y 12,
1915, the forces of Von Mackensen, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand, and
Boroyevitch von Boyna claim to have captured 103,500 men, 69 guns, and
255 machine guns. A retreating army must inevitably lose many of their
number as prisoners, besides their wounded must also be abandoned.
Furthermore, the Russian line of retreat led through rough and
mountainous country, where large bodies of troops could not be kept in
touch with each other. Thus it frequently happened that isolated
detachments were captured _en bloc_ without being able to offer any
resistance. In the neighborhood of Sanok and the watering places of
Rymanow and Ivonicz some of the biggest Russian base hospitals were
situated. These, of course, could not have been evacuated in time, and
the patients consequently swelled the number of prisoners. Most of the
guns captured by the Austro-Germans were those of the Russian troops
whose retreat from northern Hungary and the passes had been
intercepted.

They often sacrificed large bodies of troops to save their guns. The
lack of artillery was the main cause of their defeat; what little they
could save from the wreck was therefore husbanded with jealous care.
The German staff accurately calculated on the preponderance of heavy
artillery, and that Russia would be compelled to bow low before the
superior blast of cannon fire. Though it involved the sacrifice of
many miles of territory, it was now the Russian object to draw the
enemy's line out to the fullest extent. After the retreat from the
Wistok the Russian Generalissimo, Grand Duke Nicholas, was concerned
only to save the most for his country at the greatest expense to her
enemies. It meant continual retreat on a gigantic scale. Przemysl,
captured ten weeks ago, lay behind Ivanoff's line, and Lemberg was but
sixty miles beyond. Two hundred miles northward the Germans were
hammering at the gates of Warsaw. A retreat such as the grand duke
contemplated might involve the loss of all three of these places, but
it would stretch the Germanic lines enormously and enable the Allies
in the west to strike with better effect. No territorial
considerations must stand in the way against the safety of the Russian
armies. It was the same policy that had crippled Napoleon in 1812.

CHAPTER XLIII

CAMPAIGN IN EASTERN GALICIA AND THE BUKOWINA

In order to keep the narrative abreast of the steadily advancing
Austro-German line, we must change occasionally from one sect