_A semi-official dispatch by the Wolff Telegraphic Bureau, dated
Berlin, June 27, reported as follows:_
From the Great Headquarters we have received the following telegram
about the battle for Grodek and the Wereszyca position:
In the night from the 15th to the 16th of June the enemy began his
retreat in front of the allied troops in an easterly and northeasterly
direction. He was now unquestionably withdrawing to his defenses on
the Wereszyca and the so-called Grodek position. The Wereszyca is a
little stream that rises in the hilly lands of Magierow and flows in a
southerly course to the Dniester. Insignificant as the streamlet is in
itself, it yet forms, because of the width of its valley and the ten
rather large lakes in it, a locality peculiarly well fitted for
defense.
Whatever was lacking to the situation in natural strength had been
supplied by art. This the Russians displayed above all in the Grodek
position which, joining the Wereszyca on the north at Janow, stretches
for a distance of more than 70 kilometres in a northwestern direction
as far as the region of Narol Miasto. Thousands of laborers had here
worked for months to construct a fortified position which does honor
to the Russian engineers. Here extensive clearings have been made in
the forests. Dozens of works for infantry defense, hundreds of
kilometres of rifle trenches, covering and connecting trenches, had
been dug, the hilly forest land quite transformed, and finally vast
wire entanglements stretched along the entire Wereszyca and Grodek
front. Taken as a whole this position formed the last great bulwark
with which the Russians hoped to check their victorious opponents and
to bring their advance upon Lemberg to a permanent halt.
The Russian army found itself incapable of acting up to these
expectations of its leaders. A cavalry regiment of the Guard, with the
cannon and machine guns assigned to it, succeeded on the 16th of June,
on the road Jaworow-Niemirow, in making a surprise attack on a Russian
infantry brigade marching northward to the Grodek position and in
scattering it in the forests. In the evening the city of Niemirow was
stormed. On the 18th of June the armies of General von Mackensen
deployed into line of battle before the Russian positions. On the
following day they moved to the attack. Early in the morning the
decisive onslaught was made on the Grodek position and in the evening
on the Wereszyca line. Very soon the hostile positions on both sides
of the Sosnina forest were taken. Four of the enemy's guns were
captured, and the Russian positions on Mt. Horoszyko, which had been
built up into a veritable fortress, were stormed.
The main attack was made by regiments of the Prussian Guard. Before
them lay, to the west of Magierow, Hill 350. Even from a distance it
can be seen that this elevation, rising to a height of fifty metres
above the slope, is the key to the whole position. The defenses
consisted of two rows of trenches, lying one over the other, with
strong cover, and with wire entanglements and abattis in front of
them. At daybreak began the artillery battle. This already at six
o'clock in the morning resulted in the complete subduing of the
Russian artillery, which, as always in the recently preceding days,
held back and only very cautiously and with sparing use of ammunition
took part in the battle. At seven the hostile position was considered
ripe for storming and the infantry attack ordered. Although the forces
manning the heights still took up the fire against the attackers, it
was without, however, inflicting on them losses worth mentioning. The
German heavy artillery had done its duty. The enemy was so demoralized
that, although in the beginning he kept up his fire, he preferred to
absent himself before the entry of the Germans into his trenches.
More than 700 prisoners and about a dozen machine guns fell into the
hands of the attackers. In the ditches that were taken alone there lay
200 dead Russians. In the meantime the attack was directed against the
neighboring sections. Soon the Russians found themselves compelled
also to vacate without giving battle the very strong position running
north of the street that leads to Magierow, with its front toward the
south. Since the German troops were able to penetrate with the fleeing
enemy into Magierow and to advance north of the city toward the east,
the position at Bialo-Piaskowa also became untenable. The Russians
flowed backward and only at Lawryko again tried to get a firm
footing. Late in the evening a Guard regiment took the railroad
station of Dabrocin, where but a short time before the Russians had
been trans-shipping troops, and thus won the Lemberg-Rawa-Ruska road.
The adjoining corps in the evening stood about on a level with the
regiments of the Guard. Again penetration of the Russian front had
succeeded to a width of 25 kilometres, and the fate of Lemberg had
been decided here and on the Wereszyca. This line was stormed late in
the evening and partly in the early morning hours of the 20th of June.
The German corps, which on this day had been joined by the German
Emperor, stormed the hostile positions of Stawki as far as the Bulawa
outwork. Since the morning hours of the 20th of June the enemy, who in
places had already withdrawn in the night, was in full retreat toward
the east along the whole front. The pursuit was at once undertaken. On
the evening of the same day Royal and Imperial troops stood close
before the fortifications of Lemberg.