To the north German
and Russian forces were clashing as German forces tried to move towards Warsaw.
Austria-Hungary hoped to take advantage of this situation by launching an offensive
of its own to the south near Krakow. Nominally the Austro-Hungarian attack was
a success. The Russian defense mounted near Limanowa was defeated and took
heavy losses. However, even with the bulk of the Russian army to the north
fighting German forces the Austro-Hungarian attack had been
badly mauled. Even though the Russians were forced to retreat. Cold
weather, heavy snow and high losses prevented Austro-Hungarians from being
able to take advantage of it, and no further offensive action was take.
Though this battle
had little impact on the war military it did have a major impact politically. After a chain of failures and catastrophic casualties on the Eastern
Front the Austro-Hungarians gave up on independent military action against
Russia. For the remainder of the war all Austro-Hungarian major operations on the
Eastern Front were put under German command and control. Where it would assume a
support role to the larger, more effective German army. 
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