None of the battle’s eyewitnesses are still alive but the ones who did see it agreed that all hell broke loose near Gorlice. On 2nd May 1915 at 6 a.m., almost a thousand Austrian and German cannons opened fire. 700 thousand missiles were fired over four hours. Their shells are still picked from the ground by adventurers and military enthusiasts. The local oil wells lit up with a ghastly blue flame.
The hell in Gorlice was methodically and accurately organised by the Austro-Hungarian coalition. In early 1915, after the numerous failures of the previous year, the Austrian army’s morale and will to battle was diminishing. The Russian army occupied a considerable part of Galicia, including the capital city of Lviv. The Przemyśl stronghold capitulated in March of 1915. If the tsarist troops had managed to break through the Carpathians, the Habsburg monarchy would have faced defeat. The imperial army needed a spectacular victory and their leaders needed changes on the eastern front. The Battle of Gorlice was supposed to do both – and it did.
General Conrad von Hötzendorf, the commander of the Austrian General Staff, proposed an offensive in the Gorlice region, which would aim to surprise the Russian army from behind. However, the Austrian forces were unable to break through the front. They were already too tired after four months of fighting. The decision was made to seek help from the German ally. The commanders of the Austrian and German general staffs, General Conrad von Hötzendorf and General Erich von Falkenhayn, met in Berlin on 14th April 1915. Following their meeting, the 11th German army was established. Under the command of General August von Mackensen, it was to take part in breaking through the front.
The plan was to attack the Russian army by surprise. The German army was shifted to the Galician front quietly and effectively. The four corps, which were rested, well-trained and equipped with powerful artillery, took their starting positions shortly. It was the skilful use of these weapons that determined the victory of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies in the Battle of Gorlice.
“The Germans are coming” “The Austrians are good people, but the Germans are bastards”
The Russian General Staff during the Battle of Gorlice, 1915; NAC
Despite taking all necessary protective measures, the Russians realised that the German army was on the other side of the front. One of the Polish witnesses of the battle wrote the following on 1st May 1915: “There was news from an unknown source doing the rounds that «The Germans are coming» « The Austrians are good people, but the Germans are bastards […] Your old emperor doesn’t want to go to war, the Germans do».”
The 11th German army under the command of General August von Mackensen (who was also the commander of the entire campaign), the 4th Austro-Hungarian army under the command of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, and the 3rd Austro-Hungarian army under the command of Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna were ready to battle on the morning of 2nd May. The 11th German army was to break through the front. The army received the 12th Austro-Hungarian infantry division known as the Kraków division, which was composed of a considerable number of Poles. Over 120 thousand German and Austrian soldiers spread across 35 kilometres were waiting for the sign to attack. They were supposed to be supported by the fire of about 700 cannons and mortars.
The 3rd tsarist army under the command of Bulgarian General in Russian service Radko Dmitriev was preparing for battle on the other side of the front. About 60 thousand soldats (soldiers) were getting ready to counter the attack in the Russian trenches. Many of them had fought during the winter; therefore, the German and Austrian commanders were hoping that their morale and combat value were low. However, the main hope for victory was the artillery advantage. The Russians had only about 150 cannons and little ammo on the segment of the planned breakthrough.
All hell broke out at 6 a.m.
The Battle of Gorlice. General Tadeusz Jordan Rozwadowski (first on the right) with his adjutant Wojciech Kossak (second on the right) on the front. In the background, the Skoda 305 mm Model 1911 howitzer, the so-called Skinny Emma, 1915; NAC
The four-hour long artillery preparations began at 6 a.m. on Sunday, the 2nd of May. The fire from the German and Austro-Hungarian cannons destroyed the first and second lines of the Russian trenches. One of the eyewitnesses of these events, the commander of the 100th infantry regiment Colonel Franciszek Latinik wrote that “700 cannons roared as they spat out steel and iron, cutting the air with various noises. As they pierced the foe’s position, they threw soil, rocks, beams, rifles, and human bodies high up into the air. The clouds of suffocating smoke were spreading.”
The infantry attacked at 10 a.m. The first line of trenches was seized without any trouble. The few survivors surrendered without a fight. However, the attackers soon encountered more shooting trenches, which survived because they were invisible to the artillery. A bayonet fight broke out, but the advantage went to the attackers. The Russian points of resistance were destroyed by field artillery, which was following the infantry. Pustki Hill, which overlooked the area, was captured at 10.50 a.m. by the 56th and 100th divisions of the Infantry Regimen of the 12th “Kraków” Division.
Soldiers of the 100th Cieszyn Infantry Regiment attacking Pustki Hill during the Battle of Gorlice. Visible heavy Schwarzlose machine guns model 07/12 with protective shields, 1915; Alois Zawatzky, NAC
The German army captured Gorlice in the early afternoon. Father Bronisław Świeykowski, who heroically acted as the mayor during the Russian occupation, wrote in his journal: “The first Bavarian patrol enters the town square at 3½ […]. Welcoming the three heroes with bread and salt, I thank them with the sincerest words […] and wish them to keep the fortune of today as they chase the enemy back to from where he came […]”.The battles of 2nd May continued into the night. The Russian fire stopped at 10 p.m., which meant that the Russians started to retreat back east. Sixty kilometres of the front were broken. The intensive battles continued for several days. Despite receiving reinforcements, the Russians were unable to stop the attackers. Successive towns were captured: Biecz, Żmigród, Jasło, Tarnów, and Rzeszów. On 22nd June, the Austro-Hungarian army seized Lviv.
The Battle of Gorlice was a turning point of the fights on the eastern front. The defeated Russian army would never again present a threat to Austria and the loss of Lviv definitively ended the Russian hope to act as the “saviour” of the Slavs. Besides the aforementioned shells and dozens of local stories and legends, the Gorlice region got something else: war cemeteries. The land of Gorlice took in about 17 thousand tsarist soldiers and at least 8 thousand German and Austrian soldiers. Contemporary historians estimate that as many as 150 thousand soldiers could have been killed during the entire Gorlice campaign.
Bibliography:
Klimecki M., Gorlice 1915, Warsaw 1991.
Latinik F., Żołnierz polski pod Gorlicami (The Polish Soldier at Gorlice) 1915, Przemyśl 1923.
Pajewski J., Historia Powszechna (World History) 1871–1918, Warsaw 2002.
Świeykowski B., Z dni grozy w Gorlicach od 25 IX 1914 do 2 V 1915 (The Days of Horror in Gorlice between 25 September 1914 and 2 May 1915 ), Kraków 1919.
Załęski M., Gorlice w historii wojny europejskiej (Gorlice in the History of the European War), Gorlice 1985.