in this sector practically went on without
intermission from the beginning of November, 1914, to the end of
February, 1915, comparatively small forces were involved on both sides.
This, of course, excluded any possibility of a decisive result on either
side, and we can therefore dismiss this end of the campaign with the
statement that, although the Germans north of the Vistula were more
successful in keeping the Russians off German soil than the Russians
were in keeping the Germans out of Poland, the latter did not make here
any appreciable headway in the direction of Warsaw, and accomplished no
more than to keep a goodly number of Russian regiments tied up in the
protection of Novo Georgievsk and the northern approach to Warsaw
instead of permitting them to participate in the repulse of the main
attack against the Polish capital, where they would have been very
useful indeed.

CHAPTER LXXX

WINTER BATTLES IN EAST PRUSSIA

The most northern part of the eastern front is now the only one left for
our consideration. We have already learned that when the German General
Staff planned its second drive against Warsaw, it had been decided to
restrict the German forces collected in East Prussia south of the Niemen
and east and south of the Mazurian Lakes to defensive measures. At that
time--the beginning of November, 1914--and until about the beginning of
February, 1915, they consisted of two army corps under the command of
General von Buelow, who at the outbreak of the war and for a few years
previous to it had been in command of a division with headquarters at
Insterburg, and who was therefore well qualified for his task through
his intimate knowledge of the territory. About 50 per cent of his forces
belonged to the Landwehr, about 25 per cent to the Landsturm and only
about 25 per cent were of the first line. These faced a numerically very
superior force variously estimated at five to seven army corps. The
Germans therefore found it necessary to equalize this overpowering
difference by withdrawing behind a strong natural line of defense. This
they found once more behind the greater Mazurian Lakes to the south and
behind the River Angerapp which flows out of the lakes at Angerburg to
the north until it joins the river Pissa slightly to the east of
Insterburg.

[Illustration: The town of Gerdauen, East Prussia was burned during the
Russian invasion, when for a time East Prussia suffered like Belgium and
Poland.]