On July 27 the battle still raged with undiminished fury. Up to 4 P.M. all the Russian assaults had been repulsed, but a new massed blow, delivered by the V. Siberian Corps to the E. of the Leszniow-Brody road, proved decisive. Brody had to be relin- quished, and positions occupied immediately S. and N. of it. Then, as it seemed impossible without appreciable reinforcements to hold the new positions, the loth Landwehr Div., intended for the II. Army, having been diverted en route to Linsingen's group, the troops of the II. Army were withdrawn to a prepared position behind the ponds of the upper reaches of the Sereth and the Styr, on the line Zalosce-Jasionow-Boldury. This line was occupied during the night of July 28-29 without serious molestation.
During the battle of Brody the Russians had also delivered mass-assaults N. of the Pripet at Baranovichi and Gorodish- che but they were repulsed with very heavy losses. Immediately afterward, on July 28, a fresh Russian attack on a large scale was launched against the front S. of the Pripet, and particularly against the III. and South Armies, parts of the IV. Army and the Stochod front. The allies, still condemmed to play the thank- less r61e of defenders, were in a most difficult position. With their few available reserves they could send fresh forces only to the most sorely pressed parts of the front, while at the remaining points, which could no longer be held, salvation could be sought only in shaking off the enemy without so far as could be seen any hope of winning back the lost positions.
Battle of Kovel. In his scheme for the general attack launched in the end of July, Brussilov had selected Kovel as the objective for the N. wing of his group of armies, and to this end had brought up the 23rd Inf. Div. and 8th Cav. Div. as far as Tobol, N. of the Lipa. To facilitate the transmission of orders the N. wing of the VIII. Army to which had been added the I. and II. Guard Corps and the Guard Cav. Corps was formed into a separate group under General Bezobrazov.
On the morning of July 28 Szurmay's Corps of the IV. Army, after being heavily bombarded with gas-shell, were attacked by the Russian XL. and VIII. Corps at Sadowa and thrown back on Szelwow, where a part of the artillery, after holding out until the last, was sacrificed to the pursuing Cossacks and Circassians. But the Russian cavalry, wheeling S., was held up by some inter- vening reserves, and in the counter-attack some of the lost ground was regained.
At the same time the N. wing of the VIII. Army (XXIII. and XXXIX. Corps) and Bezobrazow's Guard attacked the rein- forced Liineburg Corps, standing E. of the Stochod, and forced it, in spite of the intervention of the I2ist Inf. Div., to retire behind the Stochod. The attacks launched on the same day by the S. wing of the Russian III. Army against Bernhardi's group and Hauer's Cav. Corps at several crossing-places on the middle Stochod broke down with unusually heavy losses to the Russians. The next day the Russians repeated their costly attacks with equal vehemence, but were everywhere repulsed. Only at Kaszowka did a successful break-through force the II. Corps to retire from their pronounced salient in the Styr bend to a shorter line running farther W. and long since prepared. Unencouraging, too, were the Russian assaults against Linsingen's group of armies, the most hotly contested points being Szelwow, Kisielin and the railway crossing on the Stochod. But their efforts were all in vain. At Stobychowa, again, the Russians, after a hard struggle, succeeded in establishing themselves on the W. bank, but were thrown back to the E. bank after several days of counter- attacks. Thus Brussilov, in spitg of his tremendous output of force, failed to reach his objective, Kovel.
Battle of Tlumacz. From July 28 onward the attacks directed against the South Army N.W. of Buczacz were all completely repulsed; but Bothmer's Army, as the result partly of the con- stant bending-back and extension of its own S. wing, and partly of the retreat of the II. Army N. of it, became exposed to en- velopment on both sides, and its position was soon untenable.
Letchitsky directed his attacks, renewed likewise on July 28, against the sector immediately S. of the Dniester, and drove in Kraewell's group with the first assault. This group, after vainly putting in its reserves, had to fall back carrying with it Hadfy's
N. wing to the line from Molodylow along the eastern edge of Tlumacz to the Dniester loop S.W. of Koropiec. On Aug. 7 Letchitsky repeated his assaults against the Kraewell group and pushed it back, inflicting heavy losses, through Tlumacz towards the west. The Kraewell and Hadfy groups, and the adjacent I. Corps on the S., were now reestablished several kilometres away from the enemy, while the VIII. Corps (Benigni's) repulsed all Russian attacks. But when, on Aug. 10, yet another of Letchit- sky's mass assaults fell on the Kraewell group, the III. Army could no longer hold its ground; after giving up Stanislau, it had to be withdrawn to the line Zielona-Nadworna-Bohorodczany- heights W. of Stanislau-Jezupol.
Thus another way into Hungary that over the Pantyr Pass now lay exposed to Russian attacks, for it was only possible temporarily to block it by a weak detachment. Conforming to this retreat of the III. Army the right wing of the South Army had again been bent back, having been fiercely attacked by the Russians at Monasterzyska. Farther in the N., that part of the front of the South Army which still projected E. of the Strypa was also taken back.
Battles at Zalozce and on the Zlota Lipa. In the beginning of; August there was also fierce fighting in progress on the II. Army's front at Zalozce, in the course of which Lt.-Gcn. Eben's newly formed German Corps (igsth and ig7th Inf. Divs.) came to the assistance of the Austro-Hungarian V. Corps, hard pressed . by the Russian VII. and XVII. Corps. Although the Russian break-through was stopped, the counter-attack was not able to win back the former positions completely, and it was suspended on Aug. 10.
In spite of all previous failures, the Russian Guard to the N. of the Kovel-Rovno railway, and, N. again of the Guard up to Stobychwa, the I. Turkestan and I. Siberian Corps, driven on with ferocious energy, persisted in their attacks against the Stochod line. Extraordinarily heavy losses, no longer to be replaced from those great reservoirs of men that had hitherto seemed inexhaustible, forced Brussilov after Aug. 10 to suspend the attacks on Kovel.
This relieved the difficulties of the now unavoidable with- drawal of the South Army, which with its N. wing was still holding the last section of the original front line on the Strypa between Wisniowczyk and Kozlow. On the evening of Aug. ir it began a two-night movement of retreat, which was to take it to the line Horozanka-Zawal6wn-heights E. of Brzezany-Koni- uchy-Zborow. Conforming to this movement, Eben's Corps, forming the S. wing of the II. Army, swung back. The retreat was not accomplished without several sharp rearguard actions, but the pursuing Russians could not prevent the retreating army from duly occupying the new position that had been chosen. The Turkish XV. Corps, intended for the Linsingen group of armies but now no longer needed in view of the improved situa- tion there, was sent to the South Army, and intervened with its igth Div. on Aug. i3th at Brzezany with success. The attacks led by the Russians against the South Army's S. wing on the two following days ended in failure.
With Kb'vess's Army a comparatively peaceful interval had set in, and, in consequence, the 5ist Honved Inf. Div. was able to go to Transylvania, where from day to day an inroad by the Rumanians was expected, while the 44th Schiitzen Div. .was , handed over to the Isonzo front. To replace these the German; XXIV. Res. Corps with ij inf. divs. was sent to the III. Army, the German commander, General von Gerok, taking over the command of the III. Army's N. wing from General Kraewell. |
The Counter-Offensive in the Wooded Carpathians. On the S. wing of Archduke Karl's Army front the allies had so many troops available in the beginning of Aug. that they were able at last to proceed to a counter-offensive. Lt.-Gen. Conta was to , attack from the centre of the VII. Army with the Carpathian Corps and the 68th Inf. Bde. in the Czeremos valley. The two neighbouring groups were to join in with this attack: Field- Marshal-Lt. Rudolf Krauss (67th and 202nd Inf. Bdes. and 8th Cav. Div.) from the Jablonica Pass into the Pruth valley; and the 4oth Honved Inf. Div., which was later placed under the
