One of the captured trains was the hospital train of the czar. This was utilized as headquarters for the night by the staff of General von Lauenstein.

By the 12th of February, 1915, the German troops of the left wing, sweeping down from the north and pressing the Russians back from village to village, were entirely on Russian soil. Wizwiny, Kalwarja, and Mariampol were occupied on this day. The number of guns taken by these troops had been increased by seventeen, according to German reports. The German Headquarters Staff declared that by this time the Russian Seventy-third and Fifty-sixth Divisions had been as good as annihilated, and the Twenty-seventh division nearly destroyed. The Russians lying before the Angerapp line and the defenses of Loetzen had in the meantime also begun to retreat toward the east. German troops, consisting chiefly of reserves of the Landwehr and Landsturm which up to this time had been held back within the German fortified line, now advanced to attack the yielding army, whose long marching column could be observed by the German flyers. While General von Eichhorn's troops, coming from the neighborhood of Tilsit and making their way through snow and ice, were advancing upon Suwalki and Sejny, and the German right wing was fighting its way through Grajewo, toward Augustowo, the center of the troops of General von Buelow for several days fought the Russians in furious battle in the vicinity of Lyck. From all sides the Germans were closing in. To protect the withdrawal of this main army to Suwalki and Augustowo, the Russians endeavored by all means to hold the narrows of the lakes before Lyck, where they were favored by the nature of the ground and aided by strong defensive works, for the most part well provided with wire entanglements. The best of the Russian troops, Siberian regiments, here fought with great energy under a determined leadership, and the Russians, in fact, at some places took the offensive. By the 12th of February, 1915, however, the Germans had taken these positions and the Russians had withdrawn to the narrow passages among the lakes before Lyck. The battles around this town were carried on under the eye of the German Emperor. The German soldiers were still occupied in hunting through the houses for scattered Russians as the emperor stepped from his motor car. He was received with hurrahs, and the soldiers surrounded him, singing "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles." The emperor, standing amid the blackened ruins of burned homes, delivered a short address to the soldiers gathered about him, giving special recognition to Infantry Regiment No. 33, an East Prussian unit which had especially distinguished itself and suffered great losses. On the same day the Germans advanced beyond Lyck, and by the 15th of February no Russian remained on German soil.



CHAPTER L

TIGHTENING OF THE NET—REPORT OF THE BOOTY

The Russian right, retiring to avoid envelopment, sought the natural line of retreat along the railway to Kovno. In executing this movement it turned toward the northeast, and exceeding in speed of movement the corps to the south of it, the Twentieth, under the command of General Bulgakov, the latter was left out of the line. In consequence its right wing was turned and it was pressed down toward the south with the enemy on three sides of it. It speedily became a broken force in the forest north of Suwalki. The Russians endeavored to reach the protection of their great fortress of Grodno. It was the task of the German division coming down from the north in forced marches to cut off this way of escape and prevent the Russians coming out of the forest toward the southeast.

The march of these German troops carried them through great woodlands, amid frozen lakes, when suddenly a thaw set in. The sleighs which had been used had to be abandoned and wagons requisitioned on the spot wherever possible.

An officer with these troops relates that infantrymen were sent forward on wagons, and on the night following the 15th of February took Sopozkin, to the east of Augustowo, on the line of the Russian retreat, capturing the baggage of an entire Russian army corps. "The morning," he writes, "presented to us a unique picture. Hundreds of vehicles, baggage carts, machine guns, ammunition, provision and ambulance wagons stood in a vast disorder in the market place of the town and in the street. In between were hundreds of horses, some harnessed, some loose, dead Russians, dead horses, bellowing cattle, and sounding over it all the words of command of our troops endeavoring to create order in this mad mix-up, and to take care of the rich booty. Many an interesting find did we make—'mementos' which the Russians had taken with them from Prussia and which now were to find their way back."

A German commander tells how, in their efforts to cut off the Russian retreat, the artillery were compelled to cross many brooks running through deep gullies, so that it was necessary frequently to lower guns and wagons by means of ropes on one side and pull them up on the other.

One of the German leaders, describing this encircling movement to the southeast from the north in which he played a part, says: "The roads and the weather were beyond all description—twelve to fifteen degrees Reaumur, with a cutting wind and driving snow, with nothing to eat, as the field kitchens on these roads could not follow. During pauses in the march one could but lean against the wall of a miserable house or lie down in the burned-out ruins, without straw to lie on and no covering. Men and horses sank to their hips in the snow, and so we worked our way forward, usually only about two kilometers an hour. Wagons and horses that upset had to be shoveled out of the drifts. It was a terrible sight, but we got through. We had to go on without regard for anything, and the example of the higher officers did much."

Two Russian corps from the southern wing of the army retreating by the Suwalki-Sejny causeway and by the Ossowetz Railway, according to accounts from Russian sources, made their way out of the trap under heavy rear-guard fighting.

The escaped portions of the Russian army crossed the Bobr toward Grodno. From the direction of this Russian stronghold a desperate effort was made to relieve the four corps which were endeavoring to escape toward the fortress from the forest southeast of Augustowo into which they had been pressed by the Germans from the west and north. On the 21st of February came the final act in the great drama. The German troops pushed forward at their best speed from all directions toward the forest. The help that had been intended for them came too late. Concerning the captures of this day, the German Great Headquarters reported: "On the 21st of February the remnants of the Tenth Army laid down their arms in the forest of Augustowo after all attempts of the Russian commander of this army, General Sievers, to cut a way out for the encircled four divisions by means of those parts of his army which remained to him after escaping over the Bobr to Grodno failed with extremely heavy losses."

Summarizing the results of the entire battle in an announcement of the 22d of February, the German Great Headquarters said: "The pursuit after the winter battle in Mazurian Land is ended. In cleaning up the forests to the northwest of Grodno, and in the battles reported during the last few days in the region of the Bobr and the Narew, there have been captured to date one commanding general, two division commanders, four other generals, and in the neighborhood of 40,000 men, seventy-five cannon, a quantity of machine guns, whose number is not yet determined, and much other war material.

"The total booty of the winter battle in Mazurian Land, therefore, up to to-day rises to seven generals, more than 100,000 men, more than 150 cannon, and material of all sorts, inclusive of machine guns, which cannot yet be approximately estimated. Heavy guns and ammunition were in many cases buried by the enemy or sunk in the lakes; thus eight heavy guns were yesterday dug out or hauled out of the water near Loetzen and Lake Widmin.

"The Tenth Russian Army of General Baron Sievers may, therefore, now be considered as completely annihilated."

This summary was corrected in a later announcement, which stated that the number of guns taken as booty in the pursuit after the winter battle in Mazurian Land had risen to 300, including eighteen heavy guns. This was published on the 23d of February. In an announcement of the 26th of February the Great Headquarters amplified its account of the victory with this statement:

"In the Russian official report the extent of the disaster in the winter battle of Mazurian Land is either concealed or an attempt is made to obscure it. It is unnecessary to go further into these denials. As evidence of the extent of the defeat, the following list of the positions held by the captured generals, however, may serve:

"Of the Twentieth Army Corps: the commanding general, the commander of the artillery, the commander of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Infantry Divisions, and of the First Brigade of Infantry of the Twenty-ninth Infantry Division. The commander of this latter division succumbed to his wounds soon after being made prisoner.

"Of the Third Army Corps: the commander of the Twenty-seventh Infantry Division and the commander of the artillery and of the Second Infantry Brigade of this division.

"Of the Fifty-third Reserve Division: the division commander and the commander of the First Infantry Brigade.

"Of the First Siberian Cossack Division: a brigade commander."

This brought the total of Russian generals captured up to eleven.

This account of one of the greatest battles of the European War is necessarily based to a large extent on reports of the Germans, owing to the fact that material from this source is virtually the only official account available of the operation as a whole. The Russian General Staff has contented itself with the following announcement, made public on February 21, 1915:

"When the Germans, after a series of extraordinary obstinate and persistent attacks which caused them heavy losses, had recognized the impossibility of pressing in our front on the left bank of the Vistula, they turned at the end of January to the execution of a new plan. After the creation of several new corps in the interior of the country, and the bringing up of troops from their west front, the Germans threw important forces into East Prussia. The transportation of troops was made easier by the extraordinarily developed net of railways which Germany has at its disposal.

"The task of the new troops sent to East Prussia was to defeat our Tenth Army, which held strongly constructed positions along the Angerapp. To assure the success of the undertaking the Germans brought a portion of their forces from the Bzura and Rawka fronts to the right bank of the Vistula. A movement of the Germans in East Prussia already became noticeable on the 4th of February, 1915. But the extent of this movement could only be recognized a few days later. As our leaders, because of the lack of railroad lines, could not collect the necessary forces on the East Prussian front with the necessary speed to meet the hostile attack adequately, they decided to take back the above-mentioned army of East Prussia to the border. In this movement of the right wing the Tenth Army, which was pressed by heavy hostile forces and threatened with being surrounded from the right, was forced to make a rapid change of alignment in the direction of Kovno. In this rapid movement a corps was separated from the rest of the army. The other corps which continued the battle obstinately without interruption, slowly drew back in the prescribed direction, bravely repelling the enemy and inflicting upon him heavy losses. Our troops overcame unbelievable difficulties, which were caused by the snow which filled all roads. As the streets were impassable, automobiles could not run. Trains were delayed and frequently failed to arrive at their destination. Our corps which formed the left wing of the Tenth Army held the enemy, while drawing back step for step for nine days on a stretch of territory which ordinarily is covered in four days. On the 19th of February these corps withdrawing by way of Augustowo left the battle field and took the position assigned to them. Further battles developed in the region before Ossowetz, on the roads from Lomza to Jedwabno and to the north of Radislow, also halfway between Plozk and Plonsk. These battles were in places very intense."

An English authority says: "The chief Russian loss was in General Bulgakov's Twentieth Corps, which the German staff asserted they had completely destroyed. But during the fortnight which ended on Saturday the 20th, at least half of that corps and more than two-thirds of its guns safely made their way through the Augustowo and Suwalki woods to the position which had been prepared for the Russian defense. The total Russian losses may have been 80 guns and 30,000 men; they were no more. The two southern corps, in spite of their stubborn action at Lyck, crossed the woods between Augustowo and Ossowetz without serious disaster."



CHAPTER LI

BATTLES OF PRZASNYSZ—BEFORE MLAWA

The shattering of the Tenth Russian Army in the "winter battle" of the Mazurian Lakes was part of a greater conflict which in February, 1915, extended far down the armies on the right flank of the great Russian battle line which ran from the Baltic to the Dniester. A "new gigantic plan" of the Slavs was involved. As interpreted by the German General Staff it meant that while the extreme northern wing of the Russian armies was to sweep westward through the projecting section of Germany, East Prussia, along the Baltic another Russian army was to advance in force from the south against the corner formed by West Prussia and the Vistula. With vast masses of cavalry in the van, it was to break through the boundary between Mlawa and Thorn, and pushing northward, come into the rear of those German forces which were facing eastward against the attack aimed at East Prussia from the northeast. For operations in this section the Russians had favorable railway connections. Two railways terminating at Ostrolenka permitted the rapid unloading of large masses of troops at this point, and the line Warsaw-Mlawa-Soldau led straight into the territory aimed at by such an invasion. It seemed easily credible that the Russian commander in chief did, as reported, give orders that Mlawa should be taken be the cost what it might.

The northern Russian armies based upon the fortresses of Kovno and Grodno on the Niemen had not fully started on their part of this great, well-planned undertaking when the German counteroffensive was suddenly launched with tremendous strength from the Tilsit-Insterburg-Mazurian Lakes line. The disaster which followed, and which banished all hope of an advance of the Russians on this wing, has been described on a preceding page. While the Germans, using to the best advantage their net of railroads for the swift accumulation of troops, had gathered large forces on the Mazurian Lakes line, they had at the same time strengthened the troops standing on the southern boundary of West and East Prussia. An artillery officer, General von Gallwitz, was placed in command of this army with orders to protect the right flank of the German armies attacking in Mazurian Land, and to prevent the expected Russian attempt at invasion in his own sector of the front.

While the "winter battle" was raging to the east of him, Von Gallwitz in the characteristic German fashion of defense by a strong offensive moved forward up the right bank of the Vistula to Plozk. A cavalry division and regiments of the Guard at Sierpe and Racionz, February 12-18, 1915, won well-earned laurels for themselves by driving an enemy of superior strength before them. At Dobrin, according to German report, they took 2,500 prisoners.

General von Gallwitz's plan, however, was of more ambitious scope. It was his intention, by encircling the Russians in the territory before him from both wings, to sweep clear of enemies the entire stretch of country in the Polish triangle between the Vistula and the Orczy rivers. The right wing of his troops that had come down the bank of the Vistula was to swing to the eastward in behind the Russians. German troops which had arrived at Willenberg inside of the East Prussian boundary, one of the German concentration points on the line of railroad lying behind their front, on the other hand, received orders to descend the valley of the Orczy and to come in behind the Russian right flank from the east. These troops, making a wide detour, swept past Przasnysz on the east, and swinging round to the south of the city attacked the Russians holding the place from this direction. The Germans had understood that only small Russian forces were in the city. Anticipating the German movement, however, a Russian division, as the Germans learned later, had hastened to Przasnysz. The Russians also had collected large forces on the Narew, and were hurrying them toward Przasnysz on roads covering a wide front. Two full Russian corps from this line were flung upon the German left wing.

The forces of Von Gallwitz which had carried out the encircling movement from the east and south of Przasnysz now found themselves caught between two Russian armies. However, they were unwilling to relinquish the booty which they had planned to seize. A part of the German forces was disposed in a half circle as a defense against the Russians coming up from the south, and a division of reserves, February 24, stormed Przasnysz. The German Great Headquarters announced that the Germans captured 10,000 prisoners, including 57 officers, and took 36 cannon, 14 machine guns, and much war material of various sorts. However, the Russian troops were now pressing forward from the south with irresistible force. The Germans, in consequence, slowly fell back, fighting under great difficulties, and moving northward toward their defensive lines, carrying with them their prisoners and booty.

The Russian General Staff on the first of March, 1915, devoted an explicit account to the fighting about Przasnysz which differs but slightly from the narrative by the German Great Headquarters which has in general been followed in the preceding description. Both sides apparently considered the operation of special importance, and as reflecting credit upon their respective troops. The Russian story emphasizes the attacks made by their force on the line Lyssakowo-Chainovo simultaneously from north and south, that is, both in the flank and in the rear of the Germans to the west of Przasnysz. They represent their troops in the city as having consisted of only a brigade of infantry and some insignificant cavalry units. On the 25th of February, when the Germans had established themselves in the town, the Russians, according to their account, were pressing their enemies hard upon a long front from Krasnoseltz through Vengerzinovo, Kolatschkowo to Voliaverlowska.

On the evening of this day they drove the Germans into positions close to the city. The Thirty-sixth German Reserve Division on the same evening is said to have met serious disaster after a determined resistance at the crossings of the Anetz. On the evening of the next day the Russians began to reenter Przasnysz, but did not completely occupy the town until the night after the 27th. "The Germans," the Russian account continues, "hereupon began a disorderly retreat, endeavoring to withdraw in the direction of Mlawa-Chorgele. Regardless of the exhaustion consequent upon the marching they had undergone and four days of battle, our troops energetically took up the pursuit of the enemy. On the 28th of February they inflicted serious losses upon his rear guard. In these battles we seized a large amount of booty. The total number of prisoners amounts to at least 10,000." The Russians maintain that they had defeated no less than two German army corps and thrown them back to the border.

On the 12th of March, 1915, the German Great Headquarters protested against this version of the affair, and pointed to the fact that within a few days their troops were again threatening Przasnysz, and that since giving up the city they had captured on the battle fields between the Vistula and the Orczy no less than 11,460 Russians.

The city of Przasnysz itself suffered heavily in these attacks and counterattacks. For days and nights it had lain under bombardment and repeatedly fierce, hand-to-hand combats had been fought in its streets. Most of the houses of the place were left mere heaps of smoking ruins.

From the German point of view this offensive just north of the Vistula which included the temporary capture of Przasnysz was a success, especially in this, that it had prevented the big Russian forward movement against the West Prussian boundary which the impending great Russian offensive had foreboded. It had been impossible for the Russians seriously to endanger the German flank in this section, while the Germans had struck to the east in the "winter battle," and had definitely spoiled the Russian appetite for invasion from the Kovno-Grodno line.

As though determined to avenge their defeat to the east of the lakes, the Russians now continued to direct a series of fierce attacks in the direction of Mlawa, intending apparently to break through the German line of defense between Soldau and Neidenburg. It was said that the Russians believed General von Hindenburg in person to be in charge of the German forces in this sector. In consequence the German troops for the most part were forced to stand upon the defensive. In the beginning of March the Russian attacks increased steadily in violence. They broke against the German positions to the east and south of Mlawa, according to German reports, with enormous losses. At Demsk, to the east of Mlawa, long rows of white stones mark common graves of masses of Russians who perished before the German barbed-wire entanglements. The Germans point to these as dumb witnesses of the disaster that overtook forty-eight Russian companies that assaulted ten German ones. The cold weather at this time had made possible the swampy regions in which the Orczy rises, and had enabled the Russians to approach close to the German line of defense.

The Russian attack at this point in the night of the 7th of March, 1915, was typical of the fighting on this line in these weeks. After a thousand shells from the Russian heavy guns had descended upon and behind Demsk, a seemingly ceaseless series of infantry attacks set in. They were carried close up to the lines of wire of the German defense. Enough light, however, was shed by the searchlights and light balls shot from pistols to enable the Germans to direct a destructive infantry and machine-gun fire on the approaching lines. Those of the Russians who did not fall, fled to the next depression in the ground. There they were held by the beams of the searchlights until daybreak. Then they surrendered to the German patrols. Of another attack a few kilometers farther to the north, at Kapusnik, the Germans reported that after the enemy had penetrated into their trenches and had been driven out in a desperate bayonet fight, they buried 906 Russians and 164 Germans.

On the 8th of March, 1915, General von Gallwitz again tried an offensive with fresh forces which he had gathered. It was thwarted, however, on the 12th, to the north of Przasnysz. The Germans estimated the Russian forces which here were brought, up for the counterattack at some ten army corps and seven cavalry divisions. The Russians in advancing this time, instead of directing their thrust at Mlawa, pushed northeastward of Przasnysz along the rivers Orczy and Omulew. In this sector the Germans counted from the 13th to the 23d of March forty-six serious assaults, twenty-five in the daytime and twenty-one at night. With special fury the battles raged in the neighborhood of Jednorozez. This attempt to break into Prussia was also unsuccessful, and in the last week of March the Russian attacks slackened, quiet ensuing for the weeks following Easter.

For six weeks the armies had struggled back and forth in this bloody angle, fighting in cold and wet, amid snow and icy rains. The Germans asserted that in these six weeks the troops of General von Gallwitz had captured 43,000 Russians and slain some 25,000. They estimated the total losses of the enemy in this sector during the period at 100,000. Countless graves scattered about the land, and the ruins of cities and villages were left to keep awake the memory of some of the fiercest fighting of the war in the east.



CHAPTER LII

FIGHTING BEFORE THE NIEMEN AND BOBR—BOMBARDMENT OF OSSOWETZ

The winter battles of the Mazurian Lakes had forced the armies at the northern end of the Russian right flank back into their great fortresses Kovno and Grodno, and behind the line of the Niemen and the Bobr. A great forest region lies to the east and north of Grodno, and between the Niemen and the cities of Augustowo and Suwalki which the Germans, after their successful offensive, used as bases for their operations. A strip of country including these forests, and running parallel to the Niemen was a sort of no-man's land in the spring of 1915. Movements of troops in the heavily wooded country were difficult to observe, and the conditions lent themselves to surprise attacks. This resulted in a warfare of alternate thrusts by Russians and Germans aimed now at this point, now at that, in the disputed territory. Several actions during the spring stand out beyond the rest in importance, both because of the numbers engaged and their effects. In what follows will be described a typical offensive movement in this district undertaken by the Russians, and the way it was met by the Germans.

A new Russian Tenth Army had been organized by the end of February, 1915, with Grodno for its base. General Sievers, his chief of staff, and the general in command of the Third Russian Army Corps had been demoted from their commands, and three new army corps (Two, Three, and Fifteen) had been brought to Grodno. The ranks of the remaining corps that had suffered in the "winter battle" had been filled up with fresh recruits. Hardly had the German pursuit in the forest of Augustowo come to an end when the freshly strengthened Russians moved forward from their defensive lines in a counterattack. The Germans had been engaged in the task of gathering and carting away their enormous booty which lay scattered about the forest. They now drew back from in front of the Russian fortified lines to prepare positions close to Augustowo, and on a line running roughly north and south from this place, with the forest in front of them.

The Third Russian Army Corps advanced from Simno toward Lozdsisjo, their Second Army Corps from Grodno by way of Kopiewo and Sejny toward Krasnopol and other Russian corps advanced through the forest of Augustowo. Here they soon struck strong German resistance, and for several days vainly attacked German fortified positions.

On the 9th of March, 1915, a German offensive began against the Russian Third Corps which held the right wing of the advancing army. When this corps suddenly found itself threatened in the flank from the north and in danger of being surrounded it hastily began to retreat toward the east and southeast, leaving several hundred prisoners and several machine guns in the hands of the Germans. This withdrawal exposed the right flank of the adjoining Second Army Corps, which by this time, March 9, 1915, had reached Berzniki and Giby. The German attack was now continued against this corps. It was cold weather, the thermometer was considerably below the freezing point, and the roads were slippery with ice, so that dozens of horses fell, completely exhausted, and the infantry could march only two or three kilometers an hour.

On March 9 and 10, 1915, the battle flamed up at Sejny and Berzniki, the Russian corps, which had developed its front toward the west, being forced to swing about and face the north, whence the Germans were driving down upon it. At Berzniki two Russian regiments made up entirely of young troops were, according to the German account, completely annihilated, and the commanders of the regiments captured. It seemed as though the leader of the Russian armies saw approaching a repetition of the encircling movements that had proved fatal to the Russians in the Mazurian "winter battle," for on the 10th of March he gave orders for the withdrawal of his entire army. The German airmen on this day reported the Russian columns on the march through the forest in full retreat toward Grodno all along the line from Giby to Sztabiz, far to the south.

On the 11th of March, 1915, the German troops vigorously pushed the pursuit. They occupied Makarze, Froncki, and Giby. On the same night a German cavalry division took Kopciovo by assault. At this place alone they counted 300 dead Russians, and more than 5,000 prisoners, 12 machine guns, and 3 cannon, fell into the hands of the Germans.

The threatened envelopment of this Russian army was typical of the method employed by the leaders under Von Hindenburg in local operations, as it was of German method in general when applied to operations extending over the entire field of action. It could be applied with special success where the German information service was superior to that of the Russians, as it usually was, and the movements of German troops were facilitated by good railway connections. In the Augustowo forests, however, rapidity of movement had to be achieved by the legs of the German soldiers to a large extent, and on this they prided themselves not a little. The operation just described was regarded by the German Great Headquarters as being of great significance, valuable for its moral effect in establishing in the German troops a sense of superiority, and confidence in their leadership, and for its infliction of material losses of considerable moment on the Russians.

The Russians likewise claimed advantages from their forward thrust from Grodno. As represented by the Russian General Staff the withdrawal of the Germans from a front close to the line of the fortress in the first place was not a voluntary one, as it is pictured in the German account, but was forced by the strong pressure exerted by the Russian attacks following upon their retreat after the "winter battle." Thus they report the complete defeat of two German army corps, resulting in the seizure by the Russians of Height 100.3, which they described as dominating the entire region of the operations before Grodno. "In this battle," says the Russian report of March 5, 1915, "we took 1,000 prisoners and six cannon and a machine gun. Height 100.3 was defended by the Twenty-first Corps, the best of them all which lost during the battle 12,000 to 15,000 soldiers, as can be estimated from the dead left behind. After the shattering of the German counterattack at Height 100.3 the operations of the enemy became entirely passive. We, on the other hand, took village after village, and everywhere made prisoners."

The fortress of Ossowetz on the Bobr River proved inconquerable by the 42-centimeter mortars which had worked such terrific effects on the forts of Belgium and France. It was continually under German artillery fire through the months of February and March, 1915, without suffering appreciable damage. The great mortars were brought up within range of the fortress with much difficulty, owing to the fact that the place is almost completely surrounded by swamps. The Germans apparently had counted seriously at first on making a breach in the Russian defensive lines at this place. After persistent attempts to make an impression on the fortress with their heaviest guns they were obliged, however, to content themselves with keeping the garrison in check so as to forestall offensive moves.

A German artillery officer who took part in the bombardment relates that the chief obstacle to the pressing home of an attack were several heavily armored batteries which lay concealed outside the visible works of the fortress itself in the broad strip of swampland surrounding it. These were built deep into the ground, protected by thick earthworks, and very effectively screened from observation. They were a constant menace and apparently could not be destroyed by the German fire. Even though the main fort itself had been destroyed they would have prevented the approach of the enemy's troops, for they commanded the only causeway leading through the swamps to the fortress and would have blown to pieces any infantry that ventured to push along this road.

Furthermore, even the intense cold did not make the swamp passable except by the roadway because warm springs here and there prevented the ice from freezing sufficiently strong to bear the troops. The German gunners noted too that their shots fell practically without effect, plunging quietly into the mud to a great depth so that they did not even throw up earth or mud.

The result was that the 42-centimeter monsters were hastily withdrawn after a few trial shots and the bombardment was continued with a battery of 28-centimeter coast defense guns, an Austrian motor battery, a 30.5-centimeter mortar and some other heavy batteries. The fire rose to considerable intensity in the last days of February and the first days of March.

On the 3d of March the Russians in their official report dwelt on the fierceness of the bombardment and its ineffectiveness. On the 16th they reported that the Germans were pushing several of their batteries up into closer range, as they had recognized the uselessness of shooting from a greater distance and on the 18th they stated that the fire was falling off. On the 22d, finally, they reported that beginning with the 21st the Germans had been withdrawing their heavy batteries. They added that a 42-centimeter mortar had been damaged by the Russian fire, and that "not a single shot of these mortars has reached the fortress, not a redoubt has been penetrated. The superiority of the artillery fire evidently rests with us. The German attack was not only far removed from placing the fortifications of Ossowetz in a critical position, it did not even succeed in driving our infantry out of the field works."

On the 27th of March there was a resumption of the bombardment on a small scale and another effort began on April 11 with some heavy guns, ending in an attempted advance which was repulsed without difficulty by the Russians.



CHAPTER LIII

RUSSIAN RAID ON MEMEL

An event in which no great number of troops were concerned, but which is of importance, because of the feeling which it aroused in Germany and because it was the first of a series of operations in what was practically a new theatre of the war was the Russian invasion of the very northernmost tip of East Prussia. On Thursday, the 18th of March, 1915, the Russians coming simultaneously from the north and the east across the border of Courland, moved on the Prussian city of Memel in several columns. Their troops included seven battalions of militia with six or eight guns of an old model, several squadrons of mounted men, two companies of marines, a battalion of a reserve regiment, and border defense troops from Riga and Libau, a total of some 6,000 to 10,000 men. The German Landsturm troops at the Prussian boundary fell back on Memel, not being in sufficient force to resist the advance. They were finally driven through the city and across the narrow strip of water known as the Kurische Haff to the dunes along the shore of the Baltic. The Russians burned down numerous buildings along the roads on which they approached, according to the German report, inflicting heavy damage on fifteen villages. A considerable number of the inhabitants, including women and children, were removed to Russia, and a number of civilians were killed. The troops entered the city on the evening of March 18 and took the mayor and three other men of the town as hostages. Apparently the Russian commander made some efforts to restrain his men, but plundering of stores and dwellings nevertheless occurred. On the 20th of March, 1915, the city was for a time cleared of Russian troops, but on Sunday, the 21st, other soldiers entered the town from the north. These were met by German patrols, which were followed by stronger German forces that had come up from the south to drive back the invaders. Street fighting followed, and the Russians were finally thrown out, losing about 150 dead.

The Russians were pursued on March 22 and 23, 1915, and in passing through Polangen, close to the shore of the Baltic, came under the fire of German cruisers. They lost some 500 prisoners, 3 guns, 3 machine guns, and ammunition wagons. With the German troops which cleared the Russians out of Memel was the son of the emperor, Prince Joachim of Prussia.

Concerning this raid the following official announcement was made by the Germans on March 18, 1915: "Russian militia troops have gained a cheap success in the northernmost corner of East Prussia in the direction of Memel. They have plundered and burned villages and farms. As a penalty, we have ordered the cities occupied by us in Russian territory to pay considerable sums in damages. For every village or farm burned down by these hordes on German soil three villages or farms of the territory occupied by us in Russia will be given over to the flames. Each act of damage in Memel will be answered by the burning of Russian Government buildings in Suwalki and other capitals of governments."

To this the following Russian official reply was made on March 21, 1915: "The official communique of the German Great Headquarters of the 18th of March concerning the movement of Russian troops against Memel contains a threat of reprisals to be exacted on Russian villages and cities held by the enemy on account of the losses which might be suffered by the population in the neighborhood of Memel. The Russian General Staff gives public notice that Memel was openly defended by hostile troops, and that battle was offered in the streets. Since the civil population took part in this fight our troops were compelled to reply with corresponding measures. If, therefore, the German troops should carry out their threat against the peaceful inhabitants of the Russian territory which they hold, such acts should be considered not as reprisals but as independent acts. Responsibility for this, as well as for the consequences, would rest upon the Germans."

The move against Memel was apparently part of a Russian operation which was intended also to strike at the city of Tilsit. The German Great Headquarters reported that for operations intended to seize the northern regions of East Prussia a so-called Riga-Shavli army group had been formed under the command of General Apuchtin. While portions of these troops were active in Memel on March 18, 1915, the fourteen German Landsturm companies holding Tauroggen, just to the north of the East Prussian boundary, were attacked by superior forces and practically surrounded. They fought their way through to Langszargen with some difficulty, and were being pressed back on the road to Tilsit when on March 23 German reenforcements came up and General von Pappritz, leading the Germans, went over to the offensive.

A heavy thaw made movement of troops anywhere except on the main roads extremely difficult. Guns were left stuck in the mud, and the infantry waded to the knee in water, and sometimes to the waist. It is reported that one of the horses of the artillery literally was drowned on the road. Germans attacked Tauroggen, where the enemy had intrenched himself, under an artillery fire directed from the church tower of the place. On the 28th the town was taken, after a difficult crossing of the Jura River in front of it, on the ice. The Germans then exulted in the fact that not a Russian was left on German soil.



CHAPTER LIV

GERMAN INVASION OF COURLAND—CAPTURE OF LIBAU

On the 20th of April, 1915, an announcement was made by the German Great Headquarters which took the Russians and the world in general more or less by surprise. It gave the first glimpse to the public of a group of operations which caused no little speculation in the minds of strategists. It read:

"The advance troops of our forces operating in northwestern Russia yesterday reached on a broad front the railway running from Dunaburg (Dvinsk) to Libau. Thus far the Russian troops present in that region, including also the remnants of those which took part in the raid against Memel, have attempted no serious resistance anywhere. Fighting is now in progress near Shavli."

The advance into Courland here announced had been made by the German troops at high speed. The forces were under the command of General von Lauenstein. They had begun to move early on the 27th of April, in three columns. One of these crossed the Niemen at Schmalleningken, forming the right wing of the troops engaged in the movement. The columns of the left wing broke out of East Prussia at its northernmost point, and moved along the dunes of the Baltic. On the second day of the forward march it was learned by the leaders of the advancing troops that the Russians had hastily left their position at Skawdwile, on the main road from Tilsit to Mitau, to escape being surrounded on their left flank, and had withdrawn to Shavli by way of Heilmy. On the third day the German right column crossed the Windawski Canal under the enemy's fire, and on the afternoon of the 30th of April this column entered Shavli, which had been set on fire by the Russians.



The Germans had now crossed at several points the Libau-Dunaburg railway. They were in Telsche and Trischki. Their cavalry pushed ahead at full speed with orders to destroy the railways wherever it found them. On the road to Mitau they captured Russian machine guns, ammunition wagons, and baggage, and broke up the railway tracks to the southwest and northwest of Shavli. The Russians who had been taken by surprise by this movement had apparently only weak forces in Courland, and these had retired while reenforcements were being rushed up by railway. The German infantry, upon the receipt of reports that the Russians were moving up by rail from Kovno on their right flank, was ordered to stop its advance and prepare to hold the Dubissa line, taking up a front running a little east of south. Cavalry moving forward in the center of the German advance on the 3d of May, 1915, got within two kilometers of Mitau, going beyond Gruenhof and capturing 2,000 Russians. At Skaisgiry on the day before 1,000 prisoners had been taken, and Janischki and Shagory had been occupied far beyond the Libau-Dunaburg railway. By this time Russian reenforcements were arriving at Mitau in huge numbers. The German cavalry ultimately fell back after indicting all possible damage to the communications in their reach.

The Germans prided themselves a good deal on the marching of their troops in this swift advance. They pointed out that the roads were in extremely bad condition, the bridges for the most destroyed, and the population to a large extent hostile. A military correspondent figured that for a daily march of fifty kilometers, such as was frequently made in Courland, 62,000 steps of an average of eighty centimeters were required. This for a day's march of from nine to ten hours gives an average of five to six kilometers per hour, some 6,000 to 7,000 steps. That makes in the neighborhood of 100 steps per minute, which the correspondent regarded as a considerable accomplishment when allowance is made for the fact that this was kept up hour after hour in full marching equipment.

The column coming from Memel, directed along the Baltic shores, had been steadily moving on Libau. In preparation for the land attack German naval vessels on the 29th of April had bombarded the forts defending the town. On the 6th of May the Russians themselves blew up one of the forts on the eastern front. The shore batteries were soon after silenced by German fire. The German troops advancing from the land side took the forts on the south almost without opposition. Russian troops which had been unloaded at Mitau and sent forward toward the southwest were unable to come up in time to offer any obstacles to the German advance, and on the 8th of May, at six o'clock in the morning, the German soldiers marched into Libau, where they took about 1,500 prisoners, twelve guns, and a number of machine guns.

The Germans immediately turned the metal-working plants of the city to their uses in the manufacture of chains, barbed wire, etc. They also found here a large supply of tools for intrenching work. Most of the Russians of the city had fled. One motive for the German advance into Courland advanced by their enemies was that it was an attempt to include a rich section of country in foraging operations, and it is a fact that the German authorities gave expression to their satisfaction at seizing a region that was of considerable economic value. It is apparent, however, in regarding these operations in the retrospect that they had no small bearing on the German plan of campaign as a whole. It was at the time that the inroad into Courland was started that the signal was about to be given for the great onslaught far to the south on the Dunajec, as described in the account of the Austro-Russian campaign. As the vast campaign along the whole eastern front developed, it became more and more apparent that the position of the German troops in Courland placed them advantageously for taking the Russian line of defenses, of which the fortress of Kovno represented the northern end in the flank in this carrying out of an important part of the vast encircling movement which took all Poland in its grasp. They were a constant threat to the all-important Vilna-Petrograd Railway.

In hostile and neutral countries the Courland invasion provoked comment indicating astonishment at the resources of the Teutonic powers in being able to extend their lines while already fully engaged on an enormous front.

The Russians, awakening from their first astonishment, made vigorous attempts to obtain permanent possession of the Dubissa line. Along this line the German troops were for a time forced to yield ground and to go into the defensive and to resist heavy Russian attacks. Shavli was given up under Russian pressure. By May 14, all the territory east of the Dubissa and Windau (Vindowa) was reported free of Germans.

Especially noteworthy among the struggles for the Dubissa was the fight at Rossiennie, a town which was of special importance because of its command of the roads centering in it. On the 22d of May, 1915, an attack was delivered against this place by the First Caucasian Rifle Brigade with artillery and assisted by the Fifteenth Cavalry Division. On the 23d the German cavalry which had resisted their crossing the river drew back, and the Russians here crossed the Dubissa, approaching Rossiennie from the north. The Germans during the night moved the greater part of their troops around the western wing of their opponents and placed them in position for attack.

At daybreak heavy artillery fire was poured upon the Russians from the German position to the north of Rossiennie, while at the same time the German infantry fell upon the Russian flank and rolled it up, with the result that the Russians were compelled to recross the Dubissa. In the crossing numerous wounded were drowned in the river. The Germans took 2,500 prisoners and fifteen machine guns. Similar counterattacks were delivered by the Germans on the River Wenta. Then, on the 5th of June, 1915, a general offensive was entered upon by the whole German line on orders from the General Staff, which carried it beyond the Dubissa, and after heavy fighting finally secured for the Germans the Windawski Canal, which they had had to relinquish before. Their troops now slowly pushed their way back toward Shavli until the city came within reach of their heavy guns, and took Kuze, twelve kilometers to the northwest of Shavli on the railway. On the 14th of June, 1915, this series of operations came to a temporary halt. German official reports pointed to the fact that among 14,000 prisoners which they had taken there were only a few officers, and that with these not a single cannon was captured. They regarded it as showing that the Russians were getting very cautious in the use of their artillery and were short of officers.



CHAPTER LV

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE FROM KOVNO—FOREST BATTLES IN MAY AND JUNE

Offensives on a large scale such as that which had been prevented by the "Winter Battle of the Mazurian Lakes" were not attempted by the Russians on their northern wing after the short counterattack that had pushed their lines into the Mlawa angle in the corner of the Vistula and the Prussian boundary beyond Przasnysz, to the east of Thorn. They virtually remained in their strongly fortified positions along the Narew, the Bobr, and the Niemen, except for the sending out of occasional attacking columns against the German lines lying opposite to them.

These forward thrusts were made especially from the fortresses Grodno and Kovno, and the fortified place Olita. We have already dealt with one such operation which came to grief in the forest of Augustowo in March. The German invasion of Courland had taken place, and the extension of the German lines to the north invited a thrust at their communications when, in the middle of May, the Russians attempted to break through the German lines with columns starting from the great forest to the west of Kovno. Here German troops under General Litzmann, acting under the command of General von Eichhorn, stood on guard. When Litzmann received information that the Russians were advancing in force he was obliged hastily to gather such troops as he could find to stem the Russian attack. Troop units from a large variety of different organizations were freshly grouped practically on the battle field. At Szaki and Gryszkabuda, on May 17-20, they struck the Russians with such force that the Slavs were driven back into the forests.

The German general now decided to clear this territory of his enemies, as it had given them a constant opportunity for the preparation of moves which could not be readily observed, because of the protection of the thick woods. Again he executed the favorite maneuver of Von Hindenburg's armies. He gathered as heavy a weight of troops as possible on his left wing and pushed them forward in an extended encircling movement. From the south a strong column from Mariampol and the line of the Szsczupa moved upon the fortified position of the Russians and the southern corner of the great forest, meeting with strong resistance at Dumbowa Ruda. The troops moving down from the northern part of the woods swung to their right to cut off the Russians from their retreat toward Kovno. By the time the operations had reached this stage it was the second week in June, 1915, and in the great pine forests extending for miles there was an oppressive heat with perfect absence of breeze. Three Russian positions lying in the river valleys in the forest were encircled one after another from the north and had to be given up.

The Russians recognized the danger of the concentric attack directed at them and fought with great bravery. They strove to keep open the road of their retreat toward Kovno as long as possible. However, the ring of the German troops closed swiftly. At Koslowa Ruda, in the southern part of the forest, they found at night a sleeping army; something like 3,000 Russians had lain down exhausted in order on the next day to find the last opening through which to make their escape. They were now saved the trouble and were led away prisoners. The great forest was cleared of Russians. The German move had served to insure the safety of the lines connecting the troops in Courland with their bases to the south of the Niemen.

In an official announcement of the 18th of March, 1915, the German Government sketched the line held in the east by the German troops northward of the front covered by joint German and Austrian forces. It read: "The line occupied by us in the east runs from the Pilica, along the Rawka and Bzura to the Vistula. North of the Vistula the line of our troops is continued from the region to the east of Plozkz by way of Zurominek-Stupsk (both south of Mlawa). From there it runs in an easterly direction through the region to the north of Przasnysz—south of Mystinez, south of Kolno—to the north of Lomza, and strikes the Bobr at Mocarce. From here it follows the line of the Bobr to northwest of Ossowetz, which is under our fire, and runs by way of the region to east of Augustowo, by Krasnopol, Mariempol, Pilwiszki, Szaki, along the border through Tauroggen to the northwest. This is from beginning to end entirely on hostile soil." This long line, it appears, was under the supreme command of Von Hindenburg, while Von Mackensen had charge of the great drive to the south.

The statement here quoted was issued as reassurance to Germans who had been made nervous by reports of a Russian invasion of East Prussia, and was connected with the Russian raid on Memel.

Until June there was practically no change in this great line, except that on its northern end it was swung outward into Russian territory to include a large part of Courland, the River Dubissa roughly forming the dividing line until the front swung eastward toward Libau, in the line of the Libau-Dunaburg Railway.

The tasks of both German and Russian troops were similar. Comparatively weak German forces held the front in the region of the Niemen, the Bobr, and the Narew, safeguarding such Russian territory as had been seized by the Germans, and protecting East Prussia against invasion. Opposed to them lay considerable Russian forces whose task it was, supported by the fortresses of the Narew and the Niemen, especially Grodno, to protect the flank and rear of the Russians standing in Warsaw and southward in the bend of the Vistula, with the Warsaw-Vilna Railway behind them, while great decisions were fought for in the Carpathians and Galicia.

In Poland, between the lower and the upper courses of the Vistula, the Germans about the middle of February, 1915, having occupied the Rawka-Sucha ridge of upland, had developed fortified positions along the rivers Bzura, Rawka, Pilica, and Nida. The bad weather of the winter and early spring, which had turned the roads of Poland into pathless morasses, made against extensive operations, and the momentous undertakings carried out on the wings of the eastern front led the German General Staff to refrain from important movements in this section, where the Russians had strongly fortified themselves for the protection of Warsaw. It was not until the Teutonic allies had gone over to the offensive in the Carpathians and in western Galicia, and the Russians had withdrawn to the Polish hills of Lysa-Gora early in May, that, favored by improved weather conditions, operations in this part of Poland again took on larger scope. Especially along the Bzura the German attacks again became violent in an effort to hold the Russian forces in the district to the west of Warsaw while thrusting at their wings from the south and north. However, fighting was not of great consequence in this middle sector until the middle of June, 1915.



CHAPTER LVI

CAMPAIGN IN SOUTHERN POLAND—MOVEMENT UPON WARSAW

By the 1st of July, 1915, the stupendous enveloping campaign of the Teuton armies on the eastern front had advanced to a point where the Allies were forced to recognize the imminence of a catastrophe, which could be averted only by the most decisive action of the Russian armies.

Far in the north, on the extreme right wing of the Russians, the army of General von Buelow was hammering at the defenses of the Dubissa line. Off and on fighting was taking place in the neighborhood of Shavli. Russian counterattacks, reported from day to day through June, with difficulty had held in check this army, which evidently was aiming at the Warsaw-Petrograd Railway on the sector between Vilna and Dvinsk. On the right flank of these forces operated the troops of General von Eichhorn, with the line of the Niemen for their objective. Next to these on the south, aiming at the Bobr River and the Upper Narew, were the forces of General von Scholtz, and on their right the army of Von Gallwitz, based on Mlawa with Przasnysz in front of it. Below the line of the Vistula, before the Bzura and down to the middle course of the Pilica, operated the Ninth German Army, commanded, at least in the later stages of the Warsaw campaign, by Prince Leopold of Bavaria. The whole group of northern and central armies was acting under the general direction of Field Marshal von Hindenburg.

The armies to the south of this group, cooperating in the drive under Field Marshal von Mackensen which had gained the Teutons Przemysl and Lemberg, had as their left flank the forces of Generals von Woyrsch and Koevess between the Pilica and the Vistula mouth of the San. The troops of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand were pushing forward on the right of these, and the army directly under Mackensen himself came next in line to the eastward, joining up with the armies still operating in Galicia at the extreme right of the great German battle line.

The chief danger to the Russians at this stage still threatened from the south, where the archduke and Mackensen had pushed forward irresistibly in their advance to the east of the Vistula toward the railway running from Warsaw through Ivangorod, Lublin, Cholm, and Kovell to Kiev and Moscow.

The advance of these Austro-German armies, which had operated in the neighborhood of Lemberg, was extremely rapid in the last days of June, 1915. In four days they covered from thirty to forty miles in pursuit of the Russians. By the 1st of July, having swept out of Galicia, their right, under Mackensen, entered the upper valley of the Wieprz, a marshy country which presented considerable difficulty to the advance of troops where a tributary of the Wieprz, the Por, afforded the Russians a natural line of defense. Drasnik, on the Wyznica, which here extended the Russian defensive line westward, was occupied by the archduke's forces on Mackensen's left on the 1st of July, 1915.

The drive of the Austro-German armies through Galicia has been dealt with in the account of the Austro-Russian campaign. As we carry forward the account of the activities of the greatest part of the forces concerned in that series of operations from the point where they crossed over the boundary between Galicia and Poland out of Austrian territory, it will be well to glance backward a moment to enumerate here briefly the gains of these armies on Polish soil up to the 1st of July.

On June 16, 1915, the Teutonic allies forced the Russians to fall back upon Tarnograd from north of Siemandria, thus pushing this section of the front across the boundary into Poland about to the line of the Tanev. Tarnograd itself was occupied by the Teutons on the 17th, and on the 18th the Russians retreated behind the Tanev. There was little change in this particular sector during the fighting which was crowned for the Austro-Germans by the capture of Lemberg on June 22, 1915. Further to the east, however, to the south of the Pilica and west of the Vistula, Von Woyrsch was exerting pressure, and on the 20th of June Berlin announced the capture of several Russian advance posts by these troops. By the 24th the Slavs had begun to retreat before Von Woyrsch in the forest region south of the Ilza on the left bank of the Vistula; thus rear guards had been thrown across the Kamienna, and Sandomir was occupied by the Austro-Hungarians. On the 25th the fighting developed on the line Zarvichost-Sienno-Ilza, to which the Russians had fallen back.

Defeats of the Russian rear guards on June 29, 1915, to the northeast and west of Tomaszow, where Teutonic forces had now also crossed into Poland, caused the Slavs to begin the relinquishment of the Tanev forest district and the lower San. Tomaszow itself was occupied by the pursuing troops. By the 30th the Teutonic allies had swept forward beyond the Tanev region to Franpol, Zamoez, and Komarovo, and on the same evening they threw the Russians out of their strong defenses on the Zavichost-Ozarow-Sienno line, west of the Vistula. The pursuit was pushed energetically on both sides of the Kamienna. The important bridgehead on the Vistula, Josefovo, was taken on the 1st of July.

The Russians between the Bug and the Vistula were now offering strong resistance with large forces on the line Turobin-Krasnik-Josefovo, the rivers Por and Wyznica forming roughly their defensive front, as previously pointed out.

In its daily bulletins of July 1, 1915, the German Great Headquarters made this announcement for the eastern theatre of war (from the Baltic to the Pilica): "The booty for June is: Two colors, 25,595 prisoners, including 121 officers, seven cannon, six mine throwers, fifty-two machine guns, one aeroplane, also a large amount of war material." For the southeastern theatre of war (from the Pilica to Bukowina) the headquarters announced: "The total booty for June of the allied troops fighting under the command of General von Linsingen, Field Marshal von Mackensen, and General von Worysch is 409 officers, 140,650 men, 80 cannon, 268 machine guns." The Austro-Hungarian General Staff on the same day reported: "The total booty for June of the troops fighting under Austro-Hungarian command in the northeast is 521 officers, 194,000 men, 93 cannon, 364 machine guns, 78 ammunition wagons, 100 field railway carriages, etc."



CHAPTER LVII

BATTLE OF KRASNIK—CAPTURE OF PRZASNYSZ

On July 2, 1915, the forces of the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand which had passed through Krasnik, on the Lublin road, struck serious resistance from the Russian army of General Loesche which held strong positions across the highway, just to the north of the town, and was now evidently determined to stop once for all the Teuton advance toward the railway at its back, connecting Warsaw with Kiev, through Lublin and Cholm.

On July 3, 1915, the Austrian report, however, announced that 4,800 prisoners and three machine guns had been taken in the neighborhood of Krasnik and along the Por stream, and the next day they reported that they had occupied the heights which run along to the north of the city, having pierced the enemy's main position on both sides of Studzianki, and taken more than 1,000 prisoners, three machine guns and three cannon.

The Russian front was turned to such an extent that they had to fall back some three miles on the Lublin road. The Austrians on the 5th of July summed up their enemy's losses as twenty-nine officers, 8,000 men, six cannon, five ammunition wagons, and six machine guns. As the result of this Austrian advance the adjoining enemy forces to the eastward along the Wieprz River had been obliged to fall back beyond Tarnograd, and by the 6th of July Vienna summarized the Austrian captures in these battles as having grown to forty-one officers, 11,500 men.

The Austrians, however, could make no further headway. On July 5, 1915, they were heavily attacked, being forced back to their intrenched lines on a ridge of hills to the north of Krasnik. The Russians now reported that they had taken 15,000 prisoners and a large number of machine guns. Two thousand bodies were reported by the Russians to have been found before their front. More prisoners were taken by the Russians on the 7th and it was only on the afternoon of July 9 that the Austrians were able to stem the tide. The total loss of the Austrians in this action was given by their opponents as 15,000 men.

The Austrian explanation of their retirement in front of Krasnik issued on July 11, 1915, pointed out that the relative subsidence of activity of the Teutonic allies was due to the fact that the goal set for the Lemberg campaign had now been attained. This, they explained, was the taking of the city and the securing of strong defensive positions to the east and north. The ridge to the northward of Krasnik was a natural choice for this purpose on the north, while the line of the Zlota Lipa and Bug rivers served the purpose toward the east (see Austro-Russian campaign). The Austrian explanation pointed out further that some of their troops had rushed beyond the positions originally selected to meet heavy reenforcements brought up by the Russians from Lublin, and that these had to withdraw to the ridge, where they were successfully resisting all attacks.

The battle of Krasnik was regarded by the Russians as an effective victory, for it seemed to have halted the advance on Lublin. The army of Von Mackensen had now also come to a stop about halfway between Zamosc and Krasnostav, an artillery duel on July 7, 1915, being the last activity noted on the front of this army for some time.

Their comparative quiet in the region between the Vistula and the Bug where the main advance of the Teutonic forces on the south had been under way with great vigor for several weeks until the check at Krasnik was not interrupted until July 16, 1915. Day after day the Teutonic headquarters reported "nothing of importance" in this quarter. When the quiet was finally broken it appeared that it had been the lull before the storm. Before taking up again the activities on this section of the front, it will be necessary to take a glance toward the northern half of the great arc that enveloped the Warsaw salient on two sides.

In these early days of July, 1915, considerable uncertainty prevailed among those who were watching the progress of the campaign in Poland as to where the heaviest blow of the Teutons would fall, whether from the south or the north. The decisive stroke came with lightning suddenness. A tremendous attack was launched in the direction of the Narew by the army of General von Gallwitz.

A laconic announcement of the German General Staff on July 14, 1915, bore momentous news, although its modest wording scarcely betrayed the facts. It read: "Between the Niemen and the Vistula, in the region of Walwarga, southwest of Kolno, near Przasnysz and south of Mlawa, our troops have achieved some local successes." The Russian report referring to the beginning of the same action was equally noncommittal, though possibly more misleading. This states: "Considerable enemy forces between the Orczy and the Lidynja adopted the offensive and the Russians declining a decisive engagement retreated during the night of the 13th to the second line of their positions."

On July 15, 1915, the Germans announced that the city of Przasnysz, for which such hot battles had been fought in February, and which had since been strongly fortified by the Russians, had been occupied by them. The German summary of this action given out a few days later stated that three Russian defensive lines lying one behind the other northwest and northeast of Przasnysz had been pierced and taken, the troops at once rushing forward to Dzielin and Lipa, respectively west and east of the town. Under attack from these two points the Russians after yielding Przasnysz, on the 14th, retired to their defensive line Ciechanow-Krasnosielc which had been prepared long beforehand. On the 15th the German troops pressing closer upon the retiring Slavs stormed this line and broke through it to the south of Zielona on a breadth of seven kilometers, forcing the Russians again to retire. General von Gallwitz's troops in this assault were supported by the forces of General von Scholtz, on their left, who were pressing the Russians from the direction of Kolno. On July 16, 1915, the Russians were retreating on the whole front between the Pissa and the Vistula, toward the Narew.

The German summary of the fighting during these days reported the capture by the army of General von Gallwitz of eighty-eight officers, 17,500 men, thirteen cannon (including one heavy gun), forty machine guns, and seven mine throwers; and by the army of General von Scholtz of 2,500 prisoners and eight machine guns.

This great attack in the north, to which may be ascribed the final breaking of the lines that had so long protected Warsaw, had been carefully planned and undoubtedly was timed in coordination with the movements of Mackensen's armies on the south, striking the Russians just when Mackensen and the Archduke Josef, having had time for recuperation and preparation for another push forward after the check administered at Krasnik, were in readiness to inflict a heavy blow on their side of the Warsaw salient. When it began the German lines all along the front burst into fresh activity. It was the signal for a simultaneous assault along nearly a thousand miles of battle front.

In the Mlawa sector to the north of Przasnysz the Russians had developed an exceedingly strong system of fortified positions between their advance lines and the Narew fortresses. For miles, to a depth of from fifteen to twenty kilometers, there ran some three or four and at certain points even five systems of trenches, one behind the other. Hundreds of thousands of thick tree trunks had been worked into these defensive works and millions of sand bags piled up as breastwork. Bombproof dugouts had been constructed deep in the ground. Everywhere there were strong wire entanglements before the front, sometimes sunk below the level of the earth, arranged in from two to three rows. Projecting bastions and thoroughly protected observation posts gave these systems of trenches the character of permanent fortifications.

The country in this region is hilly, with here and there steep declivities and peaks of considerable elevation. The Russians had cut down whole stretches of forest in order to afford them a free field for their fire and an opportunity to observe the advance of their opponents. Enveloping tactics on the part of the Germans were here quite excluded as the two lines ran uninterruptedly close to one another. Przasnysz which had become a heap of ruins had been converted virtually into a fortress by strong defensive works built while the Germans and Russians lay opposite each other in front of it throughout the spring. The country round about had been drenched with much German and Russian blood.

General von Gallwitz, to capture a place with the least possible loss, decided to break through the Russian defenses at two points at both sides of the town sufficiently close to each other so that the intervening lines would be immediately affected. His attacks were therefore directed at the first line Russian positions, which formed projecting angles to the northwest and northeast of Przasnysz so that instead of taking the city directly from the front he would seize it as with a gigantic pair of pincers from both sides and behind. The plan succeeded to the full. The Russian lines were broken on both sides of the city and the German troops, rushing through, met behind it, forcing the Russian defenders hastily to evacuate the place to avoid being caught within the circle.

Strong infantry forces were collected opposite the points of attack, and enormous masses of artillery were placed in position with abundance of ammunition in readiness. The preparations had been made with all possible secrecy and even when the German batteries had begun gradually to get their range by testing shots no serious assault seems to have been expected by the Russians. On the morning of the attack they were just to inaugurate service on a small passenger railway line they had constructed behind their front.

On the morning of July 13, 1915, soon after sunrise, a tremendous cannonade was let loose from guns of all calibers. Although the weather was rainy and not well fitted for observation the German guns seem to have found their marks with great accuracy. When the German infantry stormed the first line of works which had been shattered by the artillery fire they met with comparatively little resistance and their losses were small. The bombardment apparently had done its work thoroughly. The German infantry rushes were started in successive intervals of a quarter of an hour, line following line. Swarms of unarmed Russians could be seen coming out of the trenches seeking to save themselves from the terrible effect of the shell fire by surrendering. During the course of the forenoon the sun came out and illuminated a scene of terrific destruction. The Russian positions on the heights northwest of Przasnysz had been completely leveled. In their impetuous forward rush the German troops did not give the enemy time to make a stand in his second line of trenches and overrunning this, by night began to enter the third Russian defensive line. Przasnysz was flanked in the course of twenty-four hours and could no longer be held. A fine rain was falling as the German columns marched through the deserted, smoke-blackened city, a melancholy setting for a victory.

On July 14, 1915, the German troops had broken through on both sides of the city, met to the south of it and forming a mighty battering ram, on the next day, forced the next Russian line, the last, to the north of the Narew. This ran through Wysogrod-Ciechanow-Zielona to Kranosiele. The Russians here made a desperate defense and the German advance pushed forward but slowly. The effect of the German artillery fire seems not to have been as striking as on the first day of battle. The German report of the attack on this line points out that the regiment of the Guard holding the right wing of a division which was to attack the heights to the south and southeast of Zielona was impatient to go forward, and was allowed to advance before the reserves which were to be held in readiness to support the move had come up.

However, confident of the accuracy with which the "black brothers" (shells from the big guns) struck the enemy's trenches, the riflemen leapt forward through fields of grain as soon as they saw that a gust of their shells had struck in front of them. By means of signs which been agreed upon they then signaled their new positions and the guns laid their fire another hundred meters farther forward. The infantrymen then stormed ahead into the newly made shell craters. Thus they went forward again and again. Neither Russian fire nor the double barbed wire entanglements were able to check their assaults.

As the German shouts rolled forth the Russians ran. A neighboring division consisting of young men who had enlisted in the course of the war, in a brilliant charge took a bastion at Klosnowo. The effect of this first penetration of the Russian main position made itself felt in the course of the afternoon and night along the whole front. Further German forces were thrown into the breach and strove to widen it.

The Russians at many points resisted obstinately, but under the pressure from the front and in the flank they were finally unable to hold their ground. The German account speaks with admiration of the ride to death of a Russian cavalry brigade which attacked the German infantry southeast of Opinozura without achieving any results. Cossacks and Hussars were mowed down in an instant.

The German advance taking several intermediate places did not halt until it stood before the fortification of the Narew line itself. As a result of this stroke the German troops had advanced some forty to fifty kilometers into hostile territory on a breadth of a hundred and twenty kilometers and had captured some 10,000 prisoners and much war material. By the 18th of July, 1915, German trains were running as far as Ciechanow.

Advances were likewise made by the Germans to the right of the attack on the Przasnysz positions on both sides of the Mlawa-Ciechanow Railway, rolling up the Russian positions as far as Plonsk. On the left progress had also been made and heavy fighting done, but the German great headquarters pointed out that in times to come history will assign the important place to the central feature of this great offensive by General von Gallwitz, that is the enveloping attack at Przasnysz and the ramming thrust at Zielona.

The report issued by the Russian General Staff on July 19, 1915, admitted that to the west of Omulev their troops had withdrawn to the Narew bridgeheads on the 17th. The points of some of the German columns on this day, in fact, came within the range of the artillery of the fortress of Novo-Georgievsk and the army of General von Scholtz reached the line of the Bobr and the Narew between Osowice and Ostrolenka. The action at Przasnysz had been decisive. It resulted ultimately in the relinquishing by the Russians of the lines of the Rawka and Bzura which had been so stubbornly held against the Germans in the long defense of Warsaw. The troops directly charged here with defending the capital fell back to the Blonie lines about fifteen miles from the city.



CHAPTER LVIII

GRAND OFFENSIVE ON THE WARSAW SALIENT

The great stroke at Przasnysz was the most dramatic feature of a grand offensive all around the German lines that were endeavoring to close in upon the Russian armies. On July 16, 1915, the Archduke Joseph struck hard at the Russians on the Krasnik-Lublin road in an endeavor to carry the fortified positions at Wilkolaz. His men, however, were thrown back after ten furious assaults. Krasnostav, on the road to Cholm, was attacked on the same day by the army of General von Mackensen, and after a series of desperate rear-guard actions had been fought by the Russians was swept over by the German Allies. By the close of the day the Germans had taken twenty-eight officers, 6,380 men, and nine machine guns.

The Germans, prepared in the recent pause in the fighting, by the bringing up of their artillery on the long lines of communication which now stretched behind them, with troops reenforced by such fresh forces as they could muster, were hurling themselves upon the Russian defensive positions everywhere along the line. Thus, on the forenoon of July 17, 1915, the army of General von Woyrsch, whose objective was the mighty fortress Ivangorod, operating just to the west of the upper Vistula, broke through the Russian wire entanglements and stormed the enemy's trenches on a stretch of 2,000 meters. The breach was widened in desperate hand-to-hand combat. The Teutons by evening inflicted a heavy defeat on the Moscow Grenadier Corps at this point and the Russians were forced to retreat behind the Ilzanka to the south of Swolen. Some 2,000 men were taken prisoners by the Germans in this battle and five machine guns were captured.

Far in the northeast in Courland the army of General von Buelow, on July 17, 1915, defeated Russian forces that had been rushed up at Alt-Auz, taking 3,620 prisoners, six cannon and three machine guns, and pursuing the Slavs in an easterly direction. Desperate fighting was also taking place to the northeast of Kurschany.

Notes of anxiety mixed with consoling speculations had begun to appear in the press of the allied countries when the vast German offensive had thus become plainly revealed and had demonstrated its driving force. A Petrograd dispatch to the London "Morning Post" on the 15th of July, 1915, said of the German plan that it was to catch the Russian armies like a nut between nut crackers, that the two fronts moving up from north and south were intended to meet on another and grind everything between them to powder. The area between the attacking forces was some eighty miles in extent, north to south, by 120 miles west to east. The writer offered the consolation that this space was well fortified, the kernel of the nut "sound and healthy, being formed of the Russian armies, inspired not merely with the righteousness of their cause, but the fullest confidence in themselves and absolute devotion to the proved genius of their commander in chief."

The dispatch pointed out that it was all sheer frontal fighting, that the Germans had been twelve months trying frontal attacks against Warsaw on a comparatively narrow front and in vain. What chance had they, he added, "of success by dividing their forces against the united strength of Russia." This sort of argument is typical of the endeavor to sustain the hopes of Russia's friends during these days. Doubts, however, began to creep in more strongly as to the possibility of holding Warsaw.

In Berlin the announcement of the Teutonic victories that began with the successful assault at Przasnysz was received with general rejoicing, and the appearance of flags all over the city. The Russian retreat toward the Narew River in particular was regarded by the military critics as threatening momentarily to crumble up the right flank of the positions of the Russians before the capital of Poland.



Cholm and Lublin on the southern line of communication of the Russian armies were now in imminent danger. On July 19, 1915, came the announcement that the troops under Field Marshal von Mackensen, which had pierced the Russian line in the region of Pilaskowice and Krasnostav, had increased their successes, and that the Russians were making the most desperate effort to prevent complete defeat. All day the battle had swayed in a fierce struggle for mastery. The Russians threw a fresh division of the Guards into the fight, but this too had to yield to the overwhelming force of the Teuton onslaught. Farther to the east as far as the neighborhood of Grabowiec, Austro-Hungarian and German troops forced the crossing of the Wolica, and near Sokal in Galicia Austro-Hungarian troops crossed the Bug. (See Austro-Russian Campaign.) In consequence of these Teuton successes the Russians on the night of the 18th to the 19th of July retreated along the whole front between the Vistula and the Bug—practically the last line of defense, for the Warsaw-Kiev railway had been broken down. The German troops and the corps under the command of Field Marshal von Arz alone from the 15th to the 18th of July, 1915, took 16,250 prisoners and 23 machine guns.

It was announced by the Germans that according to written orders captured during this action the Russian leaders had resolved to hold the positions here conquered by the Germans to the utmost, regardless of losses.

The same day that brought the report of this Russian retreat on the south brought the news that in the adjoining sector to the west of the Upper Vistula the army of General von Woyrsch had met resistance from the Russians behind the Ilzanka after the Russian defeat on July 13, 1915, that, however, Silesian Landwehr on the 18th had captured the Russian defenses at Ciepilovo by storm, and that the Russian line at Kasonow and Barenow was beginning to yield. The army of General von Gallwitz had now taken up positions along the whole Narew line from southwest of Ostrolenka to Novo Georgievsk. The Russians, however, as already indicated, were still holding fortified places and bridgeheads on the right bank of the river. In this sector the number of prisoners taken by the Germans had risen to 101 officers and 28,760 men.

In the sector next adjoining, passing onward around the enveloping lines, that lying between the Pissa and the Szkwa, the Russians likewise had retreated until they stood directly on the Narew. Here the Slavs had been favored by forests and swampy land which made pursuit difficult.

At the extreme left end of the German line a magnificent success had been achieved in the occupation of Tukkum and Windau. This capture brought the Germans to within fifty miles of Riga, seat of the governor general of the Baltic provinces. They were, however, destined not to make any substantial progress in the direction of that city for many months to come.

Blow fell upon blow. The question "Can Warsaw be held?" began to receive doubtful answers in the allied capitals. The colossal coordinate movement of the Teutonic forces in these July days had received so little check from the Russian resistance that the British press had begun to discount the fall of the Polish capital. Shortness of ammunition and artillery was ascribed as the cause of Russia's failure to make a successful stand against the onrushing Teutons.

On July 20, 1915, Berlin announced the capture of those fortifications of Ostrolenka lying on the northwest bank of the Narew River. This was one of the strong places designed to protect the Warsaw-Grodno-Petrograd railway. The threatened fall was highly significant. To the south of the Vistula the Teuton troops had advanced to the Blonie-Grojec lines. Blonie is some seventeen miles west of Warsaw and Grojec twenty-six miles south of the city.

Farther eastward and to the south troops of the army of General von Woyrsch had completely turned the enemy out of the Ilzanka positions, having repulsed the counterattacks of the Russian reserves which had been quickly brought up, and captured more than 5,000 prisoners. Von Woyrsch's cavalry had now reached the railway line from Radom to the great fortress of Ivangorod, the objective point of this army, and Radom itself had been seized.



CHAPTER LIX

BEGINNING OF THE END

So uncertain had grown the positions of Lublin on the southern railway line leading to Warsaw that the Russian commander in chief had issued an order that in case of a retreat the male population of the town was to attach itself to the retiring troops.

On July 21, 1915, the Russians throughout the empire were reported to be joining in prayer. "Yesterday evening," telegraphed the London "Daily Mail's" Petrograd correspondent on the 21st, "the bells in all the churches throughout Russia clanged a call to prayer for a twenty-four hours' continual service of intercession for victory.

"To-day, in spite of the heat, the churches were packed. Hour after hour the people stand wedged together while the priests and choirs chant interminable litanies. Outside the Kamian Cathedral here an open-air Mass is being celebrated in the presence of an enormous crowd."

The chronicle of the closing days of July, 1915, is an unbroken narrative of forward movements of German armies on all parts of the great semicircle. The movement now, however, was slow. The Russians were fighting desperately, and the Germans had to win their way inch by inch. By the 21st the Russians were withdrawing in Courland to the east of the line Popeljany-Kurtschany, and the last Russian trenches westward of Shavly had been taken by assault. To the north of Novgorod the capture of Russian positions had yielded 2,000 prisoners and two machine guns to the Germans on the 20th.

Farther south on the Narew a strong work of the fortress Rozan defending an important crossing was stormed by the Germans, and desperate fighting was going on at Pultusk and near Georgievsk. Already the Russians were beginning to yield their positions to the west of Grojec, which meant that the Teuton armies were about to push into the opening between Warsaw and Ivangorod and divide the Russian forces. The armies of Von Woyrsch on July 20, 1915, seized a projecting bridgehead to the south of Ivangorod, and captured the lines that had been held by the Russians near Wladislavow.

In the positions defending the railway between Cholm and Lublin, Russian resistance was once more marked, and was checking the progress of the armies of Von Mackensen and Archduke Joseph Ferdinand.

By noon of July 21, 1915, the Silesian troops of Von Woyrsch had stormed the bridgehead on the Vistula between Lagow and Lugawa-Wola, with the result that Ivangorod was now inclosed from the south, while to northwest of the fortress Austro-Hungarian troops were fighting on the west bank of the Vistula. Austro-Hungarian troops too were battling their way close up to the fortress directly from the west. Line after line was giving way before the Teutons. The Russian retreat over the bridge at Novo Alexandria to the south of Ivangorod was carried on under the fire of German artillery. Numerous villages set afire by the Russians were now sending great clouds of smoke into the sky over all this region.

The troops of the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, after a stubborn resistance on the part of the Russians, seized enemy positions on July 21, 1915, near Chodel and Borzechow, advancing another step toward Lublin. Eight thousand Russian prisoners, 15 machine guns, and 4 ammunition wagons were taken.

By the 23d of July, 1915, the Teutonic troops were close up to the encircling forts of Ivangorod and stood on the Vistula all the way between the fortress and the mouth of the Pilica. On the 24th the Teutons announced a victory over the Fifth Russian Army by General von Buelow at Shavli. The report read: "After ten days of continuous fighting, marching, and pursuit, the German troops yesterday succeeded in bringing the Russians to a stand in the regions of Rozalin and Szadow and in defeating them and scattering their forces. The booty since the beginning of this operation on the 14th of July consists of 27,000 prisoners, 25 cannon, 40 machine guns, more than 100 loaded ammunition wagons with their draft animals, numerous baggage wagons and other material."

This day brought the announcement also of the capture of the fortresses of Rozan and Pultusk on the Narew, after violent charges by troops of General von Gallwitz. The crossing of the Narew between these places was now in German hands, and strong forces were advancing on the southern shore. The Russians had been resisting obstinately in this quarter, and the Germans had made their way only by the most heroic efforts. German headquarters announced at this time that in the battles between the Niemen and the Vistula covering the ten days since July 14, 1915, more than 41,000 prisoners, 14 cannon, and 19 machine guns had been captured. The German troops now also attained the Vistula to the north of the Pilica. In their summing up of results since the 14th of July the Teutons recounted further on this day, the 24th, that some 50,000 prisoners had been taken by the armies of General von Woyrsch and Field Marshal von Mackensen during the period.

The army of Archduke Joseph Ferdinand had been making rapid progress. On July 24, 1915, under the attacks of these troops the Russians retreated on a front of forty kilometers, between the Vistula and the Bistritza, from eight to ten kilometers northward to prepared lines, their attempts to halt in intermediate positions being frustrated by the onrush of the victorious Teutonic forces in pursuit.

By July 25, 1915, the Narew had been crossed by the Germans along its whole front, southward from Ostrolenka to Pultusk, and by the 26th they had gained the farther side of the Narew above Ostrolenka likewise. The troops moving southeast from Pultusk now approached the Bug, getting toward the rear of Novo Georgievsk and Warsaw, and threatening to close the Russians' line of escape, the Warsaw-Bielostok railway.