Battle of the Vistula River

Battle of the Vistula River
Part of the Eastern Front during World War I
Eastern Front, September 1914.
Date 29 September-31 October 1914 Location Warsaw, present-day Poland Result Russian victory
Belligerents
German Empire  Austria-Hungary	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Paul von Hindenburg Viktor Dankl August von Mackensen Remus von Woyrsch Max von Gallwitz	Nikolai Ruzsky Nikolai Ivanov Alexei Evert Pavel Plehve
Units involved
German Ninth Army Austro-Hungarian First Army	Second Army Fourth Army Fifth Army Ninth Army
Strength
IX (German Empire) - 141 000 I (Austria-Hungary)- unknown. - 165 000	II, IV,V Army - 400 000. IX - unknown
Casualties and losses
German Army 19,029 KIA, MIA, WIA; Austria-Hungary Army - 50,145 KIA, MIA, WIA Total 69,174	Total 145,309 KIA, MIA, WIA

The Battle of the Vistula River, also known as the Battle of Warsaw, was a Russian victory against the German Empire and Austria-Hungary on the Eastern Front during the First World War.

By mid-September 1914 the Russians were driving the Austro-Hungarian Army deep into Galicia, threatening Krakow, and the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia was floundering. The armies that the Russian commander Grand Duke Nicholas was assembling in Poland were still enlarging, including the arrival of crack troops from Siberia, freed by the Japanese declaration of war against Germany on 23 August . Stavka (Russian supreme headquarters) intended for the forces assembled south of Warsaw—500,000 men and 2,400 guns—to march west to invade the German industrial area of Upper Silesia, which was almost undefended. On their Eastern Front the Germans had only one army, the Eighth, which was in East Prussia. It already had mauled two Russian armies at Tannenberg and at the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. To support the reeling Austro-Hungarian Armies, OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung, German supreme headquarters) formed a new German Ninth Army in Silesia, to be commanded by General Richard von Schubert, with Erich Ludendorff, transferred from Eighth army, as chief of staff. Ludendorff quickly evaluated the situation in Silesia and convinced the new commander at OHL, Erich von Falkenhayn, to strengthen the Ninth army and also to make Paul von Hindenburg commander of both German armies in the east. Ninth army, with headquarters in Breslau, consisted of the XVII, XX, XI, Guard Reserve and Landwehr Corps, as well as a mixed Landwehr Division from Silesia and the Saxon 8th Cavalry Division. In early October, the Army was reinforced by the 35th Reserve Division from East Prussia. Thus, Hindenburg had at his disposal 12 Infantry and one cavalry divisions. On 17 September papers from a dead German officer disclosed to the Russians that four German Corps, which they believed to be in East Prussia, were now in Silesia.

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