(German Press Headquarters in Galicia, May 4, 1915.)
Reports of prisoners are unanimous in describing the effect of the
artillery fire of the Teutonic allies as more terrible than the
imagination can picture. The men, who were with difficulty recovering
from the sufferings and exertions they had undergone, agreed that they
could not imagine conditions worse in hell than they had been for four
hours in the trenches. Corps, divisions, brigades, and regiments
melted away as though in the heat of a furnace. In no direction was
escape possible, for there was no spot of ground on which the four
hundred guns of the Teutonic allies had not exerted themselves. All
the Generals and Staff Officers of one Russian division were killed or
wounded. Moreover, insanity raged in the ranks of the Russians, and
from all sides hysterical cries could be heard rising above the roar
of our guns, too strong for human nerves. Over the remnants of the
Russians who crowded in terror into the remotest corners of their
trenches there broke the mighty rush of our masses of infantry, before
which also the Russian reserves, hurrying forward, crumbled away.
[Illustration: The Routes to Lemberg
At least four Austro-German armies were operating toward Lemberg, the
capital of Eastern Galicia, which Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander in
Chief of the Russian Army, evacuated on June 23 to escape being
surrounded. After the recapture of Przemysl (1) one army advanced
along the railroad to Lemberg and captured Grodek, (2,) where the
Russians were expected to make a possibly successful stand at the line
of the lakes. Another, advancing along the railroad from Jaroslau,
(3,) took Krakowice, Jaworow, Skio, Janow, and Zolkiew (4). A third,
advancing from Sieniawa, (5,) apparently was joined by forces which
took Tarnogrod (6) and on June 21 captured Rawa Ruska, (7,) thus
cutting the Russian communications and line of retreat to the north.
Finally an army, operating from Stryi, (8,) drove the Russians across
the Dniester.]