were making their presence felt from the southwest
against Odrzechova and from the south, whence Von Marwitz with the
German Beskid Corps was rapidly advancing. To the southeast,
Boehm-Ermolli was battering the Baligrod-Lutoviska front, almost in
the same position he occupied at the end of January in the first
attempt to relieve Przemysl.

The battle was practically over by the night of May 10, 1915; the
Russians could hold out no longer against the ever-increasing flood of
Austrians and Germans pouring across every road and pathway against
their doomed line. Blasted and scorched by artillery, machine-gun and
rifle fire; standing against incessant bayonet and cavalry charges;
harassed by the Austrians from the south, the Russians were indeed in
sore straits. Yet they had fought well; in the losing game they were
playing they were exhausting their enemies as well as themselves in
men and munitions--factors which are bound to tell in a long,
drawn-out war. Above all, they still remained an army: they had not
yet found their Sedan. No alternative lay before them--or rather
behind them--other than retreat to the next possible line of
defense--toward Przemysl.

Between May 11-12, 1915, the Germanic troops occupied the districts of
Sendziszow, Rzeszow, Dynow, Sanok, Lisko, Lancut, and Dubiecko.
Przevorsk was deserted by the Russians on the 13th. The Seventh
Russian Railway Battalion, under Captain Ratloff, brought up the rear
of the retreat to the Dembica-Jaroslav line. From Rzeszow onward this
battalion were employed in destroying stations, plants, tunnels,
culverts, rolling stock, and railway bridges, to hamper as much as
possible the German advance. It took the Austro-Hungarian engineers
between two and three weeks to repair the road and put it into
sufficient working order to transport their heavy siege artillery.
With uninterrupted labor and the most strenuous exertions they could
only reconstruct about four miles per day. Repairs and renovations
other than those of the railway system were necessary. The wounded had
to be sent back to hospital, and fresh troops had to be brought up to
fill the gaps torn in the Austro-German ranks during all the severe
fighting since May 2, 1915. It is not known exactly what the series of
victories cost the Germanic armies in casualties, but it is known that
their successes were dearly bought. One fairly competent authority
places the loss at between 120,000 to 130,000. From May 2 to Ma