As the Austrian Fourth Army’s II Corps advanced toward the small city of Zamosc, its advanced cavalry patrols detected the Russian XXV Corps marching to attack the open left flank of the neighboring Austrian First Army. Fourth Army’s commander, Gen. Moritz Auffenberg, ordered his own divisions to attack the Russians before they could execute their own assault. The troops of Vienna’s 13th Landwehr Infantry Division responded with unexpected enthusiasm.

Like the Honvéds of 39th Infantry Division, the Landwehr attacked with what Auffenberg, who witnessed the action, called “true berserker courage.” The Landwehr division, one of four attacking on a relatively narrow front, advanced in closely-packed columns that suffered heavily from enemy field and machine guns. The Russians had been routed off the battlefield and fallen back on Zamosc in disorder, but the Landwehr paid a horrific price for their success. The 14th Landwehr Infantry Regiment, a mostly-Czech outfit from Brno (Brünn in 1914), began the day with just under 3,000 men in its ranks and ended it with less than 600.