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Updated: June 16, 2025
It is this railway sector, between Rovno and Kovel, that has been the objective of the Russian attacks ever since the Teuton offensive came to a standstill eight months ago, for its control would give the Russians a free hand to operate southward against the lines in Galicia. The gunner is ready and the officer is just giving the command to fire.
The territory that fell into German hands exceeded 50,000 square miles, with millions of inhabitants, containing some of the most valuable railway lines from a strategic point of view, and including besides Warsaw such important places as Mitau, Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Bialystok, Brest-Litovsk, Ivangorod, Cholm, Kovel, Pinsk.
Their triumph continued for another week: their salient was deepened by a further advance to Zaturtsky and Svidniki, within twenty-five miles of Kovel, and broadened by the fall of Kolki to the north and Demidovka and Kozin to the south. In less than a fortnight Kaledin and Sakharoff had covered fifty miles and taken 70,000 prisoners.
But Kovel was in serious danger, for the Russians had penetrated to Lokatchi due south of that fortress; and it was for its defence that Ludendorff organized the Austrian counter-offensive in the latter half of June. Kovel was saved. The Russian line was pressed back from Lokatchi to Zaturtsky, from Svidniki to Rojitche, and behind the Stokhod.
A fire was caused in the neighborhood of the Arnaville station. The aviation ground at Colmar and the fort of Zeebrugge were likewise bombarded. February 13, 1917, was an especially active day for Russian aeroplanes on the eastern front. They dropped bombs on the Povursk railway station, east of Kovel, and on the depots north of the Povursk station.
In the region northwest of Lake Vygonovskoye, at noon the Germans attacked the farm situated five versts southwest of Lipsk. At first they were repulsed; but nevertheless they renewed the attack afterward on a greatly extended front under cover of heavy and light artillery. Especially heavy fighting again developed along the Kovel sector of the Styr front.
In spite of the most determined resistance on the part of the Austrian troops, the Russian general was able to push his advantage during the next few days, and on July 27, 1916, Brody fell into his hands. Less successful was the continued attack on the Stokhod line with the object of reaching Kovel. There the German-Austrian forces repulsed all Russian advances.
Of the fighting along the Kovel front he says: "The story of the fighting on the Kovel front is a narrative of a heroic advance which at the point of the bayonet steadily forced back through barrier after barrier the stubborn resistance of the Austrians, intermingled occasionally with German units, till at one point the advance measured forty-eight miles.
Fortunately the last three had fallen in the mud and did not explode. "Along this front the Russians are holding against heavy odds, but they are certainly inflicting greater losses than they are receiving. "The next day I spent at the Corps and Divisional Headquarters west of the Kovel road.
Two German armies went to the aid of the Austrians in the region of the Stochod and Styr rivers, and German forces also made a stand before Kovel. The mortality on both sides was described as frightful, but the Russians continued to make headway and the capture of thousands of Teutonic prisoners was of almost daily occurrence, the total reaching 172,000 before June 18.
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