Second Brusilov offensive | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Brusilov offensive of Eastern front | |||||||||
First - Forth Brusilov offensives (May–September 1916) | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Russian Empire |
Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Mikhail Alekseyev Aleksei Brusilov Alexey Kaledin Vladimir Sakharov Dmitry Shcherbachev Mikhail Diterikhs |
Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Conrad von Hötzendorf Joseph Ferdinand Eduard von Böhm Alexander von Linsingen Felix von Bothmer Cevat Pasha | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
On 1 July:[9] 880,000 men 3,187 machine guns 2,637 guns On 28 July:[10] 1,100,000 men 4,158 machine guns 3,224 guns |
On 1 July:[11] 536,500 men 2,972 guns On 28 July:[12] 580,040 men 3,096 machine guns 3,446 guns | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
Russian Empire: 312,000[13] KIA, WIA, MIA |
Central Powers: 100,000[14] KIA, WIA, MIA |
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 defense was mainly occupied by German troops. The offensive in July–August, despite the use of enormous forces and resources by Brusilov (more than 1,000,000 soldiers), ended in failure. Three Russian armies (at least half a million soldiers) attacked German positions east of Kovel, but to no avail.
The colossal, unprecedented casualties for the Russian Imperial Army are indicated by the numbers of wounded on the Southwestern Front in July–August 1916 (during the second Brusilov offensive) - the maximum numbers for the entire war on Eastern Front, exceeding the Russian casualties during the Great Retreat of 1915 under the attacks of the German Imperial Army:[15]
July - 197,069 WIA
August - 172,377 WIA.