THE CAPTURE OF BREST-LITOVSK

The central group under Prince Leopold had hardly entered Warsaw proper when it continued its advance in an easterly direction toward Brest-Litovsk after having occupied Warsaw's eastern suburb, Praga. At the same time other forces completed the investment of Novo Georgievsk, covering the sector between the Nareff and the Vistula. By August 10, 1915, the left wing of the central group had reached Kaluszin and General von Woyrsch's army had become its right wing, taking the Russian positions just west of Lukoff. On the same day German aviators threw bombs both at Novo Georgievsk and Brest-Litovsk. Under heavy fighting a crossing was forced over the Muchavka and Lukoff was occupied on August 11, 1915.

One of the most awful consequences of the Russian retreat was the sad plight in which the civil population of the stricken country found itself. In the beginning of the retreat the Russians forced these poor people to join in the retreat. This itself, of course, meant untold hardships and frequently death. But as the advance of the Germans became more furious and the retreat of the Russians more rapid, it often happened that these unfortunate persons—irrespective of age, sex or condition—were forced by their Russian masters to turn around again and thus place themselves squarely between the two contending forces.

With the fall of Lukoff an important railroad leading into Brest-Litovsk had fallen into the hands of the invading enemy. Along this line, which is part of the direct line Warsaw-Brest-Litovsk, Austro-Hungarian forces now progressed rapidly in an easterly direction and by August 14, 1915, had reached Miendzyrzets.

In spite of the heaviest kind of bombardment and of almost uninterrupted infantry attacks on Kovno and Novo Georgievsk, both of these fortresses still held out. By August 1, 1915, however, the German lines had advanced far beyond these places and it became clear that their next chief objective was Brest-Litovsk. Each one of the three main army groups directed strong parts of their forces toward this Russian stronghold. From the northwest detachments of Von Hindenburg's group, coming from Lomza and Ostroff, had crossed in a wide front the Warsaw-Bialystok section of the Warsaw-Vilna-Petrograd railway. After taking Briansk they had forced the crossing of the Nurzets, a tributary of the Bug, and the only natural barrier in front of Brest-Litovsk from that direction. They were rapidly approaching the Brest-Litovsk-Bialystok railway. The central group's front—Lukoff-Siedlets-Sokoloff—had been pushed forward to Drohichin on the Bug, only about forty-five miles to the northeast of the fortress. Parts of Von Mackensen's southern group under the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand had even reached Biala, less than twenty miles west of Brest-Litovsk, and still other detachments from this group were advancing along the eastern bank of the Bug. Three railroads leading out of the fortress were still in the hands of the Russians—to Bialystok to the north, to Pinsk and Minsk to the east, and to Kovel and Kovno to the south. This continuous offensive against all the Russian lines, of course, cost both sides dearly. The attackers, however, seemed to have had the better end of it. The Russians, according to official figures, lost almost 100,000 men by capture alone during the first two weeks of August, 1915.

The German successes before Kovno and Novo Georgievsk had the result of increasing the vigor of the drive against Brest-Litovsk. Those detachments of Von Hindenburg's army group which had forced a crossing of the Nareff between Bialystok and Lomza pushed on rapidly to the south and threatened as early as August 18, 1915, the northern section of the Bialystok-Brest-Litovsk railway. On the same day Prince Leopold's forces reached the south bank of the Bug, north of Sarnaki. Parts of Von Mackensen's army kept up its attack against the Russians around Biala, forced them across the Bug and into the very forts of Brest-Litovsk and at the same time began the bombardment of the outlying forts with the heavy artillery that had been brought up. Other parts, on that day, August 19, 1915, crossed the northern part of the Cholm-Brest-Litovsk railway east of Vlodava. At the same time Austrian forces under Field Marshal-Lieutenant von Arz and Archduke Joseph Ferdinand cleared the left bank of the Bug, east of Janoff, and thereby completed the investment of the fortress from the west.

Closer and closer the girdle was drawn. Every day the German advance progressed. In the evening of August 19, 1915, Prince Leopold's forces crossed the Bug at Melnik and began to threaten the fortress from the northwest. Still closer to Brest-Litovsk Austrian troops belonging to Von Mackensen's group crossed to the north bank of the Bug near Janoff, while other parts of this group advanced from the south beyond Vlodava and forced the Russians to withdraw from the east bank of the Bug north of this town. On the Germans and Austrians pushed from all directions except, of course, the east. By August 20, 1915, the lower part of the Brest-Litovsk-Bialystok railway was crossed and the only railway leading out of the fortress toward the east, which at Shabinka separates into two branches, one to Minsk and another to Pinsk, seemed threatened. The German-Austrian advance from the south that day reached Pishicha, apparently directly toward the southern railroad from the fortress to Kovel and from there to Kovno and Kieff.

From all sides now the circle around Brest-Litovsk was drawn closer. The important railroad center at Kovel was taken on August 24, 1915, and immediately the combined German and Austrian forces swung around toward the north along both sides of the road leading to Kobryn, east of the fortress and on the railroad to Pinsk. In the meantime heavy artillery had been brought up and began the bombardment of the fortress. During the night of August 25, 1915, the storming of the forts began. Austrian troops under General von Arz took the three forts on the western front, while a Brandenburg Reserve Corps attacked from the northwest and penetrated into the central forts. The Russians then evacuated the fortress. Its fall immediately imperiled the entire Russian positions and resulted in a general retreat of all Russian forces. The question for them now was no longer how long they were able to delay the enemy, but how much they could save out of the wreck. On the same day that saw the fall of Brest-Litovsk the Russians lost Bialystok, and on the next day, August 16, 1915, they evacuated the fortress of Olita on the Niemen, about halfway between Kovno and Grodno; the latter, the last of Russia's proud string of western fortresses of the first line, of course was now not only seriously threatened but had become practically untenable.

In a way the victory at Brest-Litovsk was an empty one, for the Russians apparently had decided that the fortress would become untenable before long and had withdrawn from it in good time not only practically the entire garrison but also whatever supplies or equipment they could possibly transport, destroying most of what they were forced to leave behind and blowing up many of the fortifications. The strategical value of the victory was, of course, not influenced by this action. After the fall of the fortress the combined forces of the Germans and Austrians did not rest on their laurels. Without wasting any time they immediately took up in all directions the pursuit of the retreating Russians. For a short time the retreating Russian troops made a determined stand in the neighborhood of Kamienietz-Litovsk, northeast of Brest-Litovsk, but could not withstand the German pressure for long. A great deal of very heavy and bloody fighting took place in this period, August 25 to August 31, 1915, in the dense forest south of Bialystok and east of Bielsk, sometimes known as the Forest of Bialystok and sometimes as the Forest of Bielovies, a little town at the end of a short branch railroad, running east from Bielsk. The Upper Nareff flows through this forest and much of the fighting was along its banks. Austrian troops, a few days earlier, had reached Pushany, just north of the Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railroad and from there pressed on in an easterly direction. By August 21, 1915, the Upper Nareff had been crossed after the hardest kind of fighting on both sides, and the advance continued now toward Grozana. It was not, however, until September 1, 1915, that these troops were able to fight their way out of the forest. At the same time Von Mackensen's troops were following the retreating Russians into the Pripet Marshes. Other parts of this group which had advanced east from Brest-Litovsk along the Minsk railroad reached the Jasiolda River, a tributary of the Pripet, at a point near Bereza, while Austro-Hungarian troops forming part of Von Mackensen's army advanced to east and south of Boloto and Dubowoje. Further north, Prince Leopold's army was still fighting the retreating Russians just north of Pushany, but on September 4, 1915, finally fought its way out of the marshes which—outrunners of the vast Pripet Marshes—are abundant in that region.

Back the Germans and Austrians forced their retreating enemy during the following days, although the pursuit lost a little in force and swiftness. For the troops which were engaged in these operations had been steadily on the move practically ever since the attack on Warsaw began. On September 6-7, 1915, the Russians again made a stand on a wide front east and south of Grodno. This line stretched south from the Niemen near Mosty to Volkovysk, then southeast to Rushana, thence east of the Pushany Marshes across the Jasiolda River near Chenisk to Drohichyn, on the Brest-Litovsk-Pinsk railroad. On the German and Austrian side these engagements were fought by the armies of Prince Leopold of Bavaria and Field Marshal von Mackensen. At the same time troops belonging to Von Hindenburg's group attacked a newly formed Russian line farther north which extended from Volkovysk in a northwesterly direction to the village of Jeziory and the small lake on which the latter is situated, just north of Grodno. Volkovysk itself and the heights northeast of it were stormed by the Germans on September 7, 1915, on which occasion again almost 3,000 Russians were captured by the Germans.

During the next few days the left wing of this army group fought in close cooperation with the right wing of Von Hindenburg's army along the upper Zelvianka, a southern tributary of the Niemen. The rest of Prince Leopold's army were making the Kobryn-Minsk railroad their objective and were fighting on September 9, 10, and 11, 1915, for possession of the station at Kossovo.

While Von Hindenburg's army group was occupied with the drive on Vilna and Von Mackensen's forces advanced against Pinsk, Prince Leopold's regiments, as we have learned, fought continuously in the sector between the Niemen and the Jasiolda Rivers. The problem assigned to them apparently was that of gaining the Vilna-Kovno railroad in order to cut off the Russian retreat, and by the time Vilna fell, September 18, 1915, they had just succeeded in forcing a crossing over the Shara River, which runs practically parallel to the Lida-Baranovitchy section of the Vilna-Kovno railroad. In a way this gave them command of that section; but they first had to cross the country between the Shara and the railroad, over a width of about twenty miles. Although they were reported on September 19, 1915, as participating in the pursuit of the retreating Russians, they seem to have arrived just a little too late to capture large numbers of them. In fact, not until September 20, 1915, were they reported actually at Dvorzets, on the Vilna-Kovno railway, while on that day the right wing of this army was fighting west of Oshoff, which, indeed, is to the east of the Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railway, but still a considerable distance (about twenty-two miles) west of Moltshad, a little to the southeast of Dvorzets; stormed Ostroff, and crossed the Oginski Canal at Telechany, after first throwing the Russians across it. These operations netted some 1,000 prisoners. September 22, 1915, brought their left wing about ten miles farther east at Valeika, while farther south the fighting continued in the same locality as on the previous day during the following days. By September 23, 1915, the left wing again had advanced about ten miles along the Servetsh River at Korelitchy, as well as the Upper Shara, east of Baranovitchy and Ostroff. The Russian resistance along this river was maintained during September 24, 1915, although the Germans gained its eastern bank south of Lipsk.

Just as in the Vilna-Niemen sector to the north, the German advance in the region bounded in the north by the Niemen and in the south by the Jasiolda was halted during the last week of September, 1915. And the line of positions which had been reached by the German forces was maintained throughout the rest of the fall and the entire winter, excepting a few minor changes. In a rough way, that front extended as follows: Starting south of the junction of the Beresina with the Niemen, it followed the course of the latter river through the town of Labicha for about thirty miles in a southeasterly direction, then bent slightly to the southwest at Korelitchy, passing to the west of Tzirin, crossed the Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railway about halfway between Baranovitchy and Snoff and about ten miles farther south the Vilna-Kovno railway between Luchouitchy and Nieazvied, at which town it again bent to the southwest, along the Shara River, passing east of Lipsk, and then along the entire length of the Oginski Canal to its junction with the Jasiolda, northwest of Pinsk. Along this line both the Russians and Germans dug themselves in, and throughout the winter a bitter trench warfare netted occasionally a few lines of trenches to the Russians and at other times had the same results for the other side, without, however, materially changing the position of either.[Back to Contents]