The Attack of the Dead Men
Coughing up remnants of burned and bloodied lungs, a German attack was turned away by Russian ‘zombies’
Zombies charing German forces sounds like something out of a video game or Quentin Tarantino movie. But if such things exist today, they are born from the infamous Attack of the Dead Men at Osowiec Fortress in World War I.
In northeast Poland in the summer of 1915, 14 German battalions set their eyes on the Osowiec Fortress. The collection of infantry and artillery marched with confidence on the fort. With around 900 Russian men at its defense, victory seemed imminent.
The Germans thrust a full-frontal offensive on Osowiec Fortress. Under the command of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the Germans determined the most effective way to support their attack would be the inclusion of chlorine gas.
With 30-gas balloons in tow, the Germans suspected the Russian soldiers posted at Osowiec Fortress were without effective protection from a gas attack. It was decided that in the early morning on August 6, 1915 the Germans would deploy the choline.
The attack proved extremely effective. Having no protection, when the gas and water mixed, the chlorine became hydrochloric acid. When the Russian soldiers inhaled the gas, they did not only choke on the gas. It melted their lungs and throats.
Skin peeled, dead plants and birds littered the landscape. Leaves turned brown, grass black. Everything suffered under the German gas attack. Of the 900 Russian soldiers posted to defend the fortress, just 100 or so remained.
Vladimir Karpovich Kotlinsky, a Russian sub-lieutenant, gathered the survivors. Bleeding, burned, and spitting up pieces of damaged lungs, 100 Russians prepared a counter strike against 7,000 advancing German soldiers.
As the Germans approached the towers, they were amazed to see zombie-like men rising up to meet them. Their look was so loathsome that the advancing Germans quickly reversed course.
Their retreat was so quick they succumbed to some of their own trip wire traps. As the Germans fled, the surviving Russian guns opened fire. This fueled the Russian counter-attack. The Russians would retain control of the area, though at a significant cost.
Their success was short-lived. Within two weeks, the Germans had regrouped and looked to encircled the Russians at Osowiec Fortress. Successfully capturing Kaunas and Novogeorgievsk, there was little hope for the Russians this time. On August 18th, with German forces closing in on them, the Russians opted to fight another day. They demolished the fortress and withdrew.
Today, the legacy of the Attack of the Dead Men at Osowiec Fortress lives on mostly through music. The Russian metal band Aria released a song in 2014 entitled “Attack of the Dead.” A Swedish metal band known as Sabotan also created a song of their own titled “The Attack of the Dead Men,” which was released in 2019.