(Wolff Telegraphic Bureau, Berlin, May 6, 1915.)
_From the Great Headquarters we have received the following in regard
to the "drive" in West Galicia:_
To the complete surprise of the enemy, large movements of troops into
West Galicia had been completed by the end of April. These troops,
subject to the orders of General von Mackensen, had been assigned the
task in conjunction with the neighboring armies of our Austrian ally
of breaking through the Russian front between the crest of the
Carpathians and the middle Dunajee. It was a new problem and no easy
undertaking. The heavens granted our troops wonderful sunshine and dry
roads. Thus fliers and artillery could come into full activity and the
difficulties of the terrain, which here has the character of the
approaches of the German Alps, or the Hörsal hills in Thuringia, could
be overcome. At several points ammunition had to be transported amid
the greatest hardships on pack animals and the marching columns and
batteries had to be moved forward over corduroy roads, (artificial
roads made of logs.) All the accumulation of information and
preparations necessary for breaking through the enemy's line had been
quietly and secretly accomplished. On the first of May in the
afternoon the artillery began its fire on the Russian positions. These
in some five months had been perfected according to all the rules of
the art of fortification. In stories they lay one over the other along
the steep heights, whose slopes had been furnished with obstacles. At
some points of special importance to the Russians they consisted of as
many as seven rows of trenches, one behind the other. The works were
very skillfully placed, and were adopted to flanking one another. The
infantry of the allied [Teutonic] troops in the nights preceding the
attack had pushed forward closer to the enemy and had assumed
positions in readiness for the forward rush. In the night from May 1
to 2 the artillery fired in slow rhythm at the enemy's positions.
Pauses in the fire served the pioneers for cutting the wire
entanglements. On the 2d of May at 6 A.M. an overwhelming artillery
fire, including field guns and running up to the heaviest calibres,
was begun on the front many miles in extent selected for the effort to
break through. This was maintained unbroken for four hours.
[Illustration: FIELD MARSHALL VON MACKENSEN
Who Commanded the Victorious Teutonic Forces Against the Russians in
the Southeast]
At 10 o'clock in the morning these hundreds of fire-spouting tubes
suddenly ceased and the same moment the swarming lines and attacking
columns of the assailants threw themselves upon the hostile positions.
The enemy had been so shaken by the heavy artillery fire that his
resistance at many points was very slight. In headlong flight he left
his defenses, when the infantry of the [Teutonic] allies appeared
before his trenches, throwing away rifles and cooking utensils and
leaving immense quantities of infantry ammunition and dead. At one
point the Russians themselves cut the wire entanglements to surrender
themselves to the Germans. Frequently the enemy made no further
resistance in his second and third positions. On the other hand, at
certain other points of the front he defended himself stubbornly,
making an embittered fight and holding the neighborhood. With the
Austrian troops, the Bavarian regiments attacked Mount Zameczyka,
lying 250 meters above their positions, a veritable fortress. A
Bavarian infantry regiment here won incomparable laurels. To the left
of the Bavarians Silesian regiments stormed the heights of Sekowa and
Sakol. Young regiments tore from the enemy the desperately defended
cemetery height of Gorlise and the persistently held railway
embankment at Kennenitza. Among the Austrian troops Galician
battalions had stormed the steep heights of the Pustki Hill, Hungarian
troops having taken in fierce fighting the Wiatrowka heights. Prussian
guard regiments threw the enemy out of his elevated positions east of
Biala and at Staszkowka stormed seven successive Russian lines which
were stubbornly held. Either kindled by the Russians or hit by a
shell, a naphtha well behind Gorlise burst into flames. Higher than
the houses the flames struck up into the sky and pillars of smoke rose
to hundreds of yards.
On the evening of the 2d of May, when the warm Spring sun had begun
to yield to the coolness of night the first main position in its whole
depth and extent, a distance of some sixteen kilometers had been
broken through and a gain of ground of some four kilometers had been
attained. At least 20,000 prisoners, dozens of cannon and fifty
machine guns remained in the hands of the allied troops that in the
battle had competed with one another for the palm of victory. In
addition, an amount of booty to be readily estimated, in the shape of
war materials of all sorts, including great masses of rifles and
ammunition, had been secured.