LAND AND WATER 
January 2, 1915. 
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can be forded in numerous places, even in these 
lower reaches. The trenches of either party were 
drawn close to the banks of the Avater when the action 
opened, or at least when the action opened in its last 
and most intense phase. This phase lasted, roughly 
speaking, one week, though the preliminaries which 
opened it and the inconclusive skirmishes into 
which it dwindled away would between them cover 
more like ten days. That week was the week 
between December 18th and Christmas Day ; and 
it will be seen in what follows how curiously 
parallel the whole thing was to the battle for the 
possession of the Yser crossings, with only this 
diflerence, that the Yser is not fordable. 
Two main fronts of attack developed. The 
first roughly along the line A B sought to force the 
Lower Bzura by fords and by what remained of 
certain bridges. About two miles below Sochaczow, 
near the point marked with an X, stands a 
country house. A little above Sochaczow, between 
that town and the railway bridge, is a half-broken 
wooden foot bridge ; and further up the river 
still, beyond the railway bridge and on the left 
bank, is the village of Debsko, At all these three 
places a special effort was made, and these efforts 
i-an successively down stream. The first, at the 
beginning of the intense part of the action ten days 
ago, was made at Debsko ; the second, upon last 
Friday, by the foot bridge above Sochaczow ; and the 
third, upon Saturday and Sunday, against the point 
marked by the country house and the X on the 
sketch above. 
These movements only refer to the principal 
separate assaults ; innumerable other partial 
attempts were made, and the fiercest fighting of 
all was during a general attack upon several points 
at once which took place in the course of last 
Sunday and Monday. 
Now, the characteristic of all these attacks seems 
to have been that, with few exceptions, the right 
bank of the river was reached, and that the defeat 
of the Germans (which was very thorough upon this 
line) took the form of an annihilation of each body 
as it crossed successively. We have the description 
of dense columns of the enemy taking the water {not 
yet frozen save at the edges) usually during a night 
attack, fording it well above their middles, and still 
proceeding, in spite of their heavy losses during this 
wading, to scramble through the mud of the further 
bank ; and it is once there — often after having- 
carried the fii'st Russian trench — that each separate 
assault was checked, and those who had succeeded 
in crossing either shot down or captured. We know 
nothing of the losses — at least there has been nof- 
oflicial estimate of them by which we can judge. 
The estimate has been made that the total number 
of Germans concentrated upon this extreme left of 
their line for the final assault upon Warsaw was not 
less than a quarter of a million men ; it may well 
have been more. Although the packed and dense 
assault did not cover the v/hole front of the 50 miles, 
yet it was developed over a total front, in sections, of 
more than 25 mUes ; for it not only took place along: 
this main front A B, but also along tlie front C D 
across the Rawka, especially at the village of 
Bolimow, and further along the front E F south-easfc 
of Skierniewice. We must be caieful not to be led 
away by general phrases, which are nearly always 
used in connection with the repelling of an assault, 
during which process the losses of the enemy ahvay» 
seem to the successful defensive larger than their 
true proportion to the whole forces engaged. Where 
actual details are mentioned, the numbers who get- 
across and formed upon the further bank do not 
seem to have been very large. We hear of one 
body (the largest) of 7,000, two battalions in one 
case, of a few companies in another, and so forth. 
Nevertheless the German losses must have been 
very heavy, and that for many reasons. In the first 
place, the whole point of the movement was to break 
down the defensive, pass the obstacle, and get 
through to Warsaw at all costs. In the next place, 
the nature of that obstacle means that for the few 
who got across, a much larger number must have 
been hit in the crossing. The ground down to the 
river on the further side slopes like a gentle glacis, 
and ofiers a perfect field of fire upon most parts of 
the banks, at least as one approaches the stream. 
A little way inland, or westward, there is in many 
parts a sharp bank ; but between this bank and the 
stream the flat ground lies open to the fire of the 
trenches opposite. Again, the muddy though shallow 
little river is a sufficient obstacle to hold men 
attempting to cross it, and it is probable that the 
losses durmg the attempted fording of the stream 
make up much the greater part of the whole. It 
would seem that in front of Bolimow and southward 
of Skierniewice the attacks were more concentrated, 
especially in the former case, only one or twe 
crossing places being attempted, and therefore 
perhaps the losses were less upon this side. But 
at any rate the Russian counter blow along both 
the rivera was sufficiently strong to check and at 
last to silence the fire of tlie offensive, and after 
seven days of this heavy work, by Christmas Eve,, 
the attack had dwindled to a few sporadic 
demonstrations. By Christmas Day itself it had 
ceased. The official German communique admitted 
the failm'e upon Saturday night. 
Whether the offensive will be resumed or iK)t 
cannot of course be told. If we are to go by the 
analogy of the work in the West, it should be 
resumed, but so far (Tuesday evening) the great 
effort to reach Warsaw has failed. 
But meanwhile there is developing upon the 
left flank of the Germans in tliis region an obscure 
movement, the value of Avhicli is probably exag- 
gerated in the correspondence we get fi'om the 
Polish theatre of war, but which may turn out to be 
of moment. In order to appreciate this movement 
let us look at the sketch on the top of the next page. 
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