The Siege of Fortress Przemyśl, 1914: Decisive Battle of the Eastern Front

The Siege of Fortress Przemyśl, 1914: Decisive Battle of the Eastern Front | Alexander Watson

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The Western Front Association

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 56

@jezalb2710 2 жыл бұрын

The Eastern front of the WWI is often forgotten by folks from the west. Great work.

@johnsimpson8893 Жыл бұрын

I'll bet the Eastern Front Association doesn't do much about the Western front.

@raftai665 Жыл бұрын

@@johnsimpson8893 Quite right.

@elsupremo3651 3 жыл бұрын

The kind of in depth presentation that makes subscribing to the WFA so worthwhile.

@ronti2492 4 жыл бұрын

The Fortress is an excellent read- great work Alexander! Indeed, I did purchase a copy. I live about 2 hours from Przemyśl. The forts are very well preserved and very much worth a visit.

@joeyj6808 4 ай бұрын

Excellent talk! Great subject, great speaker, great venue as well. I'll be getting my mitts on the author's books for sure. Thanks to all involved.

@amir-ng6jv 3 жыл бұрын

Such a powerful story. Great presentation too

@JuveVinny Жыл бұрын

This is a great webinar. Thank you so much.

@seanmccann8368 4 жыл бұрын

A brilliant study of a little known and even less understood facet of The Eastern Front in WW1, thank you to all involved in this presentation. Perhaps the most amazing fact about the various forces which constituted the 'Imperial and Royal' Austro-Hungarian Military is not that they had difficulties with equipment, communications, organisation and supply; but that they managed to achieve some successes despite their fragmentary allegiances and divided loyalties. Thanks again.

@Digmen1 10 ай бұрын

When I was 14 (50 years ago I used to love reading about the campains in the east - Galicia etc

@johnsowerby7182 Жыл бұрын

Excellent talk on a subject I knew a little about, but nowhere near enough

@johncecilia4517 Жыл бұрын

It's surprising that Russia was so weak in artillery, considering they were humiliated by Japan 10 years earlier due to similar technological issues. You would think they would have tried to be closer to Germany if they were preparing for war with them. Was it all due to the economics? Great video!

@rhysnichols8608 Жыл бұрын

Also funny since historically Russia always had some of the best and most numerous artillery. In the Napoleonic wars they often had the heaviest guns.

@jamesleonard7439 11 ай бұрын

@@rhysnichols8608Never new that , interesting stuff.

@ronlee2776 11 ай бұрын

I would say that Russia was such a complete socioeconomic mess in the period 1905 through 1914 that it really isn’t surprising they didn’t improve their artillery.

@thomasjamison2050 3 жыл бұрын

I knew a jewish woman who was born in Western Russia around 1910. Whenever I talked with her, she almost always would say at some point in the conversation, "the best thing I ever did as a child was get on that boat."

@thomasp8261 2 жыл бұрын

5:25 The map is out of date by 1914. Norway got independent in 1905.

@richardedmonds7989 3 жыл бұрын

Really enjoyed this talk, I’m fascinated with the eastern front in WW1. 👍🏻

@shlomomark2275 3 жыл бұрын

Very interesting. My late paternal Grandmother told me about her experience as a little girl during WWI in a region just south of Przemysl. It's clear that she omitted information from us... but she did described the retreat of the Austrian forces and the arrival of the Russians

@blueband8114 Жыл бұрын

I visited Przemyśl back in 2018, managed to get to Fort Salis Soglio well worth it.

@TomFynn 2 жыл бұрын

I seriously think one of the reasons why the Eastern Front of WWI is largely forgotten is that no one west of the Oder-Neiße line can pronounce the names of the battle sites.

@Jon.A.Scholt 2 жыл бұрын

35:06 "Tells Chewbacca". I didn't know Chewie was in the First World War.

@Ealsante 3 жыл бұрын

Ah, Hotzendorf. The KuK Armee never had a deadlier foe than its own Chief of Staff.

@Dilley_G45 11 ай бұрын

And a mighty ally in the worst of all chiefs of staff, Luigi Cardona

@robodub1 3 жыл бұрын

This is excellent

@Istehomo 4 жыл бұрын

What a wonderful speaker.

@gandydancer9710 2 жыл бұрын

I agree, when he got going on his subject after a rough start.

@rudolphguarnacci197 2 жыл бұрын

Fantàsric presenter! Fascinating event!

@MadMax-bq6pg 3 жыл бұрын

Alex, if you want to understand what older motivated people can do, read “Boarding party” by James Leasor

@Squab83andTRULIFE316 Жыл бұрын

I love the in depth analysis of this battle. I feel like I'm going to college for free 😀

@leisureenjoyer1986 3 жыл бұрын

haven't read The Fortress but if it's anything on a par with Ring Of Steel it'll be absolutely first-rate.

@russeldavis1787 4 жыл бұрын

Gotta love subtle product placement

@rudolphguarnacci197 2 жыл бұрын

Why not?

@dianblum5406 Жыл бұрын

Just to balance Mr Watson's somewhat glowing description of pre-war Galicia, here is Wikipedia: "The Austrians decided that Galicia should not develop industrially but remain an agricultural area that would serve as a supplier of food products and raw materials to other Habsburg provinces. New taxes were instituted, investments were discouraged, and cities and towns were neglected. The result was significant poverty in Austrian Galicia. Galicia was the poorest province of Austro-Hungary, and according to Norman Davies, could be considered "the poorest province in Europe"."

@davemacnicol8404 Жыл бұрын

Lol as if wiki has the source material he does.

@spaffyjimble2317 9 ай бұрын

@@davemacnicol8404two things can be true at once. The glowing descriptions can be of how the wealthier farming families, representing an overwhelming minority by population, in order to persuade people to support the society the Tsar et al thought was/wanted everyone to believe was natural. The critical descriptions can come from any political rival to the Tsar who wanted to show him to be woefully naive, politically, or outright living in a fantasy world where faith in Gd can replace bread, loyalty to the Tsar can replace munitions, and trueness to thine self can replace tactics. The communists, the liberals, the anarchists, almost everyone had plenty of good reason to showcase that the Tsar can't grow the very grass that he is trying to touch. #vote4brusilov #thisishowbrusilovcanstillwin

@steveswitzer4353 3 жыл бұрын

Read his book it’s first class

@Digmen1 10 ай бұрын

I like this presenters style.

@andrewblake2254 3 жыл бұрын

This is very interesting material and deserves to be heard so I commend your efforts to make it available. But I'd like to make a few points about the delivery. Firstly I can't hear every tenth word or so especially at the end of a sentence. Not sure if it is your microphone or your diction, but I think you need to fix it if your channel is to get the attention it deserves. Secondly you need to get rid of all the umms and errs in your public speaking. These diminish your delivery. If you want to see how this kind of military history can be done I recommend TIK who is currently doing Battlestorm Stalingrad or Indie Naidell who is currently doing World War Two. These guys are really excellent and they are both treat their delivery as a performance and have performance skills. Mark Felton is also worth listening to as a good example. These guys admittedly have the very great benefit of editing which this live talk does not. I think what your doing is great and I wish you well with it.

@harrisonbergeron9746 3 жыл бұрын

i came for the academic content not the presentation. TIK is competent enough but Felton is a bit click-baity for me. Nazi UFOs? come on.

@ALimbOfGreatTree 3 жыл бұрын

“Can you say it slowly please?” “Pshmshl, look it up on Wikipedia,” that was a funny little answer!

@ronlee2776 11 ай бұрын

The one thing I would critique on the presentation is the statement that Austria Hungary prioritized Galicia is incorrect. Their priority was the invasion of Serbia and that is where they deployed the majority of their forces at the start of the war. They estimated that the Russians would take much longer in mobilization than they actually did. This is one of the reasons why they suffered such a catastrophic defeat in Galicia. This caused a great deal of consternation in the German high command when they discovered that this was in fact the case as they had made the assumption that Austria Hungary would make their main deployment to defend Galicia.

@rhysnichols8608 9 ай бұрын

You are correct regarding the initial deployments in the opening days of the war. By the time Przemsyl is important the main focus indeed became Galicia, the Russian armies were threatening Krakow and were quite deep into Hapsburg lands.

@yukikaze3436 3 жыл бұрын

good presentation the book "Nationalizing the Russian Empire" deals with the Russian deportations ect online there is "Austia-Hungary's Last War 1914-1918" (the Austrian offical history) and The World Crises volume 6 by W.S. Churchill the Eastern front

@redwater4778 2 жыл бұрын

Or, perhaps the Russians were moving civilians out of war zones.

@thomaskaplan4898 Жыл бұрын

A fine presentation, and very informative. I do contend a little with a Brit calling other empires racist, when in 1914 Britain was second to none in keeping indigenous populations down all over the globe. Or even closer to home, Ireland? Scotland? I love the UK but let's be honest, Russia was no more racist or nationalist than all the combatants. The Austrians behavior in Serbia was appalling, and the Germans in Belgium. Little Belgium was itself guilty of horrible policies in the Congo....so just sign of the times .

@rhysnichols8608 Жыл бұрын

I agree with you. He is using too much of a 21st century political lens.

@patavinity1262 7 ай бұрын

First of all, he may well agree with you about British imperial racism, but that does not invalidate his pointing out the situation in Russia, does it? There's nothing to 'contend' - everyone is free to point out the truth when he sees it. Being born in a certain place doesn't mean you aren't allowed to make such criticisms. Secondly, you seem to suggest that Britain was a more violently repressive imperial power than any other in 1914, and this is objectively untrue. There is simply no comparison with the pogroms or with the state sanctioning of the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion', nor with the Belgian Congo. Thirdly, whatever might be said about Ireland (although there was no violence in 1914 - that would not take place until 1916), the Scottish nationalist movement did not *exist* in 1914.

@SaulKopfenjager 2 жыл бұрын

Those 32 granades in total for the assault, must have been given to some actual Russian Grenadiers surely! Straegically, I've always had the impression that the Przemysl Fortress was a wasteful example of getting surrounded, but it seems that it really was a decisive lifesafer for the hapless Hapsburg Army so it recovered to be able to fight on after their debacle in Galicia. Interesting, had my mind changed, although clearly they were lucky it didn't immediately fall to that assault.