New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-23
Mackensen's Great
Victory Takes on
New Importance
aSCause of Rus.
sia's Collapse
Bv FRANK H. SIMONDS
Author Of THE World War;" They Shall
Not Pass"

The events OF the past SIX months IN
prssia have served TO change entirely the
rersrsctives of the world. Two years ago,
whom Russia. after great defeats, managed
70 save her armies and at the last to rally
2, d stand on her new front from Riga
the Rumanian frontier, the world be-
o .ved that Germany had missed the larger
objective of her great campaign and failed
q, dispose of Russia as she failed to dis
= :. of France in the preceding campaign
A. the Marine and User.
Last year, when Russia made her great
. successful offensive from the Pripet
y srshes to the Dniester and captured and
4 stroved vast Austrian forces, the judg-
II mt of the preceding year was seemingly
confirmed and the failure of the German
,anpaicn Of 1915 seemed established. But
subsequent events have changed that judg-
nept. We see now that the effect of Rus
sian defeats in 1915 was to shake the whole
structure Of the Russian Empire. Autoc-
recv took alarm and sought to make terms
81 III the enemy, thus betraying Russia.
Then the Russian leaders, the men of the
Duma. Joined hands with the revolutionists
and the Romanoff Gar fell. But there
after came anarchy and the almost
tc .a Reorganization of Russian military
strength.
As result Russia has failed in this
critical year to play a part In t5e Allied
campaign and we have he's TO recognize
the possibility that Rsssian participation
is over. Accordingly, the events of 1915
"a . a new value. We see that the en-
pre was actually ruined at the Dunajec,
3, the Napoleonic edifce was ruined at
lepzig. We see that German purpose
"a. accomplished at least temporarily,
ms permanently, and Russia for
roriod eliminated from the war.
,s..... I'd by its consequences, the Duna-
Zee is thus established as one Of the great
battles Of human history, one of the few
decisive battles.
4 riingly, / have thought it worth
,-. D.. t this time to review this great
struggle as | reviewed the Marine year
ago. For the Marine, the Dunajec and
Nerdun are the three great struggles OF
the World War to the present moment,
AID. unlike the two struggles on French
territory, the Dunajec is little known to
American readers.
To the Rescue Of Austria
On May Day, 1915, huge German
.gmy, under Field Marshal Won Macken-
son. attacked the Russian army COM
handed by Bulgarian general, Radko
D;mitrieff, and, standing between the
[ lnaiec and Biala rivers, some thirty
, lies east of Cpacow, wellnigh destroyed
j. and began that long offensive which was
ct 10 end until German armies had pene-
E ated deeply into Russian territory, taken
arsaw and Brest-Litovsk and tempo
"a rily paralyzed Russian military power
The conditions under which this battle
IS fought are simply told. From the
Z tile of Lemberg onward Germany had
So jght steadily to bolster up the shaken
a Istrian armies. She had endeavored by
costly offensive after another directed
Warsaw from her own territory to re-
We the pressure upon her ally, throw the
L lssians back behind the Vistula and the
\ emen and compel them to give over
d cir great effort to crush Austria. None
o these efforts had been a complete sue
cess. or vet total failure. The victories
OF Hindenburg at Tannenberg and the
Nasurian Lakes had taken terrible tol
Of Russian troops. Russian victories over
re Austrians at Lemberg and atterward
!, 1t missed dealing the final blow TO tne
hapsburg armies because Of German aid
omptly given and efficiently admins
tired.
But long before spring came the Ger
n ans had recognized that it was no longer
rJssible to save Austria by offensives dl-
Y, ected from Breslau, POsen or East
Prussia upon Warsaw. They had per-
ceived. too, that it was not going to be pos
sible to renew their bid for a decision IN
the West until they had settled with Rus
STA by inflcting a sweeping and complete
defeat upon the Cars armies which
sbopId eliminate them from the reckoning
and might procure a separate peace by
producing such a revolution within Russia
as would dispose of the Slav enemy Tor
the duration of the war. At the least, they
were now determined to drive the Russian
armies from Austrian territory and so dis
organize their military establishment as
to gain time and opportunity to 60 west
again.
Having resolved that their major cam
paign for 1916 should be made IN the
East, the Germans had to decide at what
point they would make their main often
sve. The failures along the Nlemen-
Narew-Bobr line from Grodno to the Wis
tula the bloody repulses on the Bzura- |