The Story of the Great War, Volume 5: Battle of Jutland Bank; Russian Offensive; Kut-El-Amara; East Africa; Verdun; The Great Somme Drive; United States and Belligerents; Summary of Two Years' War
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 5: Battle of Jutland Bank; Russian Offensive; Kut-El-Amara; East Africa; Verdun; The Great Somme Drive; United States and Belligerents; Summary of Two Years' War
World War, 1914-1918
Northwest of Rojitche, in northwestern Volhynia, after dislodging the
Germans, General Brussilov on June 12, 1916, approached the river
Stokhod. West of Lutsk he occupied Torchin and continued to press the
enemy back.
On the Dniester sector and farther General Lechitsky's troops, having
crossed the river after fighting, captured many fortified points and
also the town of Zaleszcyky, twenty-five miles northwest of
Czernowitz. The village of Jorodenka, ten miles farther, northwest of
Zaleszcyky, also was captured.
On the Pruth sector, between Doyan and Niepokoloutz, the Russian
troops approached the left bank of the river, near the bridgehead of
Czernowitz.
The only point at which the Austrian line held was near Kolki in
northern Volhynia, south of the Styr. There attempts by the Russians
to cross that river failed and some 2,000 men were captured by the
Austro-Hungarians. In the north Field Marshal von Hindenburg's efforts
to divert the Russian activities in the south by a general offensive
along the Dvina line had not developed beyond increased artillery
bombardments which apparently exerted no influence on the movements of
the Russian armies in Volhynia, Galicia and the Bukowina.
The only hopeful sign for the fate of the threatened Austro-Hungarian
armies was the fact that the daily number of prisoners taken by the
Russians gradually seemed to decrease, indicating that the Austrians
found it possible by now, if not to withstand the Russian onslaught,
at least to save the largest part of their armies. Even at that the
Russian General Staff claimed to have captured by June 12, 1916, a
total of 1,700 officers and 114,000 men. Inasmuch as it was estimated
that the total Austrian forces on the southwestern front at the
beginning of the operations were 670,000, of which, according to
Russian claims, the losses cannot be less than 200,000, including an
estimated 80,000 killed and wounded, the total losses now constituted
30 per cent of the enemy's effectives.
How the news of the continued Russian successes was received in the
empire's capital and what, at that time, was expected as the immediate
results of this remarkable drive, secondary only to the Austro-German
drive of the summer and fall of 1915, are vividly described in the
following letter, written from Petrograd on June 13, 1916, by a
special correspondent of the London "Times":
"As the successive bulletins recording our unprecedented victories on
the southwestern fronts come to hand, the pride and joy of the Russian
people are becoming too great for adequate expression. There is an
utter absence of noisy demonstrations. The whole nation realizes that
the victory is the result of the combined efforts of all classes,
which have given the soldiers abundant munitions, and of an admirable
organization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account