Battle of the San river (1914)

Battle of the San river
Part of the Eastern Front during World War I
Eastern Front, September 1914.
Date 22 September-23 October [O.S. 5 October-4 November] 1914 Location Galicia, Austria-Hungary (Now in Ukraine) Result Russian victory The Siege of Przemysl is started Territorial changes Austria-Hungarian retreat to Krakow
Belligerents
Austria-Hungary German Empire	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Viktor Dankl von Krasnik Svetozar Boroević Joseph Ferdinand Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli	Alexei Brusilov Radko Dimitriev Dmitry Shcherbachev
Units involved
1st Army 3rd Army 4th Army 2rd Army	3rd Army 8th Army 11rd Army
Strength
582,466 1,076 machine guns, 3,058 guns	264,426 679 machine guns, 1,139 guns
Casualties and losses
240,000 110,900 dead and captured	126,000 51,060 killed and captured

Battle of the San river, It is also known as Second Battle of Galicia (Russian: Вторая Галицкая Битва; German: Die zweite Schlacht von Galizien) Russian defensive operation in Galicia in the autumn of 1914, the main task facing the troops was to protect Lviv, The defense took place along the San River. Skillful action of the Russian command was able to end the battle with the general retreat of the Austro-Hungarians to Krakow and the foothills of the Carpathians. The battle was fought in parallel with the offensive in Poland and East Prussia.

Background

Main article: Battle of Galicia

At the beginning of the war, the successful Russian invasion of Galicia ended in disaster for Austria, more than half of all troops were lost. The Russians occupied a huge territory, but were defeat in East Prussia. Due to the threat to Warsaw, the Russians pulled two armies into central Poland. Only two armies remained against the Austrians and one 60,000 siege army.

Battle

The battle began, as expected, with the advance of the central powers. However, the Russians dug in hard on this front and the fighting immediately took on a positional character. Nevertheless, the superiority in artillery and manpower among the Austrians affected, in mid-October the Russian militia division was knocked out of the trenches and they broke through to the rear of the Russian troops, Brusilov's skillful actions and cavalry maneuvers were able to localize the breakthrough. The Austrians advanced slowly, but when the Russians won a complete victory in Poland, the flanks of the 3rd army gained a foothold and reserves began to converge on the Galician group. After that, the 3rd Army launched offensives and forced the Austro-Hungarians to retreat to Krakow, taking Przemysl under siege. At the front with the 8th army, the Austrians tried to retreat more easily, but Brusilov saw this and overtook their rearguard, taking several thousand prisoners.

Aftermath

The battle ended with the victory of the Russians. The Austrians suffered very heavy losses that could not be replenished until the winter of 1915, the number of losses in such a short period of time was the largest for the Austrians in 1914, the participants in the fighting on both sides dubbed the battle "hell on san"

Reference

Bibliography

• Nelipovich, Sergei (2017). Русский фронт Первой Мировой войны: потери сторон 1914 [The Russian Front of the First World War: the losses of the sides in 1914]. Moscow: Квадрига. ISBN 978-5-91791-238-7.
• Kernosovsky, Anton (1938). История русской армии [History of the Russian army].
• Брусилов, Алексей (2023). Мои воспоминания. Из царской армии в Красную. Moscow: Яуза. ISBN 978-5-04-176827-0.