Attack of the Dead Men
| Attack of the Dead Men | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eastern Front of World War I | |||||||||
The Russian garrison assembled in the Church of the Osowiec Fortress, 1915. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| German Empire | Russian Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Paul von Hindenburg Rudolf von Freudenberg |
Vladimir Kotlinsky † Władysław Strzemiński (WIA) | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| 11th Landwehr Division | 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
14 battalions
|
| ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Heavy |
~800 dead from gas (almost all present were wounded or killed) | ||||||||
The Attack of the Dead Men, or the Battle of Osowiec Fortress, was a battle of World War I that took place at Osowiec Fortress (now northeastern Poland), on August 6, 1915.
The incident received its grim name from the bloodied, corpse-like appearance of the Russian combatants after they were bombarded with a mixture of poison gases, chlorine and bromine by the Germans. While coughing up blood and often pieces of their inner organs, the Russians covered their faces with cloths and managed to rout the German troops.