Battle of Kraśnik

Part of the Eastern Front during World War I

Date	August 23–25, 1914
Location	Kraśnik, Congress Poland, Russian Empire (present-day Poland)
Result	Austro-Hungarian victory

Belligerents

Austria-Hungary

Russian Empire

Commanders and leaders

Conrad von Hötzendorf

Viktor Dankl

Nikolai Ivanov

Baron Salza

Strength

I. Army
144 infantry battalions
71 cavalry squadrons
354 guns

IV. Army
104 infantry battalions
100 cavalry squadrons
350 guns

Casualties and losses

15,000

25,000
including 6,000 POW
28 guns

The Battle of Kraśnik started on August 23, 1914 in the province of Galicia and the adjacent areas across the border in the Russian Empire, in northern Austria (now in present-day Poland), and ended two days later. The Austro-Hungarian First Army defeated the Russian Fourth Army. It was the first victory by Austria-Hungary in World War I. As a result, the First Army's commander, General Viktor Dankl, was (briefly) lauded as a national hero for his success. The battle was also the first of a series of engagements between Austria-Hungary and Russia all along the Galicia front.

The battle took place soon after the commencement of hostilities on the Eastern Front. In the East, late August and early September 1914 were characterized by a series of small-scale engagements between the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary and Germany, and the Allies, Serbia and Russia. Both sides rushed to mobilize their armies and thrust them headlong toward their frontiers in order to secure their borders and advance upon enemy territory as early as possible. Most of the early clashes tended to result in Russian and Serbian victories. By August 23, Russian forces had penetrated fifty miles into Prussia. Austria-Hungary had made minimal advances into Russian Poland by occupying Miechów, unopposed, on August 20.

During this early period the First Army was given orders issued by Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, to head toward Lublin and Brest-Litovsk in Russian Poland in order to make contact with the enemy and reach the strategic Warsaw-Kiev railroad. The First Army moved along the eastern bank of Vistula River and was to cross the San River, in the far northwest corner of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The First Army was accompanied by the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army on its eastern flank. At the same time Russian commander Nikolai Ivanov had ordered the Russian Fourth and Fifth Armies to strike Austria-Hungary in the north. Dankl's First Army would make contact with Salza's Fourth Army at Kraśnik while the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army met the Russian Fifth in the Battle of Komarów. These maneuvers were to become part of a wider battle, the Battle of Galicia.

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