ty of his forces against Poland, and especially against its
choicest prize--historic Warsaw. October 11, 1914, may be considered the
approximate beginning of the first drive against the Polish capital.
During about two weeks of fighting the German armies advanced to the
very gates of Warsaw, which then seemed to be theirs for the mere
taking. But suddenly the Russian bear recovered his self-control, and
with renewed vigor and replenished strength he turned once again against
the threatening foe. By October 28, 1914, the Germans in North and
Central Poland and the Austro-Hungarians in South Poland had to retreat.

November 7, 1914, became the starting date for the third Russian
invasion of East Prussia. The Germans now changed their tactics. Instead
of meeting the enemy's challenge and attempting to repeat their previous
performances of throwing him back and then invading his territory, they
restricted themselves, for the time being, to defensive measures in East
Prussia, and launched a powerful drive of their own against Russian
territory. For the second time Warsaw was made their goal. By this time,
to a certain extent at least, the offensive momentum of both sides had
been reduced in speed. Where it had taken days in the earlier campaigns
to accomplish a given object, it now took weeks. Of course the rigors of
the eastern winter which had set in by then played an important part in
this slowing-up process, which, however, affected the speed only of the
armies, but not the furor of their battling. December 6, 1914, brought
the possession of Lodz to the Germans, and on the next day the Russians
were taught the same lesson before the Mazurian Lakes that they had
taught to the Germans a few months before when they faced the Niemen.
East Prussia up to the Lakes was in the hands of Russia, but beyond that
impregnable line of lakes and swamps and rivers they could not go.

In the meanwhile the drive against Warsaw was making small progress in
spite of the most furious onslaughts. There, too, a series of rivers and
swamps--less formidable, it is true, than in East Prussia, but hardly
less effective--stemmed the tide of the invaders. For more than two
weeks, beginning about December 20 and lasting well into January, the
Russians made a most stubborn stand along the Bzura and Rawka line, and
successfully, though with terrible losses, kept the Germans from taking
Warsaw. However, in order to accomplish this they had to weaken thei