Lake Naroch Offensive

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Lake Naroch Offensive
Part of Eastern Front (World War I)
Date March 18 – April 1916 Location Lake Narach area, present-day Belarus Result German victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire	German Empire
Commanders
Alexei Kuropatkin Alexei Evert	Hermann von Eichhorn
Strength
Parts of two army groups (350,000 men + 1,000 guns)	Tenth Army (75,000 men + 400 guns)
Casualties and losses
100,000	20,000

v • d • e Eastern Front Stallupönen – Gumbinnen – Tannenberg – Kraśnik – 1st Lemberg – Komarow – 1st Masurian Lakes – Przemyśl – Vistula River – Łódź – Bolimov – 2nd Masurian Lakes – Gorlice-Tarnów – Warsaw – Lake Naroch – Brusilov Offensive – Kerensky Offensive

The Lake Naroch Offensive was a battle mainly fought in March 1916 to relieve the German pressure against the French at Verdun.

As the French situation there was becoming more and more severe, General Joffre appealed to the other Allies for a diversionary action someplace else in order to compel the Germans to withdraw part of their forces from Verdun.

Nicholas II acceded to the French request, choosing the Lake Narach area in Belarus because there 350,000 Russians (parts of two army groups) faced just 75,000 Germans (X Army under General Eichhorn).

The Russian initial artillery bombardment was quite long (it lasted two days), but inaccurate, leaving most of the Geman artillry intact, and the Russian troops, who made the mistake of crossing no man's land in groups rather than scattered about, were easy targets for German machine guns. The attackers gained a few kilometers, but did not inflict any serious damage to the German defenses — which were well organized and fortified — although the Russians greatly outnumbered their adversaries.

The Russian offensive petered out in April 1916. All gained territory by the Russians was lost to subsequent German counterattacks.

A secondary attack mounted near Riga on March 21 had no better luck.

The whole operation was an utter failure, as it abated the Russians' morale without providing any help to the French.