After the conquest of Pinsk, Von Mackensen's army for a few days continued its advance from that town in a northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly direction. But here, too, the advance stopped about September 23, 1915, after some detachments which had crossed to the north and northeast of Pinsk, over the Oginski Canal at Lahishyn, and over the Jasiolda between its junction with the canal and the Pinsk-Gomel railroad, had to be withdrawn on that date. In this sector—from the Jasiolda to the Styr at Tchartorysk just south of the Kovel-Kieff railway—the fighting assumed the form of trench warfare, just as it did along the rest of the front south of the Vilia River. The front there was along the Jasiolda from its junction with the Oginski Canal, swung around Pinsk and east of it in a semicircle, through the Pripet Marshes, crossed the Pripet River at Nobiet and then continued in a southerly direction to Borana on the Styr, along that river for a distance of about twenty miles, across the Kovel-Kieff railroad at Rafalovka to Tchartorysk on the Styr.
Farther south the Russians gained some slight successes, and even forced the Germans to retreat to the west bank of the Styr at Lutsk. The fighting in that vicinity and along the Ikwa was very severe. Especially was this true in the neighborhood of Novo Alexinez, where, in very hilly country, the Russians launched attack after attack against the Austro-German forces, without, however, being able to dislodge them from their very strong positions. The battle raged furiously on September 25, 1915, when some Russian detachments succeeded in advancing a few miles to the southwest of Novo Alexinez into the vicinity of Zaloshe. However, the Austrian resistance was so strong that the Russians lost about 5,000 men. When on September 27, 1915, a German army under General von Linsingen had again forced its way across the Styr at Lutsk and threatened to outflank the right wing of the Russian forces, the latter finally gave way and retreated in the direction of Kovno. A Russian attempt to break through the Austro-German line, held by General von Bothmer's army, on the Strypa west of Tarnopol, was made on October 2, 1915, but failed. The same was true of attacks on the Ikwa west of Kremenet and north of Dubno near Olyka, made on October 6, 1915. These were followed up on the next day, October 7, 1915, with further attacks along the entire Volhynian, East Galician, and Bessarabian front.
At that time this front extended as follows: Starting at Tchartorysk on the Styr, a few miles south of the Kovel-Gomel railroad, it ran almost straight south through Tsuman, crossed the Brest-Litovsk railroad a mile or two north of Olyka, passed about fifteen miles west of Rovno to the Rovno-Lemberg railroad, which it crossed a few miles east of Dubno, then followed more or less the course of the Ikwa and passed through Novo Alexinez. There it turned slightly to the west, crossed the Sereth about ten miles farther south, passed through Jezierna on the Lemberg-Tarnopol railroad and crossed the Strypa at the point where this river is cut by the Brzezany-Tarnopol railroad, about fifteen miles west of the latter city. Again bending somewhat, this time to the east, it continued slightly to the west of the Strypa to a point on this river about fifteen miles north of Buczacz, then followed the course of the Strypa on both sides to this town, bent still more to the east, passing through Pluste, about ten miles southeast of which it crossed the Sereth a few miles north from its junction with the Dniester, coming finally to its end at one of the innumerable bends in the Dniester, practically at the Galician-Bessarabian border and about twenty miles northwest of the fortress of Chotin. Although the amount of territory gained by the Austro-Germans in the period beginning with the fall of Warsaw was smaller in that section than in any other on the eastern front, it was still of sufficient size to leave now in the hands of the Russians only a very small part of Galicia, little more than forty miles wide at its greatest width and barely eighty miles long at its greatest length.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XXIV
IN THE PRIPET MARSHES
A Great deal of the fighting after the fall of Brest-Litovsk, August 27, 1915, occurred in and near the extensive swamp lands surrounding the city of Pinsk and located on both sides of the River Pripet. To the Russians this part of the country is known as the Poliessie; its official name is the Rokitno Marshes, after the little town of that name situated slightly to the west, but it is usually spoken of as the Pripet Marshes. Parts of this unhealthy and very difficult region are located in five Russian governments: Mohileff, Kieff, Volhynia, Minsk, and Grodno, and these swamps therefore are the border land of Poland, Great Russia, and Little Russia. A comparatively small section of them has been thoroughly explored and their exact limits have never been determined. In the west and east the Rivers Bug and Dniester respectively form a definite border, which is lacking in the south and north, while to the northwest the famous Forest of Bielovies may be considered its boundary. According to a very rough estimate the Pripet Marshes are approximately one-half as large as the kingdom of Rumania; only one river of importance runs through them, the Pripet, from which, indeed, the marshes take their popular name. On both of its sides the Pripet has a large number of tributaries, among which on the right are: the Styr, the Gorin, the Usha, and on the left the Pina, the Sluch, and the Ptych. A large number of small lakes are distributed throughout the entire district. Quite a large number of canals have been built, one of which connects the Pina with the Bug, another the Beresina, of Napoleonic fame and a tributary of the Dnieper, with the Ula and through the latter with the Dvina. In this manner it is possible to reach the Baltic Sea by means of continuous waterways from the Black Sea.
It is very difficult to conceive a clear picture of this region without having actually seen it. In a way one may call it a gigantic lake which away from its shores has been filled in with sand to a small extent and to a larger extent has turned into swamps. It is densely covered with rushes, and out of its waters, which are far from clear, a multitude of stony islets rise up covered with dense underbrush. Its center is surrounded by an even more dense seam of pine forests. Its rivers and brooks are so slow that they can hardly be distinguished from stagnant waters. The only town of any importance within its limits is Pinsk on the Pina.
In a general way five railroad lines have been built through various parts of the Pripet Marshes; the most important being a section of the Rovno-Vilna railroad; two others of special importance to the Russian retreat were the Brest-Litovsk-Pinsk-Gomel and the Ivangorod-Lublin-Cholm-Kovel-Kieff road. The Brest-Litovsk-Minsk railroad also passes in its greatest part through the outlying sections of the Pripet Marshes. The effect of these swamp lands on the Russian retreat and the German advance, of course, was twofold: it increased the difficulty of the Russian retreat, throwing at the same time very serious obstacles in the way of the advancing Germans.
To the southward, and in a region very similar in all its characteristics, is the Volhynian triangle of fortresses: Lutsk, Dubno, and Rovno. Here too, during the fighting around these three places, the Russian and German armies had to contend with tremendous difficulties, which were caused chiefly by the fact that this part of the country, with the exception of a few sections, was almost impassable. This fact, undoubtedly, was primarily responsible for the decision of the Russian Government to locate these three powerful fortresses at that particular point, because the very difficulties which nature had provided became valuable aids to a strong defense against an invasion of Russian territory by Austro-Hungarian troops from the south.
The fortresses of Lutsk and Dubno date with their beginning as far back as 1878, at which time they were built according to the plans of the Russian General Todleben. A little later the fortifications of Rovno were added to this group, and one of the strongest triangles of Russia's fortifications was formed thereby. The sides of this triangle measure thirty, twenty-five, and forty miles respectively. The longest of these is the line between Lutsk and Rovno, with its back toward the Pripet Marshes. Of the three fortresses Rovno is the most important from a strategical point of view, for it defends the junction of three of the most valuable railroads, the railway leading from Lemberg into Volhynia, that running south from Vilna into Galicia, and the railroad which by way of Berticheff indirectly connects Kieff with both Warsaw and Brest-Litovsk. The three fortresses, therefore, acted as a wedge between the most southeastern and the Polish zones of operations. They secured the connection of any Russian forces in Poland with the interior of Russia, and made possible the transfer of forces through the protection which they gave to the various railroad lines necessary for such a transfer. On account of the conditions of the surrounding territory it was impossible for any attacking army to dispose of the fortresses by investing them with part of their available forces while the balance of them continued on their advance; for the only way to reach the country in back of the three fortresses was by way of the fortresses themselves, which meant, of course, that they would have to be taken first before the advance could be continued. Furthermore, the fortresses also acted as a barrier, protecting the approaches to Kieff, enabling the undisturbed concentration of an army in that protected zone while the enemy would be busily occupied in battering his way through the fortress triangle. The latter were still more strengthened by the Rivers Ikwa and Styr, which flow to the southwest and north of them.