Another of the small southern tributaries of the Niemen which offered excellent opportunities for resistance of which the Russians promptly availed themselves, was the Zelvianka River, which joins the Niemen just west of Mosty. The fighting which went on there for a few days was almost exclusively in the form of rear-guard actions, and was typical of a great deal of the fighting during the Russian retreat. Whenever the Germans advanced far enough and in large enough numbers to endanger the retreating armies, the latter would speed up as much as possible until they reached one of the many small rivers with which that entire region abounds. There sufficiently large forces to delay the advance, at least for a day or two, would be left behind to use the natural possibilities of defense offered by the waterway to the best possible advantage, while the main body of the army would move on, to repeat this operation at the next opportunity. In most instances these practices held up the German and Austrian advance just exactly in the manner in which it had been designed that it should. Furthermore, the Russians would not give way until they had inflicted the greatest possible losses on their enemies, and in that respect they were frequently quite successful. For first of all many of these rivers have either densely wooded or very swampy banks which lend themselves admirably for defense to as brave a fighting body as the Russian army, and which proved exceedingly treacherous to the attacker; and in the second place the Russians, of course, had the advantage that they were fighting on their own soil, while the Germans were in a strange and often hostile country. In spite of this, however, the German advance, taken all in all, could not be denied, and in practically every one of the cases just described, the final outcome was in a very short time defeat for the Russians and a successful crossing of the watery obstacle by the Germans. This was true also at the banks of the Zelvianka, where the Germans on September 9, 1915, stormed successfully the heights near Pieski, capturing 1,400 Russians. This success was followed up by further gains on the next day, September 10, 1915, that again yielded a few thousand prisoners. A few days later the crossing was forced and the Germans began to attack the Russians behind the next Niemen tributary, the Shara.
Farther to the north especially heavy fighting occurred for a few days around Skidel, a little town just north of the Niemen on the Grodno-Mosty railroad, and it was not until September 11, 1915, that the Germans succeeded in storming it. On the same day German aeroplanes attacked the important railroad junction at Lida on the Kovno-Vilna railway, and also Vileika on the railway running parallel to and east of the Warsaw-Vilna-Dvinsk-Petrograd railroad. In a way this signified the opening of the German offensive against Vilna. Concurrent with it the fighting on the Dvina between Friedrichstadt and Jacobstadt waxed more furious. Farther south the Germans advanced toward Rakishki on the Kupishki-Dvinsk railroad and between that road and the River Vilia they even reached at some points the Vilna-Dvinsk railroad. Without any lull the battle raged now all along the line from the Dvina to Vilna, and from Vilna to the Niemen. South of this river the attack of the Germans was directed against the Russian front behind the Shara River. By September 14, 1915, Von Hindenburg stood before Dvinsk with one part of his army group. The other parts were rapidly pushing in an easterly direction from Olita and Grodno with the object of attacking Vilna from the south, but they encountered determined resistance, especially in the region to the east of Grodno. With undiminished vigor, however, the Germans continued their advance against Dvinsk and Vilna. To the south of the former city they pushed beyond the Vilna-Petrograd railway, taking Vidsky, just north of the Disna River, in the early morning hours of September 16, 1915.
At that time the fall of both Vilna and Dvinsk seemed to be inevitable. On September 18, 1915, the Germans reported continuous progress in their attacks on Dvinsk. On the same day they broke through the Russian front between Vilna and the Niemen in numerous places, capturing over 5,000 men and 16 machine guns. Of railroad lines available to facilitate an eventual Russian retreat from Vilna, the northern route to Petrograd by way of Dvinsk had been in German hands for some days. The southern route by way of Lida to Kovno was imminently threatened at many points. The only other railroad on the eventual line of retreat to the southeast by way of Minsk was likewise threatened both from the south and north. Vilna taken, the Germans immediately bent all their energies to the task of pursuing the retreating Russians.
On September 18, 1915, Vilna fell into the hands of General von Eichhorn's army. With it the Russians lost one of the most important cities of their western provinces. Vilna is one of the oldest Russian towns, its history dating back as far as 1128. It is the capital of a government of the same name. In the Middle Ages it was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but became a Russian possession as a result of the partition of Poland in 1795. Of its population of more than a quarter million almost one-half are Jews. Possessing an ancient Roman Catholic cathedral, it is the seat of a bishop of that church, as well as of a Greek archbishop.
On the same day on which Vilna's fall was reported, part of Von Hindenburg's army, its left wing, was reported at Vornjany, Smorgon, and Molodechno, all places east of Vilna, the last about eighty miles on the Vilna-Minsk railway. In vain did the Russians try to pierce this line, which, by the very nature of the advance, must have been exceedingly thin. It not only held, but managed to force the Russians to continue their retreat, and during this process captured large numbers of them. General von Eichhorn's army, the actual conquerors of Vilna, and Von Hindenburg's center reached Osmiana, thirty miles southeast of Vilna, on September 20, 1915. The right wing, on the same day, had pushed on to the east of Lida and to a point just west of Novogrudok. By September 21, 1915, the crossing of the Gavia River, a northern tributary of the Niemen, was forced north and south of Subolniki, and on September 22, 1915, the Russian front extending from Osmiana to Subolniki and Novogrudok was forced to retreat a one day's march, ten miles, taking new positions on a line: Soli (on the Vilna-Minsk railroad)-Olshany-Traby-Ivie to a point slightly northeast of Novogrudok. A German attempt to outflank the retreating Russians from the north, made on September 23, 1915, at Vileika on the Vilia, about ten miles north of the railway junction at Molodechno, failed. During the next day the Germans again forced back the Russian front eastward for about ten miles, or a one day's march. Along this new front—Smorgon-Krevo-Vishneff-Sabresina-Mikolaieff, just southeast of which latter place the historical Beresina joins the Niemen—the Russians made a firm stand during the rest of September, 1915.
The German advance was stopped, which fact undoubtedly was partly due to the renewed activity of the Franco-English forces on the west front, as well as to the absolute necessity of giving a chance to recuperate to the armies on the east front, which had been fighting now incessantly for months. September 28, 1915, may be considered approximately as the date at which the Battle of Vilna ended. After that date fighting along the eastern front assumed the form of trench warfare, except in the extreme northern section, and in Volhynia, eastern Galicia. In the sector, bounded in the north by the Vilia, and in the south by the Niemen, the Russian front was along a line running through the towns of Smorgon, Krevo, Vishneff, Sabresina, Mikolaieff.
As a result of the Battle of Vilna and the Russian retreat following it the Germans captured 70 officers, about 22,000 men, a large number of cannon and machine guns, and a great quantity of equipment. Along the entire eastern front the German forces captured men and equipment during the month of September, 1915, as follows: 421 officers, 95,464 men, 37 cannon, 298 machine guns, and 1 aeroplane.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XXII
THE CAPTURE OF BREST-LITOVSK
The central group under Prince Leopold had hardly entered Warsaw proper when it continued its advance in an easterly direction toward Brest-Litovsk after having occupied Warsaw's eastern suburb, Praga. At the same time other forces completed the investment of Novo Georgievsk, covering the sector between the Nareff and the Vistula. By August 10, 1915, the left wing of the central group had reached Kaluszin and General von Woyrsch's army had become its right wing, taking the Russian positions just west of Lukoff. On the same day German aviators threw bombs both at Novo Georgievsk and Brest-Litovsk. Under heavy fighting a crossing was forced over the Muchavka and Lukoff was occupied on August 11, 1915.