The Austrian First Army’s advance during the Battle of Kraśnik opened a gap between its right-most corps and the left-most troops of the adjoining Austrian Fourth Army. That tempted the Russian Fifth Army, which faced the Austrian Fourth Army, to send its divisions into the opening thus created to smash in First Army’s right flank. But the Austrian cavalry detected the move and the Austrian 24th Infantry Division, part of First Army’s X Corps, came fresh off its victory over the Russian Grenadier Corps to strike the advancing Russian 70th Infantry Division head-on.

The Austrian advance guard blunted the Russian advance, but 24th Infantry Division provided no reinforcements and the battle here became a stalemate while to the west the other brigade of 70th Infantry Division defeated and drove back the 46th Landwehr Infantry Division. The alarming result of the battle, which some staffers at General Headquarters outright refused to believe, was that 24th Infantry Division had taken prisoners from a Russian reserve division – formations that were not supposed to arrive at the front for weeks yet to come. The supposedly slow-moving Russian steamroller had already arrived.