carried it beyond the Dubissa, and after heavy fighting
finally secured for the Germans the Windawski Canal, which they
had had to relinquish before. Their troops now slowly pushed their
way back toward Shavli until the city came within reach of their
heavy guns, and took Kuze, twelve kilometers to the northwest of
Shavli on the railway. On the 14th of June, 1915, this series of
operations came to a temporary halt. German official reports pointed
to the fact that among 14,000 prisoners which they had taken there
were only a few officers, and that with these not a single cannon
was captured. They regarded it as showing that the Russians were
getting very cautious in the use of their artillery and were short
of officers.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIII

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE FROM KOVNO--FOREST BATTLES IN MAY AND JUNE

Offensives on a large scale such as that which had been prevented
by the "Winter Battle of the Mazurian Lakes" were not attempted by
the Russians on their northern wing after the short counterattack
that had pushed their lines into the Mlawa angle in the corner of
the Vistula and the Prussian boundary beyond Przasnysz, to the
east of Thorn. They virtually remained in their strongly fortified
positions along the Narew, the Bobr, and the Niemen, except for
the sending out of occasional attacking columns against the German
lines lying opposite to them.

These forward thrusts were made especially from the fortresses
Grodno and Kovno, and the fortified place Olita. We have already
dealt with one such operation which came to grief in the forest
of Augustowo in March. The German invasion of Courland had taken
place, and the extension of the German lines to the north invited
a thrust at their communications when, in the middle of May, the
Russians attempted to break through the German lines with columns
starting from the great forest to the west of Kovno. Here German
troops under General Litzmann, acting under the command of General
von Eichhorn, stood on guard. When Litzmann received information
that the Russians were advancing in force he was obliged hastily
to gather such troops as he could find to stem the Russian attack.
Troop units from a large variety of different organizations were
freshly grouped practically on the battle field. At Szaki and
Gryszkabuda, on May 17-20, they struck the Russians with such force
that the Slavs were driven back into the forests.

The German genera