erattack
at some ten army corps and seven cavalry divisions. The Russians in
advancing this time, instead of directing their thrust at Mlawa,
pushed northeastward of Przasnysz along the rivers Orczy and Omulew.
In this sector the Germans counted from the 13th to the 23d of
March forty-six serious assaults, twenty-five in the daytime and
twenty-one at night. With special fury the battles raged in the
neighborhood of Jednorozez. This attempt to break into Prussia
was also unsuccessful, and in the last week of March the Russian
attacks slackened, quiet ensuing for the weeks following Easter.

For six weeks the armies had struggled back and forth in this bloody
angle, fighting in cold and wet, amid snow and icy rains. The Germans
asserted that in these six weeks the troops of General von Gallwitz
had captured 43,000 Russians and slain some 25,000. They estimated
the total losses of the enemy in this sector during the period
at 100,000. Countless graves scattered about the land, and the
ruins of cities and villages were left to keep awake the memory
of some of the fiercest fighting of the war in the east.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XL

FIGHTING BEFORE THE NIEMEN AND BOBR--BOMBARDMENT OF OSSOWETZ

The winter battles of the Mazurian Lakes had forced the armies at
the northern end of the Russian right flank back into their great
fortresses Kovno and Grodno, and behind the line of the Niemen
and the Bobr. A great forest region lies to the east and north of
Grodno, and between the Niemen and the cities of Augustowo and
Suwalki which the Germans, after their successful offensive, used
as bases for their operations. A strip of country including these
forests, and running parallel to the Niemen was a sort of no-man's
land in the spring of 1915. Movements of troops in the heavily wooded
country were difficult to observe, and the conditions lent themselves
to surprise attacks. This resulted in a warfare of alternate thrusts
by Russians and Germans aimed now at this point, now at that, in
the disputed territory. Several actions during the spring stand out
beyond the rest in importance, both because of the numbers engaged
and their effects. In what follows will be described a typical
offensive movement in this district undertaken by the Russians,
and the way it was met by the Germans.

A new Russian Tenth Army had been organized by the end of February,
1915, with Grodno for its base. General Sievers, hi