and the
junction of Ortelsberg, a third coming in from the north-east and
Eylau.

[Illustration: Sketch 73.]

From Eylau, through Osterode, the main international line runs
through Allenstein, and so on eastward, while a branch from this goes
through Passenheim to the junction at Ortelsberg.

Here, then, you have a quadrilateral of railways about fifty miles in
length. Within that quadrilateral is extremely bad country--lakes,
marshes, and swamps--and the only good roads within it are those
marked in single lines upon my sketch--the road from Allenstein
through Hohenstein to Niedenberg, and the road from Niedenberg to
Passenheim. As one goes eastwards on that road from Niedenberg to
Passenheim, in the triangle Niedenberg-Passenheim-Ortelsberg, the
country gets worse and worse, and is a perfect labyrinth of marsh,
wood, and swamp. The development of the action in such a ground was as
follows:--

The Russian commander, Samsonoff, with his army running from
Allenstein southwards, was facing towards the west. He had with him
perhaps 200,000 men, perhaps a trifle less. His reconnaissance was
faulty, partly because the aeroplanes could discover little in that
wooded country, partly because the Staff work was imperfect, and his
Intelligence Department not well informed by his cavalry patrols. He
thought he had against him to the west only weak forces. As a fact,
the Germans were sending against him what they themselves admit to be
150,000 men, and what were quite possibly nearer 200,000, for they had
drawn largely upon the troops within Germany. They had brought round
by sea many of the troops shut up in Koenigsberg, and they had brought
up the garrisons upon the Vistula. Further, they possessed, drawn from
these garrisons, a great superiority in that arm which throughout all
the earlier part of the great war was the German stand-by--heavy
artillery, and big howitzers capable of use in the field.

On Wednesday, 26th August, Samsonoff first discovered that he had a
formidable force in front of him.

It was under the command of von Hindenburg, a man who had studied this
district very thoroughly, and who, apart from his advantage in heavy
artillery, knew that difficult country infinitely better than his
opponents. During the Wednesday, the 26th, Hindenburg stood upon the
defensive, Samsonoff attacking him upon the line Allenstein-Soldau. At
the end of that defensive, the attack on which was badly hampered in
so difficul