of fighting men: the inexorable laws of geometry demanded it.
The enemy was at Krempna; as the crow flies the distance from Krempna
to the northern debouchment of Lupkow is eighty miles; yet Lupkow was
threatened, for the "line" or "front" is pierced--the vital artery of
the defense is severed. The strength of a chain is precisely that of
its weakest link.

[Illustration: Galician Campaign from Tarnow to Przemysl.]

The course of events become complex; fighting, advancing and
retreating occurred over a widespread area. Apparently disconnected
movements by the Austro-Germans or the Russians fall into their proper
places in accordance with the general scheme or objective either side
may have in view. It is necessary to follow the scattered operations
separately. We will therefore return now to the Tarnow-Tucho sector,
where we left a small Russian force holding the last remnant of the
Dunajec-Biala front. Tarnow had been the supply base for that front,
and great stores of provisions and munitions still remained in the
town. These the Russians succeeded in removing entirely. The main
forces had already withdrawn in perfect order and fallen back beyond
the Wisloka. During the night of May 4-5, 1915, two regiments of the
Ninth Austro-Hungarian Army Corps crossed the Biala near Tuchow and
moved northward in the direction of the road leading from Tarnow to
Pilzno, along which the remainder of the garrison would have to pass
in order to retreat. On the hills west of Pilzno the Russians still
held a position to protect that road. By the morning of the sixth
everything had gone eastward, and the Austrians had surrounded the
town.

The small cavalry detachment that had been left behind as rear guard
cut through the Austrian lines and rejoined the main forces on the
Wisloka. The Austrians had been bombarding Tarnow for months with
their heaviest artillery, destroying parts of the cathedral and the
famous old town hall in the process.

On May 7 the Russians withdrew from the Pilzno district, and the
Dunajec-Biala Russian front had ceased to exist. From the hour that
the Austro-Germans had broken through the line at Ciezkovice, on May
2, 1915, the Russian retreat on the Wisloka had begun. Yielding to the
terrible pressure the line had increasingly lost its shape as the
various component parts fell back, though it gradually resumed the
form of a front on the Wisloka banks, where most determined fighting
continued for five days.