, even though more than two hundred supply trains reached the fortress. On 4 November the authorities ordered civilians who had no food stocks and were not essential to leave the city. The evacuation was carried out in haste and many inhabitants remained in the city.
Who stayed in the fortress
According to Polish studies, the encirclement trapped some 131,000 soldiers of General Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten, more than 20,000 horses and about 2,000 Russian prisoners. Estimates of the number of civilians vary widely, from over 18,000 to 30,000. The garrison consisted mostly of older reservists from the many nations of the monarchy, and its strongest unit was the Hungarian 23rd Honvéd Infantry Division.
The fortress was surrounded by the Siege Army of General Andrei Selivanov, later renamed the 11th Army. It consisted mainly of reserve divisions and according to Polish estimates numbered about 100,000 men. Selivanov did not intend to repeat the bloody assault of October. He decided to cut the fortress off from supplies and starve it into surrender.
The first sorties
Kusmanek did not wait passively. As early as 14 and 20 November a dozen or so battalions of the garrison sallied from the fortress and attacked the Russian positions to the west of it, towards Bircza. These sorties could not break the blockade, but they forced the Russians to keep considerable forces at Przemyśl. No one in the fortress yet suspected that the siege would last more than four months and end in one of the greatest capitulations of this war.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 10 November 1914 · Western FrontBattle of the Yser endsOn 10 November 1914 the fall of Diksmuide ended the Battle of the Yser. Belgium kept a scrap of its land, held for four years behind a flooded plain.
- 11 November 1914 · Western FrontPrussian Guard attack at Nonne BosschenOn 11 November 1914 the Prussian Guard broke into the British line at Ypres. Gunners and an Oxfordshire counter-attack stopped the last great German attack.
- 9 November 1914 · DiplomacyAnglo-French prize conventionOn 9 November 1914 Britain and France signed a convention in London that settled whose courts would rule on ships seized by the warships of the two countries.
- 9 November 1914 · War at seaInternment of the gunboat Geier in HonoluluAt the beginning of November 1914 the Americans interned the German gunboat Geier and her accompanying collier Locksun in Honolulu.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 22 March 1915 · Eastern FrontFall of PrzemyślAt dawn on 22 March 1915 the Przemyśl garrison blew up its forts and bridges, then raised white flags. About 120,000 men went into Russian captivity.
- 9 October 1914 · Eastern FrontRelief of PrzemyślOn 9 October 1914 cavalry of General Boroević's Third Army reached Przemyśl. After a failed assault the Russians drew back from the fortress behind the San.
- 24 September 1914 · Eastern FrontFirst siege of Przemyśl beginsOn 24 September 1914 the Russian Third Army cut Przemyśl off from the Austro-Hungarian army. The first siege of one of the largest fortresses in Europe began.
- 15 November 1914 · Eastern FrontBattle of Kraków beginsIn mid-November 1914 the Russians neared the fortress of Kraków. On 16 November the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army sallied out and hit their Ninth Army's flank.