THAW AND SPRING FLOODS
With the coming of thaw and the resulting spring floods roads along
the eastern front, not any too good under the most favorable climatic
conditions, had become little else than rivers of mud. Many of them,
it is true, had been considerably improved during the long winter
months, especially on the German-Austrian side of the line. But in
many instances this improvement consisted simply of covering them with
planks in order to make it possible to move transports without having
wheels sink into the mud up to the axles. When the creeks and rivers
along the line were now suddenly transformed by the melting snows into
streams and torrents, much of this improvement was carried away and
many roads not only sank back into their former impossible state, but,
becoming thoroughly soaked and saturated with water in many places
became impassable even for infantry. Movements of large masses soon
were out of the question. To shift artillery, especially of the
heavier kind, as quickly as an offensive movement required, and to
keep both guns and men sufficiently supplied with munitions, were out
of the question. The natural result, therefore, of these conditions
was the prompt cessation of the Russian offensive which had been
started in March, 1916, just before the breaking up of a severe
winter.
However, this did not mean everywhere a return to the trench warfare,
such as had been carried on all winter, although in many parts of the
front activities on both sides amounted to little more. At other
points, however, offensive movements were kept up, even if they were
restricted in extent and force. Throughout the months of April and
May, 1916, no important changes took place anywhere on the eastern
front. A great deal of the fighting, almost all, indeed, was the
result of clashes between scouting detachments or else simply a
struggle for the possession of the most advantageous points, involving
in most instances only a trench here or another trench there, and
always comparatively small numbers of soldiers.
Though the story of this series of minor engagements as it can be
constructed from official reports and other sources offers few thrills
and is lacking entirely in the sensational accomplishments which mark
movements of greater extent and importance, this is due chiefly to the
fact that few details become known about fighting of only local
character. In spite of this it must be borne in mind that all of this
fighting was of the most determined kind, was done under conditions
requiring the greatest amount of endurance and courage, and resulted
in innumerable individual heroic deeds, which, just because they were
individual, almost always remained unknown to the outside world.
On April 1, 1916, a German attack against the bridgehead at Uxkull was
repulsed by Russian artillery. Farther south, in the Dvinsk sector
German positions were subjected to strong artillery bombardment at
many points, especially at Mechkele, and just north of Vidzy. On the
following day, April 2, 1916, fighting again took place in the Uxkull
region. Mines were exploded near Novo Selki, south of Krevo, a town
just south of the Viliya River. The Germans launched an attack north
of the Baranovitchy railway station. This is the strategically
important village through which both the Vilna-Rovno and the
Minsk-Brest-Litovsk railways pass and around which a great deal of
fighting had taken place in the past. Even though this attack was
extensively supported by aeroplanes, which bombarded a number of
railway stations on that part of the Minsk-Baranovitchy railway which
was in the hands of the Russians, it was repulsed by the Russians.
April 3, 1916, brought a renewal of the German attacks against the
Uxkull bridgehead. For over an hour and a half artillery of both heavy
and light caliber prepared the way for this attack. But again the
Russian lines held and the Germans had to desist. Before Dvinsk and to
the south of the fortress artillery duels inflicted considerable
damage without affecting the positions on either side. Just north of
the Oginski Canal German troops crossed the Shara River and attacked
the Russian positions west of the Vilna-Rovno railway, without being
able to gain ground. All along the line aircraft were busily engaged
in reconnoitering and in dropping bombs on railway stations.
The bombardment of the Uxkull region was again taken up on April 4,
1916, by the German artillery. South of Dvinsk, before the village of
Malogolska, the German troops had to evacuate their first-line of
trenches when the arising floods of neighboring rivers inundated them.
German aeroplanes bombarded the town of Luchonitchy on the Vilna-Rovno
railway, just southeast of Baranovitchy.
By April 5, 1916, the German artillery fire before Uxkull had spread
to Riga and Jacobstadt, as well as to many points in the Dvinsk
sector. Floods were still rising everywhere and the ice on the Dvina
began to break up.
Again on April 7, 1916, the German guns thundered against the Russian
front from Riga down to Dvinsk. Lake Narotch, where so many battles
had already been fought, again was the scene of a Russian attack which
resulted in the gain of a few advanced German positions. The next day
the Germans promptly replied with a determined artillery attack which
regained for their side some of the points lost the previous day.
Artillery duels also were staged near Postavy, in the Jacobstadt
sector, and at the northernmost end of the line where the German guns
bombarded the city of Schlock.
All day on April 9, 1916, the guns of all calibers kept up their
death-dealing work along the entire Dvina front, and in the Lake
district south of Dvinsk. The railway stations at Remershaf and Dvinsk
were bombarded by German aeroplanes, while other units of their
aircraft visited the Russian lines along the Oginski Canal. Both on
April 11 and 12, 1916, artillery activity on the Dvina was maintained.
A German infantry attack against the Uxkull bridgehead, launched on
the 11th, failed.
By this time the ice had all broken up and the floods had stopped
rising. In the Pinsk Marshes considerable activity developed on both
sides by means of boats. A vivid picture of conditions as they existed
at this time in the Pripet Marshes may be formed from the following
description from the pen of a special correspondent on the staff of
the Russian paper "Russkoye Slovo":
"The marshes," he writes, "have awakened from their winter sleep. Even
on the paved roads movement is all but impossible; to the right and
left everything is submerged. The small river S----en has become
enormously broad; its shores are lost in the distance.
"The marshes have awakened, and are taking their revenge on man for
having disturbed the ordinary life of Poliessie. But however difficult
the operation, the war must be continued and material obstacles must
be overcome. Owing to the enormous area covered by water the
inhabitants have taken to boat building. Sentries and patrols move in
boats, reconnoitering parties travel in boats, fire on the enemy from
boats, and escape in boats from the attentions of the German heavy
guns.
"The great marshy basin of the S----en and the P---- is full of new
boats, which are called 'baidaka.' These 'baidaka' are small,
constructed to hold three or four men. The boats are flat-bottomed and
steady. The scouts take the 'baidaka' on their shoulders, and as soon
as they come to deep water launch their craft and row to the other
side. Small oars or paddles are used, and punting operations are often
necessary.
"On the S----en these boats move with great secrecy in the night; in
the daytime they are hidden in rushes and reeds.
"It was a foggy day when we decided on making a voyage in a 'baidaka.'
'The Germans came very suddenly to this place,' said one of my
companions. 'Our soldiers are concealed everywhere.' We decided to row
near the forest, so that in case of necessity we might gain the
shelter of the trees. The silence was broken by occasional rifle
reports from the direction of Pinsk, and a big gun roared now and
then. Once a shell flew overhead, hissing as it went. But this was
very ordinary music to us.
"I was more interested in the intense silence of the marsh, for I knew
that all this silence was false. Our secret posts abounded, and
perhaps German scouts were in the vicinity. The marsh was full of men
in hiding, and the waiting for a chance shot was more terrible than a
continuous cannonade. Our sentinels fired twice close by; we did not
know why. The shots resounded in the forest. We lay down in our boat
and hid our heads. It was difficult for us to advance through the
undergrowth as the spaces between the bushes were generally very
narrow. We could not row, and we had to punt with our oars.
"We advanced in this fashion half an hour. Then we reached a lakelike
expanse clear of growth. 'This is the river S----en,' I was further
informed. 'The Germans are on the other side.'
"I could not see where the 'other side' was. The water spread to the
horizon and ended only in the purple border of the forest. 'We must be
quiet here,' one whispered. The boat moved along the river without a
splash, and strange, unaccustomed outlines grew up as we proceeded.
'What place is that yonder?' I asked my neighbor. 'Pinsk,' he replied.
I felt excited; we were near a town that was occupied by the Germans,
and I wished that boat would turn back.
"We got into the rushes and moved through the jungle as though we were
advancing in open water, for the path through the rushes had been
prepared in the autumn. We advanced in this manner forty minutes until
we could distinctly hear the whistling of steam engines and the bells
ringing in the monastery at Pinsk. It was evident that the monks had
remained. 'The kaiser himself was in Pinsk in November,' said one of
my companions, 'and we knew it. The Germans blew horns all over the
railway line and sang their national hymn. In Pinsk there was much
animation.'
"A minute or two later the boat stopped and I was told it was
dangerous to go farther. On the right we could see the outlines of
houses and of the quay at Pinsk, only about a thousand paces distant.
The town was covered by a thin mist and a faint fog was rising from
the marsh.
"'There on your left are their heavy guns.' I could see nothing except
some trenches near the quay.
"We took our leave of Pinsk. The twilight had arrived and it was
necessary to retire."
Though the ice on the rivers and lakes had well broken up by the
middle of April, thaw, of course, steadily increased, and with it the
volume of water carried by the creeks and rivers. More and more
difficult it became, therefore, to carry out military operations, and,
as a result of these conditions, they were especially limited at this
period.
In spite of this the Russians attempted local advance on April 13,
1916, in the region of Garbunovka, northwest of Dvinsk and south of
Lake Narotch; however, though their losses were quite heavy, they
could not gain any ground. This was also true of another local attack
made against the army of Prince Leopold of Bavaria near Zirin, on the
Servetsch River northeast of Baranovitchy. Similarly unsuccessful were
German attacks made the same day between Lakes Sventen and Itzen.
German artillery still kept up its work along the entire front,
especially at Lake Miadziol, south of Dvinsk at Lake Narotch, and at
Smorgon, the little railroad station south of the Viliya River on the
Vilna-Minsk railway.
On the following day, April 14, 1916, the Russians repeated their
efforts in the Servetsch region. After strong artillery preparation
they launched another attack near Zirin, and southeast of Kovelitchy,
but were again repulsed. The same fate was suffered by an attack
attempted northwest of Dvinsk. South of Garbunovka, however, they
registered a slight local success. After cutting down four lines of
barbed-wire obstacles that had been erected by the Germans, they
stormed and occupied two small hills west and south of this village.
This gain was maintained in the face of strongly concentrated
artillery and rifle fire, and repeated German counterattacks, which
later proved very sanguinary to the German troops. German artillery
again directed violent fire against the Russian positions between Lake
Narotch and Lake Miadziol and near Smorgon. A German attack made
northwest of the latter village broke down under Russian gunfire.
At this point the Germans resumed their offensive at daybreak on April
15, 1916, after strong artillery preparation accompanied by the use of
asphyxiating gas. Concentrated fire from the Russian artillery,
however, prohibited any noticeable advance. During the following day,
April 16, 1916, both sides restricted themselves more or less to
artillery bombardments, which became especially violent on the Dvina
line, around the Uxkull bridgehead, and in the neighborhood of the
Russian positions south of the village of Garbunovka, as well as
between Lake Narotch and Lake Miadziol.
Two days later, on April 18, 1916, German detachments temporarily
regained some of the ground lost about a week before south of
Garbunovka. Again on that day the guns on both sides roared along the
entire northern sector of the eastern front. On the 19th the
bombardment became especially intense at the bridgehead at Uxkull and
south of lake.
The artillery attack against the former was maintained throughout the
following two days. German scouting parties which crossed the river
Shara, north of the Oginski Canal, on April 22, 1916, were surrounded
in the woods adjoining and practically annihilated. On the same day a
German squadron of ten aeroplanes bombarded the Russian hangars on the
island of Oesel, a small island in the Baltic across the entrance to
the Gulf of Riga.
As if both sides had agreed to observe the Easter holidays, a lull set
in during the next four or five days. Only occasional unimportant
local attacks and artillery duels were reported. Aeroplanes were the
only branch of the two armies which showed any marked activity. Dvinsk
was visited repeatedly by German machines and extensively bombarded.
On April 26, 1916, a German airship dropped bombs on the railway
station at Duna-Muende, at the mouth of the Dvina, and caused
considerable damage. Other railway stations and warehouses at various
points, as well as a number of Russian flying depots, were attacked on
April 27, 1916.
The end of April, 1916, brought one more important action, the most
important, indeed, which had occurred anywhere on the eastern front
since the Russian offensive of the latter half of March, 1916. On
April 28, 1916, at dawn, German artillery began a very violent
bombardment of the Russian positions south of Lake Narotch. There,
between the village of Stavarotche and the extensive private estate of
Stakhovtsy, the Germans had lost a series of important trenches on
March 20, 1916, during the early part of the short Russian offensive.
Part of these positions had been recaptured a few days later on March
26, 1916. Now, after a considerable artillery preparation, a strong
attack was launched with the balance of the lost ground as an
objective. Large bodies of German infantry came on against the Russian
positions in close formation. They recaptured not only all of the
ground lost previously but carried their attack successfully into the
Russian trenches beyond. The most fierce hand-to-hand fighting
resulted. Losses on both sides were severe, especially so on the part
of the Russians, who attempted unsuccessfully during the night
following to regain the lost positions by a series of violent
counterattacks, executed by large forces of infantry, who, advancing
in close formation over difficult ground, were terribly exposed to
German machine-gun fire and lost heavily in killed and wounded. The
Germans officially claimed to have captured as a result of this
operation the remarkably large number of fifty-six officers, 5,600
men, five guns, twenty-eight machine guns and ten trench mortars.
During the same day artillery attacks were directed against Schlock on
the Gulf of Riga and Boersemnende near Riga, as well as against
Smorgon, south of the Lake district. An infantry attack, preceded by
considerable artillery preparation, near the village of Ginovka, west
of Dvinsk, was met by severe fire from the Russian batteries and the
Germans were forced to withdraw to their trenches. In the early
morning hours German airships bombarded railway stations along the
Riga-Petrograd railroad as far as Venden, about fifty miles northeast
of Riga, and along the Dvinsk-Petrograd railway as far as Rzezytsa,
about fifty miles northeast of Dvinsk. At the latter point
considerable damage was done by a dirigible which dropped explosive
and incendiary bombs.
Throughout the last day of April, 1916, artillery duels were fought
again at many points. Once more the railway station and bridgehead at
Uxkull was made the target for a most violent German artillery attack.
Along the Dvinsk sector, too, guns of all caliber were busy.