Battle of Gródek (1914)

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The Battle of Gródek was the beginning of the First World War on the Eastern Front in Galicia between Russian and Austro-Hungarian troops and ended on September 7, 1914, taking the 24 km southwest of Lemberg town of Gródek (Ukrainian Городок ; Russian Gorodok , Polish Gródek ) by the Russians.

prehistory

Map of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (1846–1918)

The city of Gródek had been under Austrian rule since 1772 as part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . In the initial phase of the First World War, the city, located directly on the Eastern Front , was a theater of war several times . The battles between the troops of the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary , later summarized under the term Battle in Galicia , began on August 23, 1914, with initial successes of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces. While the Austro-Hungarian 1st and 4th Armies defeated the Russian troops in the battles of Kraśnik (August 23 to 25) and Komarów (August 26 to September 3) , two Russian armies on the south-western front defeated the 3rd Army in the Battle of Gnila Lipa (August 29-30) .

Capture of Gródek

Emil Colerus von Geldern
Battle of the Wereszyka 1914

The Austro-Hungarian defeat in the Battle of the Gnila Lipa changed the situation on the Eastern Front permanently in favor of the Russians, who then switched to the offensive. On September 2, the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army had to give up Lemberg and retreat to a new line (Wereszyka - Jaworow - Gródeker Teiche) west of the lost capital of Galicia.

In the following phase of the Battle of Lemberg (September 6th to 11th) the Austro-Hungarian troops made an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recapture the lost territories around Lemberg, while Russian units intervened with the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army (Infantry General Svetozar Boroević ) Janow and Gródek pushed back on the Wereszyka behind (a northern tributary of the Dniester ). After bitter fighting, the Russians advancing westwards captured the city of Gródek itself on September 7, 1914.

A day later the kuk III tried . Corps ( 6th Infantry Troop Division , 22nd Landwehr Infantry Troop Division , 28th Infantry Troop Division ) under FML Emil Colerus von Geldern unsuccessful in regaining the city. The 6th ITD (FML. Yellow from Siegesstern ) advanced along the road and the 28th ITD (FML. Králíček ) along the railway line, while the 22nd LID was kept as a reserve. However, the attempt to penetrate the city in the afternoon failed. Around Gródek the troops of the Russian VII Army Corps (General der Infanterie Eck - 13th and 34th Divisions) were in prepared positions which had to be attacked from the front.

The forces deployed in the Gródek area included B. In addition to the infantry regiment No. 7 "Khevenhüller" (Colonel Otto Koschatzky) also the infantry regiment No. 27 "Belgians" (Colonel Karl von Weber) and his sister formation, the infantry regiment No. 47 "Beck-Rzikowsky" (Colonel Richard Mayer) who took part in the battle on September 8th and 9th, but could no longer change the situation.

aftermath

After the loss of the city of Gródek, the Austro-Hungarian troops withstood the subsequent attacks by the Russians between Gródek and Komarno until the general withdrawal on September 11th. After the attack by the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army on the central Wereszyka, initiated on September 8, collapsed by September 10 and the entire Austro-Hungarian front in Galicia was dissolved, the order to withdraw behind the San was issued on September 11 . With the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces from most of the crown land, the battle in Galicia ended with a defeat for the Habsburg monarchy. A total of 130,000 prisoners had been brought in by the Russian armed forces by September 11th, and they were also able to advance the course of the Eastern Front by around 160 km to the west to the San.

After the counter-offensive by the Central Powers (i.e. the German Empire and Austria-Hungary ) in the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów in early May 1915, the front ran along the Dniester and Wereszyka rivers in June 1915 . On June 17, 1915, a breakthrough offensive by the German army under Colonel General August von Mackensen began between Gródek and Magierów , which led to another battle at Gródek and prompted the Russian troops to retreat from this section of the front on June 20, thereby laying the foundations for the reconquest of Lemberg by the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army two days later.

reception

Georg Trakl (1887–1914)

The Austrian poet Georg Trakl processed his experiences during the Battle of Gródek in the poem Grodek . He experienced the fighting for the city at the beginning of September 1914 as a medical lieutenant in a field hospital that was later referred to in the press as one of the "death pits of Galicia". In doing so, he had to care for almost a hundred seriously wounded people under poor conditions on his own. He worked in the hospital for two days and two nights, which drove him into despair. He was finally admitted to a military hospital in Cracow to observe his mental state , where he succumbed to cardiac paralysis on November 3, 1914 in connection with an overdose of cocaine . Grodek is probably Trakl's last poem and was published in Der Brenner magazine shortly after his death .

According to the “ highest resolution ” of Emperor Franz Joseph of April 13, 1916, Stefan Weingraber, Lieutenant Colonel in the kuk Infantry Regiment No. 102 , was given an officer's privilege and in recognition of his military achievements in the battles for the city as “ Edler von Grodek” raised hereditary nobility.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lexicon of Expressionism , ISBN 2-85056-128-2
  2. ↑ Arno Kerschbaumer, Nobilitations under the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. / I. Ferenc József király (1914–1916) . Graz 2017, ISBN 978-3-9504153-2-2 , p. 70.