While the Austrians laid their plans to attack the Russian flanks and encircle the center of Plehve’s Fifth Army, the Russians still believed themselves to be on the offensive. The V and XIX Corps continued to move forward, and struck the Austrian VI Corps with an unexpected assault just as the sun rose.

The Russian attack took the Austrians by surprise; the Habsburg commanders had assumed that the Russians were now on the defensive and would await their own scheduled attack later that morning. By 1000 the Austrians had held off the Russians and begun their own advance, which made little headway as the Russians did not give up their own attempts to move forward.