Military History of the First World War
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The Eastern Front during 1915
In general, warfare on the Eastern front was more mobile than that on the Western front. This is due to two factors. Firstly, the concentration of manpower was much less. At the beginning of 1915 Germany had 100 divisions on the Western front compared to 80 divisions of both Central Powers along the Eastern front, which, obviously, is much longer. Secondly, there was a much higher concentration of heavy artillery on the Western front. Thus, trench warfare was not a major feature of the conflict on the Eastern front and battles in which manoeuvre was an important feature were more common there. The Russians had pocketed part of the Austrian army and laid siege to a force of 120,000 men in the fortress of Przemysl. Austrian commander, Conrad, sought with the support of German reinforcements, to relieve them. Conrad began his campaign on 23rd January 1915 in temperatures as low as -15ºC. He failed in his objective to relieve Przemysl, which fell on the 23rd March. Conrad also sustained very heavy losses - 400,000. Most of his experienced officers and NCOs were also killed or wounded. The Russians also sustained casualties of 400,000 men. However, to the north, the Germans under the command of Ludendorff and Hindenburg, attacked and pushed the Russians back 70 miles inflicting 200,000 casualties on the Russians. But Austria-Hungary was already near to collapse, and there was some talk of a negotiated peace. Falkenhayn transferred eight divisions from the Western front to a newly formed Eleventh Army under the command of August von Mackensen, which was assembled to the north of the Carpathians. The Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow commenced on 2nd May; Russian front lines were quickly overrun and by mid May the German Eleventh Army had reached the River San, and on the 3rd June Przemysl was retaken. Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente (France, Britain and Russia) and Conrad was forced to transfer forces to the Italian border. However, Mackensen's forces continued the offensive and crossed the Dniester. Hindenburg attacked in the north and took Warsaw on 5th August and Brest-Litovsk on the 25th. The German advance of 300 miles proved to be their undoing, for they had outrun supply, whilst the Russians were retreating to positions of better supply and reinforced by fresh troops. However, the Russians lost 850, 000 men as prisoners and almost a million as casualties.
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Contents of
Military History of the First World War
1 The Central Powers and the Entente
2 The run-up to the war: The July Crisis, 1914
3 Military Planning in Advance of the War
4 Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914
5 The Battle for the Marne
6 The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres
7 First Battle of Ypres
8 The Pacific
9 Africa
10 The Eastern Front during 1915
11 Italy enters the war
12 The Balkans
13 The Western Front
14 Gallipoli
15 The Western Front, 1916
16 Verdun
17 The Battle of the Somme
18 The Trentino Offensive
19 The Brusilov Offensive
20 Romania
21 The Russian Front in 1917
22 Mesopotamia
23 The Nivelle Offensive
24 The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passendaele)
25 Cambrai
26 Caporetto
27 German offensive in Russia, 1918
28 Ludendorff's offensive in the West
29 Allied counter-offensive
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