Narew offensive

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Narew offensive
General sketch of the Narew front
General sketch of the Narew front
date July 13, 1915 to August 24, 1915
place Przasnysz
output Operative front breakthrough by the Germans
Parties to the conflict

German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire

Russian Empire 1914Russian Empire Russia

Commander

Max von Gallwitz
Günther von Pannewitz
Otto von Plüskow
Theodor von Watter

Mikhail Alexejew
Alexander Litvinov
Pawel von Plehwe

Troop strength
Army group Gallwitz
12 divisions
about 800 guns 		1st Army
10.5 divisions
about 500 guns
Major military operations on the
Eastern Front (1914-1918)

The Narew offensive from July 13th to August 24th 1915 was a German offensive during the First World War on the Eastern Front , which was led from the southern apron of East Prussia against the Russian fortress line Lomscha -Pultusk- Ostrolenka . The strategic goal of the operation was to counter the bow offensive led north from Galicia in the direction of Siedlce and to force the Russian army standing in between to retreat from the great promontory in Poland. Three divisions of the German 9th Army and heavy artillery that were to be surrendered strengthened the Gallwitz Army Group , which was scheduled to break through, in the offensive also known as the breakthrough battle of Przasnysz . The German breakthrough was enforced by July 14, and the Narew section had been reached across the board by July 22. As a result of the danger of being cut off, the Russian armies in Poland had to be hurriedly withdrawn to the east. Then the Germans crossed the Narew between Różan and Pułtusk and were able to push the Russian forces further east in early August 1915. The Polish capital Warsaw and the fortress Nowogeorgiewsk fell into the hands of the German 9th Army.

prehistory

General of the Artillery Max von Gallwitz

On February 24th, the German I. Reserve Corps stormed the city of Przasnysz for a short time during the First Battle of Przasnysz , taking around 10,000 prisoners. However, the city was surrendered three days later by a Russian counterattack. Since then, the Russians have tried a lot to prevent such occurrences from occurring in the future. The favorable course of the breakthrough battles of Gorlice-Tarnów and Grodek (May and June 1915) had brought western Galicia back to the Central Powers , but this success could only be achieved by considerably weakening the allied troops. The Bug Offensive launched at the end of June by the southern Army Groups Woyrsch and Mackensen was led north from Northern Galicia and advanced along the Bug towards Brest-Litovsk. Stronger Russian resistance between Bug and Vistula caused the Central Powers' Bug Offensive to slowly stall, and new Russian entrenchments were already offering tough resistance. The cooperation of the Northern Hindenburg Army Group from East Prussia and the Southern Army Group Mackensen opened up the possibility of rolling up the entire Russian Western Front in Poland.

On July 2, 1915, a meeting of the Supreme Army Command took place in Posen , in which the German Kaiser took part. The Commander-in-Chief , Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and his Chief of the General Staff , Lieutenant General Ludendorff , pleaded for action between Grodno and Wilna . Wilhelm II , however, granted the request of the Chief of Staff von Falkenhayn , who wanted to start a strong counter-attack across the Narew to the south in order to counter the advance of the Bug Army from the north.

The Russian Defense

The Stawka calculated according to their own defensive success in Przasnysz from February 1915 not with a German attack and relied on the well-fortified positions. In contrast to the Germans, the Russian army suffered from a considerable shortage of ammunition, the attitude of the Polish civilian population was not pro-German, but tended to shake off the Russian yoke and achieve the old national independence.

General Alexejew , the new chief of the Northwest Front, recognized the danger of the threatening severance of the Western Front ( 2nd , 4th and 5th Armies ) in the Polish front in good time and tried to strengthen the Narew Line. During the first months of the war, the Russians tried in a feverish hurry to reinforce the 70-kilometer Narew-Bobr line between Łomża and Grodno. The middle Narew front was difficult to attack from the outset because of its wide swamps. The Osowiec fortress there secured the only usable river crossing and the railway line from Lyck to Białystok . Osowiec am Bobr received an advanced line of defense on both banks, and the garrison of Łomża was reinforced on the right bank of the Narew . The bridgehead of the Rozan fortress was built on the same bank, in Pułtusk the northern bridgehead was strengthened. Extensive locking positions connected the front main battle line with a less deep, but also strong, fortification system about 15 kilometers behind it, which ran from Wyszogród on the Vistula via Płońsk - Ciechanów -Krasnosielsk to Ostrołęka . The front between the upper Vistula and the upper Bug was almost unpaved, but the terrain there offered the Russian Army Command some advantages in terms of defense. The central front on the Vistula between Novogeorgiewsk- Ivangorod was naturally sufficiently protected by the river, which was up to a kilometer wide.

The Russian 1st Army under General Litvinov , which was in the main attack area, had a total of four corps, 99 battalions with 106,950 soldiers. With only ten and a half divisions in the main attack section, it was outnumbered by the German attack troops.

German deployment

The offensive to the Narew was assigned to the von Gallwitz army group, which had to attack Przasnysz for the second time this year. General der Artillerie Max von Gallwitz received the order to penetrate the Russian front on the lower Narew by proceeding on both sides of Przasnysz and to achieve the strategic breakthrough of the front line. Hindenburg ordered the German 9th Army under Prince Leopold of Bavaria to surrender three divisions and soon afterwards a fourth division. The remaining 3rd Division was added to the Gallwitz Army Group via Willenberg . The German 8th Army (General von Scholtz ), on the left wing of Army Group Gallwitz, had to create its own strike group out of its own weak formations and take part in the attack. The right wing of the 8th Army , standing between Szkwa and Pissa , had to support the main attack. The right wing of the army of General von Scholtz's Artillery had to hold the positions, as did the 10th Army under General von Eichhorn who followed on the right and their lines to the Memel in the area west of Kovno . An attack on Novo-Georgiewsk and the continuation of the offensive on Siedlce was the strategic goal of the operation.

As in February 1915, the Gallwitz Army Group, which was reinforced to twelve divisions, began its main attack on both sides of Przasnysz between Grudusk and the Orzyc sector. By July 14th, the army group's high command also promised to bring the 50th Reserve Division via Mława . General Gallwitz had a total of 5 corps with 164 battalions (about 177,000 men).

Breakthrough Battle of Przasnysz July 13th and 14th

Battle sketch for the breakthrough battle of Przasnysz

The Gallwitz Army Group, which held the front between the Vistula and Szkwa, began its offensive on July 13 on both sides of Przasnysz. Field Marshal von Hindenburg had arrived at the headquarters of the army group in Willenberg during the day . General von Gallwitz and his Chief of the General Staff, Colonel Marquard , had gone to Dzierzgowo to watch the attack. General Gallwitz gave the two corps of the right wing free to postpone the storm by an hour. Only one corps made use of it, so the uniformity of the attack by these neighboring corps was disturbed from the start. On the 29 km long attack front between the Lydynia and the Orzyc , 3 corps with 7 divisions supported by 123 batteries (34 of them heavy) were deployed, in the second meeting and behind the wings two and a half further divisions were deployed. An attack division accounted for an average of four kilometers at the front. The right wing of the 8th Army, standing between Szkwa and Pissa, had to support the main attack immediately. At around 4.45 a.m., the German artillery opened fire on enemy positions with 800 guns, and the area between the Mława-Warsaw railway and the Orzyc was painted. The 2nd and 11th Siberian Divisions immediately suffered heavy losses. About a third of the crew fell or were buried alive in their dugouts. The highest concentration of the artillery strike occurred around 5.15 am against the place Osówka, which was completely destroyed. For the holding down of the opposing artillery positions against the XVII. Reserve Corps at Lysakowo and opposite the right wing of the I. Army Corps (Eben group) General Gallwitz had allowed his own fire to continue as a precaution. In the XI. and XVII. The attack group formed by the Army Corps had to place the Plüskow group on the Grudusk-Pavlovo-Koscielne line to the south, while the Pannewitz group started the main attack on the Zberoz-Höhe 154 line northeast of Olszewiec. The infantry fight began at 9.45 a.m., the attack by the 4th Guard Reserve Division (General von Schweinitz ) threw the 2nd Siberian Division back. To the north of Przasnysz, from the heights northeast of Olszewiec to Szlachecki, the enemy was firmly held by the left wing of Pannewitz's corps, which was initially defensive. Meanwhile the XIII. Corps through Jednorozec to the south, the left flank was covered by the 2nd Division under General von Falk . Parts of the 3rd Division of the Watter group penetrated Ogledzie and pushed the Russian troops back to Bartniki. General Watter had decided to straighten the front northeast of Przasnysz in order to strengthen the attack on his left wing, with the intention of reaching Drazdzewo and Lipa. In the vicinity of Obórek, the Russian defense was overrun by the 3rd Division and pushed back to the village of Lipa. On the right wing the XI. Army Corps at Grudusk in the first attempt in the front Russian position. The villages of Lipa and Karolev, attacked from three sides, fell. On the first day the strong first position of the Russians on both sides of Przasnysz was successfully broken. On the right wing of the Army Group reached the 38th Division against Grudusk , which Wernitz Division went north to the height positions of Kosmowo before and stormed the villages line Pavlovo and Kosmowo where 11 Siberian Division defended by General Zorakowski.

On July 14th, the city of Przasnysz fell into German hands, and it wasn't until July 15th that the heavily fortified second position of the Russians wavered here after a difficult struggle. The strategic breakthrough to the Narew was forced.

Battle of the Narew 18th to the end of July

Breakthrough battles on the Eastern Front in 1915

General von Gallwitz ordered the further advance to force the Narew crossings. The Narew crossing could be reached on the Pultusk-Rozan line, while on the extreme right wing of the army, the Dickhuth corps and the XVII. Reserve Corps opened up on the northwest front of the fortress triangle of Warsaw, and in the east the I. Army Corps covered the left flank of the army group against Ostrolenka. Task of the XI. and XVII. Army Corps was to attack Pultusk from the north and west. The XIII. Corps should take action against the fortress Rozan. On July 20 the 26th Division reached the positions on both sides of the Pultusker Strasse, on July 22nd a piece of the northern front was torn up by the 4th Guards Division and the town of Miluny was stormed. On July 23, the 3rd Division attacked the strong position of Podboro, and the Russians vacated the bridgehead there prematurely. The 26th Division was to cross the Narew between Rozan and Dzbondy, the 3rd Division at Rozan, and the 4th Guard Division at Dyszobaba. Further attempts to cross the river directly were no longer successful due to the increasing Russian resistance on July 24th.

By July 26, ten German divisions were ready to attack and advance east of the Narew and across the Bug. Since the Eben group (IAK) did not advance near Kamionka, it was reinforced by the 54th Division brought up from the western front . However, the Russians had already gathered significant forces in order to gain the necessary time for their own disengagement maneuvers. At least five Russian army corps marched on July 26th, from Serock to east of Rozan a counterattack was planned for 60 kilometers. The intervention of the Russian 12th Army with the XXI. Army corps on the eastern sector at Rozan increased this thrust considerably. Despite the successful defense on the part of the Germans, the resistance of the Russian 1st Army was still sufficient enough to stop the German advance at any time. The following days forced the Gallwitz army to an increasingly tough struggle, which was finally decided at the end of the month for the German attack formations. When the fortress Ostrolenka, which had been vacated by the Russians, was taken on August 3, the Gallwitz Army Group and the southern wing of the 8th Army were able to expand on the eastern bank of the Narew from Novogrod to south of Pultusk.

End of the offensive

At the beginning of August, the German Nyemen Army under General Otto von Below also took up the advance towards the lower Daugava. In front of the Kovno fortress, the German 10th Army began fighting for the outer fortification line with the Litzmann group . The 8th Army Scholtz took Łomża on August 10th at daybreak and advanced with the Gallwitz Army over the heights of Czerwony Bor eastwards. The Gallwitz Army Group (now 12th Army ) had reached the Malkin Gorna-Zambrowo line. In the 9th Army General von Beseler , the commanding general of III. Reserve Corps won the outer forts of Novogeorgiewsk on the lower reaches of the Narew on August 7th . The army of Prince Leopold of Bavaria had occupied Warsaw on August 5th and the eastern suburb of Praga on the night of August 8th . The Army Department Woyrsch had crossed the Vistula and stood before Łuków . Between the upper Vistula and the Bug, the Russians had evacuated the Opalin-Ivangorod line and receded. At the end of August, during the Great Retreat, the entire Russian western front returned to the Belarusian western border almost without a fight, almost all Polish territories were lost to the tsarist empire.

literature

  • Reichsarchiv (Ed.): The World War 1914–1918 Volume VIII The operations of 1915 - The events in the west in spring and summer, in the east from spring to the end of the year, Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1932.
  • Reichsarchiv (ed.): The conquest of Nowo-Georgiewsk, Stalling-Verlag, Oldenburg 1926 (= battles of the world war, vol. 8).
  • Max Schwarte: The German Land War, Verlag de Gruyter, Leipzig 1933

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-18 Volume VIII The operations of 1915, ESMittler and Son, Berlin 1932, p. 273.
  2. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-18 Volume VIII The operations of 1915, ESMittler and Son, Berlin 1932, p. 268 f.
  3. ^ Reichsarchiv: The World War 1914-18 Volume VIII The operations of 1915, ESMittler and Son, Berlin 1932, p. 284 f.