in
their advanced guards by vigorous attacks which caused the whole
force to halt and begin deployment for an engagement.

This occurred on May 15, 1915. On the same day, with all his available
strength, he swung furiously with Opatow as an axis from both north
and south, catching in bayonet charge the Twenty-fifth Division on
the road between Lagow and Opatow. Simultaneously another portion
of his command swept up on the Fourth Division coming from Ivaniska
to Opatow. "In the meantime a strong force of Cossacks had ridden
round the Austrians and actually hit their line of communications
at the exact time that the infantry fell on the main column with a
bayonet charge, delivered with an impetuosity and fury that simply
crumpled up the entire Austrian formation. The Fourth Division was
meeting a similar fate farther south, and the two were thrown together
in a helpless mass, losing between 3,000 and 4,000 casualties and
nearly 3,000 in prisoners, besides a large number of machine guns
and the bulk of their baggage. The remainder, supported by the
Forty-first Honved Division, which had been hurried up, managed
to squeeze themselves out of their predicament by falling back on
Uszachow, and the whole retired to Lagow, beyond which the Russians
were not permitted to pursue them, lest they should break the symmetry
of their own line." It is admitted by the Austrians themselves
that their losses were very severe in this battle. An Austrian
source at the time stated that on May 16, 1915, not a single officer
and only twenty-six men were left of the entire Fourth Company,
First Battalion of the Tenth Austrian Infantry Regiment. By the
17th of May the Austrians had withdrawn more than twelve miles
from the scene of the disaster.

During the following night, May 25, 1915, an Austrian division
was moving from the line of advance of General Bredow's troops
along the Lagow-Opatow road where it is separated by a spur of
the Lysa Gora, the highest mountain group in Russian Poland. The
Russians, elated over their recent victory, crossed the mountains by
a forced march, and fell on the right flank of the German formation,
while other troops opened a general frontal attack against it.
Bredow was compelled to fall back in haste in the direction of
Bodzentyn and to call for assistance from the adjoining Fourth
German Landwehr Division. The sudden withdrawal of that division
had the effect of weakening the German line southwest of Radom