the first world war. Оборона Осовец

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08-27-13, 12:19 PM

My friends, today I want to tell you about a little-knownmilitary battles during the First World War, between theRussian and German soldiers.In 1915, the world looked on with admiration defenseOsovets, a small Russian fortress at 23.5 km from the then

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East Prussia. The main objective of the fortress was, as hewrote part in defense Osovets S. Hmelkov, "to block theopponent nearest and most convenient way to Bialystok ...make the enemy lose time or to conduct a long siege, or tofind detours." Bialystok - transport hub, the taking of whichpaved the way to Vilna (Vilnius), Grodno, Minsk and Brest. Sothe Germans through Osovets lay the shortest route toRussia. It was impossible to get around the fortress: it waslocated on the banks of the River Beavers, controlling thewhole district. In the vicinity - swamps.The first onslaught of the Germans launched in September1914: taken from the Konigsberg large-caliber guns, theybombarded the fort for six days. A Osovets siege began inJanuary 1915 and lasted 190 days.Germans used against the fortress of all their latestachievements. Delivered the famous "Big Bertha" - siegeweapons caliber 420-mm, 800-pound shells which breaksthrough the two-meter high steel and concrete floors. Funnelfrom such an explosion was five feet deep and fifteen indiameter.The Germans calculated that would force the surrender of thefortress with a garrison of a thousand men, necessary withonly two of these guns and 24 hours a methodicalbombardment - 360 shells, every four minutes - volley.Under Osovets brought four "Big Bertha" and 64 otherpowerful siege guns, a total of 17 batteries.The most terrible fire was at the beginning of the siege. "Theenemy opened fire at the fortress, February 25 , drove himon 27 and 28 February to the hurricane, and so continued todestroy the fortress until March 3" - recalled S. Hmelkov.According to his calculations, this week the horrific fire on thefortress was released only 200-250 thousand heavyprojectiles. And all for the siege - up to 400 thousand. "Thebrick buildings collapsed, wood burning, wire connection wasinterrupted, highway spoiled craters, trenches and shafts forall the improvements, such as: canopies, machine gun nests,light bunkers, were erased from the face of the earth" . Thefortress hovering clouds of smoke and dust. Together withartillery fort was bombed by German airplanes."Was terrible view of the fortress, the whole castle wasshrouded in smoke, through which in one and then in anotherplace huge tongues of fire erupted from the explosion ofshells, pillars of earth, water and whole trees were flying up,the earth trembled, and it seemed that nothing couldwithstand such a hurricane of fire. The experience was suchthat no one will come out of this storm of fire and iron "- sowrote foreign correspondents.Command, believing that requires almost impossible, askedthe defenders to hold out at least 48 hours. The fortress wasstill half a year. And Russian artillery during the terriblebombings even managed to knock out two "Big Bertha",poorly disguised enemy. Along the way, blew up theammunition dump.August 6, 1915 was for the defenders Osovets black day: forthe destruction of the garrison of Germans used poison gas.Gas attack they prepared carefully, patiently waiting for theright wind. Launched 30 gas cells, several thousand bottles.August 6 at 4 am on the Russian position flowed dark greenmist mixture of chlorine with bromine, which reached themfor 5-10 minutes. Gas wave of 12-15 meters in height andwidth of 8 km penetrated to a depth of 20 km. Gas mask at


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the defenders of the fortress was not."All living outdoors in the bridgehead of the fortress waspoisoned to death - recalled party defense. - All the greens inthe fort and in the immediate area for the movement of gashas been destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow,curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and fell to theground, flower petals circled. All copper objects in thebridgehead of the fortress - of guns and ammunition, sinks,tubs and so on - were covered with a thick green layer ofchlorine monoxide, food items stored without hermeticsealing - meat, butter, lard, vegetable, were poisoned andunfit for consumption. "" Half-dead trudged back - that's adifferent author - to quench their thirst, bending over towater, but here in the low places gases were delayed, andsecondary poisoning led to the death."The German artillery reopened massive fire, following theshelling and the gas cloud to storm the Russian front lineshave moved 14 battalions of Landwehr - and it is not lessthan seven thousand foot soldiers. At the forefront after thegas attack remained alive scarcely more than a hundreddefenders. Doomed fort seemed to have been in Germanhands. But when the German chain approached the trenches,of the dark-green mist of chlorine collapsed on them ...counter-attacking Russian infantry. The sight was horrifying:the men walked into the bayonet charge, of faces swathed inrags, shaking with a terrible cough, literally spitting outpieces of lung on the bloody shirt. These were the remains ofthe 13th Company 226th Infantry Regiment Zemlyanskii, alittle more than 60 people. But they plunged the enemy insuch terror that the German infantrymen, not accepting thefight, rushed back, trampling each other and hung on theirown barbed wire. And by him, shrouded in clouds of chlorineRussian battery, began firing seemed to have the lostartillery Russian. Several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers toflight three German infantry regiment! Nothing like the worlddid not know the . This battle will go down in history as the"attack dead."(I think that, the Germans are not afraid evil people- ofwould rancor in the war - business as usual. And theGermans do not run like cowards, but as people, seeingahead, that a living person is not allowed to see. Deadpeople. Dozens dead people who were going to kill them, infull growth, across a bullet in the face. The plod, falling, stillcrawling, and it was evident that they were very happy to seeyou and really want to kill you. And really began to kill. Andwhen the Germans fled, - they died …)Osovets Russian troops still left, but later on the orders ofcommand, when his defense lost its meaning. The evacuationof the fortress - is also an example of heroism. Becauseremove all of the fortress had at night, in the afternoon onthe highway was impassable : it constantly bombed byGerman airplanes. But the enemy has no cartridge orprojectile, or even cans of canned food. On the night ofAugust 24, 1915 Russian sappers blew up all that remainedof the German fire, and a few days later, the Germansdecided to take the ruins.So fought Russian soldiers. They kept a terrible blow to theGerman war machine, while maintaining the possibility of theexistence of the country. And not just his. "If France had notbeen erased from the face of Europe, it first of all we oweRussia", - said later Supreme Allied Commander Marshal


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Foch.Photo 1 - The commandant of the fortress "Osovets," Gen.artillery Nikolai BrzhozovskyPhoto 2 - "Big Bertha" (420 mm) at the position

Photo 3 - Defender fortress near unexploded ordnance

Photo 4 - The shells used by the Germans during the assault.Left - 420 mm, 305 mm, 210 mm, 150 mm, 107 mm and100 mm


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Photo 5 - Diagram defense of a Fortress


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the first world war. Оборона Осовец

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