over, and the initial aim
of the Germanic offensive has been attained. The Russian line was
pierced and its defense shattered. Von Mackensen's "Phalanx" was
advancing two mighty tentacles guided by a master mind, remorselessly
probing for the enemy's strongest points. Its formation comprised,
in the northeastern tentacle, the Sixth Austro-Hungarian Army Corps
and the Prussian Guards; in the southern, the Bavarians under Von
Emmich and the Tenth Austro-Hungarian Army Corps under General
Martiny.

On May 3, 1915, Dmitrieff's troops were falling back farther every
hour, continuously fighting rear-guard actions and compelling the
pursuers to conquer every foot of ground. There was a powerful reason
for this stubborn retirement: it was to gain time for Brussilov
to get his men out of their perilous positions and to join the
main line again with Dmitrieff's receding ranks. If this could
be effected, the fatal gap between them--made by Von Mackensen's
battering-ram--would be repaired, and they could once more present
a united front to the enemy. It was mentioned a little farther
back that the Austrians had pierced the Dunajec line at Otfinow,
north of Tarnow, by which was cut in two the hitherto unbroken
Russian battle front, from the Baltic to the Rumanian frontier
(900 miles); the "scissors" at Gorlice had made it three; if
Boehm-Ermolli's drive from the Uzsok upward along the "triangle
line" to Jaroslav succeeds, there will be four separate pieces
of Russian front. But from Tarnow southward to Tuchow, a small
twenty-mile salient on the Biala, the Russians are still in possession
on May 4, 1915, defying the Fourth Austro-Hungarian Army.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXIX

RUSSIAN RETREAT

It is a matter for speculation whether the numerous successes achieved
by the Russians against the Austrians and Germans in Galicia and the
Carpathians during the first seven months of the war had begotten
a spirit of overconfidence among the Russian commanders, or whether
it was not in their power to have made more effective preparations
than they had done. We have seen that Dmitrieff had not provided
himself with those necessary safety exits which were now so badly
needed. As no artificially prepared defenses were at hand, natural
ones had to be found. The first defense was irretrievably lost;
the second line was a vague, undefined terrain extending across
the hills between Biala in the west and the River W