United States or Kiribati ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
To the southward, and in a region very similar in all its characteristics, is the Volhynian triangle of fortresses: Lutsk, Dubno, and Rovno.
One part of these forces even swept as far westward as the region of the village of Demidovka, on the Mlynow-Berestetchko road, thirteen miles southwest of the Styr at Mlynow, compelling the enemy garrison of the Mlynow to surrender. Demidovka is twenty-five miles due west of Dubno. Thus the Russians have in Volhynia alone pushed the Austro-Hungarian lines back thirty-two miles.
This fortress, together with Dubno, farther south on the Ikwa, a tributary of the Styr, and with Rovno itself formed a very powerful triangle of permanent fortifications erected by Russia in very recent times.
Old Taras admired and said, "And he too will make a good warrior if the enemy does not capture him meanwhile. He is not Ostap, but he is a dashing warrior, nevertheless." The army decided to march straight on the city of Dubno, which, rumour said, contained much wealth and many rich inhabitants. The journey was accomplished in a day and a half, and the Zaporozhtzi appeared before the city.
At other points, too, the Austrian resistance stiffened perceptibly, especially in the region of Torgovitsa, and on the Styr below Lutsk. Dubno, a modern fortress, built, like Lutsk, mainly in support of Rovno, to ward off possible aggression, now supplied an excellent starting point for a Russian drive into the heart of Galicia.
By that time the thoughts of the Austrians and most of their troops were elsewhere; and just as the German campaign at Verdun was ruined by the Entente offensive on the Somme, the Austrian advance from the Trentino was stopped by the Russian attack in the East. In the first week of June Brussilov had gone through the Austrian lines like brown paper at Lutsk and Dubno.
On the 7th a strong attack was made also in the neighborhood of Dubno from the direction of Rovno without gaining ground. Isolated attacks of varying extent took place for a few more days. But by that time severe winter weather restricted operations in this sector just as it had done along the balance of the eastern front.
Lutsk is a minor fortress, the most westerly of the Volhynian triangle formed by Rovno, Dubno, and Lutsk. The town is the center of an important grain trade, and the districts of which it is the center contained before the war a considerable German colony. It is supposed to have been founded in the seventh century. In 1791 it was taken by Russia.
From June 4, 1916, to August 1, 1916, the Russians had regained some 15,000 square miles in Volhynia, Galicia, and the Bukowina. Lutsk, Dubno, and Czernowitz were some of the valuable prizes which had fallen into the hands of the czar's armies. At the beginning of August, 1916, they now threatened the important railway centers of Kovel and Lemberg, the latter the capital of Galicia.
In two days the Russians advanced more than twenty miles, and on the 6th they entered Lutsk, the Archduke Joseph Ferdinand's headquarters, capturing enormous booty and many thousands of prisoners. On both sides the breach was widened; to the north Rojitche and to the south Dubno both fell on the 8th, and the Volhynian triangle passed completely into Russian hands.
Word Of The Day