offered only a feeble
resistance, for I inspected one series of trenches where, I was
informed, the Russians in a few versts of front buried 4,000 Austrian
dead on the first lines alone. This indicates the nature and tenacity
of the enemy resistance. I am told also that far fewer Slavs and Poles
have been found among the Austrians than in any other big action. It
is believed that most of these have been sent to the Italian front on
account of their tendency to surrender to the Russians.

"Another interesting point about their advance is the fact that the
Russians practically in no place used guns of the heaviest caliber,
and that the preliminary artillery fire in no place lasted above
thirty hours, and in many places not more than twelve hours.

"Last summer's experience is not forgotten by the Russians and there
has probably been the most economic use of ammunition on any of the
fronts in this war commensurate with the results during these
advances. Rarely was a hurricane fire directed on any positions
preceding an assault, but the artillery checked each shell and its
target, which was rendered possible by the nearness of our front
lines.

"In this way avenues were cut through the barbed wire at frequent
intervals along the line through which the attacks were pressed home
and the flanking trenches and the labyrinths were taken in the rear or
on the flanks before the Austrians were able to effect their escape.
The line once broken was moved steadily forward, taking Lutsk six days
after the first attack, and one division reaching its maximum advance
of forty-eight miles just ten days after the first offensive
movement."

CHAPTER XXIV

PROGRESS OF THE BUKOWINIAN CONQUEST

On June 21, 1916, the Russians gained another important victory by the
capture of the city of Radautz, in the southern Bukowina, eleven miles
southwest of the Sereth River, and less than ten miles west of the
Rumanian frontier. This river Sereth must not be confused with a river
of the same name further to the north in Galicia. The latter is a
tributary of the Dniester, while the Bukowinian Sereth is a tributary
of the Danube, which latter it joins near the city of Galatz, in
Rumania, after flowing in a southeasterly direction through this
country for almost two hundred miles.

The fall of Radautz was an important success for various reasons. In
the first place, it brought the Russian advance that much nearer to
the Carpathian Mountains