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Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive

Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive
Part of the Eastern Front of World War I
EasternFront1915b.jpg
Gorlice–Tarnów breakthrough
and Russian withdrawal
Date 2 May – June 1915
Location Gorlice and Tarnów area , south-east of Kraków , Austria-Hungary (present-day Poland)
Result

Central Powers victory

Belligerents
 German Empire
 Austria-Hungary
 Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
German Empire August von Mackensen
German Empire Hans von Seeckt
Austria-Hungary Eduard von Böhm
Austria-Hungary Svetozar Boroević
Austria-Hungary Paul von Brlog
Austria-Hungary Archduke Joseph Ferdinand of Austria
Russian Empire Radko Dimitriev
Units involved
German Empire XI Army
Austria-Hungary II Army
Austria-Hungary III Army
Austria-Hungary IV Army
Russian Empire III Army
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses

German Empire:
2 May – 22 June:
87,000 killed, wounded, and missing

Austria-Hungary:
unknown

2 May – 22 June:
Total: ~550,000
250,000 captured
~300,000 killed and wounded

Alternate estimate: 412,000 killed, wounded, missing only in May

Central Powers victory

German Empire:
2 May – 22 June:
87,000 killed, wounded, and missing

2 May – 22 June:
Total: ~550,000
250,000 captured
~300,000 killed and wounded

The Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive during World War I was initially conceived as a minor German offensive to relieve Russian pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to their south on the Eastern Front, but resulted in the Central Powers' chief offensive effort of 1915, causing the total collapse of the Russian lines and their retreat far into Russia. The continued series of actions lasted the majority of the campaigning season for 1915, starting in early May and only ending due to bad weather in October.

In the early months of war on the Eastern Front, the German Eighth Army conducted a series of almost miraculous actions against the two Russian armies facing them. After surrounding and then destroying the Russian Second Army at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff wheeled their troops to face the Russian First Army at the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, almost destroying them before they reached the protection of their own fortresses as they retreated across the border.

When these actions petered out in late September, much of two Russian armies had been destroyed, and all Russian forces had been ejected from the Masurian Lakes area of modern north-east Poland after losing almost 200,000 killed or captured soldiers.

The Russians did far better in the south where they faced the Austro-Hungarians, who mobilized more rapidly and started their own offensive in late August from Galicia, their province in partitioned Poland, initially pushing the Russians back into what is now central Poland. However, a well-executed Russian counter-stroke in late September, when they had brought more men to the front, pushed their enemy back over their own borders in disarray, leaving a large garrison besieged in the fortress city of Przemyśl.


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Wikipedia

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