ter of this army, at the capture of Eydtkuhnen, Wirballen,
and Kibarty, took 10,000 prisoners, six cannon, eight machine guns,
numerous baggage wagons, including eighty field kitchens, three
military trains and other rolling stock, a large number of gift
packages intended for the Russian troops, and, of chief interest
to the fighting men, a whole day's provisions.

On the afternoon of February 10 some one and a half Russian divisions
had come to a halt in these three neighboring villages: Eydtkuhnen,
Kibarty, and Wirballen. Although it was known that the Germans
were approaching, it was apparently regarded by the Russians as
impossible that pursuers would be able to come up with them in
the raging snowstorm. So certain were they of their security that
no outposts were put on guard. Only thus could it happen that the
Germans, who had not allowed the forces of nature to stop their
advance, arrived right at the Russian position on the same day,
though with infantry alone and merely a few guns, everything else
having been left behind, stuck in the snowdrifts.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE RUSSIANS OUT OF GERMANY

It was evening when the Germans made their surprise attack on Eydtkuhnen
and midnight when they fell upon Wirballen. On the roadway stood two
Russian batteries with twelve guns and a considerable number of
ammunition wagons. The German infantry approached without firing
a shot until they were within fifty yards. Then all the horses
were shot down and the guns and ammunition seized. The men of the
battery fled. In both these towns there was street fighting in
the night, lit up by burning houses which had been fired by the
Russians in their retreat.

One of the captured trains was the hospital train of the czar.
This was utilized as headquarters for the night by the staff of
General von Lauenstein.

By the 12th of February, 1915, the German troops of the left wing,
sweeping down from the north and pressing the Russians back from
village to village, were entirely on Russian soil. Wizwiny, Kalwarja,
and Mariampol were occupied on this day. The number of guns taken by
these troops had been increased by seventeen, according to German
reports. The German Headquarters Staff declared that by this time
the Russian Seventy-third and Fifty-sixth Divisions had been as good
as annihilated, and the Twenty-seventh division nearly destroyed.
The Russians lying before the Angerapp line an