though her
mobilization was still continuing, at this time could not have had as
many as two million men in the whole nine hundred miles of her battle
front.

The fight for Warsaw began Friday, October 16th, and continued for three
days, von Hindenburg being personally in command. On Monday the Germans
found themselves in trouble. A Russian attack on their left wing had
come with crushing force. Von Hindenburg found his left wing thrown
back, and the whole German movement thrown into disorder. Meanwhile an
attempt to cross the Vistula at Josefov had also been a failure. The
Russians allowed the Germans to pass with slight resistance, waited
until they arrived at the village Kazimirjev, a district of low hills
and swampy flats, and then suddenly overwhelmed them.

Next day the Russians crossed the river themselves, and advanced along
the whole line, driving the enemy before them, through great woods of
spruce out into the plains on the west. This forest region was well
known to the Russian guides, and the Germans suffered much as the
Russians had suffered in East Prussia. Ruzsky, the Russian commander,
pursued persistently; the Germans retreating first to Kielce, whence
they were driven, on the 3d of November, with great losses, and then
being broken into two pieces, with the north retiring westward and the
south wing southwest toward Cracow.

Rennenkampf's attack on the German left wing was equally successful, and
von Hindenburg was driven into full retreat. The only success won during
this campaign was that in the far south where Austrian troops were
sweeping eastward toward the San. This army drove back the Russians
under Ivanov, reoccupied Jaroslav and relieved Przemysl. This was a
welcome relief to Przemysl, for the garrison was nearly starved, and it
was well for the garrison that the relief came, for in a few days the
Russians returned, recaptured Jaroslav and reinvested Przemysl. As von
Hindenburg retreated he left complete destruction in his wake, roads,
bridges, railroad tracks, water towers, railway stations, all were
destroyed; even telegraph posts, broken or sawn through, and insulators
broken to bits.

It was now the turn of Russia to make a premature advance, and to pay
for it. Doubtless the Grand Duke Nicholas, whose strategy up to this
point had been so admirable, knew very well the danger of a new advance
in Galicia, but he realized the immense political as well as military
advantages which were t