ching to a
point fifteen miles beyond the outer lines of the forts. A Russian
official announcement states that during two months of the siege the
Austrian captures amounted only to 4 machine guns and about 60
prisoners, which occurred in an engagement where two Honved regiments
fell on a Russian company which had advanced too far to be reenforced
in time. On their part in repulsing sorties by the garrison,
frequently made by considerable forces, the Russians made prisoners 27
officers and 1,906 soldiers, and captured 7 machine guns, 1,500,000
cartridges, and a large quantity of arms. In two sorties the garrison
in the region of Bircza had more than 2,000 killed and wounded, among
them being many officers. No further sorties were undertaken in that
particular region. During January and February, 1915, very little
fighting took place around Przemysl; sorties were useless as there was
no Austro-German force anywhere near the fortress, and the Russians
were tightening the pressure around it. The only means of
communication with the outer world was by aeroplane, so that, despite
the rigid investment, the Austro-German war staff were kept fully
informed of the straits in which Przemysl found itself. General
Boehm-Ermolli, with Army A, was making desperate efforts to extricate
himself from the Russian grip round Uzsok, Lupkow, and Dukla; he did
not get beyond Baligrod, as the crow flies, thirty miles south of
Przemysl.

On March 13, 1915, the Russians stormed and captured the village of
Malkovise, on the northeast, breaking through the outer line of the
defense. From this position they began to bombard parts of the inner
ring. About the beginning of the third week in March, 1915, a new
spirit of activity appeared to seize the beleaguered garrison: they
commenced a terrific cannonade which, however, elicited no response.
It was but the energy of despair: they were firing to get rid of their
ammunition, hoping at the same time to hit something or somebody. The
end was at hand.

On March 18, 1915, a Petrograd "official" laconically reports that:
"In the Przemysl sector the fortress guns continue to fire more than a
thousand heavy projectiles daily, but our troops besieging the
fortress lose only about ten men every day." It is also on March 18
that General von Kusmanek issued the following manifesto to the
defenders of Przemysl:--"Heroes, I announce to you my last summons.
The honor of our country and our army demands it. I s