talions of the 3ist Infantry Div. were taken back to Pajeczno as reserve. This section was added to the i6th Infantry Division. Farther N., meanwhile, the Russian 7th Infantry Div.'s action had made itself felt from Belchatow. On Nov. 30 the general reserve brigade had to retire to the Sosnia, while Hauer, being also involved, fell back behind the Krasowa and on Rusiec. On the adjacent right wing of Mackensen's army, the 48th Res. Div., which had rolled up from the western front, had meanwhile engaged the Russian V. Corps. On Nov. 30 the Russians presumably only in order to prevent a withdrawal of forces arranged for another vigorous attack by their IX. and IV. Armies against Woyrsch's S. wing and the Austro-Hungarian
I. Army, but this met with no success whatever.
The actions fought during the retreat in the last days of Nov., S. of Cracow in W. Galicia, together with the events which took place N. of the fortress in the zone of Dankl's and Woyrsch's armies, may be said to have brought the battle of Cracow to a close. No strategic success for the Central Powers had resulted from it. New operations were therefore begun on both wings of the front, which resulted in the second part of the battle of Lodz in the N. (Dec. 1-15), the action at Belchatow by the II. Army, and the victorious battle of Limanowa-Lapanow, S. of Cracow (Dec. 3-14), following on the regrouping ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Army Higher Command on Nov. 26.
Second Battle of Lodz (Dec. 1-15). The numerous attacks delivered by the Russian I., II. and V. Armies in the end of Nov. against Mackensen were one and all fruitless. But when the expected German reenforcements rolled up from the W. (II. and XIII. Army Corps and III. and XXIV. Res. Corps) and from E. Prussia (German ist Infantry Div.), there was a revival of the offensive idea on the part of the Germans.
The III. Res. and XIII. Corps were sent to the extreme N. wing to Lt.-Gen. von Morgen's group (I. Res. Corps) which was being hard pressed by the Russian I. Army. The II. Corps was to reenforce Mackensen's S. wing.
When the German ist Infantry Div. had arrived on Gen. von Morgen's front, his group made a successful counter-attack, the Russian I. Army's right wing being surprised and thrown back on to the line Ilow-Kiernoznia-Bielawy.
Simultaneously the German II. Corps entered the area N. of Lask to reenforce Frommel's cavalry corps and the Posen fortress garrison in their struggle with the Russian XIX. Corps. The 48th Res. Div. of the XXIV. Res. Corps had already been sent into action with the main body of the Breslau fortress garrison, N.E. of Widawa, against the Russian 7th Infantry Division.
Dec. i was the date fixed by Mackensen for the concentric attack on Lodz by the IX. Army. His N. wing alone Gen. von Morgen's group was to push forward N. of the Bzura in an easterly direction. Bohm's army was to support this attack by a blow on Piotrkow. The strong pressure by the II. Corps with which the attack began was rewarded at the end of the day by the capture of Dobran and Pabianice.
After the arrival of all the German reenforcements of which the zsth Res. Div. had come up to Wloclawek on Nov. 30, while the III. Res. Corps was on its way thither by train the German IX. Army had 21 infantry and 5 cavalry divs. as against the Russians' 26 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions.
While Gen. von Morgen's attack could make only very slow progress against the strong and technically well-constructed enemy positions, the concentric advance on Lodz proceeded rapidly. The German XI. and XVII. Corps came through some particularly severe fighting with conspicuous success. On the S. wing a successful push was also carried out by the German
II. Corps and the 48th Reserve Div., in conjunction with the left wing of Woyrsch's army, against the Russian XIX. and V. Corps and a group of cavalry.
Little of importance had happened meanwhile to the Austro- Hungarian I. Army. Its task, which was also that of the centre and S. wing of Woyrsch's army, consisted mainly in preventing the shifting of Russian troops from the IV. and IX. Armies towards Lodz. The two armies could both solve this task either by attacking vigorously along the whole front, or by transferring
reserves to the N. wing of the II. Army, thus enabling it to inflict more damage by its attack on Piotrkow.
The Austro-Hungarian Higher Command decided in favour of the second alternative. It extended the left wing of Dankl's army to beyond Zarki, and transferred the German 15th Reserve Bde. promptly from there to Bohm's N. wing. The 27th Infantry Div. was at the same time withdrawn from the VI. Corps on the N. wing of the IV. Army and sent to Sieradz on Dec. 4.
But the Russians had already in the last days of Nov. taken from the front the III. Caucasian Corps, which had greatly distinguished itself in the battle of Ivangorod and had been fighting during Nov. on the left wing of the Russian IV. Army against Dankl's N. wing, and brought it up through Nowo- Radomsk to the S. wing of their V. Army, in readiness for an advance against the II. Corps, which had been put in on Macken- sen's S. wing, and the 58th Res. Division.
Bohm's attack on Piotrkow, however, which set in on Dec. i, caught the III. Caucasian Corps while it was being shifted and forced it into an engagement at Belchatow. Thus it could not play its ordained part in the decisive battle of Lodz.
In this engagement the Russians had on the field the III. Caucasian Corps, parts of the XVI. Corps, the Guard Cavalry Corps, the I3th Cavalry Div. and 2 Cossack divs. Bohm's forces consisted at first only of the IV. Corps, the German Guard Res. Bde. and Hauer's cavalry corps.
After initial Austro-Hungarian successes the numerical su- periority of the Russians began to tell. Bohm had therefore to await the arrival of the 27th Infantry Div. which was to be placed on the N. wing on the road leading from Widawa to Piotrkow and the isth Reserve Bde., and then to renew the attack, strengthened by these new forces.
In the meantime the decision at Lodz had been reached on Dec. 6. Yielding to the constant pressure of the German II. and XI. Corps, the Russians evacuated Lodz during the night of the 5th-6th, and retired to the line Brzeziny-Podwiaczyn-Bedkow.
This retreat, however, brought no relief to Bohm's army. On the contrary, the Russians concentrated new forces at Piotrkow and employed them in violent counter-attacks against Bohm, forcing him, on Dec. 7, to close down the attack on Piotrkow and place himself on the defensive. In case of an attack being delivered from Piotrkow against Mackensen's right army wing, however, Bohm planned a flank assault from his position.
In Mackensen's army now that Lodz had been taken and the Russians pursued up to the new line of resistance at Brzeziny- Bedkow the interest of the German Supreme Command was focussed on the N. wing of the German IX. Army, General von Morgen's group. Before the capture of Lodz the German VII. Corps had already been withdrawn from the front at Zgierz, and sent to Piatek to cooperate in the attack on the very strong front at Lowicz-Ilow. By Dec. 6 the 25th Reserve Div. was also able to join in the attack from Gabin and the III. Res. Corps had finished detraining at Wloclawek.
On Dec. 7 the XIII. Corps, being now assembled, was ordered to make an encircling attack on the N. wing of the Russian I. Army and succeeded in forcing it back a little way on the 8th. On the same day the III. Res. Corps also came into the battle, attacking N. of the XIII. Corps; the XVII. Corps advanced along the Piatek-Lowicz road and reached the Sobota-Bielawy area. On Dec. 9 the grouping was completed and the general attack by von Morgen's group, starting from the N. wing, could now be launched in full force. There were 4^ German corps as against 6 Russian in the attack (III. Res. Corps, XIII. Corps, ist Infantry Div., XVII. and I. Res. Corps against V. Siberian, II. Caucasian brought from East Prussia VI. Siberian, I. Turkestan, and VI. Corps and one infantry div. each of the IV. and VIII. Siberian Corps).
An extremely violent bombardment set in on Dec. n along the whole front. On the right wing the XVII. Corps, supported by parts of the I. Res. Corps, penetrated the Russian infantry position N. of Lowicz. On the i2th the heights at How and N. of it were taken by the III. Res. Corps and the hamlet of Wiejsce was stormed by the XIII. Corps.
