Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War. Ryszard Kaczmarek

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СКАЧАТЬ to Milowic. The second battalion followed them as back guard with the regimental orchestra. After a week, they were replaced by soldiers of Silesian Landwehr under the command of General Remus von Woyrsch. After crossing the border on August 3, the Germans seized Sosnowiec, Będzin, and Częstochowa without a fight, before the offensive in the Western Front even began.¹⁶¹

      The flags, cheering, and flowers accompanied the soldiers of the rearguard battalion at every venue, who was followed by the regiment’s staff. When on August 2, at 12.45 pm, war was declared on Russia, supported by a squadron of the Uhlan regiment and half of the fifth battery of the Field Artillery Regiment No. 57, the marching soldiers moved toward the line Mysłowice–Będzin-Grodziec. Later, they did not perform military but guard duty; they guarded bridges, protected railway stations, blocked road, and guarded mines.¹⁶² The ←59 | 60→troops from Mysłowice seized Dąbrowa Basin without a fight, while tactically communicating with Austrian troops from the First Army, which already seized the borderland Olkusz and Wolbrom. Somewhat symbolically, the commanders of both German and Austrian armies met close to the Three Emperors’ Corner. On August 7, the Landwehr’s 23rd Infantry Regiment replaced the 22nd Infantry Regiment’s troops along with the accompanying cavalry and artillery, which belonged to the guard duty and then returned to garrisons in Katowice and Bytom. The mobilization finished there, and trainings continued in military training areas, so there was a possibility to merge subunits on active duty with the subunits of reserve soldiers.¹⁶³

      Further north, the Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 63 performed similar duties. At the time of mobilization, half of the squadron of the 11th Mounted Rifles (Jäger-Regiment zu Pferde Nr. 11) joined and together they protected the border by Częstochowa. On August 2, shooters, all battalions of the infantry regiment, and two batteries of the Field Artillery Regiment No. 57 concentrated in Lubliniec.¹⁶⁴ At that time, there appeared a piece of information that the Russian cavalry and infantry were spotted at an important railway junction of Herby and Częstochowa. The information originated from a pro-German priest from the Herby parish. It turned out to be partially true, but there occurred fights for the control over the railway station with the Cossacks. The soldiers of the Upper Silesian regiment managed to retreat by finding an engine, which they used to reach their own troops under Russian cannonade. At 3 am, the commander of the Infantry Regiment No. 63 ordered to conduct an attack toward Częstochowa with the main forces; that is, with the first and third battalion along with the staff in Lubliniec, the second battalion in Kuźnica, and the mounted riflemen near Lisów. After crossing the border meanwhile abandoned by the Russian, the march deep into the Kingdom of Poland turned out much more difficult than the march of the troops in the south that came from the direction of Mysłowice. There were constant skirmishes with some unidentified Russian troops in the forests. Moreover, there were first casualties; seven injured soldiers, including two heavily injured, were sent to the field hospital in Lubliniec. At night, a patrol also recognized a strong Russian cavalry unit, and according to several accounts, there were still major Russian units present in Częstochowa that were ready for a counterattack. Yet, the German units continued the march undisturbed throughout the next day. Despite the announcements, there were no regular ←60 | 61→Russian units in Częstochowa. The day before, a local military commandant issued an order to abandon the city. Therefore, the Germans entered the city convinced about a total cave-in in Russian resistance. Unexpectedly, there were some shots fired toward the marching soldiers of the second battalion in the vanguard. Just after the end of fire – ascribed to Russians soldiers in civilian clothes – the commander of the regiment ordered the execution of two persons. Whereas, the city was obliged to pay contribution. The houses, from which the shots were fired, were demolished. However, the situation in Częstochowa was still unsteady and the soldiers were not allowed to spend the night in city lodgings. They pitched a bivouac outside the city. The regiment remained in Częstochowa until August 7, to be replaced later by the Landwehr’s Infantry Regiment No. 51 and return to the barracks in Lubliniec and Opole.¹⁶⁵

      One of the Poles, that served in Landwehr’s corps, admits that the German soldiers committed violence toward the local population:

      After a week of field training, we marched out through Gliwice and Prussian Herby toward Russia…. following the retreating Russians, because we were the Silesian Landwehr Corps that was to protect the borders. After a few minor skirmishes, we reached the Vistula River and a bridge built by the Austrians, by the village of Józefów near Kraśnik, where we came into contact with the Austro-Hungarian Army. Although the people in Russian Poland were scared and reserved, we could not complain about the lodgings. Jewish people were more arrogant than scared. And so, for example, in Kazanów people rejoiced when we marched in and sighed with relief as they were freed them from the Cossack scourge. However, I have to admit that even among us there were unremorseful elements that ought to answer for the damages they did.¹⁶⁶

      Presumably, the Landwehr regiment was responsible for the August violence in Częstochowa, and not the troops that marched into the city on August 4.¹⁶⁷

      On August 8, occupational administration was established over the whole seized eastern zone by the former border with the Kingdom of Poland, from Kalisz – bombed in the first days of the war – up to Będzin, seized without a fight in the south. The reports on war booty in the first days of the war drew much ←61 | 62→attention in Greater Poland and Silesia. The press eagerly reported on the matter. Only in the first week, the Upper Silesian regiments looted from the Dąbrowa Basin nine cars and twenty horse carts driven by Russian coachmen and escorted by the Prussian soldiers. They brought to Bytom uniforms, coats, furs, and high leather boots from confiscated storages. Particularly valued were saddle horses confiscated from the Cossacks in Będzin and allocated to officers that constantly complained about the shortages in this regard.¹⁶⁸ The officers headed out to the Western Front on these new mounts.

      The troops from the corps of Gdańsk and Olsztyn also engaged in Eastern Front actions. The situation looked different here. Those were German troops that found themselves in the defensive. Germany did not plan to take any offensive actions in the Eastern Front, because it focused on the Western Front and the fastest possible elimination of French forces from the war, even before the full mobilization of the Russian forces. The unforeseen triumphs of the Russian Army in East Prussia forced the German staff to counteract the events, even at the cost of weakening the strength of the Western offensive. The German Eighth Army under the command of General Paul von Hindenburg – who replaced Colonel General Maximilian von Prittwitz und Gaffron, deemed responsible for the defeats in the first weeks of the war – contained the Russian offensive in East Prussia only after a month, in the Battle of Tannenberg (August 26–30) and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes (September 8–10). However, at that time, there began the sequence of Austrian defeats in the Eastern Front.

      After pushing away the Russian threat in East Prussia, Germany came to help the army of Franz Joseph I to prevent it from suffering a defeat in Galicia. On September 28, 1914, the German Ninth Army formed for this very purpose headed under the command of Hindenburg from Silesia towards Radom. This very day, the Austrian counteroffensive began under the command of field marshal Conrad, which reached Warsaw and Dęblin. However, the San River defeat of the Austrians who escorted the right flank of German troops thwarted Hindenburg’s and Conrad’s plans. The Russians conducted a huge assault toward Cracow and Poznań. It forced Hindenburg to order a retreat of the Ninth Army (on October 27) and form a line of defense that stopped the Russian offensive in the Battle of Łódź at the turn of November and December. The Austrians also managed to defeat the Russians in the Battle of Limanowa (December 3–14). At the beginning of December of 1914, the fights weakened and the Eastern Front ←62 | 63→was established СКАЧАТЬ