15, the entire line of sixty miles from Dukla to Uzsok was
ablaze--the storm was spreading eastward. Like huge ant hills the
mountains swarmed with gray and bluish specks--each a human
being--some to the waist in snow, stabbing and hacking at each other
ferociously with bayonet, sword, or lance, others pouring deadly fire
from rifle, revolver, machine gun, and heavy artillery. Over rocks
slippery with blood, through cruel barbed-wire entanglements and into
crowded trenches the human masses dash and scramble. Here, with heavy
toll, they advanced; there, and with costlier sacrifice, they were
driven back. Fiery Magyars, mechanical Teutons and stolid muzhiks
mixed together in an indescribable hellbroth of combative fury and
destructive passion. Screaming shells and spattered shrapnel rent the
rocks and tore men in pieces by the thousand. Round the Lupkow Pass
the Russians steadily carved their way forward, and at the close of
the day, March 29, 1915, they had taken 76 officers, 5,384 men, 1
trench mortar, and 21 machine guns. Along the Baligrod-Cisna road the
fighting proceeded, up to March 30, by day and night.

Gradually the Russians pushed toward Dvernik and Ustrzyki south of
Lutoviska, threatening the Austrian position in the Uzsok and lines of
communications to the south. German reserves were hurried up from the
base at Ungvar, but could not prevent the capture of 80 Austrian
officers, over 5,000 men, 14 machine guns, and 4 pieces of cannon.
Ivanoff had been careful to hold his portion of Selivanoff's army in
reserve; their presence turned the scale.

On the day and night of March 31, 1915, the Russians stormed and
carried the Austrian positions 4,000 feet high up on the Poloniny
range during a heavy snowstorm. So deep was the snow in places that
movement was impossible; the trampling of the charging battalions
rushing down over the slopes dislodged avalanches of snow,
overwhelming both attackers and defenders. By April 1, 1915, the
Russians approached Volosate, only twelve miles from the rear of the
Uzsok Pass, from which they were now separated by a low ridge. Holding
full possession of the Poloniny range farther west, they commanded the
road from Dvernik to Vetlina. From the north other Russian columns
captured Michova on the Smolnik-Cisna railroad, crossed the
Carpathians, and penetrated into the Virava Valley. Occupying the
entire loop of the Sanok-Homona railway north and south of Lupkow, and
Mezo-Laborcz towa