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 | 5th Army | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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Total: 326,615 men Army of the Niemen 158,905 men 600 guns X Army 167,710 men |
Total: 549,192 men 5th Army 217,041 men 290 machine guns 488 guns 10th Army: 332,151 men 305 machine guns 784 guns | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Total: 38,176 men 9,061 KIA 4,337 MIA 24,778 WIA |
Total: 157,224 men 14,025 KIA 81,886 MIA 61,314 WIA | ||||||||
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.