or to
another to watch the progress of operations over the huge battle
field. In accordance with the details laid down in the great strategic
plan, each of the different Germanic forces had a distinct task to
perform. Turning then to eastern Galicia and the Bukowina, we find
that on May 1, 1915, the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies were
facing each other along almost the same front where we left them in
the middle of March. That front extended to the north of Nadvorna and
Kolomea, by Ottynia across to Niczviska on the Dniester, and from
there eastward along the river toward Chotin on the Russian frontier
of Bessarabia.

By the beginning of May, 1915, the spring floods had subsided, when
operations became again possible. General Lechitsky, on the Russian
side, probably aimed at recovering the Pruth Valley, while the
Austrian commander, General von Pflanzer-Baltin, directed his efforts
to establishing himself on the northern bank of the Dniester. He would
then be able to advance in line with the Germanic front that was
pressing on from the west, and northward from the Carpathian range
between Uzsok and the Jablonitza passes; otherwise his force would lag
behind in the great drive, a mere stationary pivot. At that time he
held about sixty miles of the Odessa-Stanislau railroad (which runs
through the valley via Czernovice and Kolomea) with the Russians only
twenty miles north of the line. If that position could be taken the
Austrians would have the South Russian line of communications in their
hands, for it was along this line that supplies and reenforcements
were being transported to Ivanoff's front on the Wisloka from the
military centers at Kiev and Sebastopol. Thus the railway was of
tremendous importance to both belligerents. What it meant to the
Austrians has been stated; to the Russians its possession offered the
only opportunity for a counteroffensive in the east that could
possibly affect the course of the main operations on the Wisloka, San,
and later the Przemysl lines. But however successful such a
counteroffensive might prove, it could not have exerted any immediate
influence on the western front. With the Transylvania Carpathians
protecting the Austro-German eastern flank, there would still be
little hope of checking the enemy's advance on Lemberg even if
Lechitsky succeeded in reconquering the whole of the Bukowina and that
part of eastern Galicia south of the Dniester. Every strategic
consideration, th