The Battle of Vileyka

By Frank Pleszak

Very little is known in the west about the battles on the Eastern Front in the Great War. The Battle for the small town of Vileyka (now in Belarus), about 100km east of Vilnius, at the end of September 1915 is one such battle. It is rarely, if ever, mentioned in English historical text, but it marked the extent of the German advance east at the end of the Russian Army’s ‘Great Retreat’ of 1915. It constituted one of the few military successes of Russia’s Army, and was instrumental in defining Germany’s Eastern Front for the remainder of the war with Russia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326237622

Book preview

The Battle of Vileyka

THE BATTLE OF VILEYKA, SEPTEMBER 1915

THE FURTHEST ADVANCE EAST OF THE GERMAN ARMY IN THE GREAT WAR

I would like to once again give thanks to my wife Alison for her tolerance of my obsession in preparing this and the associated piece of work on the

Battle of Lake Naroch.

I would also like to thank Valery Tadra and Andrei Karkotko, Belarusian historians, for their undiminished support, encouragement, and assistance. To Rob Schäfer for all his help, particularly for accurate German translations when my own attempts were hopelessly inappropriate.

In addition, I am extremely grateful to mapywig.org for their fantastic maps of the region, to grwar.ru for the unrestricted use of their archive materials and maps, and lastly to Google translate and to ABBYY Online.

ISBN: 978-1-326-23762-2

Cover artwork from original lithographs of German Hussar attack at Vileyka

by Holly Sunderland

First published 2015

Copyright © Frank Pleszak 2015

The right of Frank Pleszak to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Contents

Contents

Illustrations and maps

Introduction

Foreword

Part 1 – Background

Part 2 – The German advance east towards Vileyka

9-10 September 1915

11 September 1915

12 September 1915

13 September 1915

14 September 1915

15 September 1915

16 September 1915

17 September 1915

18 September 1915

19 September 1915

20 September 1915

21 September 1915

22 September 1915

23 September 1915

24 September 1915

25 September 1915 and beyond

Appendix 1 – Map References

Appendix 2 – Army Structure

Appendix 3 – Armies involved at the Battle of Vileyka

Appendix 4 – Comparative Army Ranks

Appendix 5 – Russian Maps

Appendix 6 – German Maps

Appendix 7 – Bibliography

Illustrations and maps

Figure 1 - The German Army ‘worms’ east

Figure 2 – Opposing Generals at the start of WWI

Figure 3 - The retreating Russians took anything of value (Copper and bells removed from Warsaw)

Figure 4 - General Hermann Emil Gottfried von Eichhorn of the German 10.Army

Figure 5 – General Evgenii Aleksandrovich Radkevich of the Russian 10th Army

Figure 6 – Generalleutnant Oskar Emil von Hutier of the German XXI.A.K.

Figure 7 - Retreating Russian Artillery over pontoon bridge, September 12

Figure 8 – German soldiers at Švenčionėliai (Novy Swieciany)

Figure 9 – General Adolph von Carlowitz

Figure 10 - Russian train derailed on the line between Smorgonie and Soły

Figure 11 - 3.K.D. Hussar attack at Vileyka

Figure 12 – Commanders of 75.R.D. regiments

Figure 13 - Battalion Commander of I/249 Major Seiler

Figure 14 - 75.R.D. Pontoon bridge over the River Wilja near Zukańce

Figure 15 - Field kitchen ‘gulaschkanone’ at Lyntupy

Figure 16 - 3.K.D. raiding party near Borysów

Figure 17 - General Dmitry Balanin of the Russian 27th Army Corps

Figure 18 - Exhausted 75.R.D. take a rest

Figure 19 - Battalion Commander of II/251 Hauptmann Mahrholz

Figure 20 - Russian artillery team

Figure 21 - Praporshchik (Ensign) Sergei Maximov

Figure 22 – Battalion Commander of II/249 Major von Voigt

Figure 23 - Vileyka Railway Station

Figure 24 – Battalion Commander of III/249 Hauptmann Fitzer

Figure 25 - Leutnant Reiß 249.R.I.R.

Figure 26 - Russian map of the German incursion 1

Figure 27 - Russian map of the German incursion 2

Figure 28 - Russian Map showing position at the beginning of September 1915

Figure 29 - Russian Map showing German advance north of Vilnius 9-12 September

Figure 30 - Russian map showing Russian defences and German breakthrough in the Swieciany Gap

Figure 31 – Russian map showing German attack on right flank of Russian 10th Army, 10-11 September

Figure 32 - Russian map showing German advance on right flank of Russian 10th Army, 12-13 September

Figure 33 - Russian map showing German advance on right flank of Russian 10th Army, 14 September

Figure 34 - Russian map showing German advance on right flank of Russian 10th Army, 15 September

Figure 35 - Russian map showing German advance south from Vileyka, 16 September

Figure 36 – Russian map showing Russian positions 16 September

Figure 37 - Russian map showing opposing positions 16 September

Figure 38 – Russian map showing fighting around Soły and Zuprany, 16 September

Figure 39 - Russian map showing opposing positions 17 September

Figure 40 - Russian map showing withdrawal of Russian 10th Army and offensive of 2nd Army, 17-18 Sept.

Figure 41 - Russian Map showing offensive of Russian 2nd Army, 18-20 September

Figure 42 - Russian map showing opposing positions, 21-24 September

Figure 43 - Russian map showing offensive against Vileyka, 22-23 September

Figure 44 - Russian map showing Russian 2nd Army offensive 21-23 September

Figure 45 - Russian map showing advance of Russian 2nd Army, 26-29 September

Figure 46 - Russian map showing Russian counter-attacks

Figure 47 – Russian map showing positions October 1915

Figure 48 - Russian map showing offensive between Lakes Naroch and Wiszniew on 30 September

Figure 49 - German map of Eastern Front (beginning and end of 1915)

Figure 50 - German map showing 10.Army positions 30 August - 18 September 1915

Figure 51 - German map showing 10.Army positions 14 - 16 September 1915

Figure 52 – German map showing 10.Army positions 26 September 1915

Figure 53 - German map extract showing 10.Army progress May - October 1915

Figure 54 - German map showing withdraw of 136.I.R. 23-24 September 1915

Figure 55 - German map showing counter-attack on left wing of 75.R.D. 29-30 September 1915

Introduction

During The Great War there were many battles fought by the allies in places many of us will never have heard of or know very much about. Some of these battles were huge and massively devastating, yet many are poorly documented and in danger of being forgotten.

The Battle for the small town of Vileyka, about 100km east of Vilnius in modern day