LAND AND WATER 
October 31, 1914 
stocp banks, and bears the name which aU such c efte 
have in western Lorraine— the word " Eupt which 
means the " breach " or " break " of the Mad. It is con- 
tinued above the rail-head to the high plateau country 
iust underneath the extraordinarily reguhir bne of 
J XI ._ ™; i.nirriifa Mllrvl "The Hills of the 
coveruig 
heights called " The Hills of 
further 
Alcuse. 
Bevond this again going westward is the deep 
trench o"f the Mouse in which St. Mihiel lies. From 
Thiaucourt the shortest road to St. Mihiel is up 
alontr the north edge of the valley, then through Wom- 
A-iUe^and so straight through the Hills of the Meuse to 
St. Miliiel. There is an alternative, lower, longer and 
on the whole better road, from Thiaucourt to the mam 
Comracrcy-Pont-a-Mousson road, between Flircy and 
Eambucourt, whence a branch road goes through 
Apremont to St. Mihiel. 
To appreciate how narrow the German " corridor 
has here become, it is enough to point out that Apremont 
—in the south road— was taken and held by the French 
weeks ago, lost, retaken ag;iin, and is now lield. One 
may take the line of the road all the way from Pont- 
a-Mousson to St. Mihiel and say that all except the 
last three or four miles of it between Apremont and 
St. Mihiel marks what the French hold/rom the south ; 
that is, what is held by the garrison of Toul and by 
the forces that are operatuig northward from that 
fortress. On the north the corresponding garrison of 
Verdun and the forces operating from it southwards 
have got within long range of the other road from 
St. Mihiel tlirough Nonsard and Woinville to 
Thiaucourt. The French official communique (of 
Tuesday) proves that even taking that long range of 
hea-\y guns at an extreme the Germans hardly hold 
eight miles at the mouth of the funnel : not five miles 
at the extremity of the funnel where they touch the 
Meuse at St. JVIihiel itself. The situation here is 
extraordinary, cannot be accidental in the German 
plan, must be intended at least for some future move. 
Meanwliile the whole thing is just like the fighting in 
the Argonne, an example of the exceedingly close grips 
that fairly equal forces can maintain nowadays with 
the rifle, the machine gun, and the spade. Nor can 
anj'thing unlock such a grip save very considerable 
reinforcement at some one point. 
THE EASTERN THEATRE OF WAR. 
On the Vistula what has happened is this : 
(1) First, and much the most important point, 
the German plan of holdmg the Eussian forces (pre- 
sumably along the line of the Vistula Eiver itseK), of 
crossing that river, of occupying Warsaw at one end of 
the Kne, Przemysl and the upper reaches of the San at 
the other end, and by the success of such an offensive 
movement of pushing offthe Eussian pressure, hasfailed. 
The Eussian pressure upon Germany and Austria 
has not indeed begun or nearly begun. It is a long 
cry from the checking of the German plan to an 
invasion of German territory. But at any rate the 
Gei-man plan in its entirety has certainly failed. The 
occupation of Warsaw was absolutely essential to it, 
and so far from occupyhig Warsaw, the strong German 
force of some five amiy corps advancing upon that 
town has been beaten right back, even a point so far 
west as Lodz is out of Gonnan occupation, and pretty 
well all the country north of the Pilica is now in 
Eussian hands. Our first point is, then, that the 
holding of the slow Eussian advance so that Germany 
should be free to send large reinforcements to the west 
has proved impossible. 
(2) But tlie Austro-German line as a whole has 
not faUen back. The attempt is still maintained to 
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THil MAIN POSITION IN THE EAST. 
push the Eussians eastward at the southern end of 
their position : the attack goes on below Sandomir, 
along the San, and before Przemysl. 
It is a thing worth noting in these great modern 
actions that the new scale upon which they are fought 
has put an end to some of the unquestioned rules of 
older warfare. In an action upon a front even of 
eight miles or ten, to be outflanked meant that your 
whole body fell back if it could. But in an action — • 
or, rather, a series of actions — upon a front of over 
two hundred miles, you have much more time to 
consider whether it is really necessary for all your 
forces to fall back or no when you are outflanked. 
Here is the Austro-German line all along tha 
Vistula threatening Warsaw and Novo Georgievsk 
on the north, and vigorously attacking Przemysl 
upon the south. Its northern extremity is badly 
beaten in front of Warsaw and the whole of its loft 
outflanked. Between the Pilica Eiver and Warsaw 
it is turned right back and thrust even bej'^ond Lodz. 
The attempt of the Germans to cross the Vistula at 
Ivangorod is also beaten. They make no real footing 
at the crossing of Jozefdw, and the Eussians in their 
turn cross in force at Solec. It is evident that the 
whole original Austro-German line A — B — C has 
been bent back on its left, A B, to a position D B. 
That is an attitude which would have meant, in tha 
older warfare, the retirement of the remainder, B C. 
Because in the older warfare the people who had 
outflanked you could be dowm upon your centre and 
behind it in an hour or two. But to-day you have 
days to decide in, and of that retirement from the 
Vistula — of the GeiTnan retirement from the Upper 
Vistula at least between Jozefow and Sandomir— 
there is as yet no sufiicicnt indication. 
Eemember that from B to C is a very long week's 
marching. It is an immense distance : and remember 
further that an advance on the south whereby the 
Germanic allies crossing the San or the Upper 
Vistula near Sandomir should push the Eussians well 
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