Przemysl fell to the German arms on June 3, 1915, ten weeks
after the Russians had captured the fortress and its
Austrian garrison following a six months' investment. The
campaign which meant as its first result the recapture of
this great fortress of nineteen modern forts and sixteen
field fortifications, with innumerable trenches, was
continued by the renewal of the "thrust" of General von
Mackensen toward Lemberg, the capital of Galicia.
Semi-official figures published in Berlin estimated the
Russian losses from May 1 to June 18, when the victorious
German armies were approaching the gates of Lemberg, at
400,000 dead and wounded and 300,000 prisoners, besides
100,000 lost before Field Marshal von Hindenburg's forces in
Poland and Courland. On June 22 Berlin reported five
Austro-German armies shelling the last lines of the Russian
defenses before Lemberg, which fell on June 23.
The admitted weakness of Russia in this campaign was the
exhaustion of her ammunition supplies. The intent of the
German thrust was to drive the Russians far back and
establish easily defended positions from which the Germans
might detach forces for operations against Italy and the
Allies in the west. Political consequences, also, were
expected from German success in Galicia in deterring
Bulgaria and Rumania from entering the war.
On June 21 advices reaching Tokio from Vladivostok indicated
that heavy shipments of munitions of war intended for use by
Russia's armies had arrived at that seaport, in such
quantities that facilities were lacking to forward them by
rail through Siberia.