e only thing to do
was to retreat steadily until Germany's mass of war material should be
used up, even though miles of territory should be sacrificed. It should
be a retreat in close contact with the enemy, so that the Austro-German
troops would have to fight for every mile. This meant a retreat not for
days, but perhaps for weeks. It meant that Przemysl must be given up,
and Lemberg, and even Warsaw, but the safety of the Russian army was of
more importance than a province or a city.

On May 18th the German War Office announced their successes in the
following terms: "The army under General von Mackensen in the course of
its pursuit of the Russians reached yesterday the neighborhood of
Subiecko, on the lower Wisloka, and Kolbuezowa, northeast of Debica.
Under the pressure of this advance the Russians also retreated from
their positions north of the Vistula. In this section the troops under
General von Woyrach, closely following the enemy, penetrated as far as
the region northwest of Kielce. In the Carpathians Austro-Hungarian and
German troops under General von Linsingen conquered the hills east of
the Upper Stryi, and took 8,660 men prisoners, as well as capturing six
machine guns. At the present moment, while the armies under General von
Mackensen are approaching the Przemysl fortresses and the lower San, it
is possible to form an approximate idea of the booty taken. In the
battles of Tarno and Gorlika, and in the battles during the pursuit of
these armies, we have so far taken 103,500 Russian prisoners, 69 cannon,
and 255 machine guns. In these figures the booty taken by the Allied
troops fighting in the Carpathians, and north of the Vistula, is not
included. This amounts to a further 40,000 prisoners. Przemysl
surrendered to the German's on June 3, 1915, only ten weeks after the
Russian capture of the fortress, which had caused such exultation."

General von Mackensen continued toward Lemberg, the capital of Galicia.
On June 18th, when the victorious German armies were approaching the
gates of Lemberg, the Russian losses were estimated at 400,000 dead and
wounded, and 300,000 prisoners, besides 100,000 lost before Marshal von
Hindenburg's forces in Poland and Courland. On June 23d Lemberg fell.
The weakness of Russia in this campaign arose from the exhaustion of her
ammunition supplies, but great shipments of such supplies were being
constantly forwarded from Vladivostock.

When the German army crossed the San,