Franz Josef’s Armies
Part Three: Lublin
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
February 2022

Infantry Attacks: Franz Josef's Armies is a personal indulgence, a chance to pore over old battle reports (Feldakten) from the 1914 Austro-Hungarian campaign in Galicia, create game scenarios from them, and lace them together to tell the story of the battles of Kraśnik and Komarów. I actually like doing this sort of thing, but it does take a lot of time and energy. I probably should have spent that on cranking out three or four games with acceptable game-play and middling historical content, but I didn’t.

Instead, what we have is an immersive game experience. Franz Josef’s Armies is an extension of Infantry Attacks: Fall of Empires that adds pieces for Austria-Hungary’s national armies (the Imperial Austrian Landwehr and Royal Hungarian Honvédség, plus the Bosniaken) to the core game, and scenarios for their battles. And they fought a lot of battles in August 1914: the national armies were considered first-line troops, and each Austro-Hungarian corps went to war with two divisions from the Common Army and a third from one of the national armies. The full story can’t be told without them.

They played a major role in the Austro-Hungarian First Army’s assault on the Russian defenses in front of Lublin in late August 1914. That army included two Polish Landwehr infantry divisions, which fought with particular zeal in what they saw as the liberation of their fellow Poles from tsarist oppression. As a result of their performance at Kraśnik, they occupied key positions on the flank of their respective corps, and thereby had a key role in the operations to follow.

Let’s have a look at the national armies’ fight at Lublin, one of the larger chapters of Franz Josef’s Armies.

Chapter Four
Assault on Lublin

Scenario Forty-Eight
Finding the Flank
26 August 1914
After pursuing the defeated Russian Fourth Army toward Lublin, the Austrian First Army gave its I Corps a rest day. On its right, the Austrian V Corps had not paused, and its 14th Infantry Division attacked the Russian XVI Corps around Rudnik. The fighting drew the attention of 46th Landwehr Infantry Division’s staff, and division commander FML Karl Nastopil ordered one of his brigades forward to support the Common Army division’s advance.

Conclusion
The Polish regulars dented the Russian line, but did not achieve a breakthrough and as full darkness fell Nastopil pulled them back. The Landwehr had needed the day of rest every bit as much as the two Common Army divisions of their corps, but all three would be back in full action the next day. Landwehr divisions, with only 75 percent as many infantry battalions as their Common Army equivalents, could even less afford pointless attacks like this one.

Notes
The Russians don’t have a lot of good terrain on which to anchor their line, and they’re facing an enemy who had good numbers and some artillery support. But they do have their excellent field guns, and they opportunity to deploy them in prepared positions (they get a bonus for this) with good fields of fire. The Poles don’t care about their own losses, only inflicting harm on the Russians, so they are going to be hard to stop.

Scenario Forty-Nine
Middle-Aged Crazy
27 August 1914
First Army commander Viktor Dankl planned to inflict a second defeat on the opposing Russian Fourth Army by turning its right flank north-west of Lublin and capturing the city. That put the weight of the attack on his I Corps, specifically FML Paul Kestranek’s 12th Infantry Division. Kestranek had been reinforced by the Hungarian 101st Landsturm Brigade, a hastily-assembled formation of middle-aged reservists, and the 1st March Brigade, replacements intended to replenish losses in their parent regiments but instead flung into battle in similarly ad hoc battalions.

Conclusion
Rather than mix them amid his regular battalions, Kestranek slotted the Landsturm brigade on the left flank of his division, the key position in First Army’s renewed offensive. Apparently Kestranek reasoned that the fresh Landsturm men might have more success than his tired regulars, and the reservists certainly appeared willing enough. They attacked the town of Chodel with considerable spirit, and fell back with considerable losses. Dankl’s grand plan would have to wait at least another day.

Notes
The Landsturm – intended for duties like guarding prisoners and patrolling railroad bridges – have no business on the battlefield, but here they are and the Hungarian player has to attack with them. They don’t have much in the way of firepower, leadership or morale, just a slight edge in numbers. The Russian defenders, to make matters worse, are a very good unit (1st Rifle Brigade). Austro-Hungarian operational planning in August 1914 was criminally incompetent, but actions like this one show that that extends at times to the division level as well.

Scenario Fifty
The Storming of Sobieszczany
27 August 1914
While 12th Infantry Division (including the 101st Landsturm Brigade) carried the weight of Dankl’s attack plan, the divisions to its right were to feint against the Russians and hold them in place. But in August 1914, Austro-Hungarian officers understood no difference between “feint” and “all-out attack.” In what had become a pattern for FML Karl Nastopil’s 46th Landwehr Infantry Division, the Polish regulars charged forward without the benefit of artillery support.

Conclusion
Sheer Polish battle-madness carried the Landwehr through the Russian positions and into Sobieszczany, driving the Russians back over the small Nedznica River. Once again, the Poles suffered appalling losses, particularly among their officers. The 46th Landwehr Infantry Division went to war as a crack outfit, but already – less than a week after the division’s combat debut – the march battalions streaming forward from the regimental depots could not restore all of the losses.

Notes
The 46th Landwehr Division’s attacks on the first day of the war without artillery support might be explained away as over-enthusiasm, but this action marks at least the third time in five days when the division undertook a large-scale assault without its guns. Nastopil (over there on the right, overseeing this very attack) would lose his job just a few days later, too late to spare the lives he threw away in these early battles.

Scenario Fifty-One
Por Brook
27 August 1914
On the far-right flank of First Army, the Polish 45th Landwehr Infantry Division would support the advance of the 24th Infantry Division to its left while maintaining contact with Fourth Army’s 4th Infantry Division to its right. When both of those divisions moved forward, the Landwehr outfit did so as well, attacking across the narrow Por Brook to drive back the Russian reservists who had just entered the front line.

Conclusion
The Poles stormed across the stream, to be met by heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. They gained a lodgment but Russian counter-attacks tossed them back over Por Brook. X Corps commander Gen. Hugo Meixner von Zweienstamm dispatched reinforcements in the form of a cavalry division and a Landsturm brigade. Before they could make their presence felt the Russians withdrew on their own, to keep aligned with the division to their own left which had been pushed back by the Austrian Fourth Army’s attacks.

Notes
The Russians have a strong defensive position behind a river, but they’re a reservist outfit (lesser firepower, morale and leadership than the regular divisions). The Austrians do have a chance at reinforcements, some of which are useful (Common Army cavalry) and some not so much (a March brigade). They’re probably going to need them; the Landwehr regulars have the strength to push the Russian reservists around, but they have a very high bar for victory.

Scenario Fifty-Two
Heights of Klodnica
28 August 1914
In the center of the Austrian First Army, Gen. Karl Freiherr von Kirchbach auf Lauterbach’s I Corps had been stymied by the Russian XIV Corps’ strong position along the heights just north of Klodnica. On the left and right, the Russians had pulled back, but they retained the heights and Kirchbach planned a flank attack to take advantage of the Russian XVI Corps’ withdrawal.

Conclusion
The Russians held their ground, turning back both the Austro-Hungarian Common Army’s 5th Infantry Division to their front and the 46th Landwehr Infantry Division trying to turn their left flank. Dankl called a halt to wait for further Landsturm reinforcements – a dubious accretion of strength – and for the logistical services to get more food and ammunition to the front.

Notes
I saw Franz Josef’s Armies as an opportunity to include some very large scenarios suitable for team play, and this is one of them. It’s a huge fight and you’ll need some extra Russians from August 1914 to flesh out their order of battle. The Common Army division is facing a tough Russian defense, the Landwehr division is opposed by a very good Russian brigade that’s spread thin to hold them back.

And that’s Chapter Four (which joins the scenarios from Chapter Four of Fall of Empires). Next time, we’ll dive into Chapter Five.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold. Leopold knows the number.

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