Aug. 24, 2025

THE LAST STAND AT OSOWEIC FORTRESS: "THE ATTACK OF THE DEAD MEN"

Show Notes

In 1915, Russian defenders launched a gruesome counterattack that repelled the German invaders. What made it so gruesome? The Russians were the victims of German gas warfare, involving chlorine and bromine gases, which devastated the Russian garrison at Osowiec Fortress. It did not quite work out the way the Germans planned however. The Germans had underestimated the sheer will and determination of the Russian defenders. In this episode, part of our series, Summer of Last Stands, we give you the gore and the glory, the details of the Russian countercharge by survivors that were walking dead men, their flesh dissolving before the eyes of the terrified German offence, as the enemy scrambled in panicked retreat.

Resources used
"Attack of the Dead Men” - History Insights
"Attack of the Dead Men” - Wikipedia
"Attack of the Dead Men: The World War I Battle That Was Like a Scene Out of a Horror Movie" - War History Online
"How Did Russian Soldiers Continue To Fight Following Exposure To Deadly Gas During World War I?” - ScienceABC
"Osowiec Fortress” - Wikipedia
"Representations of the Poison Gas War on the Eastern Front, 1915–1917” - The Cambridge World History of Genocide (Chapter 27)
"The Defense of Osowiec Fortress in WWI” - Gordon Hesterberg, Prezi
Links to Song mentioned in the podcast:
Aria - “Attack of the Dead” https://youtu.be/6MY-g2FcN90?feature=shared
Sabaton - “Attack of the Dead Men” https://youtu.be/-AFdwoyNT24?feature=shared

THE LAST STAND AT OSOWEIC FORTRESS: "THE ATTACK OF THE DEAD MEN"

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