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Page 29
The Russian front now followed the west bank of the Bzura for a few
miles, changed to the eastern bank following the river until it met with
the Rawka, from there a line of trenches passed south and east, of
Balinov and from there to Skiernievice. Von Mackensen concentrated a
considerable army at Balinov and had on the 1st of February about a
hundred and forty thousand men there. That night, with the usual
artillery preparation, he moved from Balinov against the Russian
position at the Borzymov Crest. The Germans lost heavily but drove
forward into the enemy's line, and by the 3d of February had almost made
a breach in it. This point, however, could be readily reinforced and
troops were hurried there from Warsaw in such force that on February 4th
the German advance was checked. Von Mackensen had lost heavily, and by
the time it was checked he had become so weak that his forces yielded
quickly to the counter-attack and were flung back.
This was the last frontal attack upon Warsaw. Von Hindenburg then
determined to attack Warsaw by indirection. Austria was instructed to
move forward along the whole Carpathian front, while he himself, with
strong forces, undertook to move from East Prussia behind the Polish
capital, and cut the communications between Warsaw and Petrograd. If
Austria could succeed, Przemysl might be relieved, Lemberg recaptured,
and Russia forced back so far on the south that Warsaw would have to be
abandoned. On the other hand if the East Prussia effort were successful,
the Polish capital would certainly fall. These plans, if they had
developed successfully, would have crippled the power of Russia for at
least six months. Meantime, troops could be sent to the west front, and
perhaps enable Germany to overwhelm France. By this time almost all of
Poland west of the Vistula was in the power of the Germans, while
three-fourths of Galicia was controlled by Russia.
Von Hindenburg now returned to his old battle-ground near the Masurian
Lakes. The Russian forces, which, at the end of January, had made a
forward movement in East Prussia, had been quite successful. Their right
was close upon Tilsit, and their left rested upon the town of
Johannisburg. Further south was the Russian army of the Narev. Von
Hindenburg determined to surprise the invaders, and he gathered an army
of about three hundred thousand men to face the Russian forces which did
not number more than a hundred and twenty thousand, and which were under
the command of General Baron Sievers. The Russian army soon found itself
in a desperate position. A series of bitter fights ensued, at some of
which the Kaiser himself was present. The Russians were driven steadily
back for a week, but the German stories of their tremendous losses are
obviously unfounded They retreated steadily until February 20th,
fighting courageously, and by that date the Germans began to find
themselves exhausted.
Russian reinforcements came up, and a counter-attack was begun. The
German aim had evidently been to reach Grodno and cut the main line from
Warsaw to Petrograd, which passes through that city. They had now
reached Suwalki, a little north of Grodno, but were unable to advance
further, though the Warsaw-Petrograd railway was barely ten miles away.
The southern portion of von Hindenburg's army was moving against the
railway further west, in the direction of Ossowietz. But Ossowietz put
up a determined resistance, and the attack was unsuccessful. By the
beginning of March, von Hindenburg ordered a gradual retreat to the East
Prussian frontier.
While this movement to drive the Russians from East Prussia was under
way, von Hindenburg had also launched an attack against the Russian army
on the Narev. If he could force the lower Narev from that point, too, he
could cut the railroad running east from the Polish capital. He had
hoped that the attacks just described further east would distract the
Russian attention so that he would find the Narev ill guarded. The
advance began on February 22d, and after numerous battles captured
Przasnysz, and found itself with only one division to oppose its
progress to the railroad. On the 23d this force was attacked by the
German right, but resisted with the utmost courage. It held out for more
than thirty-six hours, until, on the evening of the 24th, Russian
reinforcements began to come up, and drove the invaders north through
Przasnysz in retreat.
It was an extraordinary fight. The Russians were unable to supply all
their troops with munitions and arms. At Przasnysz men fought without
rifles, armed only with a bayonet. All they could do was to charge with
cold steel, and they did it so desperately that, though they were
outnumbered, they drove the Germans before them. By all the laws of war
the Russians should have been defeated with ease. As it was, the German
attempt to capture Warsaw by a flank movement was defeated. While the
struggle was going on in the north, the Austrian armies in Galicia were
also moving, Russia was still holding the three great passes in the
Carpathian Mountains, but had not been able to begin an offensive in
Hungary.
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