did not maintain a violent bombardment at many points
along the entire front. Especially frequent and severe was the gunfire
which the Germans directed against the Dvina sector of the Russian
positions. But, just as in the past weeks, the result, though not at
all negligible as far as the damage inflicted on men, material, and
fortifications was concerned, was practically nil in regard to any
change in the location of the front.

Infantry attacks during this period were not lacking, though they were
less frequent than artillery bombardments, and were at all times only
of local character, and in most cases executed with limited forces. A
great deal of this kind of fighting occurred in the region of Olyka
where engagements took place almost every day. One of the few more
important events was a German attack against the Jacobstadt sector of
the Dvina front. For two days, May 10 and 11, 1916, the fighting
continued, becoming especially violent to the north of the railway
station of Selburg on the Mitau-Kreutzburg railway. There very heavy
artillery fire succeeding the infantry attacks had destroyed some
small villages for the possession of which the most furious kind of
hand-to-hand fighting ensued. Finally the Germans captured by storm
about 500 yards of the Russian positions as well as some 300 unwounded
soldiers and a few machine guns and mine throwers.

Engagements of a similar character, though not always yielding such
definite results to either side, occurred on May 11, 1916, southwest
of Lake Medum, on May 12, 1916, at many points along the Oginski Canal
and also in the Pripet Marshes, where fighting now had again become a
physical possibility. On the latter day a Russian attempt to recapture
the positions lost previously near Selburg failed.

Thus the fortunes of war swayed from side to side. One day would bring
to the Germans the gain of a trench, the capture of a few hundred men
or guns, or the destruction of an enemy battery, to be followed the
next day by a proportionate loss. So closely was the entire line
guarded, so strongly and elaborately had the trenches and other
fortifications been built up, that the fighting developed into a
multitude of very short but closely contested engagements. In each one
of these the numbers engaged were very small, though the grand total
of men fighting on a given day at so many separate points on a front
of some 500 miles was, of course, still immense.

Amongst the places w