In February 1915, when the 8th and 10th German armies launched an offensive against the Russian 10th Army. The Osovets fortress and its forebridge were the key position of the Russian defense, and heavy battles immediately began there. The enemy had an advantage in infantry and artillery and aviation. In total, the German units aimed at the Osovets fortress consisted of 40 infantry battalions (about 50 thousand people), two cavalry squadrons (300 cavalrymen), and 17 siege artillery batteries (not counting the field artillery, this is about 60 large-caliber guns).
The forces of the Russian garrison of the Osovets fortress presented the following picture: 27 infantry battalions (about 20 thousand people), 13 hundred cavalry, 26 field guns, 70 heavy fortress guns with a caliber of up to 15 cm. For half a year, the Germans fought against the impregnable walls of the Russian fortress. Before one of the assaults, a German envoy arrived to the commandant of Osovets, General Brzhozovsky. The polished Kaiser's officer said that this time the fortress would not withstand an assault and offered to capitulate, because the Germans value time, and the German cannons, Zeppelin and Albatross, would smash the fortress and its garrison anyway. To which General Brzhozovsky suggested that the German voluntarily stay in the fortress for the duration of the assault and give a receipt that the German agreed that he would be hanged if the fortress stood. The fortress withstood … Even the fortress, crippled by heavy shells and bombs,looked formidable enough and despite the numerical superiority, the German soldiers looked with alarm at the citadel.
For almost six months they could not take this fortification, but today it looks like everything will be decided, the command promised to use a secret weapon and on August 6, exactly at 4 o'clock in the morning, thirty German gas batteries, loaded with several thousand cylinders of combat chlorine and standing with an eight-kilometer front, released a poisonous gas cloud fifteen meters high. Ten minutes later the Russian positions were covered with a yellow-green cloud of chlorine. As the gas began to dissipate, the German artillery opened massive fire. And after the chlorine and the barrage of fire, fourteen replenished and rested battalions went into the attack. By order of the division commander, the orchestra played the Brandenburg March, the Germans were calm, according to intelligence, the Russians did not have gas masks, so no one could survive …
And suddenly, to the amazement and horror of the Germans, figures in Russian greatcoats rose from the smoking ruins. Torn and bloody, with their faces burnt with gas, spitting up blood, the Russian soldiers launched their last attack. An unknown Russian captain led several dozen surviving infantrymen and led them into battle. The captain was gassed and the last meters of his attack, he was already almost dead. And when the throats of the last soldiers of the 13th company of the 226th regiment, burned by the German gas, wheezed Russian cheers, the Germans could not stand it, and ran throwing their weapons.
Three regiments of the German army fled from several dozen Russian soldiers, and then Russian shells added to their horror. The artillerymen who survived after the gas attack, straining with their last strength, helping each other just stand up, revived the fortress guns, and completed the defeat of the Germans. This was the last assault on the Osovets Fortress, and it took place on August 6, 1915. This battle entered the military history under the name "Attack of the Dead". The Germans did not dare to storm the fortress anymore. Due to breakthroughs in other areas, the fortress was abandoned by the end of August. On August 23, only sappers and crews of four casemate fifteen-centimeter guns remained in the fortress. These guns fired all day as a distraction for misinformation. At 20 o'clock in the fortress explosions began. The alarmed Germans opened artillery fire on the fortress, but it was too late,the forts that had blocked their way to the East for so long were blown up one after another. And on them from the Russian batteries shrouded in chlorine clubs, it seemed, already dead artillery began to beat. Several dozen half-dead Russian fighters put three German infantry regiments to flight!
The world military art did not know anything of the kind. This battle will go down in history as the "attack of the dead".
