ch they had captured in September,
1914, was still in their hands. Sixty miles away to the west there
lay the great fortress of Przemysl, invested by the Russians under
General Selivanoff, and completely cut off from the outer world since
November 12, 1914. At least 150,000 troops and enormous quantities
of stores and munitions were locked up in the town and outlying
forts, together with a population of 50,000 inhabitants, mostly
Polish. In addition to these material advantages, the Russians
held all the Carpathian passes leading from Galicia into the vast
plains of Hungary, and a strong advanced position on the Dunajec
in the west, which, besides threatening Cracow, the capital of
Austrian Poland, served also as a screen to the mountain operations.
Finally, to the far east of the range, they had occupied nearly
the whole of the Bukowina right up to the Rumanian frontier.

Such, briefly, was the situation on the Austro-Russian front when
the second winter campaign opened. For Austria the situation was
extremely critical. Her armies, broken and scattered after a series
of disastrous reverses, could scarcely hope by their own efforts to
stem the threatened invasion of Hungary. General Brussilov, however,
made no serious attempt to pour his troops through the passes into
the plain below; although what was probably a reconnaissance emerged
from the Uzsok Pass and penetrated as far as Munkacs, some thirty
miles south, while on several occasions small bands of Cossacks
descended from the Dukla and Delatyn (Jablonitza) passes to raid
Hungarian villages. General Brussilov evidently regarded it inadvisable
to risk an invasion of the plain, especially as he did not hold
control of the southern exits from the passes, beyond which he
would be exposed to attack from all sides and liable to encounter
superior forces. The main Austrian anxiety for the moment was the
precarious position of Przemysl, to relieve which it was first
essential to dislodge Brussilov or to pierce his line. Again, in
the hour of her extremity, Austria's powerful ally came to the
rescue.

[Illustration: THE CARPATHIAN PASSES AND RUSSIAN BATTLE LINE]

Under the command of the Archduke Eugene the Austrian troops--all
that were available--were formed into three separate armies. For
convenience sake we will designate them A, B, and C. Army A, under
General Boehm-Ermolli, was ordered to the section from the Dukla
Pass to the Uzsog. It was charged with the task o