Battle of Galicia

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict = Battle of Galicia
partof = the Eastern Front during World War I


caption = Eastern Front, September 1914.
date = 26 August – 11 September, 1914
place = Lemberg, Galicia (modern-day Ukraine)
result = Russian victory
combatant1 = flag|Russian Empire|size=25px
combatant2 = flag|Austria-Hungary|naval|size=25px
commander1 = Nikolai Ivanov
commander2 = Conrad von Hötzendorf
strength1 = 1,200,000
strength2 = 1,000,000
casualties1 = 255,000
casualties2 = 300,000 casualties, 130,000 POW

The Battle of Galicia was a major battle between Russia and Austria-Hungary during the early stages of World War I in 1914 in which the Russians captured the Lemberg.

Background

With the Russians defeated in East Prussia, Austro-Hungarian commander Conrad von Hötzendorf decided to launch an offensive into Galicia before Russian numerical advantage became too great. Nikolai Ivanov, the Russian commander of the Southwest Front, was expecting an Austro-Hungarian offensive near the fortress of Lemberg. He brought up two Russian armies from the south and two more armies would strike from the north.

Battle

The Austro-Hungarian 1st Army under Viktor Dankl was moving in the north towards Lublin. Dankl struck and drove back Baron Salza's Russian Fourth Army in what would be known as the Battle of Krasnik. To the right of Dankl the Austrian Fourth Army drove back the Russian Fifth Army under Pavel Plehve in the Battle of Komarów.

As the Russians were being driven back along the northern front the Austrian Army Group Kovess made a simultaneous advance against Ivanov's left wing. Along the southern front Ivanov had the Russian Third Army under Nikolai Ruzsky and the Russian Eighth Army under the capable Aleksei Brusilov. Brusilov and Ruszky routed the Austro-Hungarians so thoroughly that even though poor roads necessitated that the Russians halt for two days, the Austrians could not regroup to halt the Russian drive. This attack became known as the Battle of Gnila Lipa.

With the entire Kovess Group in full retreat, Conrad pulled forces away from northern front which he believed had been sufficiently defeated. In fact the Russians north of Lemberg were still a potential threat. Ivanov ordered Plehve's Fifth Army to attack and drove the Austrians back as they began to shift forces to the south in an engagement known as the Battle of Rava Ruska. The Austrian Second Army was quickly recalled from Serbia but it was too late and the entire Austrian front collapsed in Galicia and the Russians took control of Lemberg.

Results

As the Austrians retreated many Slavic soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Army simply surrendered and some even offered to fight for the Russians. A total of some 130,000 prisoners were taken by the Russians by the time the battle subsided on September 11, while they inflicted 300,000 casualties. The Russians had pushed the front 100 miles into the Carpathian Mountains, completely surrounded Austrian fortress of Przemyśl and started a Siege of Przemyśl which lasted for over a hundred days. The battle decimated the Austro-Hungarian Army, destroyed a large portion of its trained officers, and crippled Austria. Though the Russians had been utterly crushed at the Battle of Tannenberg, their victory at Lemberg prevented that defeat from fully taking its toll on Russian public opinion.

Order of battle

Russians

* Russian South-Western front. Commander-in-chief – Nikolai Ivanov, Chief of Staff – Mikhail Alekseyev
** 4th army. Commander — Anton von Saltza (replaced by Alexei Evert).
*** Grenadiers corps
*** XIV corps
*** XVI corps
** 5th army. Commander — Pavel Plehve
*** V corps
*** XVII corps
*** XIX corps
*** XXV corps
** 3rd army. Commander — Nikolai Ruzsky
*** IX corps
*** X corps
*** XI corps
*** XXI corps
** 8th army. Commander — Aleksei Brusilov
*** VII corps
*** VIII corps
*** XII corps
*** XXIV corps

Austro-Hungarians

* Kummer's group
* 1st army. Commander — Viktor Dankl
* 4th army. Commander — Moritz von Auffenberg
* 3rd army. Commander — Rudolf Brudermann
* Kövess group

Sources

* Tuchman, Barbara, "The Guns of August" (1962)
* Tucker, Spencer, "The Great War: 1914-18" (1998)
* [http://www.consimgames.com/docs/Golovin%20Battle%20of%20Galacia%20article.pdf Nikolai Golovin. Great battle for Galicia]