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CHAPTER XXXIV

RECAPTURE OF PRZEMYSL

The counteroffensive ended--of necessity--on May 24, 1915. The
Russians could still offer an effective resistance between Krukienice
and Mosciska, but the pressure of continuous attack against their
positions around Hussakow grew fiercer every hour. The enemy was
knocking at the outer ring of the forts; from the west the heaviest
cannons were pouring shot and shell with such violence that the
fall of Przemysl could no longer be prevented. Most of the troops
had already been withdrawn, as well as the supplies and munitions;
only a small garrison remained behind to man the guns of the forts
to the last moment; the little avenue to safety on the east was
still open.

On May 30, 1915, the Austrian batteries began their deadly work on
the Grodek line near Medyka. The exit was under fire; since May 17,
Przemysl had been invested from three sides, and the fourth was all
but closed. From the northern side, guarded by the Bavarians under
General Kneusel, twenty-one centimeter Krupp howitzers bombarded
the Russian positions round Korienice and Mackovice, drawing ever
nearer the forts commanding the road and railway to Radymno. The
Tenth Austro-Hungarian Army Corps, approaching from Krasiczyn,
endeavored to rush some of the outer works, but paid heavily for
the venture. They settled down before the forts of Pralkovice,
Lipnik, Helicha and Grochovce, and those round Tatarovka mountain.
General Artamoff, the Russian commander of Przemysl, had laboriously
reconstructed some of the old Austrian forts and equipped them with
Russian 12-centimeter howitzers. As the Austrians had brought only
their 15-centimeter howitzers, they were obliged to wait until their
30.5 batteries arrived before they could undertake any serious
attack.

These batteries came on the scene about May 25, 1915, it took five
days' preparation, and the final bombardment began on the 30th. It
was an ironical circumstance that the Austrians and Germans were
in numerous places sheltering themselves behind the very earthworks
which the Russians had constructed when they were besieging the
place two months earlier. There had been no time to destroy them
on the retreat.

The northern sector of the outer ring of forts fell on May 30, 1915,
when the Bavarians captured the Russian positions near Orzechovce. A
terrific bombardment was directed against the entire northern and
northwestern