DVINSK 



2743 



DVINSK 



second, under Below, S. of Fried- 

 richstadt, belonged to the army 

 group commanded in person by 

 Hindenburg. Mitau had been taken 

 on Aug. 1, and a day or two later 

 forces advancing from Shavle were 

 at Posvol, 30 m. almost due S. of 

 Friedrichstadt, and other troops 

 marching from Ponievicz were at 

 Subotch, about 50 m."W. of Dvinsk. 

 On Aug. 5 the Germans were only 

 10 m. from Riga, and preparations 

 for evacuating the city were being 

 made. A naval attack on the port 

 was definitely repulsed by Aug. 21, 

 and all attempts on the land side 

 failed, but the Germans, after 

 heavy fighting, moved forward 

 towards Jacobstadt and Dvinsk. 

 They were driven back in the 

 second week of August, but were 

 advancing again on the 24th and 

 the following day. 



Straggle for Friedrichstadt 

 About Aug. 28 Below began a 

 great assault on the line of the 

 Dvina, with Friedrichstadt as his 

 chief objective. This town, on the 

 S. side of the river, offers the only 

 practicable crossing between Jacob- 

 stadt and Riga ; on the other side 

 of the Dvina ran the railway from 

 Riga through Kreutzberg to Dvinsk 

 and Vilna; from Kreutzberg 

 passed a railway through Fried- 

 richstadt to Mitau, and of this the 

 Germans gained possession. On 

 Axig. 29 the Russians repulsed a 

 determined assault on the Fried- 

 richstadt bridgehead, which had 

 carried some of the enemy across 

 the Dvina. During the night of 

 Aug. 30 Below's troops renewed 

 their desperate attempt to capture 

 the bridgehead, but their repeated 

 attacks broke down. 



On Sept. 2 German cavalry 

 stormed the bridgehead near Lenne- 

 waden, N.W. of Friedrichstadt, and 

 next day the Russians were found 

 to have withdrawn from the Fried- 

 richstadt bridgehead. All through 

 Sept. 1 and 2 Below, strongly rein- 

 forced, had pounded the Russian 

 defences with his heavy guns, and 

 under this pressure the Russians 

 retired across the river. S. of Fried- 

 richstadt the Germans advanced 

 towards Jacobstadt, stubborn ac- 

 tions talcing place between that 

 town and the Lautse. On Sept. 11 

 a Russian offensive from Jacob- 

 stadt drove the Germans back in 

 this district. On the same day their 

 main attack shifted S.E. in a move 

 across the Sventa which reached 

 Utsiauy on Sept. 12 and Svient- 

 siany, on the Dvinsk- Vilna railway, 

 on Sept. 13, the Russians with- 

 drawing to Podbrodzie, the pur- 

 pose of the Germans being to par- 

 ticipate in the operations against 

 Vilna. Meanwhile the first battle 

 of the Dvina had died down. 



The second battle was fought 

 during Jan.-Aug., 1916. At the 

 beginning of the year the Russian 

 line was practically that estab- 

 lished at the end of Sept., 1915, 

 after the Russian retreat from 

 Warsaw. Beginning at the coast 

 near Riga, it ran along the left bank 

 of the Dvina, which it crossed in 

 one place and passed close to 

 Dvinsk, still held by the Russians. 

 Then, leaving the river course, it ran 

 S. to the neighbourhood of Molo- 

 detchno, also held by the Russians, 

 then S. to Pinsk. On this northern 

 sector, from the Baltic to Friedrich- 

 stadt, Hindenburg was in command 

 on the German side, and, from Feb., 

 Kuropatkin, on the Russian. In 

 March and April there was some 

 intermittent fighting. 



Hindenburg's Attack 

 On May 1 1 Hindenburg launched 

 an ambitious but abortive offensive 

 against the Russian positions at 

 Selburg on the Mitau- Jacobstadt 

 railway. He resumed his efforts on 

 the next day. and fighting took 

 place on the outskirts of the village 

 of Yepukn. Another attack was 

 launched at the beginning of June 

 against the sector to the S. of the 

 station of Neu Zelburg, N.W. of 

 Jacobstadt. Henceforth Galicia 

 became the critical area of the 

 Eastern front, and with the repulse 

 of a Russian attack in the Dvina 

 sector at the end of August the 

 second battle died down. 



Dvinsk (DAUGAVPILS). Town 

 and fortress in Latvia, in the govt 

 of Vitebsk. It stands on the right 

 bank of the Dvina, at the junction 

 of the Petrograd- Warsaw and Riga- 

 Smolensk rlys. There is a consider- 

 able trade in grain, flax, and 

 timber. Founded in 1278 by Liv- 

 onian knights, the town was de- 

 stroyed by the Russians in 1577, 

 and rebuilt by Stephen Bathory, 

 king of Poland, in 1582. In 1 772 it 

 was added to Russia, remaining 

 part thereof until the collapse of the 

 Russian empire in 1918. During the 

 Great War, after much fighting for 

 its possession, it was occupied by the 

 Germans Feb. 18,1917. Pop. 1 1 0,000. 

 Dvinsk, BATTLES FOB. Fought 

 between the Russians and Germans 

 1915-16. During Sept., 1915, Hin- 

 denburg's attack on the line of the 

 Dvina had given him Friedrich- 

 stadt, on the S. side of the river, 

 but had failed to carry him across 

 to the opposite bank. " Fighting in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Dvinsk had resolved itself into 

 trench warfare ; behind their line 

 the Germans, however, were mass- 

 ing heavy guns, and Sept. 24 saw 

 the beginning of a determined effort 

 to capture the town, which, as the 

 centre of railways and roads, was 

 strategically important. Dvinsk 



was protected by fortified lines 1( 

 m. to 12 m. S., in a region of lake 

 and marshes, which were formid 

 able obstacles to an assaultinj 

 army. The chief of these lakes wen 

 Lake Sventen and Lake Medum 

 on the S.W., and Lake Drisviat\ 

 and Lake Rytchy on the S. and S.E 

 Between Sventen and the Dvim 

 ran the railway from Shavle b 

 Ponievicz to Dvinsk, and N. of th 

 railway passed the highway from 

 Illukst ; between Medum and Dris 

 viaty were the highway, passing N 

 through Novo Alexandrovsk, am 

 the railway from Vilna to the town. 

 Along these railways and road 

 the attack was unimpeded b; 

 natural obstacles, but while Hin 

 denburg in his offensive of Sept 

 24-25 made use of these approach e. 

 he assaulted on the whole fron 

 from the Dvina to Drisviaty. He 

 had some success near Illukst am 

 along the Novo-Alexaudrovsk road 

 where his infantry pushed on to 

 within 8 m. of Dvinsk. Elsewhere 

 he was checked and even thrown 

 back, as at the village of Drisviaty 

 which was recaptured from him on 

 Sept. 25. As a whole the attack 

 failed, and resulted in very heavy 



The Autumn Campaigns 

 Then followed a lull till about 

 Oct. 3. when Hindenburg made his 

 second great effort, his strength 

 having been vastly increased in 

 men and guns. By this time the 

 cavalry thrust to Sventsiany and 

 E. of Vilna had been completely 

 held up, and thus the possibility of 

 a drive on Dvinsk from the E., 

 which otherwise might have ma- 

 terialised, had vanished. Hinden- 

 burg now mainly confined his at- 

 tention to attacking in masses on 

 the W. and S.W., while his big 

 guns bombarded the Russian 

 trenches in the S.E. Making & 

 strong push near Illukst, he took 

 the Schlossberg ridge and Illukst 

 itself, but was held up in front of 

 the Illukst river near the Dvina. 

 S. of the Ponievicz railway there 

 was a sanguinary struggle about 

 Garbounovka and Pashalina, the 

 former finally remaining with the 

 Russians, on Oct. 10. Along the 

 Novo-Alexandrovsk road the 

 enemy progressed to the village of 

 Medum, but was unable to advance 

 nearer Dvinsk. Thia second attack 

 was also a failure as a whole. 

 Russian Counter- Offensive 

 The third attack, which began on 

 Oct. 25, made some progress from 

 Illukst after furious encounters, 

 and broke through at Garbounovka, 

 but was countered and led to no 

 further result. On Oct. 31 the 

 Russians assumed the offensive 

 between Lakes Sventen and the 

 neighbouring Lake Ilsen, and in 



