to Voliaverlowska.

On the evening of this day they drove the Germans into positions close
to the city. The Thirty-sixth German Reserve Division on the same
evening is said to have met serious disaster after a determined
resistance at the crossings of the Anetz. On the evening of the next
day the Russians began to reenter Przasnysz, but did not completely
occupy the town until the night after the 27th. "The Germans," the
Russian account continues, "hereupon began a disorderly retreat,
endeavoring to withdraw in the direction of Mlawa-Chorgele. Regardless
of the exhaustion consequent upon the marching they had undergone and
four days of battle, our troops energetically took up the pursuit of
the enemy. On the 28th of February they inflicted serious losses upon
his rear guard. In these battles we seized a large amount of booty.
The total number of prisoners amounts to at least 10,000." The
Russians maintain that they had defeated no less than two German army
corps and thrown them back to the border.

On the 12th of March, 1915, the German Great Headquarters protested
against this version of the affair, and pointed to the fact that
within a few days their troops were again threatening Przasnysz, and
that since giving up the city they had captured on the battle fields
between the Vistula and the Orczy no less than 11,460 Russians.

The city of Przasnysz itself suffered heavily in these attacks and
counterattacks. For days and nights it had lain under bombardment and
repeatedly fierce, hand-to-hand combats had been fought in its
streets. Most of the houses of the place were left mere heaps of
smoking ruins.

From the German point of view this offensive just north of the Vistula
which included the temporary capture of Przasnysz was a success,
especially in this, that it had prevented the big Russian forward
movement against the West Prussian boundary which the impending great
Russian offensive had foreboded. It had been impossible for the
Russians seriously to endanger the German flank in this section, while
the Germans had struck to the east in the "winter battle," and had
definitely spoiled the Russian appetite for invasion from the
Kovno-Grodno line.

As though determined to avenge their defeat to the east of the lakes,
the Russians now continued to direct a series of fierce attacks in the
direction of Mlawa, intending apparently to break through the German
line of defense between Soldau and Neidenburg. It was said