e
toward the end of October. Apparently the German plan was to make a
triple attack on the Baltic fortress. From the south another drive was
made against Dalen Island. From the southwest the new offensive
started from Mitau in the direction of Olai along the Mitau-Riga
railroad, and from the west reenforcements that had been concentrated
at Tukum advanced on both sides of Lake Babit. However, this
offensive, too, was unsuccessful. Especially that started along the
north shore of Lake Babit proved costly to the Germans. There the
stretch of land between the gulf and the lake is nowhere more than
three miles wide, and in many places not that wide. Through its entire
length flows the Aa. It is only sparsely wooded. Comparatively small
Russian forces successfully opposed the advancing Germans, whose
narrow front was easily dominated and driven back by machine guns and
field artillery; from the gulf, too, Russian war vessels trained their
guns on the Germans, and the attack was quickly broken up with
considerable losses to the attackers and only small losses to the
defenders. Against these conditions the Germans seemed to be helpless.
They fell back along the north shore of Lake Babit and along the Aa
toward their base at Schlock. This, of course, necessitated a
simultaneous withdrawal of the German forces on the south shore of the
lake. The Russians immediately followed up their advantage, and by
November 6, 1915, the Germans had withdrawn all their forces from
along the north side of the Tirul Marshes. About that time the Germans
withdrew beyond the Aa to its west bank, and on November 8, 1915, the
Russians stormed the village of Kemmern, about five miles west of
Schlock. During the next two weeks, November 8 to 22, 1915, continuous
fighting took place to the north of the Schlock-Tukum railroad. This
resulted in the storming by the Russians of the villages of Anting and
Ragasem on the shores of Lake Kanger and the withdrawal of the
Germans beyond the west shore of this lake.

As early as the beginning of November weather conditions had made
fighting on a large scale impossible for a few weeks. Attacks and
counterattacks, such as we have just described, were still kept up in
front of Dvinsk and Riga, it is true, but they gradually lost in
extent and severity and brought practically no changes of any
importance. Along the rest of the front, down to the Vilia, the
fighting assumed, like everywhere else on the eastern front,