through the whole retreat from the Dunajec, and on several occasions previous to May 27 had been reported partly annihilated in German communiqués. Yet in face of the superior artillery of the enemy our Allies were unable to cross the San, and the advance of the enemy north of Przemysl was not delayed for long. On May 24 Mackensen resumed the offensive. Containing the Russians between Rudnik and Sieniava along the San and using the Lubaczowka as cover for his left flank, he opened a vigorous advance due east of Jaroslav. On the same day his troops captured Drohojow, Ostrow, Vysocko, Vietlin, Makovisko, and approached from the north-west the railway station of Bobrowka. The Austro-Hungarians under General Arz von Straussenberg occupied the town of Radymno and compelled the Russians to fall back beyond the San; the Austro-German encircling movement against Przemysl was thus pressed even south of the Szklo. On May 25 the Austro-Hungarian troops crossed the San opposite Radymno and captured the bridge-head of Zagrody on its right bank; on the following day they conquered the village of Nienovice, about four miles further east, and the Height of Horodysko, which rises between the valleys of the Visznia and the Szklo, halfway between Radymno and Krakoviec; meantime, north of them Mackensen's troops reached between the Lubaczowka and the Szklo the line Zapalow-Korzenica-Laszki-Lazy, about 10 miles east of Jaroslav, and captured Height 241, the most important strategic point in that low-lying marshy plain. During the next few days stubborn fighting continued with varying results on the Tuchla-Kalnikow-NakloBarycz line. The village of Naklo lies between the San and the Visznia, only about five miles to the north of Medyka, a station on the main railway line, halfway between Przemysl and Mosciska. South of Naklo rises a hill about 650 feet high. Against this height the enemy was now directing his attacks. Its capture would have exposed to the fire of his artillery the only Russian line of retreat from Przemysl.

South of Przemysl the Russian counteroffensive attempted to outflank the Austrian troops which, near Hussakow, had drawn close to the fortress and to the Przemysl-GrodekLwow railway line. The arrival of considerable reinforcements enabled the Russians to check the Austrian advance almost in this whole region, except in the direct neighbourhood

of Hussakow.

"The

offensive which we opened on the 22nd," says the Petrograd communiqué of May 24, "is being pursued along the left bank of the Dniester, and was developed yesterday with great success, notwithstanding the enemy's counter-attacks. We captured, after a fight, the new and old villages of Burczyce, as well as the villages of Iszechnikow and Holobova, and part of the village of Ostrow." In the course of the day our Allies took, moreover, 2,200 prisoners, several machine guns and a considerable amount of ammunition. During the following day slight progress was made from the direction of Burczyce; by May 24 the advance of our Allies came to a stop. On the line Krukienice-Mosciska our Allies were offering effective resistance to the advance of the enemy on the heights on the little river Blozewka, but the Austrian attacks against the Russian positions round Hussakow were daily increasing in violence. The village of Hussakow lies in the valley of the small river Buchta, only about three to four miles east of the Fort Siedliska, which guards from the south the Przemysl-Mosciska-Lwow railway line. That fort forms part of the outer ring of Przemysl. The evacuation of Przemysl could not be delayed much longer, especially as also the direct attacks against its forts were opened from the west in the last days of May by the heaviest types of Austrian and German howitzers.

The successful Russian offensive against the San, north of the Lubaczowka, and along the left bank of the Dniester had exercised no direct effect on the position round Przemysl itself. By the end of May only a zone about 10 miles wide, running eastward from Przemysl past Mosciska towards Grodek, separated the 6th Austro-Hungarian Army Corps and the Prussian Guard which were standing between the San and the Visznia from the troops of General von der Marwitz and the Third AustroHungarian Army round Hussakow. Except for that opening to the east, the fortress was surrounded on all sides by the enemy, and on May 30 even the railway line Przemysl-Grodek came, near Medyka, under the fire of the heavy Austrian batteries.

As early as May 17 Przemysl had been invested from three sides. The Bavarians, under General Kneussl, who occupied the northern front, had managed to bring with them some of their 21 cm. Krupp howitzers, and were bombarding the Russian positions round Mackovice and Kozienice, and were

use of the earthworks which our Allies had constructed when they had been the besiegers, and which they had had no time to destroy on their retreat into the fortress. On May 30 the Bavarians captured the Russian positions near Orzechovce, which cover the northern sector of the outer ring of forts round Przemysl. On the same day a violent bombardment was opened and infantry attacks were delivered against the entire northern and north-western front of the fortress, which extends from the river San (above, i.e. west of Przemysl) to the Przemysl-Radymno road, that is from Lentovnia to Dunkoviczki; or to put it in more technical language, the attacks of May 30 were directed mainly against the front defined by the line of forts from No. 7 to No. 11. Fort No. 7 lies within the big loop which the San forms to the east of Przemysl. South of it, on the bank of the river, lies the village of Ostrow, to the east extends the ridge of Height 241, closing off the neck of the river loop. Fort No. 7 forms in the outer ring of forts the key to the sector of the San valley occupied by Przemysl. Against this fort an attempt was made by Austrian troops, which seem to have got across the San from the west or south-west, having first concentrated behind the dense forests which cover that region. "During the night of May 30-31," says the Russian official communiqué of June 1, "the enemy succeeded in approaching within 200 paces, and at some points even in gaining a footing in the precincts

of Fort No. 7, around which raged an obstinate battle that lasted until two in the afternoon of the 31st, when he was repulsed after suffering enormous losses. The remnants of the enemy who had entered Fort No. 7, numbering 23 officers and 600 men, were taken prisoners."

On May 31 the Bavarians concentrated again the fire of their heaviest batteries against the forts round Dunkoviczki (Nos. 10a, 11a and 11). The bombardment was continued till 4 p.m., when the fire stopped, and the enemy's infantry, consisting of one Prussian, one Austrian and severa! Bavarian regiments, proceeded to storm the forts, which by that time had been changed into mere wreckage. Their garrison, decimated by the bombardment, could not resist much longer, and withdrew beyond the road which runs behind the outer ring of forts round Przemysl. On the same day the 10th Austro-Hungarian Army Corps opened its attack against the southwestern forts of Pralkovice and Lipnik. On June 1 the German troops of Mackensen captured two trenches east of Fort No. 11; they had to pay a heavy price in blood for every yard of their advance. Meantime the heavy batteries directed their fire against Forts Nos. 10 and 12. The breach in the outer ring of forts had to be enlarged, and these two forts were chosen for the attacks of the following day.

At noon of June 2 the 22nd Bavarian infantry regiment captured Fort No. 10, and towards night the Prussian Grenadier Guards occupied

Fort No. 12. During the night of June 2-3 the enemy entered the village of Zuravica, which lies within the outer ring of forts. Meantime the Austrian troops had broken through from the south-west, and in the afternoon of June 2 occupied the Zasanie (literally "the part beyond the San "), on the left bank of the river.

For the last few days the Russians had been evacuating the fortress, and the only part of the fortress which they held with considerable forces was that which covered directly their line of retreat towards Grodek and Lwow. During the night of June 2-3 the last Russian forces were withdrawn to the east, and early in the morning of June 3 the Bavarians and Austrians entered the town of Przemysl. The semi-official account, sent out by the Wolff Bureau, emphasises the fact that the first to enter the town was a battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the Foot Guards, and that the Austro-Hungarian troops followed the Germans. It is not altogether clear why a small body of the Prussian Guard was detailed to assist the very much larger bodies of Austrians, Hungarians and Bavarians in the storming of Przemysl; the description of the entry into the conquered fortress seems to suggest the underlying motive.

The fall of Przemysl had been unavoidable from the very moment when the immense superiority

of the Austro-German artillery and the enormous concentration of their troops had broken the Russian defences on the Dunajec-Biala line. But in the fall of Przemysl were involved those not only of Lwow, but even of Warsaw and Ivangorod. A sweep through East Galicia to the line of the San had been in recent years as much part of the Russian strategic plan for the case of a war against the Central Powers, as was the abandonment of Western Poland, The Vistula-San-Dniester line from Thorn in the north to Chocim in the south-east is the one strong, continuous line stretching across the Polish and Galician plains, between the line of the Oder and the Carpathians to the west and south, and the line of the Niemen and Bug to the north-east of it. No stable balance can be attained with one side holding the line of the middle Vistula round Warsaw and the other commanding its natural southern extension, the San line round Przemysl.

The outbreak of the Austro-Italian war on May 23, was followed by a regrouping of the Austro-Hungarian armies in Galicia and by certain changes in the army commands. Generals Dankl and Borojevic von Bojna were transferred to the Italian frontier. General Dankl had been in any case in command of an army of only about half the normal size; his troops were united with the German army of

66

General Woyrsch, in conjunction with which they had been fighting for the last half year; it will be remembered that in May also that army was considerably under strength. General Kövess von Kövesshasa, who before the war had commanded the 12th Austro-Hungarian Army Corps, and had stood during May at the head of certain Hungarian regiments included in General Woyrsch's army, seems to have been now put in command of all the Austro-Hungarian forces included in that army. General Borojevic von Bojna was transferred to the Italian front probably owing to the vast experience of mountain warfare which he had acquired during the halfyear of fighting in the Carpathians. It is impossible to say as yet how much of his army he took with him to the south. One thing is fairly certain that no extensive regrouping of forces was undertaken until after the fall of Przemysl. The Austro-Hungarian official report of May 25 speaks of an Army Puhallo"; it is evident from its position that this was the army of General Borojevic under a new commander. After the fall of Przemysl that army seems, however, to have undergone far-reaching changes. Part of it was probably transferred to the Italian front; other parts were distributed among the other Austro-Hungarian and German armies, to replace regiments withdrawn to the southern front or to make up for the heavy losses suffered during the Galician campaign. Thus, e.g., we find that the 10th Austro-Hungarian Army Corps, which from Gorlice till Przemysl had always moved on the left wing of the Third Austro-Hungarian Army under Borojevic, next to the right wing of the Eleventh German Army of Mackensen, appears in the beginning of July near Krasnik, i.e., in conjunction with the Fourth Austro-Hungarian Army under Archduke Joseph-Ferdinand. Some other parts of the Third Army seem to have been included in those of Mackensen and of Boehm-Ermolli, which from now onwards became direct neighbours; thus, e.g., the German Corps under General von der Marwitz forms during the battle of Lwow part of the Second Austro-Hungarian Army. The status and composition of the surviving "Army Puhallo is not clear.

About the same time, whilst in the north the reconstructed forts of Przemysl were being demolished by the heavy howitzers of the enemy, another important position, farther south, was crumbling down under their fire.

Since May 18 the German troops had been busy enlarging their narrow salient in the Stryj valley against Uliczno in the west and Bolechow in the east. At the same time they were getting their heavy mortars and howitzers into position in front of the Russian trenches between Holobutow and Stryj. On the morning of May 31 fire was opened against them, and after a few hours of bombardment little was left of the defences before which thousands of Austrians and Germans had died in vain in attempts to carry them by assault. The final conquest of the Russian positions near Holobutow was effected by the 38th Hungarian Honvéd Division under F.M.L. Bartheldy, to which the German corps-commander, Count Bothmer, left the most difficult part of the work. They were followed by the Germans, thus inverting the arrangement which had been adopted for the triumphal entry into Przemysl; but this time the order of proceduro did not appear in the report of the Wolff Bureau.

The fall of Stryj rendered inevitable the withdrawal of the entire Russian line towards the Dniester. Step by step our Allies retired to the north; their retreat will remain memorable in military history, for, whilst falling back, they were capturing thousands of the pursuing enemy. They retired behind the Dniester, but preserved their hold on the main bridge-heads and on whatever important strategic points could be kept to the south of the river, without disturbing excessively the symmetry of the line,

66

With the fall of Przemysl and Stryj closed the second stage of the Austro-German offensive. The third we may call the battle for Lwow, and date it as extending from June 3 till June 22, the day of the recapture of the Galician capital by the Austrians.

The strategic plan underlying this third chapter of the Austro-German offensive can be explained in very few sentences. The most effective way of crushing the retreating Russian armies would have been a flank attack from the south. A successful crossing of the Dniester by the enemy would have had disastrous consequences for our Ailies. Their armies would have been outflanked, some of their lines of retreat would have been cut, and a dissolution of a large portion of the retiring forces could hardly have been avoided. All the Austro-German attempts at breaking through the Russian armies holding the line of the