LAND AND WATER 
August 29, 1914 
THE OPERATIONS IN EASTERN EUROPE. 
• i. • „^,.„M.o1,^n^;..n nf tlic camnaio-Q upon tlic eastern frontiers of 
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I DAYS 
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1 'in 1 100 
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„,,^ TOU3H R^C2. LANSV^ASE, RELlOION, 
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TO 3ERUN 
QJ MILES 
Sketch showing the approximate frontier between Polish and German nationalities, frontier of Pi-ovince of East Prussia now ia 
Eussian handij and of the fortified lino of the Vistula which bars the advance on Berlin. 
It was upon Saturday last, tlie 22nd, that the first wave of the Eussian advance won what may be 
C'llled without exaf'geration, a decisive success in the neighhoui-hood of the town of Gumknnen, about 
twentV-five miles from the frontier : the "first wave," because it is in the nature of the mobilizatiou 
•UTau«^craents of Eussia that three successive bodies shaU follow westward across the frontier, and it 
was the first of these, amounting to perhaps somewhat less than 200,000 men, which won the action 
at Gumbinnen. ,.,■,, -, nn nnn xi 
The forces over which this success was achieved were estimated at some 100,000 men, or three 
Anny Corps, with perhaps certain divisions of cavahy. The advance was followed up to Insterberg, 
some fifteen miles further along the main railway, by which line the invasion is proceeding. 
Wo must remember, in all that we hear of the fighting in this eastern theatre of the Avar, that the 
great mass of the men opposed to the Eussians are taken from that half -trained or untrained reserve 
which is a feature of the Pnissian military system. They are not expected to do as well as the 
reo-ularly trained troops. ^Vhat they are expected to do in this part of the German dominions is to 
imjwse delay upon the enemy, and little more. 
At any rate, the success of last Saturday obviously isolates, as a glance at the map wiU show, the 
town of Tilsit. But there is more than this. Apart from this advance directly westward across the 
frontier by the Eussians (which has for its base the towTi of Vilna), there was moving up in flank from 
AVai-saw another Eussian force which marched upon Allenstein, and this advance in flank determined 
the precipitate retreat of the German forces, and may be said without exaggeration to have given, by 
the evening of Sunday, all East Prussia east of the line Konigsberg- Allenstein into Eussian hands. 
TwentA'-four hours later it was abeady evident that one portion of the rapidly retreating Prussian 
forces would tlirow itself into Konigsberg, and already, at the time of writing, all retreat to the south 
out of Konigsberg is cut off. The other portion of the defeated German army has, as reported above, 
fallen back upon Osterode, abandoning in its rapid retreat a certain number of field guns and vcliicles, 
and losing also a certain proportion of prisoners, presumably stragglers from so rapid a retirement. 
"We do Avell to remember in all this that we have only heard so far the victor's story. 
there can be no doubt, to sum up the general result, that the province of East Prussia is 
dominated as a whole by the Eussian forces, which have invaded it from the south and the 
at the same moment. Tilsit is certainly isolated and Konigsberg probably already isolated also, 
belt just east of the boundaiy of the province — including Allenstein itself — was still in German hands 
last Wednesday, but the forces occupjing it were in retreat. 
IMeanwhile it is well to warn the reader in the west of Europe that we should not too hastily 
assume for the Eussian advance a rate comparable to the advance of successful invading armies 
in the west, and further that we do not really know the rate of the possible or probable Eussiau 
advance until the line of the Vistula is snccessfidli/ negotiated. 
As to the first of these pomts, the rapidity of advance in this part of Eastern Eui-opc is 
checked by the comparative ranty of good hard roads— a Aveek's rain turns most of these tracks 
into a morass— the fact that the south of the Province of East Pnissia is a mass of small meres 
with marshes l^ing about them, and the fact that behind the Eussian advance is an insuflicicnt 
niiUvay system ; that is, a sparse series of lines, a net-work with very Avide meshes, Avhich AviU 
not supply an advancing amiy as the A\estern railways of Europe could do. 
The line of the A'istula is of the first importance. It is, roughlv speaking, the line Thorn— 
Graudenz— Danzig ; both Thorn and Danzig are obstacles of the first class, and the line as a 
whole is not Aveakly held. 
But 
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