Riga–Šiauliai offensive
| Riga–Šiauliai offensive | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Eastern Front of World War I | |||||||||
German summer offensive in the Eastern Front 1915 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| German Empire | Russian Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Paul von Hindenburg Erich Ludendorff Otto von Below Otto von Lauenstein Manfred von Richthofen |
Mikhail Alekseyev Pavel Plehve | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| Army of the Niemen | V Army | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
In offensive: 120,000 men and 1,960 guns Total unknown | 188,500 men and 1,735 guns | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 20,000 | 95,000 including 27,000 captured | ||||||||
The Riga–Šiauliai offensive (German: Offensive in Kurland; Russian: Риго-Шавельская операция) was a major Imperial German Army offensive, launched by Paul von Hindenburg with his Army of the Niemen, to divert Russian forces from the direction of the main German blow of the summer offensive on Narew. However, it gradually changed into an offensive of two German armies to capture the Kaunas Fortress and reach the Daugava. In the course of a successful offensive, the German army defeated the numerically superior Russian forces and reached the approaches of Riga, which was a strategically important city.