Russian victory over the Austrians (First World War) during their abortive invasion of Russian Poland. Russian General Plehve in command of the Fifth Army found himself facing a forty mile gap in the Austrian between the Austrian First and Fourth armies. He advanced into it, and was able to attack the Austrians from the flank and rear around Rava Ruska. General Franz Conrad, the Austrian chief of staff, ordered a general retreat, which soon got out of hand. By the time the Austrians managed to stop the retreat, they had already fallen back over one hundred miles, and lost 350,000 men. The defeat forced the Germans to move troops from the Prussian front to stop a potential Austrian collapse.