3rd Army (Russian Empire)

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3rd 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
Battle of Lviv
Battle of the Gnila Lipa
Battle of Limanowa-Lapanow
Siege of Przemyśl
Battle of Gorlice-Tarnów

The 3rd Army of the Russian Army was used during the First World War. The army was formed from the end of July 1914 after the entry of the Russian Empire into the First World War and disbanded in early 1918.

history

At the beginning of the war in August 1914, the 3rd Army marched as part of the Southwest Front (General Nikolaj Ivanov ) via Rowno towards the border of the Austro-Hungarian crown land of Galicia . In the Battle of Zloczow and on the Zlota Lipa in the course of the Battle of Galicia , the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army was thrown back on the line Kamionka-Strumilowa- Gliniany-Przemyslany-Brzuchowice in a frontal battle on Lemberg .

Standing on the north wing

  • XXI. Corps (Gen. of Inf. Schkinski ) - 33rd and 44th divisions
  • XI. Corps (Gen. der Kav. Sakharov ) - 11th and 32nd divisions
  • 3rd Cavalry Corps Keller - 9th and 10th Cavalry Divisions

On the south wing

  • IX. Corps (Gen. of Inf. Shcherbachev ) - 5th and 42nd Divisions
  • X. Corps (Gen. of Cav. Sievers ) - 9th and 31st Divisions, 60th Reserve Division

1914

General Nikolai Russky

The first phase of the Battle of Lemberg was initiated on August 26th, 1914 by the attack of the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army near Zloczow . On August 27th and 28th the kuk III. Corps badly beaten in fighting at Gologory and Przemyslany and pushed back to the west. After the victory at Gnila Lipa , Russki's army broke through on August 30th with over 100,000 men (XI., IX. And X. Corps) from the Zloczow area via Gliniawa west to the capital of Galicia. The outcome of the fighting forced the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army to evacuate Lemberg on September 2nd .

From September 8, the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Army , which was newly intervening in the south, tried in vain to stop the Russian 8th Army advancing south of Lemberg on the Wereszyca by means of a desperate counterattack . In the Battle of Grodek , the counterattack by the Imperial and Royal Third Army failed . To the north of it, the regrouped Austro-Hungarian 4th Army from the area north of Rawa Ruska tried to march the Russian XVII. and XXI. Corps to come into the flank from the northeast. The swinging in of the Russian XXI. Corps via Uhnow pushed the kuk XIV. Corps on the XVII. Standing in front of Rawa Ruska. Corps back. The Russian XI. Corps attacked successfully from the east in the battle of Rawa Ruska . The Russian IX. Corps ran at the resistance of the kuk VI. Corps at Magierow. Subsequently to the south the Russian X. Corps went against the Imperial and Royal IX at Wiszenka. Corps before. The Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army collapsed completely. The Russian troops pursued the Austro-Hungarian troops as far as the San , where another Austrian counterattack was repulsed in mid-October. Shortly before that, on September 24th, the 3rd Army had initiated the first siege of the Przemysl fortress with three reserve corps that had followed , which was later transferred to the independent army group Selivanov .

The commander-in-chief of the Russian Southwest Front, General Ivanov, ordered the 3rd Army (now under General Dimitriew) to continue the advance on Cracow in mid-November 1914 . A breakthrough of the Carpathian front into the Hungarian lowlands on Budapest could have brought about the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The kuk XI. Corps ( Stephan von Ljubičić ) had to face Tarnow on both sides before the Russian XI and IX. Army corps to go back over the Dunajec to the west on the line Bochnia - Neusandez . The VI., XVII. and XIV. Corps of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army was in the Battle of Cracow by the Russian X. and XXI. Army corps pushed back via the Wieliczka to the Wieclawice (Roth corps) -Koscielniki (Kritek corps) - Niepołomice - Dobczyce ( Ljubičić corps ) line by November 25th .

At the beginning of December 1914, the seams between the Russian 3rd Army and the 8th Army under General Brusilov were in the Neu-Sandez area . On both sides of Łapanów there was a front line thirty kilometers wide, which was led by the Russian IX. Corps was only weakly secured. The Austrian army leader Joseph Ferdinand succeeded in bringing the Austro-Hungarian XIV Corps to the weak point on the opposing front without being noticed.

  • XI. Corps General Vladimir Sakharov (11th and 32nd Divisions)
  • IX. Corps General Dmitri Cherbachev (5th and 42nd Divisions)
  • X. Corps General Zerpitzki (9th and 31st Divisions)
  • XXI. Corps General Shkinski (33rd and 44th Divisions)

The counterattack by the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army in the battle of Limanowa-Lapanow pushed the Russian 3rd Army back about sixty kilometers to the northeast. However, the Russians were able to quickly add reserves and consolidate the front again within a week, the front stabilized again on the Dunajec section for trench warfare .

1915

General Leonid Lesch

In early May 1915, the section of the Russian 3rd Army was attacked by the German 11th Army under August von Mackensen in the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow . Between the Russian IX. The front was breached, the northern wing of the 3rd Army was thrown back on Jaroslau , the southern wing (XXIX. including XXIV. AK of the 8th Army ) was pushed onto the Carpathians and there by the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and 2nd Army Corps Army circled. In the further course the river San was reached, the threat to the rear lines of the 8th Army forced the Russian south-western front to evacuate their positions in the Lupkow and Ushok Pass area . On June 19, the Germans encountered a new Russian line of defense in front of Grodek , which General Mackensen immediately stormed. The front was broken through again and Lviv was recaptured on June 22nd.

During the Battle of Krasnostaw (July 2nd to 5th, 1915), the 3rd Army, now led by General Lesch, was able to withstand the attack by the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army and the German 11th Army until the Second Siberian Army Corps left the front was pulled out. After renewed defensive battles between Lublin and Chełm (July 9th to 19th), the 3rd Army was finally withdrawn across the Bug on the orders of General Michail Alexejew . In the following Bug Offensive , the army on the western bank of the Bug was pushed back north to Wlodawa . The fall of the Brest-Litovsk fortress on August 25, 1915 forced the Russian XXXI. Army Corps to retreat to Pinsk by mid-September , which was released on September 16 by the German XXXXI. Reserve Corps was occupied. In mid-August 1915, the 3rd Army on the Western Front was placed under General Ewert . Beginning in October 1915 was the 3rd Army in the Polesie , the Styr and the Oginski Canal back in the trench warfare over.

1916

The 3rd Army held the section across the operationally inaccessible Pripyat area and mainly conducted trench warfare . At the end of May 1916, General Lesch carried out a counterattack on the orders of the Stawka: the Grenadier Corps under General Parski attacked the positions of the German Landwehr Corps via the Szczara section, without success . On June 11, during the Brusilov offensive , the army was temporarily reassigned to the south-western front in order to support the 8th Army from the north in the attack towards Kovel . On June 22, 1916, the XLVI reached. Army Corps and the IV Cavalry Corps against the Austro-Hungarian Corps Group Hauer first successes on the Oginski Canal and a breakthrough at the front between Galuzia and Wolczek on Maniewicze.

Outline on July 3, 1916

  • XXXI. Army Corps (75th and 83rd Infantry Divisions)
  • Combined Corps Bulatov (27th and 78th Infantry Divisions)
  • XLVI. Army Corps (77th and 100th Infantry Divisions)
  • IV Cavalry Corps (3rd and 16th Cavalry Division, 3rd Caucasian Cossack Division, 5th Don Cossack Division)
  • Volodschenko Cossack Cavalry Corps (2nd Combined Cossack Division, 1st Kuban Cossack Division, 1st Transbaikal Cossack Division)

Between July 4th and 15th, after reinforcement by the Combined Corps of General Bulatov, the Styr noose at Czartorijsk was torn from the Austro-Hungarian Corps Group and, in cooperation with the 8th Army, the entire Stochod sector was reached. At the end of July the 3rd Army was relocated to the Western Front. On the northern wing of the army, the Russian Xth Army Corps had meanwhile supported the 4th Army in the Baranovichi offensive . On the southern wing, the Particular Army under General Gurko was established to launch new attacks on Kovel.

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: a look back. Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1981. (Troop service paperbacks, volume 7)

Individual evidence

  1. Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918. Volume I, p. 242 f.
  2. Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918. Volume I, p. 283.
  3. Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918. Volume I, p. 383 f.
  4. Austria-Hungary's last war 1914–1918. Volume I, p. 553.
  5. Austria-Hungary's Last War, Volume IV. Map supplement 18