New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-03

army was almost destroyed that by using
his strategic railways, by making full use
Of his troops, superior in morale, in train
ing, in equipment, the great German com
mander almost succeeded in envelOping the
Russian Polish army. Two factors served
to block the second great German bid for
decision. the weather and the great nu-
Imerical superiority of Russian reserves. By
all the seasonal calculations Polish roads
should have been frozen solid; they were
river of mud. Winter, which in Napo-
Icons invasion had begun prematureIy,
now held of with equal perversity. From
the closing sides of the German net the
Russians slipped safely. At LODI their
losses were enormous; but when the battle
was over, when they had withdrawn, they
stood behind the Bzura as solidly as the
Belgians behind the User.
In the eastern campaign the Battle Of
LODI was wholly comparable with that OF
the Marine in the west. At the Marine the
Germans lost and retreated, at LODI they
won a local success and advanced q few
more miles, but these two conflicts were
the decisive engagements Of the war to
Nav /; in both Germany failed in the
battle which was TO dispose Of nation.
BY January she was at standstill in
Poland as in Northern France, the great
prize had escaped her. only the incidental
advantage had been brought home. She
had set out to destroy an army first IN the
west, then in the east, she had won some
kilometres or versts Of territory, captured
some hundreds Of thousands Of French
and Russians, demonstrated the superior
ity Of her organization in both fields, but
the war was beginning, not ending.
Not only had Germany failed to get
decision in Poland, but as the Russian
lines at the Bzura and the Rawa held, as
German attack was halted here as 1t had
been in Flanders, with the same terrific
losses, there came to Berlin a new appeal
from Vienna. To crush Russian resist
ance, or at least TO relieve Russian press
ure on Austria, Germany had made her
desperate campaign through LODI. But
Russian pressure had not been lessened.
The Car had evacuated Western Poland
to hold Galicia. His armies were still
about Przemysl and again on the crests
of the Carpathians. Only before Cracow
had they recoiled to take up the strong
position behind the Dunajec and the Nida.
German high command therefore
turned from Poland to Galicia and once
more fell back upon the familiar German
strategy of development. East from
Cracow an Austro-German army was
pushed. North over the Carpathians
toward Przemysl came a second. Finally,
from Bukovina, now largely in Russian
hands, a third force was pushed toward
Stanislau and Lemberg. The Cracow and
Bukovina forces threatened the rear Of
the whole Russian military establishment
in Galicia The Carpathian expedition
beat against the front, behind which the
garrison Of Przemysl was sallying forth.
Again a grandiose conception failed.
The Cracow army was stopped at the
Dunajec, the Carpathian army was una
BILE to clear the lower slopes on the Cali
clan side Of the mountains, the Bukovina
army swept the crownland clear Of Rus
slams, penetrated Russian territory and
occupied much Of Eastern Galicia, but in
March Przemysl fell and the release Of
the besieging army transformed the
whole situation in Galicia and put the
Austro-German forces on the defensive.
AS the Polish army had escaped envelop-
.ment by retreat, the Galician army Of the
Car had avoided it by victory. The hope
of a decision in Galicia had gone glim-
mering, as had that in Poland.
Meantime a new Russian offensive
claimed attention. While the German
waves were beating upon the Bzura-Rawa
lines the Russians had sent an army for
ward into East Prussia, had resumed the
attack upon the German line of defence
along the Mazurian Lakes, were carrying
the torch far into the province nearest
the heart of Prussian aristocracy. To
check this became now imperative, and
late in January Hindenburg made the one
thoroughly successful campaign of the
whole winter in the east, the campaign
that eliminated at the Battle of Mazurian
Lakes, in the rout Of the Russian army
and its fight from East Prussia to the
Niemen and the Narew. Brilliant in it.
self, however, the success was without de-
cisive consequences. Pursuit was stopped
in the marshes and morasses Of the Su-
walk Province, the fortress Of Ossowetz
checked one force, Russian achievements
defeated another at Przasnysz. Already
the growing pressure in the west, the ever
mounting peril to Austria in the Carpa-
thians, made demands on German high
The close Of the winter campaign in
the east shows Germany the gamer in a