"From an observation point eighty feet above the ground in the swaying foliage of a huge oak, a few versts distance from the battle field, I obtained an extraordinary view of the country and of the Russian artillery preparation. The country here is as flat as a board and marshy, with the slow-flowing Stokhod oozing in the midst of beds of water lilies. The difficulties of an advance are almost incredible, yet our troops forded the river in places, passing mazes of barbed wire sunk in the water.
"The cannonading continues day and night, at times reaching such violence that it is impossible to distinguish sounds; it is simply a continuous roar like thunder. At night the whole sky is illuminated by bursting shells, searchlights, and star bombs. The town is filled with wounded."
During the night of August 3 to 4, 1916, the stiffening of the Austro-German defensive found expression in a series of very violent German attacks against the village of Rudka-Miryanskaia, which formed a very strong salient in the Russian positions. This little hamlet—it is hardly more than that—is situated on the river Stavok, a tributary of the Stokhod. Austro-German forces advanced from three sides. Throughout the entire night the fighting for the possession of this point was kept up. Attack after attack was repulsed by the Russians. But in the early morning hours the latter were forced to evacuate the village and to retreat more than 500 yards to the east. A few hours later reenforcements arrived and the Russians once more gained possession of the village, in the streets of which the sanguinary kind of hand-to-hand fighting raged for hours. As a result the Austro-German forces were finally thrown back beyond the river Stavok. Before long, however, fresh Austro-German troops launched new counterattacks and regained most of this territory, holding it thereafter in the face of a number of violent Russian counterattacks.
Considerable fighting occurred likewise on August 3, 1916, both somewhat farther north and south of this position. In the former direction Russian detachments crossed the Stokhod at some points near Lubieszow and occupied a series of heights, where they fortified themselves strongly. To the south Ostrow again was the center of bitter engagements, which, however, yielded no definite results.
By this time, August 10, 1916, it had become more or less evident that the Russian drive against Kovel had been stopped by the Austro-Germans. For a few days now a comparative reduction in the violence of the fighting in the Stokhod sector set in.
Local attacks, however, as well as counterattacks continued even during this period near Lubieszow and Zarecze, especially on August 11 and 12, 1916. Gradually, and concurrent with increased activity on other parts of the eastern front, engagements in the Stokhod sector became fewer and less important.
On August 18, 1916, however, the Russians somewhat renewed their activity. The first sign was increased artillery fire at various points. This was quickly followed by local attacks near Rudka-Czerwiszce, Szelwow, and Zviniache. Especially noticeable was the increase in Russian activity in the neighborhood of the first of these three places, where the village of Tobol, after having changed hands repeatedly, was finally occupied by the Russians. The latter were successful on August 17, 1916, in crossing the Stokhod in this vicinity at a point where they had previously been unable to make any progress. On the other hand, they were forced to evacuate some of their positions east of Kiselin.
Both on August 20 and 21, 1916, the Russians attempted to enlarge the success which they had gained near Rudka-Czerwiszce. In this, however, they were not successful, encountering the strongest kind of determined resistance and suffering considerable losses. Local engagements at various points on the Kovel-Sarni railroad and in the neighborhood of Smolary likewise terminated in favor of the Austro-German forces. During the balance of August, 1916, fighting on the Stokhod was restricted to moderate artillery fire, local infantry engagements, and extensive reconnoitering operations, carried on now by one side, now by the other, without, however, yielding any important results or changing to any extent the respective positions.
While the Russians were developing their attack against Kovel the balance of the eastern front was comparatively inactive with the exception of the Galician and Bukowinian sectors. The fighting which occurred there had as its object the capture of Lemberg and developed soon into a struggle of the first magnitude. It will be described in detail in the following chapter.
North of the Stokhod occasional local engagements occurred from time to time. Thus the Germans gained a slight local success on August 1, 1916, near Vulka on the Oginsky Canal to the northwest of Pinsk. On the same day considerable fighting took place near Logischin and on both sides of Lake Nobel, both in the same vicinity. The fighting on the banks of the lake continued during the next few days, but bore no important results.