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The Lake Naroch offensive was an unsuccessful Russian offensive on the Eastern Front of World War I which occurred from 18 to 30 March 1916. Launched to draw German reinforcements away from Verdun, the offensive suffered from a lack of supplies and muddy thawing ground. Initial attacks made little progress and the operation tailed off with no real gains made.

History[]

Under the terms of the December 1915 Chantilly Agreement, France, Russia, and Italy each agreed to launch simultaneous offensives against the Central Powers in the summer of 1916. Concurrently, Russia was forced to send expeditions to France and Greece in the hope of obtaining munitions from Britain and France. In the spring of 1916, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agreed to a French request to launch an offensive against the Germans in Belarus to draw German reinforcements away from the Battle of Verdun, and Nicholas chose to attack at Lake Naroch, where the local Russian forces outnumbered the Germans. After a two-day (yet inaccurate) artillery bombardment, the Russians crossed no man's land in groups rather than scattering, making them easy targets for German machine-guns. The Russians advanced 6.2 miles, but they failed to inflict serious damage on the well-organized and fortified German defenses. Subsequent German counterattacks recaptured lost territory, and a secondary Russian attack at Riga on 21 March 1916 also met with defeat. The onset of warm weather and abundant rains had turned much of the area into swamps, which hampered the Imperial Russian Army's human wave attacks and contributed to the Russians' defeat and the further demoralization of the Russian army.

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