Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-08-03
The Great Russian Drive
Possible Result of Thrust
BY FRANK H. sIMoNDs,
AUTHOR OF THE GREAT WAR;

uVo OUuVU ~
AUTHOR OF THE GREAT WAR;"
1917-The Tribune Association, Ne>
fanwise. There is the northern Lem
erg-Tarncpol line, the Lemberg-
Brzezany line, the southern line from
TarnopOl to Lemberg, which crosses
the Zlota Lipa just south of Brzezany
and is in German hands west of the
river. Finally there is the Halicz-Lem-
berg line. The only other railroad of
immediate interest is the Lemberg-
Rowno line, which comes southwest
through Brody, enters the Austro-Ger-
man lines a few miles west of Brody
and joins the northernmost Tarnopol-
Lemberg line at Krasne, 20 miles east
of Lemberg.
The chief Russian success was
achieved just north of B%rzezany about
the own of koniuchy, which has no
very great Importance of any sort.
Similar attacks to the south Of
Brzezany were not as successful. Taken
together, they suggest an attempt to
enctrcle Brzezady, to draw a loop about
it and compel the Germans M Aus
TRANS to evacuate it. Such an evacua-
ton would mean the REIMBURSEMENT of
all Of the line Of the Zlota Lipa, the
southern portion Of which has been in
Russian hands since last autumn.
trians to give up the Zlota Lipa line,
u they withdrew in good order to the
line OF the Gnila Lipa, a dozen miles to
the west. and there made their real de-
tense Of Lemberg. They were defeated
on this line because they were outnum-
bered and Brussiloff was able to get
around their right flank and turn them
U or Halicz. the point at which the
emilia Lipa enters the Dniester.
No Present Military Gain.
But it is essential to recognize now
that a retirement from Brzezany to the
Gnila Lipa would be Of no immediate
military consequence. Actually the line
OF the emilia Lipa, which is prolonged
by the Bug river north of the Lem
berg Brody railroad, would be a retire.
ment to the strongest position from
which to defend Lemberg. Last year ali
military observers expected that such
a retirement would ultimately take
place when the regrouping of the
armies of the central power was COM
pleted. 1t did not take place because
the Rumanian episode and the Russian
collapse followed suddenly and left the
Austro-Germans free from pressure.
1t is quite easy to understand the Sit
uation If you place yourself, theoretic-
ally, in Lemberg and turn your face
eastward. Twenty miles eastward is a.
highland, Tut, of which flow two
streams, the n north to the Baltic,
the other south to the Black sea. At
the point where they leave this high
land the two reams are hardly five
miles apart; together they constitute a
barrier to Lemberg, a line Of water be-
hind which armies could stand with
every chance Of success that ground
could offer. Now, if the Russians sue
coed in forcing this natural barrier as
they did in 1914, it is exceedingly
doubtful if Lemberg could be defended,
for the next natural line is westward of
the town.
But at no point have the Russians
reached this barrier. On the contrary,
they are still struggling to get over a
second natural line another 20 miles to
the eastward. supplied by the Rivers
Styr and Zlota Lipa, which also rise
in the watershed between the Baltic
and the Black sea and flow in opposite
directions. Up to the present time the
Russians have not succeeded in getting
west of the Styr from the highlands to
the Galician frontier, and the Austro-
German forces are east of the zlota
Ltpa as far south a Brzexany. 1t is
only below this town that they have
forced the river crossings, but between
B~rzezany and the Dniester the Russians
have driven in a wedge that brings
them within sight Of the city OF Halicz
and OF the Gnila Lipa line.
IN the next few days or weeks we
may zee the Austro-Germans, under
reneWed pressure, go back to the
Gnl'a Lapa; n may continue to hold
n west q OF the Styr or they may
retire 10 the Bug, u even so consid-
cradle a withdrawal would only mean
retiring upon the position In which.
they elected to defend Lemberg in 1914
from which they were turned out
by superior forces and by a movement
around their flank and south of the