line at some point unobserved or unoccupied,
because it apparently was impossible for occupation on account of the
nature of the ground, was as much talked about as only a victory in a
real engagement would have been two or three months ago. In a way,
both the Russian and German and Austro-Hungarian armies had a much
more severe time of it on the east front than the German and
Franco-English forces had at the west front. First of all, the latter
was located in much more civilized regions, cleaner, therefore, and
healthier. Then, too, the nature of the ground in the west was less
hard on the fighters, higher in most places, and, therefore, drier.
Furthermore, the western line was practically an unbroken line from
the English Channel down to the Swiss border. In the east, however,
marshes, lakes, and rivers made an unbroken line impossible. All along
the front there were innumerable gaps. Of course many of these were
gaps because no human being could find a foothold on them, and,
therefore, needed no watching. Others, however, while impossible for
occupation, were not equally impossible for passage, provided those
that attempted to pass were willing to take great risks. And there was
no lack of such on either side. So Russians, Germans, and
Austro-Hungarians had to be continuously on the jump to prevent such
raids of their lines which, though they might have been very small in
the beginning, might have had very serious consequences. These
conditions, therefore, made war on the east front for everybody
concerned truly a war of attrition, equally racking for nerves and
bodies.

Only one other event of importance occurred on the east front during
the winter of 1915-16. General Russky, commanding the Russian forces
fighting before Riga and Dvinsk and in the Dvina-Vilia sector, was
forced by illness to retire from his command. He was succeeded by
General Everth, who up to then had commanded the next adjoining army
group, from the Vilia down to the Pripet Marshes, and who now assumed
command over all the Russian forces from the Gulf of Riga to the
Pripet Marshes. Farther down the line General Ivanoff continued the
leadership that he had assumed after the German advance had come to a
standstill at the end of October.

Thus the winter passed. As we have learned in some of the preceding
chapters, operations were resumed in a small way at certain points
along the line from time to time. With the approach of the spring of
1916 th