LAND AKD WATEPw 
SeptoniIxT 12, 1014 
That T!i!s>Ia woiilil, once niol»ilise(T and once 
advancing, bo luniblo to l)iiug tliat j)iessure to beuv 
(luring the fiivst weeks of the war was less geiienilly 
appreciated. 
AN'hcn the critic measures the minimum distance 
between some point of the Kussian frontier and the 
I'rnssian capital of Berlin he is struck bv the short- 
ness of the line between tise one and tlic other. 
That point upon the Eussian frontier nearest to 
Berlin is to be found at Pyzdrv, where the river Warta 
leaves the territory of I'ussian Poland to enter the 
ten-itory of Prussian Poland, and from this point to 
Eerlin 'itself is almost exactly 2S.-2 kilometres, or 
between 175 and 180 miles. 
If, therefore, the problem were merely one of a 
Pussiau advance from that point upon the Pussian 
frontier to the capital of Prussia the factor of time 
wo\dd not be of the striking impoi'tance it is. The 
advance required in order to strike at the Prussian 
capital would not behalf as mucii again as t!ie advance 
]-e(piired to strike from the German frontier in the 
A^'est at the French capital. 
But the problem cannot be stated upon these 
lines, and to envisage it so is quite to misunderstand 
the elements of the Eastern Campaign. 
'J'here are two things which prevent so simple a 
])lan as a direct advance on Berlin from the extreme 
of Pussian Poland. 
(1) It so ha])pons that the two Germanic Powers 
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C A L / C / A 
PLAN gllOWIXOl HOW THK CON-;iilL'K VIION OF THE WKSTEBS 
l:rSSlAN FKONTIKK KKN1)EK.S KRCJOSSAltT THK TOTAL MrBJtlOATIOX 
Oi- AUSTRIA AND KAST I'RUSSIA, IN OXUEK TO SECUKK THS 
IXAXKS Oy THK AUJIV, BjaciUK THK DIBliCT MAEClt OS BERLIN 
IS BiaUN. 
lie (by the configuration of the Eussian frontier on 
the west) upon the jlank of anv such advance 
towanls Berlin. AVere the Itussian" Armies mereh 
to go straight Ijefore them in an advance upon 
the Prussian capital they would leave behind them 
tmWaten upon their right in A, as upon the left in B, 
to the North and to the South, great bodies A Prussian 
and B Austrian, which, by marching, the one South, 
the other Norih, along such lines as (I) and (.•>) into 
Prussian Poland, would fall upon the communications 
of such a Pussian advance and destroy it. Therefore 
those Avho draw up the general Paissian plan mu.st first 
allow for the holding of (Jcrnuin territory as far as the 
Ime C-I) on the North-which is th"e line of the 
JiOwer Vistula— and for the holding of Austrian 
terntory up to the line E-P, that is the whole of 
Galicia, before an advance upon Berlin can be under- 
taken. It is not until the advancing Pussian columns 
are, roughly, abrea.st along the whole line North and 
South from Danzig to Cracow tliat a direct East and 
West march upon the heart of CJermany could begin. 
(r2) It so hapjiens that the Northern of these two 
flanking fields (to wit, the provinces of East and AVest 
Prussia up to the line of the A'istula, between 1'honi 
and Danzig) is composed for the most part of country 
])articularly defensible, a mass of mar.sh and lake ill- 
])ro\ ided with communications. Further, the ultimate 
boundary of all this, the line of the Vistula itself, is 
artificially defended by strong works, especially at 
Danzig and at Thorn, its two extremities. In other 
■^^ords, just where the Eussians had to meet their most 
formidable human opposition, that of the Prussitm 
military organisation, they also had to meet t!ie most 
formidable natural conditions. 
On the other hand there is a form of advance 
which Pussia can underiake against (Jcrmany and 
which will bring pressure to bear upon Germany long 
before any direct march upon Berlin has begun. If 
Pussia occupies Galicia thoroughly and in this region 
thoroughly defeats the mass of the Austrian forces : 
if she then proceeds AYestward and by North dmvn 
the A'alley of the Oder, she will be striking immediately 
at the Easternmost of the great industrial regions of 
the German Empire, and will thus be bringing 
immediate pressure to bear upon the whole (lerman 
social system. 
That first great industrial region is Silcffia : All 
that I'ljper N'alley of the Oder of which Breslaii is 
tlie capital. 
Now it is probable from the nature of the recent 
liussian successes (with which I shall next deal) that 
Si!e.>ia will be struck before the line of the Lower 
Od:n- is I'cached ; and when the Silesian Plain, with its 
dense population, its nourishing industries, and the 
open road it affords into Siixony (another -wealthy 
industrial region) is reached by the Pussian armies, 
anxiety will for the first time be seriously felt l)y the 
German Commanders in France. 
But how long will it be l)efore even Silesia, let 
alone the line of the Lower Oder or Berlin itscli', can 
be thus threatened ? 
In order to answer that (juestion we have to con- 
sider the measure of the Eussian success in (falicia and 
the distances involved by an advance after this success. 
The Eussian success in Galicia has, at the moment 
of writing, every appearance of being decisive, and it 
would seem as though the progress of the J^ussiau 
invasion would now be continued almost xinchecked 
until Silesia itself was reached and the pressure upon 
Germany begun. 
For the first time since the opening of the cam- 
paigns in Western and Eastern Europe one is able to 
give here a consecutive account of a decisive action. 
Indeed, this is the first decisive action that has taken 
place at all since the opening of the Campaign. A\'e 
liaAc, further, more detailed accounts of A\hat took 
place than we liaA'C hitherto had of anything that 
has happened in the AVestern theatre of war. 
To begin at the beginning. 
AVhile a rapid and, as it has turned out, prema- 
ture Pussian advance was taking place through East 
Prussia, to the norili of that great projection upon 
the map which is made by Pussian Poland, the 
Austi-ians to the south of that same projection had 
invaded Pussian Poland with equal rapidity and 
success. 
Ik'fore we go further it is impoi-tant to remember 
here what the polifical object of the two Cfennauic 
