The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
World War, 1914-1918
Between May 11-12, 1915, the Germanic troops occupied the districts of
Sendziszow, Rzeszow, Dynow, Sanok, Lisko, Lancut, and Dubiecko.
Przevorsk was deserted by the Russians on the 13th. The Seventh
Russian Railway Battalion, under Captain Ratloff, brought up the rear
of the retreat to the Dembica-Jaroslav line. From Rzeszow onward this
battalion were employed in destroying stations, plants, tunnels,
culverts, rolling stock, and railway bridges, to hamper as much as
possible the German advance. It took the Austro-Hungarian engineers
between two and three weeks to repair the road and put it into
sufficient working order to transport their heavy siege artillery.
With uninterrupted labor and the most strenuous exertions they could
only reconstruct about four miles per day. Repairs and renovations
other than those of the railway system were necessary. The wounded had
to be sent back to hospital, and fresh troops had to be brought up to
fill the gaps torn in the Austro-German ranks during all the severe
fighting since May 2, 1915. It is not known exactly what the series of
victories cost the Germanic armies in casualties, but it is known that
their successes were dearly bought. One fairly competent authority
places the loss at between 120,000 to 130,000. From May 2 to May 12,
1915, the forces of Von Mackensen, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, and
Boroyevitch von Boyna claim to have captured 103,500 men, 69 guns, and
255 machine guns. A retreating army must inevitably lose many of their
number as prisoners, besides their wounded must also be abandoned.
Furthermore, the Russian line of retreat led through rough and
mountainous country, where large bodies of troops could not be kept in
touch with each other. Thus it frequently happened that isolated
detachments were captured _en bloc_ without being able to offer any
resistance. In the neighborhood of Sanok and the watering places of
Rymanow and Ivonicz some of the biggest Russian base hospitals were
situated. These, of course, could not have been evacuated in time, and
the patients consequently swelled the number of prisoners. Most of the
guns captured by the Austro-Germans were those of the Russian troops
whose retreat from northern Hungary and the passes had been
intercepted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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