Читать книгу Poles in Kaisers Army On the Front of the First World War - Ryszard Kaczmarek - Страница 16

Until August 6–7, quartermaster services in garrisons feverishly – but in an organized manner – raced against time to prepare hundreds of thousands of soldiers for transportation in trains. Meanwhile, some units on active duty (professional officers and conscripts) took part in the fights at the borders already in the first week of the war. The Poles in Kaiser’s army had to traditionally shield the Russian frontier, according to the mobilization plan, by virtue of their nineteenth-century experience. Some regiments had to support the protection of cities from possible sabotage, even if they stayed in garrisons and did not directly participate in action.

There were many reports of any possible dangers in the first weeks of the war. Particularly those concerning spies. The entire Prussia gossiped about a French car filled to the brim with money (or golden ingots) that purportedly headed to Russia.¹⁵⁴ Although ridiculous, the gossip became so popular that the soldiers of the Infantry Regiment No. 157 and the 21st Field Artillery Regiment seriously searched for this imaginary car. The French dressed as Germans were said to drive the car accompanied by elegant ladies.¹⁵⁵ In turn, Greater Poland saw a modified version of the gossip, according to which there were three cars filled with gold, which were to flee from Germany and attempt to cross the German-Russian border. Therefore, military patrols thoroughly frisked all the encountered cars.¹⁵⁶

In the first days of August, artillerymen from the Nysa regiment participated in another action, no less grotesque. This time, it was the military authorities who raised the false alarm. On August 3, the commanders of the 12th Infantry Division informed that French aircrafts were seen in central Germany heading toward Silesia. It was a complete absurd in regard of contemporary technical abilities and the range of military aircrafts. However, two batteries were prepared in Nysa to resist this imaginary air strike. Interestingly, some cannoneers even “noticed” these aircrafts in their mind’s eyes and, on August 3–7, fired a few shots ←57 | 58→which, in turn, caused panic among civilians and their irrational belief that there will soon happen a French attack.¹⁵⁷

Just after the outbreak of the war, there was a real military action on the border between Upper Silesia and the Kingdom of Poland. The aim was to occupy the Dąbrowa Basin and the city of Częstochowa. Since the repartition of Polish territories during the Congress of Vienna, the boundary line between Prussia and Russia created a considerable danger for the Central Powers, because it disjoined Austrian Galicia and Prussia. It was particularly unfavorable for Silesia, which was not protected by any water barrier. While creating the strategic plan, the German General Staff assumed that only one out of eight German armies will engage in the fight in the East – the Eighth Army under the command of Colonel General Maximilian von Prittwitz und Gaffron that consisted of army corps I, XVII, XX, one cavalry division, and Landwehr units – while the Habsburg monarchy will take the main initiative.¹⁵⁸ However, early wartime decision postulated the preventive march into the western parts of the Kingdom of Poland in the very beginning of the war in order to even out the frontline and push an even theoretical danger away from Silesia, before Regierungsbezirk Opole sends its echelons toward the western front.

The ones to realize this maneuver were soldiers on active duty from the Upper Silesian garrisons. A tragicomic incident preceded the entire operation, although one might question the credibility of this account, considering that it refers to press coverage; even if it appeared before the introduction of pre-publication censorship. The information probably aimed at reinforcing civilian morale and strengthen their belief in the German Army’s primacy over the Russian Army. On July 31, the company of Katowice from the 22nd Infantry Regiment conducted routine field training near the so-called Three Emperors’ Corner. On the way back, its members looked with interest at the border bridge between Mysłowice and Modrzejów. When a Russian guard spotted the German unit, as the journalist recalls,

he hastily hid behind the bridge, and he did that with speed “unusual for Russians.” He stayed there until the German soldiers returned to marching. He then came out and fired two warning shots in the air. He reported to the rittmeister and captain that he saw Prussian soldiers next to the bridge. However, the company at that moment was already on its way to Katowice singing its songs.

←58 | 59→

According to further press coverage, there were fifty deserters from the Kingdom of Poland to the German side already before the outbreak of the war.¹⁵⁹

The opinion about Russian soldiers’ morale was not high in Germany at the beginning of the war. Particularly after the Russo-Japanese War, people knew about the growing problems of the Russian Empire. The above description sought to ensure the soldiers and civilians about that fact. Russia was presented as a barbaric and backward country, and Cossack soldiers personified this characteristic. There was no trace left from the brotherhood of arms of the second half of the nineteenth century. Since the very beginning of the First World War, the Cossack was a synonym of homeland’s enemy. Popular leaflets and playing cards, published in thousands of copies, contemptuously presented the Russian soldier as a primitive ragamuffin with a long untrimmed beard and a bottle of schnapps in his hand, his rifle on a string instead of a belt, wearing a huge winter cap and a too long military greatcoat.¹⁶⁰

The Russian destruction of border bridges on August 1 did not prevent the quick seizure of undefended Dąbrowa Basin and Częstochowa by the Upper Silesia regiments. During this few-day-long operation, some subunits of the 22nd Infantry Regiment marched out of the barracks already in the morning on August 1 in order to position themselves by the frontier near the Three Emperors’ Corner; the third battalion from Mysłowice to Szopienice and the first battalion from Szopienice 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 on the line: Great Masurian Lakes – the Bzura River – the Rawka River – the Nida River – the Dunajec River.¹⁶⁹

In August and September 1914, the immediate danger that menaced East Prussia caused it to assume extraordinary preventive measures. Apart from the mobilization of Landsturm in the eastern military districts, all men that could still serve in the field joined the ranks of first-line troops. The order also applied to the Poles of Warmia and Masuria who had to face fighting against their compatriots for the first time. The Poles that served in the Russian Army were recognized among the fallen Russians:

A company [in Olsztyn], formed from the survivors and freed prisoners, was to maintain order and prospectively restrain the Russian offensive by blasting the bridges and destroying the railway line…. The company in which I served “retreated” from Olsztyn and wandered around the Warmia district and later the Szczytno district…. We heard the cannons pound, but we fortunately never encountered the enemy. Meanwhile, Hindenburg defeated the Russians in the Battle of Tannenberg. The Russians were in Olsztyn only for a day. Unexpectedly, the Germans invaded there and organized a bloody wedding. Reportedly, among Russians corpses, people found Polish soldiers who they identified by their scapulars, holy medals, and prayer books. Where can’t you find Poles, after all.¹⁷⁰

Such encounters between Poles became routine not only in East Prussia but also in Galicia and the fights in the Carpathian Mountains.