s after driving out
German forces which had constructed strong positions there.

Without cessation the Russian attacks continued day by day. Fresh
troops were brought up continuously. The munition supply, which in the
past had been one of the chief causes of Russian failure and disaster,
seemed to have become suddenly inexhaustible. Not only was each attack
carefully and extensively prepared by the most violent kind of
artillery fire, but the latter was directed also against those German
positions which at that time were immune from attack on account of the
insurmountable natural difficulties brought about by climatic
conditions. For by this time winter began to break up and ice and snow
commenced to melt, signifying the rapid approach of the spring floods.
To a certain extent these climatic conditions undoubtedly had an
important influence on Russian plans. Almost along the entire northern
part of the front the Germans possessed one great advantage. Their
positions were located on higher and drier ground than those of the
Russians, whose trenches were on low ground, and would become next to
untenable, once thaw and spring floods would set in in earnest. There
is little doubt that the great energy and superb disregard of human
life which the Russian commanders developed throughout the March
offensive were principally the result of their strong desire to get
their forces on better ground before it was too late or too difficult,
and from a tactical point of view the risks which they took at that
time and the price which they seemed to be willing to pay to achieve
their ends were not any too great.

In spite of the lack of any important success the Russian attacks
against the Jacobstadt sector were renewed on March 24, 1916. But the
German guns had shot themselves in so well that it availed nothing.
Other attacks, attempted to the southwest of Dvinsk and at various
points north of Vidzy suffered the same fate. In the neighborhood of
Lake Narotch Russian activities on that day were restricted to
artillery fire.

The Germans assumed the offensive on March 25, 1916, on the
Riga-Dvinsk sector. Their guns were trained against Schlock, a small
town on the south shore of the Gulf of Riga, just northwest of Lake
Babit, against the bridgehead at Uxkull, fifteen miles southeast of
Riga on the Dvina, and against a number of other positions between
that point and Jacobstadt. A German attempt to gain ground north of
the small secto