The Eastern Front stretched from Riga on the Baltic to the Ukranian shores of the Black Sea (a distance of close on 1,000 miles) and was composed of three major combat zones: 1. East Prussia in the north, 2. the Polish Salient in the centre, and 3. the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia in the south. (areas shown on map). It was more than double the length of the Western Front and, for the most part, very different in its terrain. There were vast areas of wide open spaces and undulating uplands (save for the mountains of Carpathia and the marshland of Lithuania) and this allowed for a much greater degree of mobility and a much wider use of cavalry. This was due to the fact that, in a given area, a substantial reduction in the concentration of forces provided a much greater opportunity to break through enemy lines. As the British statesman Winston Churchill succinctly put it, “In the west the armies were too big for the land, in the east the land was too big for the armies”. But it was not all a war of movement. This front was not without its share of trenches. Some became permanent lines of defence, but in general they were dug to meet the needs of a particular situation and no more.

    The two opposing sides on this front were Germany (in alliance with Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria), and Russia (supported by Romania). From the military point of view, Germany, of course, was by far the most advanced nation. German troops were well trained and disciplined, the leadership was highly professional, and for the most part there was a ready supply of good quality armaments. In addition, they had a highly efficient rail network linking the Western and Eastern Fronts, and a superior system of command and communications on the battlefield. Their only real disadvantages – but they were serious ones – was that they were forced to fight on two fronts and, in addition, were often called upon to support hard-pressed Austro-Hungarian forces. Both were a constant drain on their manpower and military equipment.

     Incidentally, it is said that the German railway network was so efficient that it was able to move eight divisions (at least 80,000 men) from the Western to the Eastern Front in no more than four and a half days!

    Austria-Hungary, Germany’s major ally, did have some success on the battlefield, but mainly on the Italian Front. In the Balkans, three attacks upon Serbia in 1914 ended in complete failure and extremely heavy losses, and the defeat and occupation of that country in March 1915 was only achieved with the help of German and Bulgarian forces. Austro-Hungarian troops were successful in the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive in the summer of 1915 (when they regained Galicia from the Russians), but a year later they were swiftly driven out of this province by the Brusilov Offensive. From then on, seriously weakened, they were dependent upon the support of the Germans, many of whom saw themselves “shackled to a corpse”! To a large extent, failure was due to the general incompetence of the Austrian high command, together with the shortage of munitions and a serious lack of food on the home front. And as the war progressed and casualties mounted, there was increasing unrest among the ethnic minorities within the armed forces as well as the general public. By the end of 1918, the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy had all but disintegrated.

     The Ottoman Empire, though a shadow of its former self, and widely regarded as the “sick man of Europe”, made a worthy contribution to the cause of the Central Powers, particularly by its efforts on the Middle East Front. Whilst their tactics were not always fit for purpose, the Turks limited the Russian advance in the Caucasus; won an outstanding victory over the British in Gallipoli; and succeeded in slowing down the Allied campaigns in Persia, Sinai and Mesopotamia. This gave the Russians the burden of a second front, and deprived the Western Front of a large number of British and colonial troops.

     As a fighting force, Russia was at a distinct disadvantage. The size of its army was impressive – around 1.4 million and over 3 million on mobilization – but it’s troops received a minimum of basic training. and its commanders, hampered by a lack of a good communication system, were often left to their own devices. Some struggled to cope. And the transport of men and material over such vast areas was a major problem. The Russian rail network was sparse, in need of repair, and made the worse by having a variety of gauges! But the biggest handicap was the lack of basic military equipment, be it artillery or small arms. A poor country with very little industrial capability, there was a serious lack in home production. And to make matters worse in that direction, the Russians had lost a vast amount of equipment following their defeat at the hands of the Japanese in 1904/1905. It seems clear that had the Schlieffen Plan worked, and France had been defeated, the Germans – back to full strength – would have quickly pushed Russia out of the war, particularly given the political and economic turmoil within that country at that time. But the Schlieffen Plan did not work, and Germany was committed to a costly and demanding war on two fronts for close on three years.

      Given its extent and ferocity, it is hardly surprising that the war on the Eastern Front should stir up activity within the Balkans, an ethnic mixture of peoples wherein each country strived for the establishment of an independent national state. The Bulgarians, taking advantage of the situation and hoping to gain territory as a reward, allied with the Central Powers and played a prominent part in the overthrow of Serbia and the occupation of Romania (a country which had chosen to join the Entente in the hope of gaining land from Bulgaria!). Come the end of the war, the political settlement of the Balkan Peninsula and what was left of the Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empires was to take some time in the devising!

A list of the Events on the Eastern Front is given below.

To access the account, simply click on the title.

     The first encounter on the Eastern Front took place in East Prussia in August 1914, some weeks earlier than the Germans had expected. As we shall see, after some alarm in the German camp and talk of a general withdrawal, the Russians were soundly defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg and then the Battles of the Massurian Lakes. In the meantime, however, they seized most of Galicia from the Austro-Hungarians, and repulsed a German attack on the Polish Salient.

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Acknowledgements

Left Pic: danielabraham.net by Austrian artist Karl Friedrich Gsur Battle of Tannenburg: metropostcard.com Right Pic: utube Eastern Front: britannica.com East Prussia: about-history.com Balkans: youtube.com Galicia: weaponsandwarfare.com

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