Only one brigade of the 11th Honvéd Cavalry Division had deployed to the front when the Austro-Hungarian high command sent its horsemen forward to find the approaching Russians. The division’s 22nd Brigade finally arrived from its home stations in Debrecen and Szeged, detraining along with the divisional baggage train and marching to join the 24th Brigade. But first they met the Russians.

The Russian horsemen, pressed on all sides by Austrian formations trying to corner and wipe them out, had found the weak point in the encirclement. Austro-Hungarian officers went to war in 1914 with all the comforts of peacetime – bathtubs, fine dishware, even furniture – that now went up in flames as the Russians torched the baggage train. The Russians then rode on, to finally break through the Common Army’s 2nd Cavalry Division and escape.