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On the 7th the Russians were again repulsed in the Mazurian Lakes region. Throughout that month and January, 1915, very severe fighting took place in the Carpathian Mountains, and by the end of January, 1915, the Austro-Hungarian forces were in possession of all the passes, but had not been able to drive the Russians from the north side of the mountains.
On no front, not on the sun-scorched plains of Mesopotamia, nor in the frozen Mazurian marshes, nor in the blood-soaked mud of Flanders, does the fighting man lead so arduous an existence as up here on the roof of the world. I remember standing with an Italian officer in an observatory in the lower mountains. The powerful telescope was trained on the snow-covered summit of one of the higher peaks.
At the end of another week, February 24, 1915, the Russians had been driven out of the Bukowina. Von Hindenburg had followed up his new success at the Mazurian Lakes with a drive into North Poland, undoubtedly with the object of invading Courland. Hardly had it gotten under way when the Galician fortress of Przemysl was forced to surrender on March 22, 1915.
Feb. 21 American steamer Evelyn sunk by mine in North sea. Feb. 22 German war office announces capture of 100, Russian prisoners in engagements in Mazurian lake region; American steamer Carib sunk by mine in North sea. Feb. 28 Dardanelles entrance forts capitulate to English and French.
The winter battles of the Mazurian Lakes had forced the armies at the northern end of the Russian right flank back into their great fortresses Kovno and Grodno, and behind the line of the Niemen and the Bobr.
In the meanwhile the Russians were pressing their attacks against East Prussia with renewed vigor and greatly augmented forces, and by February 7, 1915, had again advanced to the Mazurian Lakes. In a battle lasting nine days, Von Hindenburg once more defeated the Russian army and drove it back into North Poland, inflicting very heavy losses.
But about August 22, 1914, Germany awoke to the danger of the Russian invasion. General von Hindenburg was put in command in the east, and in the battle of Tannenberg, which lasted from August 22 to 27, 1914, inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Russian armies, capturing tens of thousands of its soldiers and driving as many more to their deaths in the swamp lands of the Mazurian Lakes.
He sent one column in from the south to drive back the Russians who occupied the Mazurian lake gateway to East Prussia, and another column from the north was swung around in wide circles to the east and south, aiming to join hands with the southern German column, thus cutting off the Russian retreat.
The Belgians occupy a difficult and extremely uncomfortable position, for these Flemish lowlands were inundated in order to check the German advance, and as a result they are in the midst of a vast swamp, which, in the rainy season, becomes a lake. They are, in fact, fighting under conditions not encountered on any other front save in the Mazurian marshes.
The shattering of the Tenth Russian Army in the "winter battle" of the Mazurian Lakes was part of a greater conflict which in February, 1915, extended far down the armies on the right flank of the great Russian battle line which ran from the Baltic to the Dniester. A "new gigantic plan" of the Slavs was involved.
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