1915, the German forces advanced
again and threw the Russians along almost the entire line again beyond
the Sereth. Farther south on that river, near its junction with the
Dniester, Austrian regiments under General Benigni and Prince
Schoenburg stormed on the same day the Russian positions northwest of
Szuparka, capturing over 4,000 Russians.

While Von Mackensen's army was pushing its advance toward Pinsk, the
principal city in the Pripet Marsh region, along both sides of the
only railroad leading to it--the Brest-Litovsk-Kobryn-Pinsk-Gowel
railroad line--heavy fighting continued in Volhynia and East Galicia.
West of Kovno the Russians were thrown back of the Stubiel River on
September 9, 1915, by the Austrians. General von Bothmer's German
army, which formed the center of the forces in Volhynia and Galicia,
advanced from Zaloshe on the Sereth toward Zbaraz, a few miles
northeast of Tarnopol. Before the latter town, which the Russians
seemed to be determined to hold at any cost, new reenforcements had
appeared and opposed the advance of the Austro-German forces with the
utmost fierceness. In that sector they passed from the defensive to
the offensive, and with superior forces threw back the enemy again
from the Sereth to the heights on the east bank of the Strypa on
September 10, 1915. But with these heights at their back the German
line held and all Russian attacks broke down.

In spite of this they were renewed on September 11, 1915, with such
strength that small detachments succeeded in gaining a temporary
foothold in the enemy's trenches, where the bloodiest kind of
hand-to-hand fighting occurred. At that moment General von Bothmer
ordered an attack on both flanks of the Russians, who thereby were
forced to give up the advantage which they had so dearly bought.
However, this did not make the Russians lose heart. Again and again
they came on, and so fierce were their onslaughts that the
Austro-German line was finally withdrawn to the west bank of the
Strypa on September 13, 1915. To the north, along the Ikwa from Dubno
to the border, reenforcements were also brought up by the Russians and
succeeded in holding up any further advance on the part of the
Austrian troops. Especially hard fighting took place in the
neighborhood of Novo Alexinez, a little village just across the border
in Volhynia.

On September 15, 1915, Von Mackensen took Pinsk after having driven
the Russians out of practically all the territory be