| Battle of Zborov | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theKerensky offensive during theEastern Front (World War I) | |||||||
 Czechoslovak legionnaires in the trenches | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Czechoslovak Legion Russian Provisional Government |  German Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Vyacheslav TroyanovStanislav ČečekRadola Gajda |  Eduard von Böhm-ErmolliArnold von Winckler | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 3,530[1][2] | 5,500[3] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 167 killed 700 wounded (17 fatally wounded) 11 missing | 3,300 captured (62 officers) 20 guns captured | ||||||
TheBattle of Zborov (Зборівська битва,Zborivska bytva inUkrainian,Зборовское сражение inRussian,Schlacht bei Zborów inGerman,bitva u Zborova inCzech,bitka pri Zborove inSlovak) was a part of theKerensky Offensive (the lastRussian offensive inWorld War I, taking place in July 1917). The battle was the first significant action of theCzechoslovak Legions (volunteers fighting against theCentral Powers) on theEastern Front.
As the reliability of many Russian military formations was in doubt, only units that volunteered to attack were used in the offensive. Among those who did was the Czechoslovak Riflemen Brigade (Československá střelecká brigáda), often called theCzechoslovak Legion, formed from three regiments ofCzechs andSlovaks. The brigade (about 3,530 men), was low on equipment and training. Moreover, this was the first use of the brigade as a single formation; previously, the Russian command had used only smaller units of the brigade, mostly in reconnaissance actions.[4] On the other hand, overall morale amongst the members of the brigade was very high.[1]
The brigade was commanded by RussianColonelVyacheslav Platonovich Troyanov, but the tactical assault plan was prepared by Czech and Slovak officers serving in the Czechoslovak Legion. ProfessorTomáš Masaryk, the main organizer of the Czechoslovak resistance against Austria-Hungary, was in telegraphic connection with colonel Nikolai Petrovich Mamontov so he could follow the situation fromSaint Petersburg.
The brigade was deployed nearZborov, a town in today's Ukraine, in a sector of secondary importance. The 4th division protected it from the north, the 6th division from the south. The enemy, thearmy of Austria-Hungary, deployed four well entrenched and well equipped infantry regiments (IR), the IR 6, 35, 75 and 86 (in all, about 12,000 men).
At 5:15 on the 2 July, the second day of the offensive, after an initial artillery bombardment, small groups of Legionnaires equipped with grenades attacked the enemy. At 8:00, Colonel Mamontov called LieutenantStanislav Čeček by phone to start the attack. Aftershock troops breached the barbed wire defenses, follow-up units took over to continue the attack. By 15:00 the Legion had advanced deep into enemy territory, breaking through the entire Austrian trench line; 3,300 enemy soldiers (62 officers) were captured, while 20 guns and large amounts of war material were seized.[5] The Legion's losses were 167 killed, 17 mortally wounded, 11 missing and around 700 injured.
This success had no wider effect on the doomed offensive. The battle, however, gave propaganda and political capital to the leaders of the Czechoslovak resistance and convinced the Russian government to end its limitations on new units formed from Czech and Slovak soldiers captured during the war. Moreover, news of the armed action of the Czech exterior resistance reached the Czech people inAustria-Hungary for the first time. Any reference to Czech volunteers fighting on the side of theEntente was suppressed bycensorship. But the surprising victory by the smaller Czechoslovak forces incited some Austrian politicians to demand an investigation of alleged treason by Czech units in the Austro-Hungarian Army and this made the victorious legionaries famous across the Empire.
After the war, the battle was used to propagate the heroic military cult surrounding theLegions who formed a cornerstone of the new Czechoslovak state. During theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia (1939–1945), and later, when thecommunist party took power in 1948, the story was suppressed or ignored.
The battle was depicted in the 1938 Czech language propaganda filmZborov. The movie was based on a story byRudolf Medek and directed by Jiří Slavíček and Jan Alfréd Holman. Due to theMunich Agreement, a shortened version ofZborov was first screened in January 1939.
