LAND AND WATER 
November 7, 1914 
(G) -THE OPERATIONS UPON THE 
SAN. 
SAND(mIR 
NISKO 
O n 20 iO iO SO .60 TO 
1. I -1 >■, ' • 
A weeks fair marcltin^ or 
TO miles 
lEMBERC 
® 
^ TpRZEUYSL 
cv.~~-. 
^c 
^^^ 
V/^c 
- V ^-J 
. . STRYJ^ 
TXIRKA 'Va 
The general result, tten, of the operations in the 
Eastern field to date are in favour of our Allies, from 
the "block" that holds up the detached and now 
dangerously isolated Prussian forces in the north, 
through the great German retreat from tlie Vistula, 
to the hitherto successful holding of the Austrian 
effort upon the San. 
THE BATTLE IN FLANDERS. 
Meanwhile, as I have said, this main defeat of 
the Germans upon the middle Vistula will ultimately 
involve the retreat of the Austrians of the southern 
or second limb upon the San. Wliat these Austrian 
forces to the south of the main Vistula line have 
accomplished is not inconsiderable. They have 
rallied ; they have cleared Hungary of the small 
cavalry forces which had penetrated across the Car- 
pathians ; they claim to have partially relieved 
Przemysl, and they have certainly come down the 
eastern slopes of the Carpathians through the foot- 
hills to the plain. They are still fighting, however, 
in those mountains, even as far back as Turka, which 
is in the heart of the hills ; and their detached bodies 
are not further north at the most than Sambor and 
Stryj. It is not possible that any large turning move- 
ment should take place on this extreme southern flank 
of the Russsian line. The Russian reinforcement there 
is, compared with the Austrian reinforcement, inex- 
haustible, and the Russians have Lemberg as their 
base from which to hold up any such effort. But, until 
the Vistula was lost, the co-ordinate attempt to force the 
San while the Vistula itself was being crossed, looked 
pi'omising, and that would at least have had the effect 
of completely relieving Przemysl. The news from the 
valley of the San is very meagre, but such as it is it 
is worth noting that it connotes no successful Austrian 
crossing of the stream. AVe have one Russian tele- 
gram and one Austrian one. The Russian telegram 
tells us that a successful effort v/as made by the 
Russian troops over the river at Nisco — the point, it 
will be remembered from past notes, about which the 
first bridges cross the San. TTie Austrian telegram 
tells us that the Austrian troops successfully repelled 
an attack on Leheisk — a town which, like every other 
in Galicia, has its name spelt in three separate ways 
— I adopt that of the telegram. Now the significant 
thing about both these telegrams is that Nisco is on 
the left or Austrian bank of the San, while Leheisk is 
not only on the left bank but at some distance in 
from the stream. In other words, the line of the 
river is at the moment of writing being firmly held 
by the Russians and dominated by them, and there 
has been no crossing of that stream of any moment 
by the enemy, or, if there has been, sueh a crossing 
has been made good again by the Russians. 
Up to the end of last week the main interest of 
the great battle in Flanders — apart from the stupend- 
ous fact that on the issue hung the fates of the 
German ai-mies in the west — as they do stiU — was 
the division of the German effort into a northern and 
a southern struggle. The southern effort consisted in 
the attempt to push south-westward of Lille and to 
break the AUied line in front of La Bass6e. The 
northern one consisted in the attempt to break, or at 
least to roU back, the extreme of the Allied line 
where it reposed upon the sea. Of these two efforts 
the first, that in front of La Bassee, was slowly and 
partially successful, in so far as a certain indentation 
was there made in the general line which the Allies 
were holding from the sea right away south to 
Compicgne. More than that the German push at this 
point did not achieve, and chief among the causes of 
its failure was the division of forces consequent upon 
that second effort in the north, which has completely 
failed. For this second effort, which may be called 
— though somewhat ironically — " The March on 
Calais " (undoubtedly based upon political rather 
than strategic considerations) has failed at an 
incredible cost of human lives, of which loss by 
far the greater part has fallen, of course, upon the 
defeated party. The mass of the German reinforce- 
ments were brought up against the twelve miles front 
between Dixmude and the sea. Tlie canalised river 
Yser between Nieuport and Dixmude was crossed at 
last by the Germans, but with no greater result than 
to see the bodies already over the bridge swamped by 
the opening of the sluices, and unable to advance 
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