“When Przemysl falls,” wrote Mr. Granville Fortescue in the _Daily
Telegraph_, “the name of Radko Dimitrieff will ring around the world.”
It was not, however, the immediate object of General Dimitrieff and his
coadjutors to bring about a hurried capitulation of this commanding
fortress and its 30,000 defenders. The Russian headquarters in Galicia
could well afford to play a waiting game and let the grim business of
starvation do its work.
In our second chapter we brought down the record of events on the
Galician theatre of war to the important capture of Jaroslav by the
Russians on September 21, after only three days’ investment. The
Colonel Shumsky from whom I have already quoted points out the enormous
significance of this capture when taken in conjunction with the
all-round breakdown of the Austro-German conception. That plan assumed,
he opines that Western Poland would have been cut off, and there would
have been a last development of the Austro-German forces from Jaroslav
over Ivangorod and East Prussia seawards. From “the Baltic to the
Carpathians” was certainly the grandest of grand conceptions--instead
of which, we have the well-nigh incredible estimate of _a million_
Austrian troops put out of action in less than two months of war, and
the frank statement by one of their general officers that “the enemy is
too much for us.”
It would appear that the Austrian forces operating along the line
Lublin-Holm in August to September included the 3rd, 11th, 12th, and
portions of the 7th, 13th, and 14th Army Corps, with five cavalry
divisions. But in one day’s fighting alone they are known to have
had 20,000 casualties, the mobility and rapidity of the Russian
offensive seeming quite to have paralysed them. After Lemberg, the
capture of Halicz and later still of Jaroslav rendered their position
still more unenviable. As Professor Pares points out, “the chief
harm which Germany and Austria could inflict in a war against Russia
was to conquer Russian Poland, whose frontier made defence extremely
difficult. Regarding this protuberance as a head, Germany and Austria
could make a simultaneous amputating operation at its neck, attacking
the one from East Prussia and the other from Galicia. But the German
policy, which had other and more primary objects, precipitated war
with France and threw the bulk of the German forces westward. Thus the
German army in East Prussia kept the defensive, and Austria was left to
make her advance from Galicia without support.” We have seen in part
how that forlorn advance was destined to be beaten back in blood.
Perhaps never in the history of war have more lies, false rumours, and
unintelligent anticipations got into print than in connection with the
momentous event happening in Galicia consequent upon the “pleasant
surprise” of the capture of Jaroslav on September 21. As that important
success, taken in conjunction with the huge battles in East Prussia and
Russian Poland, certainly implied the imminent danger of Przemysl,
we heard all sorts of things about the fate of that great fortress.
It was on the eve of capture, it was on fire, most of the forts were
taken--the garrison was driven to the inner defences, etc., etc. In
short, Przemysl was by the many-headed held to have been captured, or
at all events isolated, quite early in September. But the powerful
German advance into Poland, with the co-operating Austrian movement
on their right in Galicia, had put the fortress for the moment out of
danger. Jaroslav’s fall was a decided nail in the coffin of Przemysl,
but no more.
This fortress--whose remarkable orthography was the subject of a sly
little joke by Mr. Lloyd George in a speech on the war--is stated to
have been insufficiently garrisoned (30,000). It has not a large
civil population, and after September 21 the extreme step was taken by
the Commandant of expelling all persons who had not provisions for a
siege of three months. The retreating Austrians did not have time to
destroy the bridges over the San, and the almost complete isolation
of Przemysl was rendered more acute by the announcement that, “as the
crow flies,” the Russian advance-guard was not more than 135 miles from
Cracow itself! The general line of the Austrian retreat was mainly
towards that famous and historic city, where the hospitals and houses
were already crowded with their thousands of wounded. Such a retreat
would link them up to the right wing of their German allies, when they
would become a more component part of the Kaiser’s forces. Comparisons
were freely bandied about, in which the energetic Russian pursuit
was likened to Kutusoff’s chase of Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812, and
to Lee’s pursuit by Grant in the American Civil War in 1864. In any
event, the crumbling away of the Austrian defence of Galicia was now so
significant as to dwarf minor considerations.
The retreat towards Cracow was marked by a good deal of demoralisation
and by the plundering of the estates of some of the Polish aristocracy.
The capture of the railway junctions of Debica and Chyrov by the
conquering foe further isolated the threatened fortress, while the
passage of the Carpathians by way of the Uszok Pass was planting the
Russian army firmly upon Hungarian soil, where there were no great
places of strength to be reduced. The tables had been turned with a
vengeance, and the invasion of Austro-Hungary was an accomplished
fact. What would Germany do in face of these changed conditions? became
for a week or so the burning topic among strategists and lookers-on at
the great game.
Coincident, presumably, with the expulsion of most of the civil
population, the garrison of Przemysl were placed upon three-quarter
rations. If one thing was humanly more certain than another it was
that, except by a miracle, relief could not reach them--they gleaned as
much from their wireless communications with the retreating arm, the
Russians not having yet succeeded in destroying the wireless station.
Late September and the first part of October was occupied by the
Russians in the two main directions of pressing with great masses of
troops the Austrian retreat towards Cracow, and in completing with
slow but sure tenacity the investment of Przemysl, where the thousands
of mouths to feed were now placed upon half instead of three-quarter
rations. A series of sanguinary combats went on almost uninterruptedly
with the beaten Austrians, who always fought bravely enough, but
invariably continued their retirement with heavy losses in men and
material of war. The great events in Russian Poland already narrated
were naturally exercising their indirect influence in this quarter.
Professor Pares was privileged to visit the Galician battle-fields in
October, and his impressions are of all the more interest from the fact
that we have little else save scrappy official reports to go upon. Mr.
Pares visited Galich, Stryl, and Rava-Ruska, and of the latter place he
writes:
“Our visit to Rava-Ruska presented much greater military interest; we
drove round the south, east, and north front of the Russian attack on
this little town and very valuable explanations were given by an able
officer of the General Staff. On the southern front near the station of
Kamionka Woloska, where there were lines of trenches, the deep holes
made by bursting Russian shells, and sometimes filled with water, lay
thick together.
“The eastern front was more interesting. Here there were many lines
of rifle-pits, Austrian, Russian, or Austrian converted into Russian.
The Austrian rifle-pits were much shallower and less finished than the
Russian, which were generally squarer, deeper, and with higher cover.
An officer’s rifle-pit just behind those of his men showed their care
and work, as was indicated in letters written just after the battle.
Casques of cuirassiers, many Hungarian knapsacks, broken rifles,
fragments of shrapnel, potatoes pulled up, and even such oddments as an
Austrian picture postcard, were to be found in or near the rifle-pits.
“These wide plains, practically without cover, were reminiscent of
Wagram. A high landmark was a crucifix, on which one of the arms of the
figure was shot away; underneath it was a ‘brothers’ grave,’ containing
the bodies of 120 Austrians and twenty-one Russians. Another cross of
fresh-cut wood marked the Russian soldiers’ tribute to an officer:
‘God’s servant, Gregory.’ Close to one line of trenches stood a village
absolutely untouched, and in the fields between stood a picturesque
group of villagers at their field-work, one in an Austrian uniform and
two boys in Austrian shakos.”
He noted that cavalry had played but an inconspicuous part in this
desperate fighting. The Russians, he says, were always attacking. They
felt the supremest confidence in the power of their artillery (“though
the proportion of field-guns to a unit is less numerous on the Russian
side than on the German or Austrian”), and, when questioned as to the
enemy’s rifle-fire, they would reply, in characteristic Tommy Atkins
fashion, “Oh, nothing striking.” Many men told Mr. Pares that they did
not believe the Austro-German liked fighting at close quarters with
the bayonet as much as the Russians did. The one thing for which the
latter felt respect was the hostile heavy artillery, though claiming
that their own field-artillery was superior. Their extraordinary
endurance in the trenches, and their calm resolution and unswerving
belief in their own prowess and the justness of their cause impressed
him profoundly.
This commentator felt compelled, however reluctantly, to bear witness
to the brutality of the retreating Austrians to the Polish peasantry.
Of this he saw numerous examples, as also instances of the people’s
retaliation upon the enemy, such as the wholesale destruction of the
Austrian General Desveaux’s beautiful chateau. Little things will stick
in the mind, and Mr. Pares noted amid the ruins of this noble house a
map of the Austrian army manœuvres of 1893, “twenty years after.” The
Russians deemed themselves among friends when they mingled with the
Ruthenian inhabitants of Galicia, speaking their language and treating
them with all good fellowship. The invaders’ relations with the Jewish
population were scarcely so amicable in all cases.
Another correspondent of a great newspaper who had the harrowing
experience of traversing some of the battle-fields of Galicia after the
Austrian breakdown presents the following vivid and touching picture:
“In the very centre of this zone of misery two roads intersect, and
at the angle stands a huge wooden cross on which hangs the carved
figure of the Saviour. For a hundred years, no doubt, this monument
to brotherly love has hung above the cross-roads so that the pious
might pause in their journey to cross themselves and mutter a prayer.
Nothing could be more incongruous than to see this sacred emblem: the
mute evidence of a religious people. The top of the wooden upright
is shattered by a bullet, while one arm of the figure of Jesus has
been carried away by a shrapnel shell. What, indeed, must have been
the thoughts of the patient Austrians lying in their exposed position
and dying in hundreds as they beheld the shot and shell bursting about
the carved figure of Him whose work on earth was to spread peace and
brotherly love! The patient face of the Christ looks down upon a newly
made grave wherein lie the shattered remains of 124 men who died almost
at the foot of the sacred figure.”
For the defence of Przemysl many thousands of workmen were impressed to
assist in the work of strengthening the fortifications, being called
in from the neighbouring villages under threat of extreme penalties.
The quantity of ammunition in the place was enormous, but the shortage
of provisions is claimed by the Russians as being due to the swiftness
of their initiative, whereby great quantities of stores intended for
the defending force had been captured. The investing army had now a
large number of batteries in position, and though they could well
afford to take things easily so as to avoid needless wastage of life,
the progress made was steady. German, and not Austrian, leadership was
directing the defence of the stronghold. Every effort was made by them
to hearten their men into the belief that the combined Austro-German
operations proceeding towards the river San might, and in all
likelihood would, culminate in the relief of the place. On this point,
and of the operations in Galicia generally, Colonel Shumsky wrote
during the second week of October:
“All the attempts of the enemy to cross the San have ended in a
miserable fiasco. The Austro-German forces are making their attempts
at various points of the river. First the artillery deluges the right
shore with shells, and then infantry detachments approach the river;
but Russian shrapnel causes them enormous losses. Dead bodies are
washed down the San to the Vistula, and on to Sandomir and Ivangorod.
“Before this fortress the battle continues day and night without a
moment’s intermission. The Germans are giving the defence a very
energetic character. To all appearances the fortress is well supplied
with ammunition. Our troops are making a gradual but persistent attack.
Sometimes a regiment becomes impatient with the slowness of the
progress and storms the nearest line of works. Sometimes a sharp blow,
delivered in the night, brings about the fall of a strong fort. In this
way several works have been taken.
“These unexpected blows clearly greatly excite the garrison. Right
through the night projectors search the battle-field, and their long
white rays rest tremulously on every fold of the ground. At times
something alarms the forts, and the air is instantly filled with the
thunder of roused Austrian guns. The fire is then kept up for thirty
minutes to an hour before it again subsides.”
He adds that “the tremendous strategic front becomes elongated just
as it does in France.” This immense battle-line was now beginning to
be known to the strategists as the line “Cracow-Przemysl-Thorn,” as
it began to be growingly obvious that Austrian Cracow and Silesian
Thorn would presently be the scene of the biggest operations of the
conflicting Empires.
On October 13-14 great Austro-German columns were in touch with their
enemy south-east of Sandomir and west of Przemysl. On the first of
the dates named an Austrian force deploying by way of Samok-Lisko
upon Sambor was hurled back with the loss of 7 officers and 500 men
captured, and next day they lost several hundred more prisoners.
Hitherto the success of the Russian arms in Galicia had been so
continuous that the official despatches and the newspaper reports in
the Petrograd papers were fairly representative of the facts, patriotic
feeling experiencing no temptation to practise a diplomatic “economy of
the truth.” But now we find it hard to reconcile the Petrograd reports
with reliable information from other sources as to what was happening
in the region of the San.
The news that came from Petrograd, directly or through Rome and Paris,
told of repeated victories over the Austrians on the San. But it would
seem that these reports were only repetitions of news already sent, and
referred to the opening stage of the fighting with the Austrian advance
on Von Hindenburg’s extreme right.
There appears to be no doubt that the peril of Warsaw and the need
of drawing heavy reinforcements from Galicia to assist in repelling
the German invasion of Poland and then in following up the enemy’s
retirement, led to the army on the San being so weakened for the
moment that all it could do was to hold its own for a while about
Sandomir, near the junction of the San and the Vistula. In doing this
it rendered a solid service to the Grand-duke Nicholas, as it prevented
the line of the Vistula being turned above Ivangorod.
But something had to be sacrificed to secure this result. Jaroslav
was abandoned for the moment, and reoccupied by the Austrians, and
the siege of Przemysl was raised. There was a day of enthusiastic
rejoicing when the relieving column marched into the hard-pressed
and half-starved city. Received at the gates by the civil and
ecclesiastical authorities, the troops marched amidst cheering crowds
to the town hall, where General von Kusmanek, the commander of the
fortress, stood waiting to greet them.
Even more welcome than the battle-grimed soldiers was the long convoy
of supply wagons that they escorted. The garrison and the people could
again enjoy an unstinted meal, and looked forward to a long respite
from the trials they had endured. But the military authorities had
no illusions in the outlook. Przemysl had hardly been relieved when
bad news came from the scene of the great battles in Central Poland,
and the pressure of the Russian forces began to be felt at once, for
on the news of the Grand-duke’s success against Von Hindenburg they
at once abandoned their attitude of stubborn defence for a vigorous
offensive. It was realised that Przemysl might soon be once more
ringed round with fire and steel, so steps were taken to prepare for
a new siege. Supplies of all kinds were poured into the place by day
and by night, the control of the junction at Jaroslav facilitating
this revictualling operation. At the same time some thousands of the
non-combatant population were sent away so as to reduce the number of
“useless mouths” to a minimum. In a week Przemysl was ready to defend
itself again, and to face a siege under greatly improved conditions.
The work had indeed to be interrupted before Von Kusmanek had done
all he hoped to accomplish. For the retreat of Von Hindenburg in the
centre was at once followed by the column that had attacked Ivangorod
returning through Radom. The whole invasion was collapsing and the
Austrian position on the San had become untenable. Petrograd could
now resume a true record of Galician victories, as the retiring enemy
fought a series of rearguard actions each of which ended in the
capture of Austrian prisoners by the pursuing columns of the Russian
left.
But before telling of the closing scenes of Von Hindenburg’s ambitious
effort to overrun the country of the Vistula and clear Galicia of the
Russian armies, as a result of his hoped-for success, we must note
some characteristic aspects of the campaign that reveal the special
characteristics of the Russian soldier and his leaders. These will
bring out something of the human interest of the war better even than
the story of marches and battles and strategical combinations.