Siege of Kaunas (1915)

E415252

The Siege of Kaunas (1915) was a major World War I Eastern Front operation in which German forces captured the strategically important Russian-held fortress city of Kaunas after intense artillery bombardment and assault.

All labels observed (2)

Label Occurrences
Fall of Kowno (1915) 1
Siege of Kaunas (1915) canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf World War I battle
military siege
alsoKnownAs Siege of Kaunas (1915)
surface form: Fall of Kowno (1915)
attackingForce German Tenth Army
surface form: German 10th Army

German heavy artillery units
capturedBy German Tenth Army
surface form: German 10th Army
characterizedBy assault on fortress forts
intense artillery bombardment
combatantCommander Karl Litzmann NERFINISHED
Otto von Below
conflict World War I
consequence German control of key Niemen River crossing
weakening of Russian defensive system in Northwestern Front
countryInvolved German Empire
Russian Empire
defendedBy Imperial Russian Army
surface form: Russian Imperial Army
defendingCommander Vladimir Grigoriev NERFINISHED
defendingForce Russian garrison of Kaunas Fortress
endTime 1915-08-18
followedBy German advance toward Vilnius
fortificationType ring fortress
front Eastern Front
garrisonSurrenderedTo German forces
historicalRegion Kovno Governorate
locatedInPresentDay Lithuania
location Kaunas
Kaunas Fortress
militaryTheater Northern sector of Eastern Front
objective capture of Russian-held fortress city of Kaunas
outcome fall of Kaunas Fortress to German forces
partOf Eastern Front
surface form: Eastern Front (World War I)

German 1915 summer offensive on the Eastern Front
precededBy Battle of Gorlice–Tarnów
surface form: Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive
result German victory
significance capture of one of the major Russian fortresses in the northwest
facilitated German advance into Lithuania
startTime 1915-08-06
strategicObjective breach of Russian defensive line on the Niemen River
capture of Kaunas Fortress
timePeriod August 1915
usedTactic infantry assault on breached forts
systematic siege artillery preparation
usedWeapon 305 mm howitzers
420 mm howitzers
heavy siege artillery

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Kaunas Fortress significantEvent Siege of Kaunas (1915)
Siege of Kaunas (1915) alsoKnownAs Siege of Kaunas (1915)
this entity surface form: Fall of Kowno (1915)