LAND AND W A T E R. 
April 3, 1915. 
Bartfel 
at the invasion of Hungary in the direction of the 
arrow. 
.When we come to the closer analysis ot tins 
section of the front in detail, we shall see how im- 
portant this point is. So long as Przemysl held out 
the railway system at the di^-posal of the Russians 
jn the Galician plain, though close and sufficient 
for the supply and movement of very great 
numbers, was interrupted. Przemysl, as we ;<tw 
last week, made a great hole in the railway .system 
of the plain, and in particular cut that main line 
whiCjh is the backbone of all the Galician com- 
munications, and which is the principal avenue for 
Russian supply. This truth can, perhaps, best be 
expressed by the addition here of another slight 
sketch in which this railway system is expressed in 
its relation to the front of effort we are considering. 
;The double line marks that main av^enue of com- 
munications of which I speak, and just east of 
Leraberg, L, it splits into two branches, crossing 
the Russian frontier and leading to the ma.in 
Russian depots in the South and East of Russia, 
Leraberg being itself, of course, a large advanced 
base. The lesser railways I have marked with 
single lines. Novv Przemysl, at P, so long an it held 
out, caused an interruption roughly represented by 
,^» 
XX 
the circle of dots set round it on the sketch. The 
provisioning of the Russians further west could, 
indeed, be effected round by Rawa Russka, to the 
junction of Jaroslav, but it was a small and incon- 
venient line, and further the great masses of men 
iiumobilised to maintain the siege of Przemysl had 
to be provided for first. The line which runs later- 
oily to the foothills of the Carpathians through 
Jasco, Sanok, Sambor, and Stryj, to Stanislau, 
vas everywhere quite close to the Austrian effort. 
the Russian front upon this southern side running 
as do the (n-osscs on the sketch. Until Pi-zemysl 
fell the Russians were therefore grievously ham- 
pei-ed in their movements of men. 
Once Przemysl had fallen, howcvcv, the \\liole 
railway system was free, and all parts of it north 
of this lateral line were at the Russians' disposal. 
It seemed uncertain Avhat use the Russians would 
immediately make of their new opportunity. But 
the most obvious and immediate advantage pro- 
vided for them by the fall of Przemysl was to 
attack along that crest B C where they already 
commanded one principal pass across the range, 
and where they were already so far advanced 
towards the mastery of the ridge immediately to 
the south. Thi.^ sector B C lay in the imiuediate 
neiglibourhood of Pr/eniysl, the quarter of a mil- 
lion of men or so released by the fall of the place 
could be brought up at once, and the striking of a 
blow here for the forcing of the Carpathians was 
easier than an advance elsewhere — as against the 
Cracow front or towards tlie Bukovina. It would 
carry more weight and could be delivered at once. 
To this plan, therefore, the Russians seem to 
have turned, and they are at present engaged in 
attempting to master a sufiicicnt belt of the main 
ridge to enable them to advance Avhen the weather 
serves down on to the Hungarian plain. 
This belt, the front upon which they are now 
fighting, may be defined by two extremities, Bart- 
field, tie local name for which is Bartfa, and 
sixty miles off to the east, upon the other side of 
the crest of the mountains, Baligrod. 
It is these sixty miles the conditions of which 
have to be analysed. 
First let us examine the advantages of com- 
munication, which the Russians here enjoy over 
their opponents. (Plan D). 
The base of the whole thing is the lateral rail- 
way running in front of the foothills on the 
Galician side, from the junction at Sanok 
towards Jasko. At Sanok comes in the railway 
from the Hungarian side, which crosses the ridge 
of the mountain by the saddle known as the Lup- 
kow Pass, where also a good road — hard, broad, 
and excellently engineered — crosses the moun- 
tains upon a line almost coincident with that of 
the railway. Three other roads, which have no 
railway corresponding to them, also cross the 
mountains in this region : that passing by Jaliska 
and starting from Rymanow, that starting from 
Svidnik and going over the Dukla Pass to Dukla, 
and that startin.g from Bartfeld (with the railway 
accompanying as far as the station of Zboro) and 
leading to Zmigrod. All these communications 
crossing the main ridge of the Carpatliians are 
easy, and, as the map shows, they stand close 
together, permitting of the advance of parallel 
columns in support one of the other. The country 
is fairly open, the heavy woods not beginning 
until the shaded area marked A upon the right of 
the sketch. The passes are quite low. TheLupkow 
Pass is not a thousand feet above tlse towns of the 
foothills, the Dukla only 500, and this last height 
is but little surpassed by the summit of the 
Jaliska and the Zmigrod roads upon either side. 
Further, a most important point, there is a 
good lateral road running from Sanok to Zmi- 
grod, and serving the terminal of each of these 
avenues of advance. 
The situation of the Russians upon this Bart- 
feld — Baligrod front, before the fall, of I'rzemysl 
r 
