December 12, 1914, 
LAND AND WATER 
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Glovno 
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PietroMow 
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tain troops marching on the northward in front of 
Pietrokow, but there is every reason to believe that 
these troops were troops coming up from the 
Radom Railway, having been forwarded from the 
troops, not from the Southern Army, but from 
Ivangorod. The Southern Army, it may be safely 
maintained, is pursuing its task independently of 
the pressure upon the Northern Army, while 
the withdrawal of men from the south is the whole 
object of their opponents, and with the reserves 
at their disposal, they are quite determined that 
no such withdrawal shall take place. 
THE SOUTHERN ARMY. 
THE immediate fortunes of this great main 
Russian Army in the south, the Army 
which has for its task the investment of 
Cracow, the masking of that fortress, 
and the imminent invasion of Silesia, are 
still obscure. But there are two factors apparent 
in the situation, the resistance that will be offered 
to the Russians on the line Czentochowa-Cracow, 
and the obstacle afforded by the fortress of Cracow 
itself. Both are formidable. Slight as the news 
is, we can, by analysis, make something of it. 
In the first place, let us note that this front 
protects the Silesian frontier and especially its 
vital part, the manufacturing district, M, 
shaded on the adjoining sketch, by a belt 
nowhere wider than thirty miles, and in 
places not much more than half that 
distance. It is this proximity of the southern Rus- 
sian force to Silesia which has led to rather too 
favourable an estimate of the immediate chances 
of the Russians. For, on the map, the distances 
look insignificant, especially when we consider 
the whole eastern theatre of war, built on 
the vast scale that it is. But what we have to 
consider much more closely is the second factor, 
and that is, the entrenched numbers which the 
Russians here have opposed to them, and the 
nature of the ground. There are, it is believed, 
390 battalions of the enemy upon this front, or, 
counting all other forces, more than 600,000 men. 
rOCHOWA 
^o< CARPATHIANS 
VITa 
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