change of position. Mr.
Stanley Washburn thus summarizes the results of these retreating
battles:

"Regarding the movement as a whole, suffice it to say that in the
two weeks following the change of line one (Russian) army inflicted
upon the enemy a loss of nearly 30,000 in killed, wounded, and
prisoners. The Russian losses were comparatively trifling." The
Austro-German forces were following up leisurely the retreating
Russian corps, not expecting any serious fighting to occur until
the lines behind the Kamienna were reached.

Instead of that, however, on May 15, 1915, the Russian commander
suddenly halted the main body of his troops in front of his fortified
positions on a line extending from Brody by Opatow toward Klimontow.
Between May 15-17, 1915, a battle developed on this front, which
is the more notable as it is one of the few in this war fought in
the open without trenches. To quote Mr. Washburn: "In any other
war it would have been called a good-sized action, as from first
to last more than 100,000 men and perhaps 350 to 400 guns were
engaged."

The Austro-Germans came on in four groups. The Third German Landwehr
was moving from the southwest by Wierzbnik against Ilza, slightly
to 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