December 5, 1914. 
LAND AND WATER 
Cerman^T^serve 
Russian Tront. 
. ih!^^^:^ii^^ gcrman ^Bodies. 
^^^ 
VII 
THE BATTLB OF THE BZURA OR 0*' LODZ, 
prisoners with the Russians. Meanwhile, the 
w hole interest of the battle as itslast phases reach 
us, that is as we have heard of it in its progress 
during last Friday and Saturday, lies in the posi- 
tion of the German forces at C. Will they get 
away? If so, in what numbers? Will the per- 
petually arriving Russian reinforcements be in- 
sufficient to stop a German counter-offensive ? 
What will be the final result of this violent struggle 
along the Bzura, with its quite unexpected and in 
some senses unique features? 
III.— THE ACTION IN ITS PRESENT 
PHASE. 
We cannot answer those questions, because 
the issue is not yet decided ; but we can abandon 
the elementary plans hitherto used and show on 
•a sketch map drawn to scale the situation as it 
now is, or rather as it i^ras upon Saturday last. 
Accurate information .later than that date has not 
reached London at the moment of writing this 
(Tuesday evening). The German positions run, or 
rather ran at that moment, from Sieradz on the 
River Warta, through Zdunska Wola, past Szadek, 
to points in front of Lenczyca, thence they bent 
back to Zgierz, which the Germans hold instrength. 
And here I would beg the reader to distinguish 
between the positions which the Germans thus 
hold in strength and the positions which they only 
just hold entrenched against the Russians. The 
former I have indicated by larger oblongs or 
squares, the latter by- little more than a broken 
line. With Zgierz then held in strength there occurs 
a most curious feature in the centre of the battle 
line. Opposite Zgierz, ten or eleven miles off, is 
Strykow, and there another strong German body 
is posted. The attention of the reader should be 
particularly fixed upon those two points, Zgierz 
and Strykow, the value of which will be seen in 
a moment. After Strykow the German line bends 
abruptly northward, abandons Govna, from which 
it has been driven, Bielawy beyond which it has 
also been driven, Sobota from which it was driven 
at the point of the bayonet a few days ago by the 
Russians, Gomblin which the Russians have re- 
occupied, and barely reposes upon Plock, which 
the Germans still hold with a strong reserve. 
So much for the general line. If the reader 
will turn again to these two points of Zgierz and 
Strykow he will observe a very strange deflection 
in the line. Here there is a strong German body, 
beyond the two strong bodies holding Zgierz and 
Strykow, and pushed forward to the south of the 
general line. There is a sort of pocket or purse 
with a neck at A, D, and with bodies (1), (2), (3), 
(4) contained within that neck ; and it will be ob- 
served that while the German forces at Zgierz and 
