bravely
repelling the enemy and inflicting upon him heavy losses. Our troops
overcame unbelievable difficulties, which were caused by the snow
which filled all roads. As the streets were impassable, automobiles
could not run. Trains were delayed and frequently failed to arrive at
their destination. Our corps which formed the left wing of the Tenth
Army held the enemy, while drawing back step for step for nine days on
a stretch of territory which ordinarily is covered in four days. On
the 19th of February these corps withdrawing by way of Augustowo left
the battle field and took the position assigned to them. Further
battles developed in the region before Ossowetz, on the roads from
Lomza to Jedwabno and to the north of Radislow, also halfway between
Plozk and Plonsk. These battles were in places very intense."

An English authority says: "The chief Russian loss was in General
Bulgakov's Twentieth Corps, which the German staff asserted they had
completely destroyed. But during the fortnight which ended on Saturday
the 20th, at least half of that corps and more than two-thirds of its
guns safely made their way through the Augustowo and Suwalki woods to
the position which had been prepared for the Russian defense. The
total Russian losses may have been 80 guns and 30,000 men; they were
no more. The two southern corps, in spite of their stubborn action at
Lyck, crossed the woods between Augustowo and Ossowetz without serious
disaster."

CHAPTER LI

BATTLES OF PRZASNYSZ--BEFORE MLAWA

The shattering of the Tenth Russian Army in the "winter battle" of the
Mazurian Lakes was part of a greater conflict which in February, 1915,
extended far down the armies on the right flank of the great Russian
battle line which ran from the Baltic to the Dniester. A "new gigantic
plan" of the Slavs was involved. As interpreted by the German General
Staff it meant that while the extreme northern wing of the Russian
armies was to sweep westward through the projecting section of
Germany, East Prussia, along the Baltic another Russian army was to
advance in force from the south against the corner formed by West
Prussia and the Vistula. With vast masses of cavalry in the van, it
was to break through the boundary between Mlawa and Thorn, and pushing
northward, come into the rear of those German forces which were facing
eastward against the attack aimed at East Prussia from the northeast.
For operations in this section the Russians had