any marked activity. Dvinsk
was visited repeatedly by German machines and extensively bombarded.
On April 26, 1916, a German airship dropped bombs on the railway
station at Duna-Muende, at the mouth of the Dvina, and caused
considerable damage. Other railway stations and warehouses at various
points, as well as a number of Russian flying depots, were attacked on
April 27, 1916.

The end of April, 1916, brought one more important action, the most
important, indeed, which had occurred anywhere on the eastern front
since the Russian offensive of the latter half of March, 1916. On
April 28, 1916, at dawn, German artillery began a very violent
bombardment of the Russian positions south of Lake Narotch. There,
between the village of Stavarotche and the extensive private estate of
Stakhovtsy, the Germans had lost a series of important trenches on
March 20, 1916, during the early part of the short Russian offensive.
Part of these positions had been recaptured a few days later on March
26, 1916. Now, after a considerable artillery preparation, a strong
attack was launched with the balance of the lost ground as an
objective. Large bodies of German infantry came on against the Russian
positions in close formation. They recaptured not only all of the
ground lost previously but carried their attack successfully into the
Russian trenches beyond. The most fierce hand-to-hand fighting
resulted. Losses on both sides were severe, especially so on the part
of the Russians, who attempted unsuccessfully during the night
following to regain the lost positions by a series of violent
counterattacks, executed by large forces of infantry, who, advancing
in close formation over difficult ground, were terribly exposed to
German machine-gun fire and lost heavily in killed and wounded. The
Germans officially claimed to have captured as a result of this
operation the remarkably large number of fifty-six officers, 5,600
men, five guns, twenty-eight machine guns and ten trench mortars.
During the same day artillery attacks were directed against Schlock on
the Gulf of Riga and Boersemnende near Riga, as well as against
Smorgon, south of the Lake district. An infantry attack, preceded by
considerable artillery preparation, near the village of Ginovka, west
of Dvinsk, was met by severe fire from the Russian batteries and the
Germans were forced to withdraw to their trenches. In the early
morning hours German airships bombarded railway stations along the