he Austrians.

For the balance of April, 1916, comparative quiet again ruled along
the southeastern front. The muddy condition of the roads made
extensive movements practically impossible. Outposts engagements,
artillery duels, aeroplane bombardments, isolated attacks on advanced
trenches and field works, of course, continued right along. But both
success and failure were only of local importance, so that the
official reports in most cases did not even mention the location of
these engagements.

On the last day of April, 1916, however, the army of Archduke Joseph
Ferdinand started a new strong offensive movement north of Mouravitzy
on the Ikva in Volhynia. Heavy and light artillery prepared the way
for an attack in considerable force against Russian trenches which
formed a salient at that point, west of the villages of Little and
Great Boyarka. The Russians had to give ground, but soon afterward
started a strong counterattack, supported by heavy artillery fire,
and regained the lost ground, capturing some 600 officers and men. In
the southern half of the eastern front, just as in the northern half,
there was little change in the character of fighting with the coming
of May and the improvement in the weather. Artillery duels, aeroplane
attacks, scouting expeditions, and local infantry attacks of limited
extent and strength were daily occurrences.

On May 1, 1916, Austro-Hungarian detachments were forced to withdraw
from their advanced positions to the north of the village of Mlynow.
This place is located on the Ikva River, some ten miles northwest of
the fortress of Dubno. Here the Russians had made a slight gain on
April 28, 1916, and when they made an attack with superior forces from
their newly fortified positions, they were able to drive back the
Austro-Hungarians still a little bit farther.

Twenty miles farther north, in the vicinity of Olyka, the little town
about halfway between the fortress of Lutsk and Rovno, on the railway
line connecting these two points, the Russian forces reported slight
progress on May 2, 1916. Northwest of Kremenets, in the Ikva section,
Austro-Hungarian engineers succeeded in exploding mines in front of
the Russian trenches. But the Russians themselves promptly utilized
this accomplishment by rushing out of their trenches and making an
advanced trench of their own out of the mine craters dug for them by
their enemies.

Two days later, on May 4, 1916, the Russians were able to impro