the north of Lubienia. Next to it, coming from the direction of
Kielce, was the German Division of General Bredow, supported by the
Eighty-fourth Austrian Regiment. This body was advancing against
Ostroviec, the terminus of a railway which runs from the district of
Lodz to the southeast by Tomaszow and Opoczno, and crosses the
Ivangorod-Olkusz line halfway between Kielce and Radom. Farther to the
south three Austro-Hungarian divisions were also advancing--namely,
the Twenty-fifth Austrian Division against Lagow, and the Fourth
Austrian Landwehr Division, supported by the Forty-first Honved
Division, against Ivaniska; they moved along roads converging on
Opatow. The Twenty-fifth Austrian Division, commanded by the Archduke
Peter Ferdinand, was composed of crack regiments, the Fourth Hoch and
Deutschmeisters of Vienna, and the Twenty-fifth, Seventeenth, and
Tenth Jaeger battalions. The Russians were outnumbered about 40 per
cent. The supposedly demoralized Russians were not expected to give
any battle short of their fortified line, to which they were thought
to be retiring in hot haste. The Russian general selected the
Austrians on whom to spring his first surprise, but commenced by
making a feint against the German corps, driving in their advanced
guards by vigorous attacks which caused the whole force to halt and
begin deployment for an engagement.

This occurred on May 15, 1915. On the same day, with all his available
strength, he swung furiously with Opatow as an axis from both north
and south, catching in bayonet charge the Twenty-fifth Division on the
road between Lagow and Opatow. Simultaneously another portion of his
command swept up on the Fourth Division coming from Ivaniska to
Opatow. "In the meantime a strong force of Cossacks had ridden round
the Austrians and actually hit their line of communications at the
exact time that the infantry fell on the main column with a bayonet
charge, delivered with an impetuosity and fury that simply crumpled up
the entire Austrian formation. The Fourth Division was meeting a
similar fate farther south, and the two were thrown together in a
helpless mass, losing between 3,000 and 4,000 casualties and nearly
3,000 in prisoners, besides a large number of machine guns and the
bulk of their baggage. The remainder, supported by the Forty-first
Honved Division, which had been hurried up, managed to squeeze
themselves out of their predicament by falling back on Uszachow, and
the wh