The Eastern Front 1914-1917 (62 page)

⁶
C. J. Smith:
The Russian Struggle for Power
(New York 1952) and particularly A. Dallin and M. Abrash (ed.) :
Russian Secret Diplomacy
(New York 1962).

⁷
W. Winkler:
Die Einkommensverschiebungen in Oesterreich
(Vienna 1930) p.122f.

⁸
F. Fischer:
Griff nach der Weltmacht
(1967 ed. Düsseldorf) p. 482. A thorough, though inconclusive, review of the whole problem is J. Kocka:
Klassengesellschaft im Krieg
(Göttingen 1973).

⁹
N. Valentinov:
Snosheniya
p. 80f. and his article: ‘Russkiye voyska vo Frantsii i Salonikakh’ in
Voyenno-istoricheski sbornik
(Moscow) No. 4 (1921) pp. 3–22 cf. Yu. A. Pisarev: ‘Russkiye voyska na salonikskom fronte’ in
Istoricheskiye Zapiski
79 pp. 109–38. It was French politicians, rather than soldiers, who wanted to have Russian forces in France. There are some documents in
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) on inter-allied relations at this time (Alexeyev: ‘Worse than they now are, they cannot get’: No.1 p. 33ff. cf. Zhilinski’s comment that ‘Here there are no secrets, and you have to be thankful if things don’t reach the newsaer-headlines’).

¹⁰
Flot v mirovoy voyne
vol 2, passim; Lemke p. 192.

¹¹
Lemke p. 284–5.

¹²
Lemke pp. 299ff. extensively covers this battle; there is not much in
Strategicheski ocherk
V (ed. Klembovski) and VI (ed. Zayonchkovski), but they have at least overall strategic material. There is a useful article on it by ‘byvshi nashtayuz’ (= Klembovski) in
Voyennoye delo
1919/4 p. 192ff. and cf.
Oesterreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg
vol. 4, pp .3 -30.

¹³
Lemke p. 509f., 644; Kersnovski vol. 4 pp. 770, 880.

¹⁴
Laguiche’s report of 6th June 1916, No. 8326, Carton 77 EMA.

¹⁵
Neznamov: ‘Dva proryva’ in
Voyenno-istoricheski sbornik
1921/4 pp. 105–31, cf. his work in
Voyennoye delo
1918 Nos. 8 and 9, covering similar details.

¹⁶
Β. V. Kirey:
Artilleriya ataki i oborony
(ed. Burov, Moscow 1926) pp. 6f.

¹⁷
On this subject, esp. Lemke pp. 152, 329, 666, 777; Blair’s despatch No. 86 of 6th December 1915, WO. 106.1008 p. 1–3; Langlois’s
rapports
, especially Nos. 6 and 7 (June and October 1916); Frantz:
Russland auf dem Weg
, especially the
Tagebuch des Grossfürsten Andrej Wladimirowitsch
, p. 141 (on Guliewicz and Bezobrazov); Kondzerovski pp. 38–9 and 53.

¹⁸
Reichsarchiv:
Der Weltkrieg
vol. 10 pp. 424ff. covers this battle, and reckons that there were 11 infantry divisions in line, with nine in reserve, on the Russian side against five and three, respectively, on the German. The essential book on the Russian side is N Podorozhny:
Narochskaya operatsiya
(Moscow 1938); French pressure appears in
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) Nos. 2 and 4 of 18th and 22nd February 1916.

¹⁹
Lemke p. 617.

²⁰
Ibid, pp. 685ff. quotes a long report in causes of failure, from which I take these details. Dug-outs were deliberately kept a full mile from the front.

²¹
Lemke loc. cit. and Barsukov:
Russkaya artilleriya prilozheniye
4 pp. 208–14, which is a
Stavka
document ‘po povodu deystviy russkoy artillerii’, showing that Pleshkov’s group had 72 light and 156 medium or heavy guns, Masalski’s group having 54 light and only 12 medium (48-line howitzers) of them.

²²
Lyakhov and Verzhkhovski:
Pervaya mirovaya voyna
(Moscow 1964) p.178; cf. Alexeyev’s account of the battle to Zhilinski,
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) No. 12 of 29th April 1916.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

¹
Lemke p. 348ff. for literature on the Strypa offensive.

²
Ibid. pp. 170, 187, 655, 685 and Rostunov:
Brusilov
p.133.

³
Lemke p. 636ff.; cf. Blair’s despatch No. 2 of 1st June 1916 (WO. 106.1019) p. 10.

⁴
Klembovski;
Strat. ocherk
vol. 5 p. 27; cf. Zayonchkovski:
Strat. ocherk
vol. 6 p. 20ff. and Rostunov p. 112. The essential work on Brusilov’s offensive is RKKA:
Sbornikdokumentov mirovoy voyni na russkom fronte. Nastupleniye yugozapadnogo fronta
(Moscow 1940) which contains the documents of armies and front command for the offensive up to Baranovitchi. Beyond this, there is a considerable volume of literature, of which there is a list in the bibliography of Rostunov:
Brusilov
. Of these works, the most useful prove to be: A. Bazarevski:
Nastupatelnaya operatsiya 9. armii
(Moscow 1937); P. B. Cherkasov (ed.)
Mirovaya voyna. Lutski proryv
(Moscow 1924) which discusses the rôle of the other three armies. On the Central Powers’ side,
Oesterreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg
vol. 4 and Reichsarchiv:
Der Weltkrieg
vol. 10 p. 450ff. are the main accounts. In English, there is nothing beyond a few remarks by Knox
(With the Russian Army
vol. 2 passim.) and Brusilov:
A Soldier’s Notebook
(London 1929). For the meeting of commanders:
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) Nos. 12 (Alexeyev’s figures for Zhilinski, 29th April) 19–20 and 24 (Alexeyev s report to the Tsar); cf. appendices 3 and 5 of Klembovski:
Strategicheski ocherk
vol. 5.

⁵
Zayonchkovski:
Strat. ocherk
vol. 6 p. 8; on methods:
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) Nos. 29, 32, 36, 45, 48; Cherkasov p. 198ff. for XI Army; D. Nadezhny:
Boy 10. pekh. div. pod Lutskom
(Moscow 1925); A. Redkin–Rymashevski:
32. korpus
(Moscow 1926).

⁶
Figures for strength:
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) p. 19ff. and
prilozheniya
on supply and shell, cf. Cherkasov p. 16f.

⁷
Zayonchkovski:
Strat. ocherk
vol. 6 p. 25.

⁸
Nachlass
Pflanzer-Baltin (B/50:
Tagebuch
, Mappe 13 for 5th June 1916) but cf.
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) Nos. 73–4 pp. 165–9 for an exchange of 3rd May (old style) between Lechitski and Klembovski.

⁹
E. v. Falkenhayn:
Die Oberste Heeresleitung
vol. 2 pp. 216f.; cf. Berndt’s manuscript of 29th September 1929: ‘Betrachtungen über die Schlacht von Olyka—Luck 1916’ (
Kriegsarchiv
, manuscript collection) p. 8.

¹⁰
The details following are taken from
Kriegsarchiv
documents:
Neue Feldakten, 4. Op. Armeekommando
, Fasz. 166
Tagebücher
10–11 (1916–17): No. 10 concerns this period, and I have quoted
Op. Nr
. 824 (14th April) p. 126, 887 (22nd April), p. 140, 888 (23rd April) pp. 141–2, 1013 (2nd May) p.178, 1045–6 (12th and 13th May) pp. 190–1, 893 (15th May) p.196–7, 1083 (16th May) p. 200 the
Oberkommando
order (No. 147) on p. 200, and Szúrmay’s report of 2nd June on Russian desertions p. 238. The diary of 10
Corps is also useful (4
Tagebücher
1916–17, of which No. 9 pp. 1094ff. and 1125—15th April and 15th May are pertinent, on losses from sickness etc.). On munitions: for IV. Army, Fasz.154–6 and 199–200 (
Munitionsstände
24th August 1915 to 2nd September 1916 and
Tagesrapporte der Munitionsfassungsstelle Luck
); for VII Army, 7.
Op. Armeekommando Art. Referat. Op. Sammelnummer 1200–1600
.

¹¹
Nachlass
Berndt
Tagebücher
6 and 7, especially 17th and 18th September, 4th October, 23rd December 1915 and 28th–29th February, 18th and 23rd April 1916. This diary, (
Kriegsarchiv
B/203) consists of 12 voluminous note-books, with a variety of interesting photographs and observations.

¹²
Kundmann-
Tagebuch
16th Setember 1915 and 23rd September 1915.

¹³
Ibid. 27th May 1916; cf. Reichsarchiv:
Der Weltkrieg
X p. 451.

¹⁴
AOK. Op. B.
Fasz. 560 Nr. 19380 Tisza to Burián 30th December 1915 and Conrad to Tisza, 4th January 1916; A. v. Cramon:
Unser österreichisch-ungarischer Bundesgenosse
(Berlin 1921) pp. 118ff.

¹⁵
AOK.
Op.
B. Fasz. 551, nos. 18076ff and 19181 of 11th December 1915, 19322 of 19th December; cf. Fasz. 560 Nr. 21317 of 6th February 1916. Conrad offered all German troops back to Falkenhayn; Falkenhayn, insultingly, refused the offer; and there was a complete breach at the turn of 1915–16.

¹⁶
e.g. Kundmann-
Tagebuch
2nd January, 3rd February, 4th and 21st May for quarrels over Verdun and the Trentino.

¹⁷
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) Nos. 77ff. pp. 170–5.

¹⁸
Klembovski:
Strat. ocherk
vol. 5 p. 32.

¹⁹
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) No. 118ff. for the operation.

²⁰
Herberstein’s report to the Emperor’s
Militärkanzlei: AOK. OP. B.
Fasz. 450 Op. Geh. Nr.3 of 19th June 1916.

²¹
Rostunov p. 134f.

²²
Kundmann-
Tagebuch
10th June 1916.

²³
Knox to Buchanan 24th June 1916, in FO. 371.2748 (Russia, War 1916).

²⁴
A. Bernhard: ‘Okna’ and E. Wisshaupt: ’7. Armee’ in the
Kriegsarchiv
manuscript collection.

²⁵
Minute by Macdonough (DMI) on WO. 106.1019, Blair’s despatch No. 2 of 1st June 1916.

²⁶
Bazarevski’s is the most thorough account of this: cf. M. Pitreich :
Okna
(1931) and the
Nachlass
of Pflanzer-Baltin, especially his
Tagebuch
, Mappe 13.

²⁷
Berhard pp. 11–16 and Wisshaupt p. 28.

²⁸
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) No. 553, p. 520.

²⁹
AOK. Op. B
. Fasz. 460 Nos (Geh.) 14–15 of 25th and 29th June; the story is well-told in H. Meier-Welcker:
Seeckt
(Frankfurt 1967) cf. K. H. Janssen:
Kanzler
.

³⁰
Kundmann-
Tagebuch
13th June.

³¹
K. Korvin: ‘Kostyukhnovka’ in
Voyennoye delo
11–12 (1919) p. 431f. and cf. Neilson’s despatch of 24th October 1916 (WO. 106.1120).

³²
Klembovski pp. 48, 50–1;
Sbornik
(Nastupleniye) No. 322 p. 345 cf. No. 202 of p. 260 (Brusilov to Alexeyev, 18th and 10th June).

³³
Blair’s despatch No. 3 of 8th July 1916 (WO. 106.1020).

³⁴
Reichsarchiv:
Der Weltkrieg
vol. 10 pp. 451f, 473–4. By 19th June, 8½ German divisions
had arrived, with two to come. Almost all were from the west or centre; Ludendorff did little, as Hoffmann recorded. (
Aufzeichnungen
ed. Nowak, Berlin 1929, vol. 2 p.122).