er.
The important railroad center at Kovel was taken on August 24, 1915,
and immediately the combined German and Austrian forces swung around
toward the north along both sides of the road leading to Kobryn, east
of the fortress and on the railroad to Pinsk. In the meantime heavy
artillery had been brought up and began the bombardment of the
fortress. During the night of August 25, 1915, the storming of the
forts began. Austrian troops under General von Arz took the three
forts on the western front, while a Brandenburg Reserve Corps attacked
from the northwest and penetrated into the central forts. The Russians
then evacuated the fortress. Its fall immediately imperiled the entire
Russian positions and resulted in a general retreat of all Russian
forces. The question for them now was no longer how long they were
able to delay the enemy, but how much they could save out of the
wreck. On the same day that saw the fall of Brest-Litovsk the Russians
lost Bialystok, and on the next day, August 16, 1915, they evacuated
the fortress of Olita on the Niemen, about halfway between Kovno and
Grodno; the latter, the last of Russia's proud string of western
fortresses of the first line, of course was now not only seriously
threatened but had become practically untenable.

In a way the victory at Brest-Litovsk was an empty one, for the Russians
apparently had decided that the fortress would become untenable before
long and had withdrawn from it in good time not only practically the
entire garrison but also whatever supplies or equipment they could
possibly transport, destroying most of what they were forced to leave
behind and blowing up many of the fortifications. The strategical value
of the victory was, of course, not influenced by this action. After the
fall of the fortress the combined forces of the Germans and Austrians
did not rest on their laurels. Without wasting any time they immediately
took up in all directions the pursuit of the retreating Russians. For a
short time the retreating Russian troops made a determined stand in the
neighborhood of Kamienietz-Litovsk, northeast of Brest-Litovsk, but
could not withstand the German pressure for long. A great deal of very
heavy and bloody fighting took place in this period, August 25 to August
31, 1915, in the dense forest south of Bialystok and east of Bielsk,
sometimes known as the Forest of Bialystok and sometimes as the Forest
of Bielovies, a little town at the end of a short b