e to surrender or fight their way through
the lines across their path in the north. At the same time they would
have Von Bojna and Boehm-Ermolli on their tracks. To make matters
worse, they were also being pressed severely from the Hungarian plains
by the troops which hitherto stood inactive. The Second
Austro-Hungarian Army (Boehm-Ermolli) was fighting on both sides of
the range. Through Rostoki they attempted to separate the Russians
around Zboro from those situated farther east at Nagy Polena. We have
stated elsewhere that the Forty-eighth Division was severely handled.
They were surrounded in the Dukla by an overwhelming superior force,
but General Korniloff, the commander, with a desperate effort and no
little skill, succeeded in hacking his way through the enemy's lines
and bringing a large portion of his force safely out of the trap. Inch
by inch the Russian rear guards retreated, fighting tooth and nail to
hold the pass while their comrades escaped. No less brave were the
repeated charges made by the Austrians--clambering over rocks, around
narrow pathways hanging high in the air, dizzy precipices and mountain
torrents underneath. On Varentyzow Mountain, especially, a fierce
hand-to-hand battle was fought between Hungarians and Cossacks, the
latter finally withdrawing in perfect order. To conduct a successful
retreat in the face of disaster is a no less difficult military
achievement than the gaining of a decisive victory, and Brussilov's
retreat from the passes deserves to rank as a masterly example of
skillful tactics.

On May 8, 1915, the Third Russian Army and the Forty-eighth Division
had reunited with Brussilov's main army in the neighborhood of Sanok,
twenty miles north of the Lupkow. When the commanders of a retreating
army lose their heads the rank and file will inevitably become
demoralized and panic-stricken. The retreat became a rout, and the
possibility of making a stand, and to some extent retrieving the lost
fortune of war, was extremely remote. A deeper motive than the mere
reconquering of Galicia lay behind Von Mackensen's plan--he aimed at
nothing less than the complete overthrow and destruction of the
Russian armies. It was a gigantic effort of the Germanic powers to
eliminate at least one of their most dangerous enemies. Once that was
accomplished it would release some millions of troops whose services
were needed in the western theatre of war. The original plan had
fallen through of crushin