Qualla: Battle of Bakhmach

Battle of Bakhmach: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vtyklya, CC BY-SA 4.0. The strangest part of the Battle of Bakhmach is the geography. The men fighting were Czechs and Slovaks, citizens of Austria-Hungary who had defected to the other side. They were now in Ukraine, holding a railway town against the German army, with the goal of reaching Vladivostok — a port on the Pacific Ocean, six thousand miles east of where they wanted to end up. Czechoslovakia, the country they were fighting for, did not yet exist. They were going to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway around the world to get home.

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Image: Vtyklya | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Bakhmach: How They Got Here

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The Czechoslovak Legion was the largest military force ever raised by a national independence movement that had no country. About 40,000 strong by early 1918 and growing toward 60,000, the Legion was made up of Czechs and Slovaks who had been conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle of Bakhmach: The Junction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 3.0. Bakhmach is a small Ukrainian town northeast of Kyiv whose only real distinction is its railway. It sits at a major junction on the line that runs east toward the Volga, and through the Volga toward the Trans-Siberian. For the Legion, Bakhmach was the door. Get through it, and th...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 3.0

Battle of Bakhmach: Five Days

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 3.0. The fighting ran from March 8 to March 13. The Legion was up against the German 91st Infantry Division and elements of another, well-equipped, well-fed, well-supplied. The legionnaires were none of those things. They had what the Russian army had left behind on its way out of the...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 3.0

Battle of Bakhmach: The Cost

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 3.0. Legion casualties were 145 killed, 210 wounded, and 41 missing. German losses are estimated at around 300 dead and several hundred more wounded. These are not large numbers by First World War standards, but each of those 145 Czech and Slovak names belonged to a man who had surviv...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 3.0

Battle of Bakhmach: What Came After

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Maňas, CC BY 3.0. The Siberian anabasis, the Legion's two-year fighting retreat across Russia, became one of the great improbable stories of the era — Czech armoured trains battling Red and White Russian forces alike, taking and losing cities, controlling for a time most of the Trans-Siberian Rail...

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Image: Michal Maňas | CC BY 3.0