Przasnysz campaign

In World War I, series of battles between Russian and German forces over an important road junction about 72 km/45 mi north of Warsaw. In the most important encounter in February 1915, a Russian victory put an end to Hindenburg's offensive against the Narev River line.

The Germans initially captured Przasnysz from the Russians in December 1914 but quickly lost it again. Hindenburg brought up two army corps to recapture it in 1915, attacking from three directions. The Russians held the town with a comparatively small force and so evacuated it on 25 February 1915, but the troops were by then surrounded and had no escape route. They were saved only by the arrival of troops collected from the various Russian border fortresses who deployed west and north of the town and began surrounding the encircling German forces. Battered on both sides by Russians, the Germans fought for two days before disengaging and retiring to their original positions near Mlava, having lost at least 10,000 prisoners to the Russians. The town remained in Russian hands until later in 1915 when a fresh German advance captured it.