u railroad
(which runs through the valley via Czernovice and Kolomea) with
the Russians only twenty miles north of the line. If that position
could be taken the Austrians would have the South Russian line of
communications in their hands, for it was along this line that
supplies and reenforcements were being transported to Ivanoff's front
on the Wisloka from the military centers at Kiev and Sebastopol.
Thus the railway was of tremendous importance to both belligerents.
What it meant to the Austrians has been stated; to the Russians its
possession offered the only opportunity for a counteroffensive in
the east that could possibly affect the course of the main operations
on the Wisloka, San, and later the Przemysl lines. But however
successful such a counteroffensive might prove, it could not have
exerted any immediate influence on the western front. With the
Transylvania Carpathians protecting the Austro-German eastern flank,
there would still be little hope of checking the enemy's advance on
Lemberg even if Lechitsky succeeded in reconquering the whole of
the Bukowina and that part of eastern Galicia south of the Dniester.
Every strategic consideration, therefore, pointed to the Dniester
line as the key to the situation for the Austrian side, and Von
Pflanzer-Baltin decided to stake all on the attempt.

[Illustration: GALICIAN CAMPAIGN FROM PRZEMYSL TO BESSARABIA]

On May, 6, 1915, the machine was set in motion by a violent bombardment.
By the 8th the Austrians captured the bridgehead of Zaleszczyki;
on the 9th the Russians drove them out again, capturing 500 men,
3 big guns, 1 field gun, and a number of machine guns. On May 10
the Russians took the initiative and attacked a front of about
forty miles, along the entire Dniester line from west of Niczviska
to Uscie Biskupic, crossed into the Bukowina and advanced to within
five miles of Czernowitz from the east. A little stream and a village
both named Onut are situated southwest of Uscie Biskupic. Here a
detachment of Don Cossacks distinguished themselves on May 10,
1915. Advancing toward the Austrian wire entanglements in face of
a terrific fusilade, they cut a passage through in front of the
Austrian's fortified positions. Before the latter realized what was
happening the Cossacks were on top of them, and in a few minutes a
ferocious bayonet struggle had cleared out three lines of trenches.
Russian cavalry poured in after them, hacking the Austrian's rear,
and comp