though the Austrians held their junction at Zboro,
eight miles north of Bartfeld. Of the actual fighting that took
place in this region very few details were published by the Russian
official communique. One of these documents, dated April 18, 1915,
announced that on March 23, "our troops had already begun their
principal attack in the direction of Baligrod, enveloping the enemy
positions from the west of the Lupkow Pass and on the east near the
sources of the San. The enemy opposed the most desperate resistance
to the offensive of our troops. They had brought up every available
man on the front from the direction of Bartfeld as far as the Uzsok
Pass, including even German troops and numerous cavalrymen fighting
on foot. The effectives on this front exceeded 300 battalions.
Moreover, our troops had to overcome great natural difficulties at
every step. In the course of the day, March 23, 1915, we captured
more than 4,000 prisoners, a gun, and several dozen machine guns."

On March 24, 1915, the battle was in full progress: "Especially
severe is the fighting for the crest of the mountain south of Jasliska
and to the west of the Lupkow Pass. The forests which cover these
mountains offer special facilities for the construction of strong
fortifications." March 25: "The woods in the Lupkow region are
a perfect entanglement of barbed wire... surrounded by several
layers of trenches, strengthened by deep ditches and palisades. On
this day our troops carried by assault a very important Austrian
position on the great crest of the Beskid Mountains." The Russian
captures for the day amounted to 100 officers, 5,600 men, and a
number of machine guns. Advancing from Jasliska the Russians seriously
threatened the Austro-German position in the Laborcza Valley, to
which strong reenforcements were sent on March 25. With terrific
violence the battle raged till far into the night of the 27th, the
Russians forcing their way to within seven miles of the Hungarian
frontier.

In eight days they had taken nearly 10,000 prisoners. By the night
of March 28, 1915, the entire line of sixty miles from Dukla to
Uzsok was ablaze--the storm was spreading eastward. Like huge ant
hills the mountains swarmed with gray and bluish specks--each a human
being--some to the waist in snow, stabbing and hacking at each other
ferociously with bayonet, sword, or lance, others pouring deadly fire
from rifle, revolver, machine gun, and heavy artillery. Over rocks