A hold-to-light postcard of the German and Austro-Hungarian victory (shortlived) over the Russians in the Uzroker Pass in the Carpathians on January 28, 1915. Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, launched an offensive with three armies on January 23, including the new Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army under General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin.
KarpathenSiegreiche Kämpfe am Uzroker-Paß28. Januar 1915 The CarpathiansVictorious fighting at the Uzroker PassJanuary 28, 1915Reverse:Message dated and field postmarked September 7, 1916, 29th Infantry Division.
"To throw the Russian army out of the Carpathians and reestablish a solid foothold in Galicia, Conrad counterattacked, sending three armies forward on January 23[, 1915]. One Austro-Hungarian army, Boroevic's Third, would take the passes of the western Carpathians; Linsingen's Südarmee would seize the central passes, and further east General Karl von Pflanzer-Baltin's Army Group (which would shortly be renamed the Seventh Army) would attack through the Bukovina to strike the Russian flank. As Falkenhayn had predicted, nothing substantial could be expected in this ice-bound wilderness, even the usually exculpatory Austrian general staff history judging the counteroffensive toward Przemysl — directed by Conrad from his comfortable headquarters in Teschen — 'a cruel folly.'"
Conrad, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, was Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff until his dismissal in 1917. He had lost Galicia and Bukovina, Austria-Hungary's northeastern provinces, on the Russian side of the Carpathian Mountains, in 1914, and hoped to regain them in his offensive. He also hoped to end the threat of the Russians advancing through the Carpathian passes into Hungary. Erich von Falkenhayn, commander of the German Army, did not believe that war would be won on the eastern front, but rather in the west against France and England. Przemyśl was Austria-Hungary's greatest fortress city in Galicia.
A Mad Catastrophe by Geoffrey Wawro, pp. 349, 350, copyright © 2014 by Geoffrey Wawro, publisher: Basic Books
Carpathians, Carpathian Mountains, 1915-01-23, 1915, January,