Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-25
Would Compel German Drawback.

This would inevitably compel the Ger
mans TO draw back on all their eastern
front, now extending from Pinsk to the
environs of Riga: it would mean the
! surrender of all the Russian territory
that has been occupied. save only Rus
sian Poland and possibly a portion of
the Courland. Ii would mean a retire
rnent to the line of the Niemen and the
Bug. Russia would by a single blow
| recover more than half of what she lost
last summer.
Turning south. the situation would be
this: Having taken Kovel, the Russians
would be able to push westward to the
Bug, which offers the next strongest
defensive position. But on the east
bank of the Bug they would be west
ward of Lemberg. If at the same time
they had succeeded in pushing west
ward along the Dniester beyond stan
Islau they would threaten LemberS
from the south-that is, by double
envelopm ent-and reproduce 1.-THE sit
uation of 1914. when the Austrian
armies fighting in wide semi-circle
before the Galician capital We're out
fanked to the north and south and
forced to retire, in a disorder that be-
came a rout. upon the San and Prem
ysl. thus abandoning more than half
| of Galicia.
| 1t is fair to say, then. that if the Rus
/ slams are able to keep up their ad-
vance, WnlCn is sui uncnecktU on June
20. when these lines are written. until
! they reach Kovel and pass Stanislau.
then the Austrian army in Galicia Will
! have to go back out of Lemberg and
| to the San; the German army will have
| to come back upon Brest -Litovsk,
Bielostok and kovno. and the map of
eastern Europe will have been brought
| back a long way toward its form of
just year ago. with the further de-
tail that the offensive will still belong
/ Low
/ The 1915 Parallel.
| The best way to explain the present
movement in it's widest possibilities is
to turn to the great German offensive
of last summer. That began by far
smaller immediate and local victory
| than the Russians have already
achieved. Mackensen at the Duna jec
| broke the Russian line on front of
less than twenty miles, originally.
| Through this gap he poured huge
| forces, just as the Russians are pour
! ing huge forces through the two great
gaps that they have cut in the Aus
trian lines. The Russians then began
( to draw back their troops on both sides
| of the break and endeavored to make
| a stand at the San river.
This stand was made for some days,
I long enough to permit reconcentra-
! ton of Russian armies and prevent the
! development of the forces in the Car
pathians, but not long enough to con
solidate a position that could be held
/ Indefinitely. This phase exactly cor
I responds to the present attempt of the
| Germans and Austrians to consolida te
! a new position from Kovel to the Gnila
! Lipa and save Lemberg and the north
ern front.
Forced to leave the San. the Russians
went back to the Grodek lake line be-
| fore Lemberg, but again they were I'M
able to make a long stay here and were
! obliged to retreat again until they
| stood behind the Sereth, and, having
/ lost Dubno and Lutsk, reached the lines
/ that they subsequently held until the
/ present operation. But this retirement
! uncovered the center in Poland, and II
was compelled to retreat first from
! Warsaw and then from Brest-Litovsk.
/ If the Russians are able to turn the
| Austro German forces out of KoVel and
Lemberg. the parallel will be patent
and the results Will be felt along the
whole German front.
Here you have plain evidence of the
! consequences of successful breakin 8
! of trench lines on wide front and at
two separated points The situation in
the west would have been similar if last
September the French and British had
got through in Champagne and in Ar
tots. Then the German armies between
the two points would have been com
PEELED to draw back to avoid envelop-
ment, and the western front might have
been carried back at least to the French
Tor to he 10