Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/793

Rh

heights N. ancl N.E. of .Lubaczow was heavily engaged with the combined corps and the X. Corps, while farther S. the remainder of the Army (XLI. Corps, Austro-Hungarian VI. Corps, Guard Corps and XXII. Reserve Corps) reached their objectives on the line Niemirow-Jaworow without opposition. On the front of the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand the right and centre of the Russian III. Army held its ground. In the afternoon violent fighting commenced at Cewkow and Cieplice. This ended on the following morning (June 17) in the storming of the heights N. of Cewkow by the XVII. Corps, which led to the retreat of the Russian III. Army behind the Upper Tanew and also to the evacuation of the Rudnik area. The IV. Army followed them up as far as the heights parallel with the S. bank of the Tanew, its right wing having reached N. of Cieszanow.

The II. Army, which had on the previous day worked its way up to the main Russian positions, now began its preliminary bombardment, and attacked the main crossing points. Heavy fighting took place between the XVIII. Corps and the Russian XXVIII. Corps for the possession of Grodek, as also for the bridges of Kommarno and Lubicn Wk. (Great). Meanwhile on the left the Austro-Hungarian XIX. Corps crossed the Wereszyca near Kamienobrod and in conjunction with the IV. Corps began an enveloping attack against the Wielkopole ridge.

The XI. Army had now arrived in face of the Russian main position, and a general attack in the direction Rawa Ruska- Zolkiew was ordered for June 19.

On the 1 8th the Russians resisted fiercely on the whole front. The II. Army, however, succeeded in taking Mosty and Kom- marno and in completely clearing the W. bank of the Wereszyca. The XI. Army pushed closer up to the Russian positions, against which the artillery preparation had already begun, and grouped itself for the forthcoming attack. This was to be begun at 7 A.M. on the igth, after two hours' artillery preparation, by the XLI. Austro-Hungarian, VI. Guard and XXII. Corps, while the X. Corps and Stein's combined corps were to cover its northern flank towards Rawa Ruska. The II. Army was to capture Lem- berg and to outflank and roll up the Russian line on the Dniester, while the IV. Army was to cover the XI. in the direction of the Tanew, and with its right wing corps to follow the XI. Army.

The assaulting wedge of the four corps of the XI. Army succeeded in breaking the stubborn resistance of the principal Russian front, pressing through it in the direction of Magierow, and penetrating as far as the Rawa Ruska-Lemberg railway. The II. Army had heavy fighting before the Russian main position. After two days' fierce battle the XVIII. Corps com- pleted the capture of Grodek, the XIX. Corps took two points d'appui N.W. of Kamienobrod, while the IV. and the Beskiden Corps to the N. began at 5 P.M. the bombardment of the heights by Wielkopole and Stradec in the bend of the Wereszyca. The infantry assaults that followed lasted till the late evening of the 2oth, and resulted at 4 A.M. next morning in the capture of the Stradec height, which was the key position for the next advance. That same evening the S. wing stormed the heights on the E. bank of the Wereszyca, while the XVIII. Corps broke through the Russian positions on the Grodek road. These successes marked the failure of the last Russian attempts to bar the way to Lemberg. Their main position was no longer tenable, and a gen- erfl retreat now began on the eastern front of the XI. Army and the whole front of the II. Army.

The Baltic of Lemberg, June 20-22. On the evening of June 20 the Russians recognized that, in view of the disastrous break- through at Magierow, they could no longer hold their main posi- tion. The next line of defence ran from the Dniester at Mikola- jow, along the hills E. of the Szczerek to Sokolniki, where it joined the girdle of fortified positions extending from Sokolniki by Rzesna Polska to the height of Lysa Gora. From this point it continued on the heights W. of Kulikow by Glinsko, and along the Rawa Ruska road, where it joined the unchanged portion of the Russian main position running by Brusno Stary and the heights N. of Cieszanow along the Tanew.

After the break-through at Magierow the Austro-Hungarian VI. Corps, the German Guard, and parts of the XXII. Res.

Corps had pressed forward a considerable distance. The situa- tion being still somewhat obscure, it was deemed advisable not to push the XI. Army on June 20 beyond the Lemberg-Rawa Ruska railway, particularly as wireless messages and aviation reports, while announcing the Russian forces were retiring towards the N.E., gave reason to suspect a strong hostile con- centration N. of Rawa Ruska. The XI. Army in its further advance could not run the risk of being exposed to a stroke against its flank from this direction. It was therefore not to advance E. beyond the line of the above-mentioned road, and was to keep in close touch to the N. with the right flank of the IV. Army. Should the enemy retire, however, he was to be energetically pursued.

On the evening of the 2oth the XLI. Corps, fighting on Macken- sen's right wing, had succeeded in coming up to the strong Rus- sjan positions at Glinsko and had begun its artillery attack. Arz's Austro-Hungarian corps to the N., after repulsing several hos- tile counter-attacks during the previous night, had also made progress. The Guard, and parts of the XXII. Reserve Corps, after heavy fighting, had stormed the Lemberg-Rawa Ruska road and railway on a front of 7 m. N.E. of Dobrosin. On the front of the remainder of the XXII. Reserve and X. Corps there was little change, advance troops of the ipth Div. (X. Corps) oc- cupied the village of Rawa Ruska, driving the Russians back to the heights immediately N. of it. Meanwhile on Mackensen's left army wing Stein's combined corps drove back the Russian Guard at Brusno Stary. On the IV. Army front there was no important change.

The II. Army was closely following up the retiring Russians. On the left the Beskiden Corps, completing its success of the previous night, reached the line Polany-Rokitno. The IV., XIX., and XVIII. Corps were, by the evening, close up to the fortified line, while the V. Corps, during the pursuit of June 20, reached the Szczerek below Pustomyty in the south. The 5ist Honved Div. and Szurmay's corps, which had been transferred from the Southern to the It Army, drove the Russians com- pletely across the Dniester.

The main burden of the further attack fell upon the II. Army, which was to capture Lemberg as soon as possible, while the right wing of the XI. Army was to render the northern front of Lemberg untenable by a wide turning movement to the east. The forcing of the Dniester line by the German Southern Army, and its advance into the area E. of Lemberg against Brussilov's left flank, would materially increase the success of the plan.

The energetic advance of the II. Army on the S. wing on June 21 bore full fruit; the V. Corps succeeded in several places in capturing the Russian advanced positions on the E. bank of the Szczerek. Thus the sist Honved Inf. Div. gained possession of a hill just N. of Usiec at the confluence of the Szczerek with the Dniester. The i4th Inf. Div. penetrated the Russian positions at Dmytrze 4 m. S. of Szczerek, while the 33rd Inf. Div. stormed the bridge to the N. of this place at Za Grobla. The XVIII. Corps, exposed to the flank fire of heavy artillery from Sokolniki, was unable to advance, but the XIX. Corps worked its way close up to the points d'appui of Sokolniki, Sknit6w and Rzesna Polska. The IV. Corps had already captured the advanced positions of the Lysa Gora and Brzuchowice forts, making an enveloping position against them secure, while the Beskiden Corps cleared the edge of the woods W. of Zarudce.

On the XL Army front Arz crossed the Lemberg road in the forest region S. of Dobrosin, while Lt.-Gen. Francois' XLI. Corps was heavily engaged round the strong positions on the heights at Glinsko, capturing the most westerly summit in the afternoon. On the remainder of the XI. Army front and that of the IV. Army the situation remained unchanged.

On the night of the 22nd the Russians, at Glinsko, threatened to the N. by the advance of Arz's corps, and to the S. by the Beskiden Corps, which had beaten them back in the actions at Zaszkow and Zarudce, evacuated their now very exposed posi- tions facing the XLI. Corps and fell back by Blyszczywody and Dzibulki. Arz on the afternoon of the 22nd penetrated deeply into the forest area N.E. of Zolkiew.