the same time fell overwhelmingly on the
northern end of the Russian line. On the 9th they took the fortified
Russian positions stretching from Spullen to the Schorell Forest and
nearly to the Russian border. They had here hard work to force their
way through wire entanglements of great strength. Having noticed signs
of a retreat on the part of their opponents, these German forces had
on the preceding day begun the attack without waiting for the whole of
their artillery to come up. The Russians retreated toward the
southeast.

Swinging forward toward the Russian border, the German left wing now
exerted itself to the utmost to execute the sweeping encircling movement
for which the strategy of Von Hindenburg had become famous. The Russian
right wing had been turned and was being pressed continually toward the
southeast. The German troops rushed forward in forced marches, ignoring
the difficulties which nature put in their way. By the 10th of February
these columns reached the Pillkallen-Wladislawow line, and by the 11th
the main highway from Gumbinnen to Wilkowyszki. The right wing, up to
the capture of Stallupoehnen, had taken some 4,000 prisoners, four
machine guns, and eleven ammunition wagons. The center of this army, at
the capture of Eydtkuhnen, Wirballen, and Kibarty, took 10,000
prisoners, six cannon, eight machine guns, numerous baggage wagons,
including eighty field kitchens, three military trains and other rolling
stock, a large number of gift packages intended for the Russian troops,
and, of chief interest to the fighting men, a whole day's provisions.

On the afternoon of February 10 some one and a half Russian divisions
had come to a halt in these three neighboring villages: Eydtkuhnen,
Kibarty, and Wirballen. Although it was known that the Germans were
approaching, it was apparently regarded by the Russians as impossible
that pursuers would be able to come up with them in the raging
snowstorm. So certain were they of their security that no outposts
were put on guard. Only thus could it happen that the Germans, who had
not allowed the forces of nature to stop their advance, arrived right
at the Russian position on the same day, though with infantry alone
and merely a few guns, everything else having been left behind, stuck
in the snowdrifts.

CHAPTER XLIX

THE RUSSIANS OUT OF GERMANY

It was evening when the Germans made their surprise attack on
Eydtkuhnen and midnight when they fell upon Wirba