Archeological evidence of the battle at Veretyičiv Hill (1915)

During the winter and spring of 1914/15, Austria-Hungary and Russia fought intense battles in the Carpathian Mountains along the border of present-day Slovakia. The turning point came after the Gorlice offensive (2 May 1915), which led to a major retreat of Russian forces.

At that time, Austro-Hungarian forces were ordered to attack and pursue the retreating Russian troops. On 6 May, they reached the village of Laborcfő, which had been burned by the enemy the night before. A Russian rearguard—consisting of the 75th and 76th Infantry Regiments—formed a defensive line around Veretyčiv Hill and Revejka. The A-H headquarters decided to attack early in the morning of 7 May. The 17th and parts of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Royal Honvéd Regiments were ordered to pursue and engage the retreating Russian forces. After a full day of fighting, the Russians managed to hold the line until nightfall, after which they began an organized retreat (Kriegsarchiv Wien 1932, Rozsáfi 2017).

The Russian defensive line is well preserved at the edge of the border forest. We identified three types of structures. The most recognizable is a line of rectangular foxholes, with their shorter side facing downhill. According to Russian sources (Сытин 1914: 6–9), these were firing pits for individual riflemen. In some sections of the front line, groups of firing pits started to merge, allowing us to study the process of trench formation. The distances between the foxholes indicate inconsistent troop density among Russian soldiers.

The second type consists of irregular dugouts with visible entrances. Due to the presence of artifacts inside, we assume they may have belonged to the Austro-Hungarian army, which held positions here in November 1914. The third type comprises large pits overlapping Russian firing positions. Soviet infantry ammunition was found inside them, suggesting that they were dugouts for Soviet artillery at the end of WW2.

In 2017, we attempted to locate the site where Honvéd regiments attacked Russian positions. We conducted a metal detector survey in the area in front of the Russian firing pits. Approximately 120 meters ahead of them, we discovered a large linear concentration of Mannlicher cartridge cases.

This finding allowed us to establish two survey polygons (total area: 50 × 50 m) for a detailed metal detector examination. The position of each artifact was measured with a total station and spatially analyzed in GIS. A total of 173 artifacts were recovered. The most common finds are related to the Austro-Hungarian attack. These include 120 spent 8 × 50 R cartridges for Mannlicher rifles, two bullets, ammunition clips, and a cleaning rod. The second category consists of shell fragments from Russian artillery bombardment.

Spatial analysis allowed us to pinpoint the exact firing line of A-H troops, which is no longer visible in the terrain (Zubalík et al. 2018). Additionally, we tested the visibility from the attacking Honvéd units toward the Russian trenches. This method accounted for actual altitude at the location. When setting the visibility height (i.e., the height at which soldiers had their heads), we found that if the Honvéds moved in a crouched position or crawled, they were shielded by a terrain wave. This finding aligns with written sources and personal accounts stating that soldiers moved close to the ground on the battlefield (Fojtík 2022).

The final phase of our survey was a geophysical examination, conducted in summer 2018 by colleagues from the Ottó Herman Museum in Miskolc. They covered an area of 100 × 350 m. The results confirmed that no trenches were present in front of the Russian foxholes. However, numerous magnetic and ferromagnetic objects were detected, likely remnants of artillery shell fragments. Besides these metallic objects, three linear features of unknown function were identified, possibly related to earlier agricultural activities (Kiss 2018b).

Resources:

Fojtík, M. 2022: Boj o vrchol - Veretyčiv 1915: archeologické doklady bitvy nad Haburou (okr. Medzilaborce). Diplomová práce. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta. Online at: https://is.muni.cz/th/odsh3/.

Kiss, D. 2018. Non-Invasive Research into a First World War Battlefield on Habura Hill. Unpublished geophysical Survey Report by Herman Ottó Múzeum, Miskolc.

Kriegsarchiv Wien 1932: Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 - 1918 (Band 1 und 2). Wien: Verl. der Militärwiss.

Rozsáfi, J. 2017: Győzelem – minden áron? https://nagyhaboru.blog.hu/2017/05/18/gyozelem_minden_aron (citováno 22. 3. 2019)

Сытин, Иван Дмитриевич (1914): Военная энциклопедия. Том 17. [Нитроглицерин — Патруль.] Петербург.

Zubalík, J., Fojtík, M., Kapavík, R., Těsnohlídek, J., Vojtas, M., Petřík, J., and Tajkov, P. 2019: Maďarská palebná linie pod vrchem Veretyčiv u obce Habura: Prvotní výsledky výzkumu bojiště první světové války. Studia Archaeologica Brunensia 24/2: 75-88.