ast of the Strypa
River.

Having gained these advantages, they now attempted to press them and
attacked Lemberg both from the north and from the south. In the former
direction they advanced from Brody and Tarnopol against the strongly
held Styr and Bug line. In the south Lemberg was defended by the
Dniester line. Before forcing this line it was necessary to capture
Stanislau, an important point on the Czernowitz-Lemberg railway.
Between the Bug and the Dniester lines of defense Lemberg was secured
in the east, and still farther by a third line of natural defenses.
This was formed by a series of northern tributaries of the Dniester,
of which the most important were the Sereth, Strypa, and Zlota Lipa
Rivers. The former two had already been crossed by the Russians, but
there still remained the very formidable and extremely strong line of
defenses along the last, which had more than once before proved very
difficult to overcome.

On the Russian side there were engaged in this struggle three army
groups under Generals Sakharoff, Stcherbacheff, and Lechitsky. The
Austro-German forces were divided into four groups under Generals
Puhallo, Boehm-Ermolli, Von Bothmer, and Von Pfanzer-Ballin.

During the first few days of August, 1916, the fighting along this
entire line, though continuous and severe, was not particularly well
defined and was more or less split up into comparatively small and
local engagements. On August 1, 1916, engagements of this nature took
place southwest of Burkanoff and west of Buczacz. In the latter region
the ground offered great difficulties. A small but very marshy
river--the Moropiec--was strongly defended by the Austro-German
forces, and when these finally had to give way, they destroyed all
bridges. Nothing daunted, the Russians waded across in the face of
severe fire and frequently up to their necks in water, gained the
western bank, and after making some hundreds of prisoners, promptly
dug themselves in. Other engagements occurred on the same day in the
Dniester-Pruth sector--in the direction of Stanislau near Wisniowcza
and Molodgonow.

On August 2, 1916, the Russians developed a strong attack on both
sides of the railway near Brody against Ponikowica, but were
unsuccessful. However, the attacks were kept up and by the next day,
August 3, 1916, yielded not only considerable ground, but more than
1,000 prisoners. Fighting was kept up in this locality throughout the
following day. The Austro-G