Chapter 114: Annihilate The Enemy At Tarnuv
Colonel Federer von Bock’s several assault battalions, in just 6 hours from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., with 1.5 hours reserved for bombardment fire preparation, shattered the defending Lusha 57th Division in Gorlice town.
Then, in just another 3.5 hours（ including travel time）, they shattered the Cossack 12th Cavalry Division that came to reinforce the Lusha 57th Division.
Then, at 2 p.m. on May 12, they turned south without stopping, straight infiltrating the rear of Tarnuv County Town along the railway. Finally, late at night, they smoothly maneuvered into position, cutting off the railway line between Tarnuv and the rear areas of Rzeszów and Przemysl Fortress.
In one whole day, the Germanian vanguard elites fought two fierce battles, first tearing apart the enemy’s foremost 5-kilometer-deep defense line with bombardment, then opening the subsequent 3-kilometer secondary defense line with infantry infiltration, and finally breaking a wave of arriving cavalry.
They advanced a full 8 kilometers in the defense line area, then another 13 kilometers in the undefended open terrain, totaling 21 kilometers east-west in one day. Finally, they turned south, marching another 8 kilometers north-south, also shattering several small-scale reconnaissance and harassing cavalry units along the way.
In other words, in 18 hours of one whole day, they fought two major battles, several harassment-level small battles, and marched a total of 29 kilometers in the wild, with a small half being muddy areas.
This speed is worthy of an iron army.
And precisely because of their such speed, in just 18 hours, the entire Lusha Army’s one full corps stationed in Tarnuv County, with its 3 subordinate divisions, was thus enveloped in a half-circle dumpling.
The county town garrison’s retreat route was not yet completely cut off; theoretically, if they transferred south to the rugged hills of the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains’ remnants, they might still climb out of the encirclement.
But the corps commander garrisoning the county town, Lieutenant General Belinnovsky, knew very well: if he offered no resistance and let the troops break out over the mountains, even if they escaped alive, he would face a military court and get shot.
Breaking out over the mountains meant having to abandon all supplies and heavy equipment in the railway county town of Tarnuv, traveling light on foot, directly supplying the enemy with the entire county town.
Moreover, the enemy came so suddenly; General Brusilov had entrusted him with the western front defense line facing the enemy from Krakow, and he collapsed in less than a day—what if the enemy swiftly pounced on Rzeszów and cut off Dukla Pass?
By then, the entire Southwestern Front’s main force would be blocked south of the mountains and cut off from supply lines!
That midnight, a bleak atmosphere enveloped the entire Tarnuv County Town.
Lieutenant General Belinnovsky gathered his 3 division commanders for an emergency consultation on countermeasures.
“What to do? The enemy’s action was too fast! In just one day, unexpectedly, we have been half-encircled, and the railway retreating to Rzeszów has been cut off by the enemy!”
Among his subordinate division commanders, some advised directly bypassing to break out of the encirclement, but it was directly rejected.
Then everyone’s opinion naturally unified on the dead-end road of “counterattacking along the railway to the rear to reopen the railway line.”
Moreover, there was 1 division of friendly forces at the edge of the mountainous area south of the county town. But since Gorlice north of the county town had been breached, there was no need to hold the open fields south, so that division could slightly contract, but not directly withdraw to the county town.
Instead, first withdraw east, then north, to still flank the Germanian forces that had rushed to the railway line from the side.
Corps Commander Belinnovsky: “It’s decided, just like this. Since the defense line has been breached, hoping to hold everywhere along the entire line is meaningless. What is needed now is to focus on holding the railway line tenaciously and withdraw slowly to delay time. The enemy troops that bypassed to the rear came through rugged muddy wilds, definitely without heavy cannons. We have heavy cannons; steadily fighting while withdrawing to the rear will certainly buy enough time to bring out the troops and heavy equipment!”
However, after the corps commander made this decision, some corps staff officers and individual division commanders still pointed out risks: “This plan is fine overall. The enemy that bypassed to envelop us did take a muddy detour, and indeed won’t have heavy cannons.
But the enemy main force advancing from directly west along the railway must have a large number of heavy cannons. If we split forces to attack the enemy behind us, what if the frontal enemy launches a strong assault and the defense line collapses?”
Corps Commander Belinnovsky quickly realized this issue and supplemented: “Of course the frontal defense line cannot be abandoned. So, let the 54th Division continue holding the frontal defense line of Tarnuv County, the 56th Division serve as the main counterattack force, and the 55th Division as the reserve.
At the same time, the 58th Division bypassing from the southern hilly area should act together with the 56th Division. The 56th Division attacks the front of the enemy behind us, and the 58th Division flanks from the south side of the enemy behind us.”
He had 4 divisions left on hand: 1 division filling the line to hold, 2 divisions turning back to deal with the enemy behind, and the last 1 division as general reserve.
Perfect.
Although they would ultimately retreat step by step along the railway, with this method of fighting, holding out for three to five days was certainly no problem, and the final remnants could definitely withdraw to Rzeszów, even Przemysl Fortress.
At least Corps Commander Belinnovsky himself thought so.
This plan was quickly put into action. The Lusha 56th/58th Divisions, and even the Cossack 14th Cavalry Division sent by Army Group Commander General Brusilov from the rear, were to launch a powerful counterattack against the Germanian Army vanguard wedged behind the railway line at dawn the next day, to retake the positions and reopen the railway line.
However, they would soon feel the terrifying attack-defense conversion speed of the enemy’s assault battalion tactics.
……
“Hurry! All troops double time forward! The vanguard friendly forces tore open the gap so quickly; we must quickly fill the defense in place!”
In the darkness, the 3 divisions under the 39th Corps of the German 10th Army Group were already maniacally maneuvering east. Along the blood road blazed by those assault battalions during the day, successively enveloping the enemy rear.
Because they had to march across muddy fields between towns, the 39th Corps’ heavy artillery units also could not maneuver and were stuck in the rear; the 3 divisions’ artillery regiments were temporarily allocated to friendly forces for use.
Only a very few 105 field guns were still cross-country maneuvering via a few half-track vehicles that had not yet broken down, pulled to the enemy rear for deployment.
Among the 3 divisions of the 39th Corps, the one following the assault battalions most closely was even only 1-2 hours’ distance behind. After the assault battalions infiltrated into position at midnight, the leading regiment of the 39th Corps also maneuvered into position at 2 a.m. on the 13th.
Then on average, one more regiment arrived every hour; by dawn, there was already a full division’s scale in the enemy rear, and 2 more divisions of the enemy northern front flank were maneuvering.
The troops already in position immediately began building field fortifications, digging foxholes at the fastest speed, or setting up heavy machine gun positions and light mortars relying on natural terrain.
And 24 75mm light field guns were also deployed to the positions—these guns were captured that afternoon by Colonel Bock’s several assault battalions when they countercharged the Lusha 12th Cossack Cavalry Division.
Meanwhile, those several assault battalions that had fought continuously all day on the 12th were now placed in relatively safe rear depth positions, all able to sleep and rest.
Moreover, they were given the best food treatment, plus captured vodka rations to relieve fatigue and aid sleep.
This is the essence of assault battalion tactics: once a decisive breakthrough is achieved, immediately convert to attack-defense. The assault troops that bitterly fought the breakthrough, after turning to positional defense, should fully rest, cherishing their lives and energy, never wasting them in line-filling battles.
Line-filling has its own troops to complete it.
Marshal Leopold’s 10th Army Group, totaling under the 21st Corps and the 38th/39th/40th Corps, with the latter 3 corps being newly expanded reserves, only the 21st Corps being the old troops existing at the start of the war.
Now, the marshal had the 21st Corps serve as the assault troops on the frontal of Tarnuv County, the 39th Corps bypassing the enemy rear, the 38th Corps as general reserve, and the 40th Corps guarding the rear Krakow, ready to reinforce other secondary directions at any time to prevent gaps in their own defense zone.
Under the coordination of this “hammer” 21st Corps and “anvil” 39th Corps, the several Lusha Army divisions in the Tarnuv County defense zone could not hold out long.
……
Time flashed to after dawn on May 13.
The Lusha Army 56th/58th Divisions in the Tarnuv County area, and the Cossack 14th Cavalry Division rushing from rear Rzeszów, finally launched a full-scale attack on the German 10th Army Group’s subordinate 39th Corps that had just maneuvered into position.
Corps Commander Belinnovsky thought that in just half a night’s time, the Germanian forces infiltrated behind them were definitely not many in scale and without heavy cannons, so he attacked very urgently.
2 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry division conducted fierce fire preparation on the positions of the German 39th Corps that had only been dug for a few hours, followed by a frenzied charge.
The Germanian forces had no time to dig trenches and could only defend relying on natural terrain and the freshly dug foxholes.
When the Lusha artillery barrage covered over, all Germanian soldiers tried to hug the ground as much as possible, but propped up on elbows to keep their chests and abdomens hovering a few to a dozen centimeters off the ground, like doing non-standard planks.
This way, they avoided being killed by shrapnel splinters while not pressing their chests too tightly to the ground to be injured internally by shockwaves.
All soldiers endured silently, waiting for the bombardment to pass; the soldiers on the positions were also deployed as loosely and sparsely as possible, not giving the enemy unnecessary opportunities.
Meanwhile, Germanian fighter reconnaissance aircraft were already overhead, carefully observing the Lusha Army artillery positions in the Tarnuv County defense zone on the ground, their precise locations, then reporting targets to the artillery via radio in the rear seat.
The heavy artillery positions of the German 21st Corps west of Tarnuv County immediately began counter-battery fire on the Lusha Army artillery positions in Tarnuv County Town.
The newly online 150mm K16 long-range cannons, with a maximum range of 19 kilometers, at least 7 kilometers beyond Lusha same-caliber guns, a qualitative leap. The German cannons deployed west of Tarnuv County could cover the entire county town from afar.
So, the Germanian heavy artillery, perhaps unable to maneuver around to the rear through mud for deployment and unable to bombard the large Lusha infantry forces withdrawing west to break out.
But to counter the Lusha Army artillery deployed in Tarnuv County Town, the range was definitely sufficient—the Lusha artillery positions were generally 5-10 kilometers further west than the army infantry about to attack, and this distance difference was enough for the German cannons west of the county town to counter.
In a word, the Lusha artillery in the county town bombards the German infantry east of the city, and the German cannons west of the city counter-bombard the Lusha artillery in the city.
The interlocking suppression immediately gave Corps Commander Belinnovsky a splitting headache; his bombardment lasted not long before many heavy cannons were countered.
He also knew it was the enemy’s fighter reconnaissance aircraft at work and immediately urgently wired the rear, hoping Army Group Commander Brusilov could quickly send fighters to counter.
Brusilov received the front-line urgent wire, knowing his subordinates were still fighting bloodily, and was extremely anxious, mobilizing all the aircraft he could muster.
……
Now it was already May 1915, nearly 3 months since the previous “Dunkirk-Ypres Campaign.”
In these 3 months, the Entente Powers’ aircraft had undergone considerable emergency improvements. After all, in the previous brutal battles on the Franco-Belgian border, the Entente air forces suffered heavy losses; Germanian aircraft were equipped with MG15 air-cooled machine guns, while the Entente side had few standard machine guns, and whenever aircraft encountered them, the Germanian side held all the advantages.
At that time, the British Army suffered the main losses, so upon return, they reflected deeply, realizing their biggest problem was that “the Lewis air-cooled machine gun was still in repeated testing and refinement without finalization, so the aircraft units lacked sufficiently good and lightweight machine guns.”
Thus, in March, Britannia resolutely punished several guys dragging progress with excessive refinement blocking production, forcing the Lewis air-cooled machine gun into immediate production! Even if not perfect, never mind! Produce them first for aircraft use!
Everything in wartime is rapid, especially after suffering a disastrous defeat that wiped out the expeditionary army, the reflection speed was ridiculously fast.
So in less than 2 months, the Britannians spared no expense to produce over a thousand Lewis air-cooled light machine guns, equipping all their aircraft, and sold several hundred to the Frankish and Lusha to equip their reconnaissance aircraft with standard machine guns, solving the self-defense firepower issue.
After ground combat began, just an hour and a half later, dozens of Lusha reconnaissance aircraft, at General Brusilov’s request, hastily arrived at the battlefield. They were armed with Lewis-type air-cooled machine guns, ready to give the Germanian counterparts a lesson.
Three months apart, one should look with new eyes! Now Lusha reconnaissance aircraft also had air-cooled machine guns!
Over Tarnuv County, exactly 8 a.m.
Major Nesterov, captain of the reconnaissance flight squadron of the Lusha 8th Army Group, arrived at the battlefield with his remaining 31 comrades.
It was no longer the early days of the war; the aircraft models of the warring sides were also rapidly upgrading.
The Lusha now used Morane G-type monoplanes, while the opposing Germanian side used Albatros Type 1 biplane fighter reconnaissance aircraft.
（The above image is the Albatros Type 1 fighter, developed into Type 2 by late 1915, Type 3 in 1916）
Still at least 30 kilometers from Tarnuv County, sharp-eyed Major Nesterov vaguely spotted the opposing Germanian reconnaissance aircraft group.
He immediately got excited and roared an order to the nearest other flight captain beside him:
“Each squadron form up independently, envelop the enemy aircraft group from both wings, annihilate them with flank machine gun fire! The enemy’s aircraft numbers are fewer than ours!”
This era had no megaphones, no radio callers; aerial command could only rely on shouting, and only nearby friendly aircraft could hear, so such orders could only be shouted a few times when the two officers’ aircraft approached.
The other officer who heard Major Nesterov’s roar quickly veered slightly and waggled his wings left and right twice, signaling his team to follow.
The subsequent pilots all followed the captain’s wing waggles, forming a ragged column, sparsely trailing behind.
