irection of the strongly fortified town of Lutsk,
on the Styr River, less than fifty miles west of the fortress of
Rovno, in the Russian province of Volhynia. This fortress, together
with Dubno, farther south on the Ikwa, a tributary of the Styr, and
with Rovno itself formed a very powerful triangle of permanent
fortifications erected by Russia in very recent times. The purpose for
which they had been intended undoubtedly was twofold; first, to offer
an obstacle to any invasion of that section of the Russian Empire on
the part of Austro-Hungarian troops with Lemberg as a base, and
secondly, to act as a base for a possible Russian attack on Galicia.

In view of these facts, it was surprising that on August 31, 1915,
only three days after the resumption of actual fighting in Eastern
Galicia, the fall of Lutsk was announced. The very form of the
official Austrian announcement rather indicates that the Russians must
have evacuated Lutsk of their own accord, possibly after dismounting
and either withdrawing or destroying its guns. For the report states
that only one--the Fifty-fourth Infantry--regiment drove the Russians
by means of bayonet attacks out of their first-line trenches and then
followed them right into Lutsk. This, of course, could not have been
accomplished so quickly unless the Russians had already withdrawn at
that point as well as everywhere else. At the same time their line was
also pierced at Baldi and Kamuniec, which forced their withdrawal from
the entire western bank of the Styr. German troops, fighting under
General von Bothmer in cooperation with the Austro-Hungarian army of
General Boehm-Ermolli, on the same day (August 31, 1915) stormed a
series of heights on the banks of the Strypa, north of Zboroff,
although they encountered there the most determined resistance on the
part of the Russian forces.

The immense losses in men, guns, and materials which the Russians
suffered throughout the month of August, 1915, in spite of their
genius for withdrawing huge bodies of men at the right moment, will be
seen from the following official statement published on September 1,
1915, by General Headquarters of the German armies. These figures do
not include the losses suffered by the Russian armies which in
Eastern Galicia were fighting against Austro-Hungarian troops.

"During the month of August the number of prisoners taken by German
troops in the eastern and southeastern theatres of war, and the
quantities