some five hundred officers and men, fell into Russian captivity. Only
a short time later, on the same day, heavy German batteries
concentrated such a furious fire on the Russian troops occupying the
village that they had to withdraw and permit the Germans once more to
occupy Gruziatin. How furious the fighting in this one small section
must have been that day may readily be seen from the fact that the
German official statement claimed a total of over twenty thousand men
to have been lost by the Russians.

Hardly less severe was the fighting which developed along the Stokhod
River. This is a southern tributary of the Pripet River, joining it
about thirty miles west of the mouth of the Styr. It is cut by both
the Kovel-Rovno and the Kovel-Rafalovka railways, and forms a strong
natural line of defense west of Kovel. In spite of the most desperate
efforts on the part of large Russian forces to cross this river, near
the village of Vorontchin northeast of Kieslin, the German resistance
was so tenacious that the Russians were unable to make any progress.
Large numbers of guns of all calibers had been massed here and
inflicted heavy losses to the czar's regiments. Another furious
engagement in this region occurred during the night near the village
of Rayniesto on the Stokhod River.

To the north heavy fighting again developed south of Smorgon, where,
with the coming of night, the Germans directed a very intense
bombardment against the Russian lines. Again and again this was
followed up with infantry attacks, which in some instances resulted in
the penetrating of the Russian trenches, while in others it led to
sanguinary hand-to-hand fighting. However, the Russian batteries
likewise hurled their death-dealing missiles in large numbers and
exacted a terrific toll from the ranks of the attacking Germans. Along
the balance of the northern half of the front a serious artillery duel
again was fought, which was especially intense in the region of the
Uxkull bridgehead, in the northern sector of the Jacobstadt positions
and along the Oginsky Canal.

German aeroplane squadrons repeated their activity of the day before
and successfully bombarded the railroad stations at Vileika,
Molodetchna, and Zalyessie.

The well-known English journalist, Mr. Stanley Washburn, acted at this
time as special correspondent of the London "Times" at Russian
headquarters and naturally had exceptional opportunities for observing
conditions at the front