15. And the
line of positions which had been reached by the German forces was
maintained throughout the rest of the fall and the entire winter,
excepting a few minor changes. In a rough way, that front extended as
follows: Starting south of the junction of the Beresina with the
Niemen, it followed the course of the latter river through the town of
Labicha for about thirty miles in a southeasterly direction, then bent
slightly to the southwest at Korelitchy, passing to the west of
Tzirin, crossed the Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railway about halfway between
Baranovitchy and Snoff and about ten miles farther south the
Vilna-Kovno railway between Luchouitchy and Nieazvied, at which town
it again bent to the southwest, along the Shara River, passing east of
Lipsk, and then along the entire length of the Oginski Canal to its
junction with the Jasiolda, northwest of Pinsk. Along this line both
the Russians and Germans dug themselves in, and throughout the winter
a bitter trench warfare netted occasionally a few lines of trenches
to the Russians and at other times had the same results for the other
side, without, however, materially changing the position of either.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE STRUGGLE IN EAST GALICIA AND VOLHYNIA AND THE CAPTURE OF PINSK

The fall of Ivangorod and Warsaw was the signal for advance for which
the southern group under Von Mackensen had been waiting. General von
Woyrsch's forces pressed on between Garvolin and Ryki, northeast of
Ivangorod. Other forces threw the Russians back beyond the Vieprz and
gradually approached the line of the Bug River. Still farther south,
on the Dniester, Austrian troops, too, forced back the Russians step
by step. On August 11, 1915, Von Mackensen's troops attacked the
Russians, who were making a stand behind the Bystrzyka and the
Tysmienika. This hastened the Russian retreat to the east of the Bug.

Throughout the following days the story of the Russian retreat and the
German-Austrian advance changed little in its essential features. As
fast as roads permitted and as quickly as obstacles in their way could
be overcome, the forces of the Central Powers advanced. With equal
determination the Russian troops availed themselves of every possible,
and quite a few seemingly impossible, opportunities to delay this
advance. Every creek was made an excuse for making a stand, every
forest became a means of stalling the enemy, every railroad or country
road embankment had to yield its