FML Georg Edler von Lehmann had been ordered to send half of his 8th Cavalry Division southward to prop up the hapless 5th Honvéd Cavalry Division. The remainder moved eastward to seek out the advancing Russian 8th Army, only to find a thick Russian cavalry screen preventing any contact with the infantry. Standing orders called for the Austrian cavalry to fight their way through such obstacles and find the enemy, and Lehmann proceeded to attempt just that.

Austrian cavalry divisions had very little combat strength beyond their carbines and sabers: just one machine-gun detachment for the entire division, and one battalion of artillery (and not all divisions had even this scant support). Lehmann's horsemen could not force their way past Alexi Brusilov's cavalry screen, and the Austrian command remained ignorant of the Russian deployment. Not that better information would have altered the plan to take the offensive as soon as possible.