the communications in their reach.

The Germans prided themselves a good deal on the marching of their
troops in this swift advance. They pointed out that the roads were
in extremely bad condition, the bridges for the most destroyed, and
the population to a large extent hostile. A military correspondent
figured that for a daily march of fifty kilometers, such as was
frequently made in Courland, 62,000 steps of an average of eighty
centimeters were required. This for a day's march of from nine to
ten hours gives an average of five to six kilometers per hour,
some 6,000 to 7,000 steps. That makes in the neighborhood of 100
steps per minute, which the correspondent regarded as a considerable
accomplishment when allowance is made for the fact that this was
kept up hour after hour in full marching equipment.

The column coming from Memel, directed along the Baltic shores,
had been steadily moving on Libau. In preparation for the land
attack German naval vessels on the 29th of April had bombarded the
forts defending the town. On the 6th of May the Russians themselves
blew up one of the forts on the eastern front. The shore batteries
were soon after silenced by German fire. The German troops advancing
from the land side took the forts on the south almost without
opposition. Russian troops which had been unloaded at Mitau and
sent forward toward the southwest were unable to come up in time
to offer any obstacles to the German advance, and on the 8th of
May, at six o'clock in the morning, the German soldiers marched
into Libau, where they took about 1,500 prisoners, twelve guns,
and a number of machine guns.

The Germans immediately turned the metal-working plants of the
city to their uses in the manufacture of chains, barbed wire, etc.
They also found here a large supply of tools for intrenching work.
Most of the Russians of the city had fled. One motive for the German
advance into Courland advanced by their enemies was that it was an
attempt to include a rich section of country in foraging operations,
and it is a fact that the German authorities gave expression to their
satisfaction at seizing a region that was of considerable economic
value. It is apparent, however, in regarding these operations in
the retrospect that they had no small bearing on the German plan
of campaign as a whole. It was at the time that the inroad into
Courland was started that the signal was about to be given for
the great onslaught far to the sou