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This greatly improved the Austro-German positions before Halicz. This, in conjunction with the severe losses, which the Russians had suffered, resulted in a reduction of fighting and, at least for the time being, the Russian attempts to reach Lemberg ceased.
Led by Alexander Kerensky, the revolutionary minister of war, and observed by American army officers, they forced the Teutons to evacuate Brzezany, and then captured many important positions, including terrain west and south of Halicz and strongly-defended positions northwest of Stanislau. On July 11 Halicz was taken, thus smashing the Austro-German front between Brzezany and the Carpathians.
At last, about 8 o'clock in the evening of August 10, 1916, the Russians under General Lechitsky entered Stanislau from where the Austro-German troops had previously retired in good order in a northerly direction against Halicz. Farther north, in the region of Buczacz and Zalocze, the Russian advance likewise progressed, though somewhat slower.
On October 14, 1916, coincident with the new Austro-German offensive in the Carpathians, the Russians again attacked in force near Zboroff, while the Germans attempted an advance south of Halicz. These undertakings gradually developed, and by October 15, 1916, the battle was again raging furiously all along the line east of Lemberg.
On July 19, 1917, east of Brzezany, to the south of Szybalin, Austro-German troops made repeated attacks and occupied a portion of the Russian first-line trenches. Austrian efforts to attack south of Brzezany were repelled by gun and rifle fire. West of Halicz detachments occupying the village of Bludniki retired, whereupon the Austrians, profiting by this movement, occupied the place.
The Austro-Hungarians were forced to retire behind the lower course of the Lomnitza River, and at the end of the day the road to Lemberg, only sixty-three miles northwest of Halicz, seemed seriously threatened from the south. Earlier in the day sanguinary battles occurred on the road to Halicz in the region of the villages of Huciska, Pacykov, and Pavelone.
The surmise that Halicz, the important railroad point on the Dniester, was soon to fall into the hands of the Russians, provided they were able to keep up the strength and swiftness of their offensive, was proved correct on July 10, 1917. Late that day the news that Halicz had fallen on July 9, 1917, into Russian hands came from Petrograd.
If the Austrians could not force a victory at these points, their position in Stanislawow would be untenable, since the Russians still had a clear road to pour reenforcements into the fighting area between the Dniester and the Carpathians. On March 1, 1915, the Austrians were defeated at Halicz in a pitched battle, and on the 4th the Russians reentered Stanislawow.
Similar engagements occurred at various other points on the Lemberg sector, and in some instances were preceded by heavy artillery fire. The net result of all this fighting made practically no change in the relative positions, except that it gave an opportunity to the Austro-Germans to strengthen their positions near Halicz and to bar the way to Lemberg more efficiently than ever.
Throughout the next few days the Russians continued to hurl attack after attack against the Austro-German lines, stretching, to the west of Lemberg, from Brody to Halicz.
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