THE TERRIBLE STORY OF THE CAPTURED RUSSIAN PRISONERS OF WAR WITH THEIR EYES BLIND FOLDED

 

Blindfolded Russian POWs (possibly deserters) with their Austro-Hungarian captors in a trench on the Eastern Front, 1916.

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Today 108 years ago, on July 3, 1916, the Russian Army launched the Baranovichi Offensive on the Eastern Front.

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To support their Allies at Verdun and on the Somme, in April 1916, the Russians began planning for a major offensive in Galicia against the Austro-Hungarians - the Brusilov Offensive.

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To support this operation and prevent Austro-Hungarian and German troops from being transferred to Galicia, the Russians planned another offensive further north in the Baranovichi area of modern-day Belarus.

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This supportive operation were to be carried out by the Russian 4th Army under General Ragoza, who was under the general command of General Evert. However, from the beginning General Evert was against this operation, favoring a defensive approach.

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On June 4, 1916, General Brusilov launched his offensive in Galicia and broke through the Austrian lines, capturing the city of Lutsk by June 8.

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General Evert was supposed to launch the offensive in Baranovichi in conjunction with Brusilov, but postponed it twice on June 13 and June 17. Under mounting pressure from General Brusilov and Tsar Nicolas II, General Evert gave in.

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The Russians enjoyed a 3:1 advantage in manpower, with 331 Battalions against just 82 Austro-German Battalions. In terms of artillery the Russians also held the advantage, but were almost outnumbered 2:1 in heavy guns.

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On July 2, 1916, the Russians began a 13-hour preliminary bombardment on the Austro-German lines at Baranovichi. However, the artillery bombardment was ineffective, as it failed to take out enemy artillery guns and only partially destroyed the first line of trenches, which was fortified with layers of barbed wire, fox holes and concrete machine-gun nests. The German second and third lines of trenches weren't even touched by the Russian artillery.

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On July 3, 1916, the Russians attacked along a 145 km front between Baranovichi and Gorodishsche and managed to break through the first line of trenches, albeit with heavy losses.

However the advancing Russian units were soon halted by machine-gun nests. On July 4 the attack continued, but the Germans counter-attacked and regained some of the lost positions.

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Within the first three days Russian losses had reached 50% of attacking units, thus the offensive was temporarily put on halt, giving the Germans time to bring up reserves and more artillery.

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The Russians attacked again on July 8 but were mostly checked again by German machine-guns. Due to a lack of shells the offensive was called off, but on July 14 the Germans launched a large counter-attack which captured much lost ground.

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The Russians tried a last-ditch effort on July 25 again, but didn't achieve any major results. By July 29 the offensive was called off.

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In the Baranovichi Offensive the Russians had only managed to capture the first line of trenches and had suffered some 80,000 casualties, though another source states 120,000 Russian casualties of whom 50,000 were killed.

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The Germans and Austro-Hungarians had suffered just 13,000 casualties, though the other source states 40,000 casualties with 20,000 killed.

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The Baranovichi Offensive had quite simply not achieved any of its tasks, as the Germans continued to transfer troops south to Galicia. The Baranovichi Offensive even worsened the morale of the Russian troops, where dissatisfaction with the war was intensifying. 

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General Brusilov himself condemned General Evert in this statement:

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"The attack on Baranovichi took place, but, as it was not difficult to foresee, the troops suffered huge losses with total failure, and this ended the fighting activities of the front to facilitate my offensive. All Russia rejoiced in condemning and ranking Evert as a traitor."

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