1st Army (Russian Empire)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1st Army

Russian coa 1825.png

Coat of arms of the Imperial Russian Army
active 1914 to 1918
Country Russian Empire 1721Russian Empire Russian Empire
Armed forces Russian Empire 1721Russian Empire Imperial Russian Army
Type army
Butcher First World War
Skirmish at Stallupönen
Battle of Gumbinnen
Battle of Tannenberg
Battle of the Masurian Lakes
Battle for Łódź
Narew offensive

The 1st Army of the Russian Empire was an army that was deployed on the Eastern Front during the First World War .

history

1914

The 1st Army was mobilized in July 1914 after Russia entered World War I. From August 17 to September 14, 1914, the 1st Army, together with the 2nd Army and the 10th Army of the Imperial Russian Army, tried in vain to bring the German province of East Prussia under their control. In the early morning of August 17, 1914, the Russian 1st ( Nyemen ) Army began to advance westwards across the entire front width between Suwałki in the south and Schillehnen in the north. At the beginning of the war, the army had seven corps with around 13 infantry and 7 cavalry divisions :

The XXII followed in the second season . Army Corps ( 73rd and 76th Reserve Divisions ) and the III. Siberian Army Corps ( Sibir. 7th and 8th Inf Divisions ). These units served in early September for the formation of the Russian 10th Army .

The 1st Army penetrated a width of 40 kilometers between Wyschtyten and Schirwindt in East Prussia. In the center of the advance strip, in the section of the Russian III. and XX. Corps, were the positions of the German 1st Division . On the same day there was a battle near Stallupönen , where the German I. Army Corps was forced to retreat. On August 19, the Russians attacked again in several places in the battle of Gumbinnen , and the next morning a German counterattack followed. The attack by the 1st Army Corps was successful on the north wing. The right wing of the Russian 1st Army (XX Corps and parts of III) could be pushed back. In the middle section the German XVII. Army Corps, however, thrown back to its original position after initial success. In the southern sector there were only minor skirmishes between the Russian IV Corps and the German I. Reserve Corps .

Meanwhile, the Russian 2nd Army under General Alexander Samsonow was to break into southern East Prussia via the Narew . Both large associations operated spatially separated from each other and could hardly give each other support. General Rennkampff did not react until three days after the start of the German regrouping initiated on August 23 by resuming his own operations aimed at Konigsberg . After the surprising defeat of the 2nd Army in the Battle of Tannenberg , the 1st Army withdrew to defensive positions on the Insterburg - Gumbinnen line. The 1st Army received reinforcements through which it was increased to a total of 14 infantry and 5 cavalry divisions. The front command of the Russian Northwest Front under General Schilinski had a new army set up southeast of East Prussia - the 10th Army under General Pflug , in order to preserve the possibility of a new offensive into East Prussia.

The German 8th Army launched its main thrust on September 6th at the Masurian Strait . The German I. and XVII. Corps encompassed the Russian south wing in such a way that the Russian corps in the center (XX., II. And IV. Corps) had to gradually go back to the Angerapp by September 11th . Starting north of Angerburg , the attack of the German XX. Corps the entrance through the strait at Ogonken. The bulk of the Russian 1st Army was on the retreat across the Angerapp. In the evening of the day the new front line Tolmingkehmen - Goldap over Gaweiten to Szabienen- Darkehmen was taken. Rennkampff decided to generally withdraw from German territory. The Nyemen Army crossed the Russian border to the east on September 13. In mid-October, Army High Command 1 was transferred to the Narew Front, it received orders for new troops, intervened in the Battle of the Vistula and at the end of November in the Russian counter-offensive in the Battle of Lodz . From November 20, the Russian 1st Army advanced against the back and flank of the German troops fighting north of Łódź . The German I. Reserve Corps , which had been left behind at Płock to cover the rear of the 9th Army, was unable to stop the enemy troops at Łowicz. The XX. The army corps had to make a northward front on the Moszczenica near Stryków and withstand the Russian counter-attacks. The German encirclement operation against Łódź had thus failed, on November 22nd the cut off German XXV. Reserve Corps force its breakout to the north. The insufficient intervention of the 1st Army against the German formation breaking out via Brzeziny was interpreted by the Stawka as treason and cost General Rennenkampff his post at the beginning of December. After the abandonment of Łowicz , the 1st Army withdrew with the I., II., V. and VI. Siberian Corps back behind the Bzura in the direction of Warsaw, where the XXVII. Army Corps prepared the defense.

1915

In mid-February 1915, the new Commander-in-Chief, General of the Cavalry, Alexander Litvinov , was able to repel an attack by the German I. Reserve Corps in the Battle of Przasnysz . With ten and a half divisions, the 1st Army was numerically far superior to the German attacking troops:

In the Narew offensive , the reinforced German army group Gallwitz finally broke through the front of the 1st Army in July 1915, this success ushering in the great retreat of the entire Russian western front.

1916-1918

From 1916 to 1918, the 1st Army remained deployed on the Eastern Front , but the Army High Command moved to the Southwest Front in 1917. The southern wing of the 8th Army (XI., XXIII. And XVIII. Corps) in the Forest Carpathians joined the newly formed 1st Army under General Wannowski on July 23, 1917 .

Commanders

literature

  • Austria-Hungary's Last War 1914–1918 Volume I. The war year 1914 , Verlag der Militärwissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, Vienna 1930
  • Anton Wagner: The First World War , troop service paperback, Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1981

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Victories and Defeats of the Russian Army: 1914 , accessed on June 28, 2015 (English)
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv: The Liberation of East Prussia, ES Mittler und Sohn, Berlin 1925, card insert 2, 10 and 13