The Despicable Bean
101 a year ago, 21 August 1915, perhaps the most inglorious, if not to say sharper, event in stories Russian army. Far from exhausting the possibilities of resistance, and in fact, the largest Russian fortress Novogeorgiyevsk surrendered without a fight. More precisely, not even a fortress, but a whole fortified area of more than 200 square kilometers, which, in addition to the citadel, included 33 powerful reinforced concrete forts with numerous artillery.
The siege of Novogeorgievsk lasted only 10 days, while the number of besiegers was almost one and a half times smaller than the number of the garrison - 45 of the landver (that is, the militia) battalions against sixty-four. Only a few days the Germans fired on the fortress, and due to the lack of siege artillery, only a few forts of the northern part of the defensive perimeter came under fire. No southern forts and strongholds were fired at all. It should be noted that the guns in the fortress was 10 times larger than that of the besiegers.
However, on August 19, the commandant of the fortress, General Nikolai Bobyr, with the driver and adjutant, got into his car and drove off to surrender. It never occurred to anyone to stop and arrest him for treason. Moreover, the next day, already in captivity, he gave the order to surrender the fortress to the entire garrison, delivered by the German envoy. Amazingly, this treacherous order was executed immediately and without question. The defenders of Novogeorgievsk obediently laid down weapon.
23 Generals, 1200 Officers, and more than 83 Thousands of Soldiers surrendered in captivity - the case in Russia has never been seen before. Moreover, all fortifications, weapons and ammunition were handed over to the Germans safe and sound. In this regard, we must remember that when in March of the same year, after a six-month siege, the Austrian garrison of the fortress of Peremyshl surrendered, the Austrians blew up forts, guns and ammunition remnants before the surrender.
And in Novogeorgiyevsk the Germans got 1204 guns and more than a million (!) Projectiles for them. The Germans then actively used these guns on the western front, and their propaganda mockingly trumpeting the fact that the Russians excellently supplied Germany with artillery to fight against the allies. You can imagine how the British and French reacted to this ...
The famous military historian Kersnovsky in his book “The History of the Russian Army” directly calls Bobyr “contemptible,” however, in my opinion, this epithet deserves not only him, but all the officers and generals who followed his example. The shameful surrender of Novogeorgievsk was one of the most vivid examples of how rotten and rotten the royal army, including its command, was on the eve of the revolution.
In 1919, Bobyr was released from captivity, returned to Russia and lived quietly in the Crimea under the White Guards. For some reason, neither Denikin nor Wrangel made any claims to him. However, when the Bolsheviks came to the Crimea, the traitor was immediately put to the wall. Of course, the Reds did not shoot him for the surrender of Novogeorgievsk, but this is one of the cases when the victim of mass terror was the one who really deserved it.
On the screensaver is the German postcard 1915 of the year, on which Kaiser Wilhelm congratulates the soldiers on taking the New George Fortress. I didn’t find any normal quality photos of Boby, yes, I confess, I didn’t really want to.
The fortification scheme of Novogeorgievsk and the location of the German siege units on the eve of the surrender of the fortress.
The scheme of one of the Newgeorgian forts. Next are photographs of the fortifications of Novogeorgievsk taken at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.
Heavy fortress mortars captured by the Germans in Novogeorgievsk.
Soldiers of the garrison surrendered under escort leave the citadel on the pontoon bridge over the Vistula.
Germans in one of the forts. There are no signs of shelling on the fortifications.
Employees of a serf aeronautical company in German captivity.
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