Start of the battle of Šiauliai

On the morning of 14 July 1915 General Otto von Below’s German Niemen Army went over to the attack in Courland and northern Lithuania. Its left wing crossed the Venta river north of Kuršėnai and struck at the Russian 5th Army of General Pavel Plehve. A British chronology of the war records on this day the start of the battle of Šiauliai. In Russian documents, kept according to the Julian calendar, the date is 1 July.

Since May the front in this sector had run along the Venta and the Dubysa, and Šiauliai, which the Germans had taken in April and abandoned in May, was once again in Russian hands. Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was now throwing his main forces at the Narew, where the day before a great offensive had begun by the army of General Max von Gallwitz. The Niemen Army was to pin down the Russians in the north and divert their attention. According to the German official history its attack had been planned for about 15 July, but at Hindenburg’s wish it was brought forward by a day to coincide with the attack on the Narew.

Below did not want to attack the strong Russian positions right in front of Šiauliai. He delivered his main blow further north, where the Russians held mainly cavalry and militia. Here the Northern Corps of General Otto von Lauenstein attacked with the 6th and 78th Reserve Divisions and the 41st Infantry Division, with three cavalry divisions to its left. After an artillery preparation the Germans crossed the Venta on a front about 30 kilometres wide, around Popielany and north of the railway line from Libau to Mitau. Sappers quickly put up bridges for the heavy artillery.

The Russian cavalry and militia units fell back almost without a fight. In the centre and on the left wing the Germans advanced on the first day by as much as 15 kilometres in places. Airmen reported fires and columns of refugees in the north, which strengthened the German command’s conviction that the Russians intended to abandon western Courland. Progress was slower on the right wing of the Northern Corps, where the 6th Reserve Division met stronger resistance. The German communiqué of the following day spoke of “minor engagements on the Venta below Kuršėnai” and 425 prisoners.

Plehve, whose army was stretched over several hundred kilometres from the Niemen to the Baltic, at first wanted to strike the Germans in the flank, but did not manage to gather the forces for it. In the following days the Niemen Army occupied western Courland and then swung round into the rear of the Russian corps at Šiauliai. The town fell on 21 July, although the main forces of the 5th Army escaped encirclement.