_A semi-official dispatch by the Wolff Telegraphic Bureau dated
Berlin, June 6, said:_
From the Great Headquarters we have received the following telegram
concerning the fall of the fortress Przemysl:
When on the 2d of May the offensive of the allies in West Galicia
began, few probably could have imagined that four weeks later the
heavy guns of the Central Powers would open their fire on Przemysl.
The Russian staff was not likely to have been prepared for this
possibility. Its decision swayed this way and that, whether, as
originally planned, to hold the fortress, for "political reasons" or
"voluntarily to withdraw" from it. Constantly our airmen reported the
marching of troops in and out of the fortress. On the 21st of May the
decision seemed to have been reached to abandon it. In spite of this,
eight days later the place was stubbornly defended.
[Illustration: Eight German military positions about Przemysl and
Lemberg.]
General von Kneussl pushed the line of his Bavarian regiments from the
north closer to the fortress to shut in the foe. About eleven o'clock
in the forenoon the heavy batteries began to engage the forts on the
north front. In the night from the 30th to the 31st of May the
infantry pushed forward closer to the wire entanglements. It awaited
the effect of the heavy artillery. This confined the defenders to
their bomb-proof shelters, so that our infantry could step out of its
trenches and from the top of the breastworks watch the tremendous
drama of destruction. The lighter guns of the assailants found ideal
positions in the battery emplacements formerly built by the Russians
as part of their siege works when operating against the Austrians in
Przemysl. So, too, General von Kneussl with his staff found shelter
near, and the chief of artillery in the observation station
constructed by the Russians near Batycze. From this point, distant
from the line of forts only a little more than two kilometers, one
could observe the whole front of Forts 10 and 11. On the 31st of May,
at four in the afternoon, the heavy guns ceased firing. Simultaneously
the infantry, Bavarian regiments, a Prussian regiment and a detachment
of Austrian sharp-shooters, moved to the attack. The destruction of
the works and advanced points of support of the fortress by the heavy
artillery had such a shattering and depressing effect on its garrison
that it was not capable of offering any effective resistance to the
attacking infantry.
The troops manning Forts 10a, 11a, and 11, such of them as did not lie
buried in the shattered casemates, fled, leaving behind their entire
war material, including a great number of the newest light and heavy
Russian guns. The enemy replied to the assailants who pushed forward
to the circular connecting road, only with artillery fire, and in the
night made no counter attack of any kind. On the 1st of June the enemy
threw several single battalions into a counter attack. These attacks
were repulsed without difficulty.
The heavy artillery now fought down Forts 10 and 11. The Prussian
infantry regiment No. 45, jointly with Bavarian troops, stormed two
earthworks lying to the east of Fort 11 which the enemy had
stubbornly defended. On the 2d of June, at noon, the 22d regiment of
Bavarian infantry stormed Fort 10, in which all "bombproofs" except
one had been made heaps of debris by the action of the heavy
artillery. A battalion of fusiliers of the Queen Augusta Guard
regiment of grenadiers in the evening took Fort 12. Works 10b, 9a and
9b capitulated.
In the evening the troops of General von Kneussl began the attack in
the direction of the city. The village Zurawica and the fortified
positions of the enemy situated there were captured. The enemy now
desisted from all further resistance. Thus the German troops, followed
later by the 4th Austro-Hungarian cavalry division were able to occupy
the strongly built inner line of forts, and at 3 o'clock in the
morning after making numerous prisoners, to march into the relieved
city of Przemysl.
Here, where a battalion of the third infantry regiment of the Guard
was the first troop to enter, there was still a last halt before the
burned bridges over the San. But these were soon replaced with
military bridges. After a siege of only four days the fortress of
Przemysl was again in the hands of the allies. The Russians had in
vain attacked this fortress for months. Although they brought
hecatombs of bloody sacrifices they had not succeeded in taking the
fortress by storm. Only by starvation did they bring it to fall, and
they were enabled to enjoy their possession only nine weeks. Energetic
and daring leadership, supported by heroically fighting troops and
excellent heavy artillery, had in the briefest possible space of time
reduced the great fortress.