The Second Brusilov offensive took place in July–August 1916 on the Eastern Front during the First World War. As a result of the First Brusilov offensive in May–June 1916, the Imperial Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian troops and captured a large number of prisoners (up to 50% of the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army were of Slavic origin and did not want to fight against the Russian Empire). But Imperial German army came to the aid of its ally. In July 1916, all Austro-Hungarian troops were subordinated to Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff and Hindenburg became commander-in-chief of the entire Eastern Front. The weakest sections of the Austro-Hungarian front were reinforced by German divisions, and most importantly, in the direction of the impending main attack of the Russian Southwestern Front (on Kovel), the defence was mainly occupied by German troops. The offensive was ambiguous, in central Galicia and on the Dniester, the Russians achieved decisive results, but the attacks on Kovel failed. At the same time, the Russians practically stopped losing soldiers captured and killed, but the central powers suffered losses mostly irretrievably.
Background On June 20, 1916, General of the cavalry Aleksei Brusilov subdued the arriving two fresh corps of the 8th Army and gave the order: the 3rd Army to capture Pinsk (this point was later canceled, since this army was part of the Western Front and had already been fighting for Pinsk since June 6), for the rest - “stop the general offensive and very firmly gain a foothold in the positions currently occupied, which are actively defended. Wherever possible, push forward the vanguards - cavalry to delay the advancing and pursue the retreating enemy,... just in case, prepare rear defensive positions".In Russian: Наступление Юго-Западного фронта в мае–июне 1916 года: Сб. документов ЦГВИА. М.,1940. p. 363 In the next two days, he demanded that it be reinforced with two corps and that all rifle cartridges produced in the country be placed at his disposal, threatening to abandon further offensive. Mikhail Alekseyev notified Brusilov: “For now, all the rifle cartridges produced by our factories are sent to your disposal, which amounts to 4 million daily. There is nowhere else to get more. The reserves of the Northern and Western Front are small. It is necessary to require particularly careful collection of abandoned ammunition on the battlefield.” By a directive from the Alekseyev of June 23, the 3rd Army, as well as the 5th Army Corps and the 78th Infantry Division, were transferred to the Southwestern Front.In Russian: Наступление Юго-Западного фронта в мае–июне 1916 года, p. 391, 395, 400
Preparations for the new stage of the offensive were delayed due to ongoing attacks on the 8th Army. Now the Southwestern Front armies were supposed to facilitate the breakthrough of the Western Front armies to Baranovichi by attacking Kovel. The 9th Army continued its advance towards the Carpathians and reached the Prut River, but all attempts by Alekseyev to convince the headquarters of the Southwestern Front of the need to reinforce the troops of P. Lechitsky rested on a complete misunderstanding of the situation. Only on June 30 were the 117th Infantry Division from Crimea and the 108th Infantry and Ussuri Cossack Divisions from the Northern Front (25,000 soldiers) finally sent there. In addition, by this time the armies of the Southwestern Front had received about 50,000 marching reinforcements.In Russian: Нелипович, С.Г. Наступление Юго-Западного фронта в кампанию 1916 г. (Брусиловский прорыв): Борьба резервов, p. 13
To deliver a new blow, the armies of the Southwestern Front (3rd, 8th, 11th, 7th and 9th) had more than 880,000 soldiers (55 infantry and 20 cavalry divisions, and 2 separate infantry brigades,) with 3,187 machine guns and 2,637 guns against 536,500 soldiers and 2,972 guns of the Austro-Hungarian and German troops (41 infantry and 12 cavalry divisions, and 6 separate infantry brigades). The 3rd Army (infantry general L. Lesh) allocated two cavalry divisions to the reserve, the 8th Infantry Division, rifle and cavalry brigades, the 7th Rifle Division, and the 9th Cavalry Division. The 11th Army had no reserves.In Russian: Наступление Юго-Западного фронта в мае–июне 1916 года. p. 439, 450, 453,462; Отечественная история. 1998. № 3. p. 44.
The Central Powers, unlike the first stage of the operation (First Brusilov offensive), did not have the opportunity to allocate large forces to the reserve. On July 3, only the Southern Army and the Army Group Alexander von Linsingen had reserves - an infantry division and a brigade of the Polish Legion, respectively. By this time, reinforcements had arrived from the German Eastern Front: the Bavarian Cavalry, 1st Reserve and 119th Infantry Divisions, 37th Infantry and 175th Landwehr Brigades (the latter deployed to the consolidated division of Lieutenant General H. von Clausius). The right flank of Linsingen (two infantry and cavalry divisions each) entered the army group of Prince Leopold of Bavaria, but due to the expansion of the front of the Russian 3rd Army, it also became involved in the battles for Polesie.См.: Oesterreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914–1918. Bd. IV. p. 530, 600; Der Weltkrieg 1914–1918. Bd. X. p. 503, 523 To the north, the army group of Colonel General Remus von Woyrsch repelled the attack on Baranovichi by the 4th Army of the Russian Western Front. Near Kovel, new army groups of cavalry generals Friedrich von Bernhardi, Georg von der Marwitz and Eugen von Falkenhayn were created. In the Carpathians, a group of Lieutenant General R. von Kravel appeared as part of the 7th Army; command of the 4th Army was handed over to Colonel General K. Tershtyansky von Nadosh. Now E. von Falkenhayn assured the Austro-Hungarian command that with the help of the transferred German forces it was possible to prevent the Russians “from reaching a solution to the entire campaign, if only everyone in their place fulfils their duties”.Oesterreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914–1918. Bd. IV. p. 517–518
By July 4, the 3rd Army, which joined the Southwestern Front, consisted of the 31st and Combined Army Corps - a total of 4 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions. Part of the forces was transferred to it from the neighbouring 8th Army (two infantry and three cavalry divisions). It was the 3rd and 8th Armies (19 infantry and 10 cavalry division) that were involved in the battles for Kovel and Polesie; in many places they crossed the Stokhid River and established bridgeheads, but were unable to advance further.
The 9th Army (12 infantry and 4 cavalry divisions) crossed the Prut River and began advancing towards the main ridge of the Carpathians and the Hungarian administrative border. The two divisions that arrived in its composition could not have come at a better time, since the northern flank of the army was attacked by the German group of Kravel. On June 25, it was decided to send Lechitsky another 79th Infantry Division (14,000 soldiers) from the armies of the Russian Northern Front.In Russian: Нелипович С.Г., p. 14
However, on June 25, Brusilov, in a conversation with Alekseyev, once again emphasised that he considered his immediate task to be “the capture of Kovel by actions from the south, east and north, after which I will send part of the forces to the rear of the Pinsk enemy group, if by that time it does not withdraw itself " The armies of the Western Front, in his opinion, will have to ensure this operation by occupying the Oginski Canal. Brusilov's opinion was supported by Emperor Nicholas II: “The main attack on Kovel, the front should take advantage of the reduction, apparently, of the enemy forces in the Pinsk region to push the enemy out of it, which would most fully achieve securing the right flank of the 3rd Army from the north and which would provide significant assistance operations of the Western Front".In Russian: Нелипович С.Г., p. 14
According to Alekseyev's directive of July 9, 1916, the armies of the Southwestern Front were entrusted with the task of delivering the decisive blow to the campaign, and the neighbouring Western Front was supposed to not only distract the forces of the German army, but also allocate new troops to be transferred to Brusilov's offensive zone. However, the armies of the Southwestern Front were too drained of blood to take immediate decisive action. By the end of June, their combat losses reached half a million men. The Austro-Hungarian troops, reinforced by German reinforcements, on the new lines of defence still did not allow a deep breakthrough to the rear. Moreover, the Brusilov breakthrough took completely different forms: conceived as a means to delay the forces of the Central Powers from the site of the proposed general offensive, it began to absorb the supplies and reserves of other fronts, including the shock Western Front. One of the reasons for the failure at Baranovichi offensive was that the armies of the Western Front transferred 16 infantry and 7 cavalry divisions to Brusilov, and the shortage in the infantry increased by 80,000 soldiers.Отечественная история. 1998. № 3. С. 45
On June 28, the chief of staff of the Southwestern Front, Vladislav Klembovsky, gave a directive to attack Kovel from July 14, the next day he moved the date to July 16, and then Alekseyev allowed to wait for the arrival of all forces and sent the 3rd Army to reinforce Brusilov's armies. Therefore, only the 11th Army (200,000 soldiers, 895 machine guns, 613 guns, 18 bomb launchers and an armoured train) was able to attack on July 16, which had the 45th Army Corps in reserve, which was almost immediately brought into battle. In the battle on the Styr and Lipa rivers, its troops (12 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions) pushed back the army group of G. von der Marwitz and the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (together about 85,000 soldiers, 500 machine guns, 400 guns and an armoured train; 8 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions), and then moved forward near Berestechko, capturing a total of up to 27,000 prisoners, 40 guns, 36 mortars and 49 machine guns and losing 30,000 men. The Germans, to the aid of their allies - the Austro-Hungarians, threw into battle the army reserve - the German 108th Infantry Division. On the evening of July 25, the headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was disbanded, and the remnants of the troops (10,000 men) were poured into the 2nd Army of Böhm-Ermolli.In Russian: Нелипович С.Г., p. 14
On July 2, the army of Adjutant General V. Bezobrazov was formed from the guard troops, the armies of the Southwestern Front received the 3rd Army Corps (transportation began on July 5–6, 25,500 soldiers, 89 machine guns, 81 guns), 4th Siberian Corps (in the 3rd Army since July 8, 30,000 soldiers, 114 machine guns, 105 guns) and two heavy artillery divisions with a supply of shells - again from the Western Front. The actions of the 9th Army in Bukovina and the 11th Army in Eastern Galicia were of particular importance, but Brusilov saw in them only a cover for preparing the main attack on Kovel. The transition to the offensive here was scheduled for July 23, the completion of the entire operation in a week, but due to rains the attack was postponed. This made it possible to gather more powerful forces. On July 12, the transportation of the 1st Siberian Corps (29,000 soldiers, 98 machine guns, 81 guns) to the South-Western Front began, and 150,000 marching infantry reinforcements arrived. The 11th Army (12 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions) on July 25 launched attacks near Brody on the group of Field Marshal-Lieutenant F. Kozak (43,000 men and 214 guns - consisting of Austro-Hungarian troops, staffed mainly by soldiers of Slavic nationalities) and defeated it in 4 days, capturing up to 14,000 prisoners, 40 machine guns and 9 guns. Russian losses amounted to about 17,000 men.In Russian: Нелипович С.Г., p. 17-18