The first year ends
The fighting to destroy the remnants of the Russian winter offensive carried on through to spring and the summer. In the south, every available man and horse was thrown into the battle to destroy the French pocket. A further month, April, of fighting saw the destruction of the Russian pocket in the north of the empire followed by a massive thrust into the extreme northern wing of the Russian front. This latter attack was a disaster resulting in horrendous casualties, and the attack being called off.
In the meantime, after seeing no evidence of major enemy fleet activity during the year and no attempt by the Entente to blockade our ports, Admiral Hellpach ordered the fleet into a more offensive role. The pre-dreadnoughts would take up more blockading positions freeing up the main fleet to conduct sweeps. Several French and Russian vessels were sunk for no loss in these sweeps. A short time afterwards fleet of twenty Russian transporters moving through the Hellespont: the main fleet moved to intercept and destroyed them in quick succession for no loss. Due to the late night battle, and no search being made for survivors, it was unknown if any troops were aboard.
Due to the Russian build-up at Brest-Litovsk, the Defence Minister – temporary in command of the army, ordered a limited invasion of Russia on 11 May. Troops, attempting to fully occupy the Ottoman border region, crossed over into Russia; cavalrymen holding the area behind them. At the same time a small scale counterattack was ordered against Korosten once more. The strategic aim was to spread the Russians out and thus deny them the opportunity to concentrate any more men in the area of Brest-Litovsk.
In the south, with most men besieging and assaulting the French positions and the rest battling rebels and occupying territory, 30,000 Ottoman troops launched an assault over the Hellespont to retake their capital. The Ottoman Army had finally made a comeback; it would seem they had been concentrated to defeat the rebels in their Asian provinces. Intelligence suggested that this was over half the men the Ottoman Army was still fielding. With nothing to halt their offensive other than the remains of three battered cavalry brigades, reinforcements were required. Two of the new armies were ordered into the battle, although they were several days away; the cavalry would have to hold on until they arrived.
Within days the reinforcements arrived and the cavalry were passed into reserve. For a fortnight the new armies battled with the Ottoman troops, repulsing assault after assault on their trench lines. By the end of the month the Ottoman Army was broken with half their force lost. Success on land was followed by further success at sea: numerous French, Italian, and Russian ships were sunk for no loss.
At the beginning of June a new chief of staff, and commander of I. Armee, was appointed: Adolf Eisner. Meeting with the intelligence staff he was informed that the Russians are estimated to be fielding an army of 1.3 million men, however along the frontline just over half a million has been identified. It was suggested it was wishful thinking to suggest that these half a million men represented around 400 burnt out brigades and thus the entire Russian Army; they surely have much depth to their defences and many reserves. On the other hand, while the army had suffered heavy losses, it numbered 1.5 million men. However quite a number of the regular regiments were no understrength, mauled, decimated, with a population unable to reinforce them. If the war was to carry on any longer the new armies would have to take the brunt of the fighting, but likewise the ones who had saw action were understrength with problems with reinforcements. Eisner was informed that if the fighting continued into 1916 it may become necessary to start amalgamating some of the 154 divisions (spread over 77 armies and not including the cavalry or panzer units) to keep fighting strength up. The planned formation of new regiments is all but a trickle, only a few of the new armies have been reinforced with artillery and cavalry troops. The II. and III. Panzer Korps have been formed but are seriously under the strength envisioned and thus not yet committed to the frontline.
Eisner’s first actions were to take command of the fighting at Brest-Litovsk personally, and to commit more of the new armies to the fighting near Odessa: an opportunity had arisen to encircle and destroy 30,000 Russian troops. On the 17th of the month, the Russian forces to the west of Brest-Litovsk were routed. These were remnants of the winter offensive. Over 70,000 Austrian casualties had been suffered but Russian troops had been ejected from German soil: a small force was ordered to follow the Russian retreat and complete the rout while the rest, along with additional reinforcements, were to be fed into the main battle.
French trenches, southern front
On 1 July, just over eight months after the fighting started, the campaign in the south was wound up. The French contingent, holding a small pocket to the west of Constantinople, was wiped out to the last man, no prisoners were taken. The only task left to complete was the complete occupation of the Ottoman capital and the border region with Russia. The southern army group now numbers just over 300,000 men, an early estimate suggested the loss of 140,000 men to capture the entire region: a figure later adjusted to be 173,988 men killed or wounded (highlighting the number of reinforcements fed into the battle).
The butcher's bill for taking the French position
The southern armies were given new orders: the most seriously mauled units were to head back to home soil, the cavalry were to occupy the old French position, troops were to construct a line at Constantinople with reserves to the west of the city, leaving only around 90,000 men (8 divisions and the panzer korps) to move north to assist in the fighting near Odessa.
In the north the follow-up of the Russian rout continues, however is becoming more costly the further the men advance. By mid-July the chase had led into Russia, where with troops from the south completed the encirclement of the Russian force at Brest-Litovsk. However the battle is far from over and more men have been ordered into the battle. As the month came to an end, signalling a year at war, major battles were raging at Brest-Litovsk, Korosten, and around Odessa. At sea more French ships were sunk and the navy finally suffered its first loss: a single dreadnought.
The esculating battle near Odessa
One year at war had cost the Austrian Army 468,304 killed or wounded and 6,000 captured; losses in one year are fast approaching the losses suffered in the five year Balkan War of 1898-903 when 760,000 Austrians were killed or wounded. Our losses while on the defensive were within reason, however during our counterattacks our losses have increased dramatically. Enemy losses, facing our own men, during these twelve months have reached 653,841 killed or wounded and 45,981 captured (Russian Empire: 351,709 casualties and 42,342 captured; Ottoman Empire: 29,070 casualties; French Empire: 66,724 casualties; Serbia: 2,338 casualties and 3,639 captured; Ottoman Red Guard: 204,000 casualties).
Austrian naval success, has really come as a surprise