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
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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