end, in the vicinity of Riga. On August 30, 1915, parts of
Von Hindenburg's northern group, under General von Beseler, reached
positions south of Friedrichstadt on the Dvina. Other troops under
General von Eichhorn advanced to the northeast of Olita in the
direction of Vilna, while still other forces farther south stormed the
city of Lipsk, less than twenty miles west of Grodno, after having
forced a crossing over the Vidra River, a tributary of the Sukelka.
The fighting around Friedrichstadt continued throughout the last days
of August, 1915. To the south of the Niemen the advance against the
Grodno-Vilna railway continued without cessation. Whatever troops were
not engaged in pursuing the retreating Russian forces were now being
concentrated on the approaching attack against the last Russian
fortress in Poland--Grodno. To the south of it, by August 31, 1915,
they had reached Kuznitsa, on the Bialystok-Grodno railway. The
investment of Grodno may be said to have begun with that day. It was
then that the first reports came that heavy artillery had been brought
up by the Germans and was throwing its devastating shells into the
fortress from the western front. Little hope was left to the Russians
for a successful resistance. For whenever these heavy guns had been
brought into play before, they had blasted their way to the desired
goal, no matter how strong or modern had been the defenses of steel
and cement.

For the withdrawal of the Russians from Grodno there were available
two railroads, one running north to Vilna and another running at first
southeast to Mosty, and there dividing into two branches by both of
which finally in a roundabout way either Minsk or Kieff could be
reached. The Germans, of course, were eager to cut off these lines of
retreat. The latter road was threatened by the forces approaching
Grodno from the south. Before they reached it, however, troops from
Von Hindenburg's group on September 1, 1915, cut the Grodno-Vilna
railroad at Czarnoko. On the same day some of the western outer forts
of Grodno fell, Fort No. 4 being stormed by North German Landwehr
regiments and Fort No. 4a by other troops from Baden. In both cases
the Russians resisted valiantly, with numerically so inferior
garrisons that the Germans could report the capture of only 650
Russians. After the fall of these two fortified works the balance of
the advanced western forts of Grodno were evacuated by the Russians.
This, indeed, was th