The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
World War, 1914-1918
We have mentioned that German troops were moving on Senkova, southeast
of Gorlice, by night. During the last two days of April the Bavarians
captured the Russian position in the Senkova valley. A further
move was made here during the night of May 1-2, 1915, preparatory
to dislodging the Russians from the ground they still held. At
seven o'clock in the morning the big howitzers started to "prepare"
that ground. By ten o'clock it was deemed that every living thing
had perished, when the "fire curtain" was drawn behind the Russian
position. Infantry were then thrown forward--some Bavarian regiments.
To their intense astonishment they were received with a most murderous
fire from Russian rifles, and machine guns. The first attack failed
and many were killed, few getting beyond the wire entanglements.
Cautiously other troops advanced to the battered Russian trenches
cut off from the rear by the artillery screen behind. Yet here
again they met with strenuous resistance in the Zamczysko group of
hills. The Austrian artillery shelled the heights, and the Bavarians
finally took possession. The Tenth Austrian Army Corps had meanwhile
conquered the Magora of Malastow and the majority of the heights
in the Ostra Gora group. On Sunday, May 2, 1915, the Austro-German
armies pierced the Dunajec-Biala line in several places, and by
nightfall the Russians were retreating to their last hope--the line
of the Wisloka. The operations round Gorlice on that day resulted
in breaking the Russian defenses to a depth of over two miles on
a front of ten or eleven miles. Mr. Stanley Washburn wrote from
the battle field at the time: "The Germans had shot their last
bolt, a bolt forged from every resource in men and munitions that
they could muster after months of preparation." Of the Russian
army he said, "it was outclassed in everything except bravery,
and neither the German nor any other army can claim superiority
in that respect."
With the center literally cut away, the keystone of the Russian
line had been pulled out, and nothing remained but to retire. Ten
miles north of Ciezkovice lies the triangle formed by the confluence
of the Dunajec and Biala rivers and the Zakliczyn-Gromnik road.
Within this triangle, commanding the banks of both rivers up to
the Cracow-Tarnow line, the Russians held the three hills marked
402, 419, and 269 which figures express their height in meters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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