ad recognized the uselessness of
shooting from a greater distance and on the 18th they stated that the
fire was falling off. On the 22d, finally, they reported that
beginning with the 21st the Germans had been withdrawing their heavy
batteries. They added that a 42-centimeter mortar had been damaged by
the Russian fire, and that "not a single shot of these mortars has
reached the fortress, not a redoubt has been penetrated. The
superiority of the artillery fire evidently rests with us. The German
attack was not only far removed from placing the fortifications of
Ossowetz in a critical position, it did not even succeed in driving
our infantry out of the field works."

On the 27th of March there was a resumption of the bombardment on a
small scale and another effort began on April 11 with some heavy guns,
ending in an attempted advance which was repulsed without difficulty
by the Russians.

CHAPTER LIII

RUSSIAN RAID ON MEMEL

An event in which no great number of troops were concerned, but which
is of importance, because of the feeling which it aroused in Germany
and because it was the first of a series of operations in what was
practically a new theatre of the war was the Russian invasion of the
very northernmost tip of East Prussia. On Thursday, the 18th of March,
1915, the Russians coming simultaneously from the north and the east
across the border of Courland, moved on the Prussian city of Memel in
several columns. Their troops included seven battalions of militia
with six or eight guns of an old model, several squadrons of mounted
men, two companies of marines, a battalion of a reserve regiment, and
border defense troops from Riga and Libau, a total of some 6,000 to
10,000 men. The German Landsturm troops at the Prussian boundary fell
back on Memel, not being in sufficient force to resist the advance.
They were finally driven through the city and across the narrow strip
of water known as the Kurische Haff to the dunes along the shore of
the Baltic. The Russians burned down numerous buildings along the
roads on which they approached, according to the German report,
inflicting heavy damage on fifteen villages. A considerable number of
the inhabitants, including women and children, were removed to Russia,
and a number of civilians were killed. The troops entered the city on
the evening of March 18 and took the mayor and three other men of the
town as hostages. Apparently the Russian commander made some effo