he freshly strengthened Russians moved forward
from their defensive lines in a counterattack. The Germans had been
engaged in the task of gathering and carting away their enormous booty
which lay scattered about the forest. They now drew back from in front
of the Russian fortified lines to prepare positions close to
Augustowo, and on a line running roughly north and south from this
place, with the forest in front of them.

The Third Russian Army Corps advanced from Simno toward Lozdsisjo,
their Second Army Corps from Grodno by way of Kopiewo and Sejny toward
Krasnopol and other Russian corps advanced through the forest of
Augustowo. Here they soon struck strong German resistance, and for
several days vainly attacked German fortified positions.

On the 9th of March, 1915, a German offensive began against the
Russian Third Corps which held the right wing of the advancing army.
When this corps suddenly found itself threatened in the flank from the
north and in danger of being surrounded it hastily began to retreat
toward the east and southeast, leaving several hundred prisoners and
several machine guns in the hands of the Germans. This withdrawal
exposed the right flank of the adjoining Second Army Corps, which by
this time, March 9, 1915, had reached Berzniki and Giby. The German
attack was now continued against this corps. It was cold weather, the
thermometer was considerably below the freezing point, and the roads
were slippery with ice, so that dozens of horses fell, completely
exhausted, and the infantry could march only two or three kilometers
an hour.

On March 9 and 10, 1915, the battle flamed up at Sejny and Berzniki,
the Russian corps, which had developed its front toward the west,
being forced to swing about and face the north, whence the Germans
were driving down upon it. At Berzniki two Russian regiments made up
entirely of young troops were, according to the German account,
completely annihilated, and the commanders of the regiments captured.
It seemed as though the leader of the Russian armies saw approaching a
repetition of the encircling movements that had proved fatal to the
Russians in the Mazurian "winter battle," for on the 10th of March he
gave orders for the withdrawal of his entire army. The German airmen
on this day reported the Russian columns on the march through the
forest in full retreat toward Grodno all along the line from Giby to
Sztabiz, far to the south.

On the 11th of March, 1915, t