imated, could take the front in ten days.
From this district five army corps are raised. From the Odessa
district to the south two more army corps could be counted upon, and
these could reach the scene of operations in twelve or thirteen
days. In actual speed of mobilization the Austrian army was ready
first, but the Russian army protected and covered the slow
mobilization and concentration of its forces by a dense curtain of
cavalry masses, for which task the rapidly mobilized Cossack cavalry
was especially well fitted. These cavalry engagements--for the
Russians were met by the Hungarian cavalry--effectually screened the
actual gathering of the armies, and led Austria into the error of
supposing Russia to be quite unready. But, although Austria had been
the first to begin actual mobilization, her strategic railways on
the frontier were so poor that it was not until August 10, 1914,
that she was ready to advance, and even then that single line of
railroad running from the Bug to the Vistula was deficient in
rolling stock. Austrian military organization was excellent,
Hungarian railroad organization was utterly inadequate to cope with
the sudden requirements of modern warfare.

The Austrian army advanced on Russia in force, expecting the success
of the German armies to the east. From the plans as they developed,
and particularly from railroad orders given to the lines crossing
Germany, it was expected that before Russia could be mobilized
sufficiently to do more than give a temporary check to the Austrian
army, several German army corps could be released from the western
front and sent to the Russian border to take the burden of Russian
invasion away from Austria. But the resistance of Belgium against
Von Kluck's armies, the resistance of France against the armies of
the crown prince, and the resistance of England to all naval action,
prevented any release of the German armies, and the mobilization
orders for the transference of German troops from the western
theatre to the eastern theatre of war during the first few weeks of
the struggle proved to be unavailing, for the men could not be
spared. Slowly but heavily the mobilization of Russian forces
continued. Lacking strategic railroads, lacking the motor-lorry
system of England, the heavy-footed but untiring Russian infantry
marched the scores and hundreds of miles from their homes to the
front. The Russian dirigibles and aeroplanes were more than a match
for the Aus