May 29, 1915. 
LAND A N D WATER. 
We have, then, proceeding at this moment, 
apart from the general figlit all along the line and 
from Russian Poland right down to the Bukovina, 
three special centres of effort : (1) The now 
dwindling effort of what was the main bolt, north 
of Jaroslav. It has crossed the San, but has not 
got much further. (2) The effort in front of Stryj, 
which is subsidiary to the whole plan, and, indeed, 
principally directed to " holding " the Russians 
in front of it. (3) What is undoubtedly, for the 
moment, the main effort, that now being pressed 
with all the vigour the enemy can command 
against the main Lemberg railway line east of the 
Przemysl salient. 
It is upon this last that we must concentrate 
our attention during the next few days ; it is here 
that the success or failure of the enemy's great 
effort in its last phase will probably be deter- 
mined. 
The details of all this are as follows : 
Upon Friday, May 14, the Germans under 
Mackensen reached the outskirts of Jaroslav and 
began their attack upon the outskirts of that 
bridge-head, behind which the Russian columns 
were retreating on to the other bank of the San. 
The Russian trenches followed the crests to the 
west of the town, the Meierkof, the Jupaszowka 
Hill, and the Chateau of Chemianski. The Rus- 
sian rearguard posted here was not strong. It 
consisted of a single division, and its function 
wa.s apparently no more than to fight a delaying 
action while the passage to the right bank of the 
San was being effected by the mass of its com- 
rades. It succeeded in achieving its task, holding 
up Mackensen's Germans during the whole of the 
Friday and Saturday, long after dark on the 
latter day — the 15th; but before midnight the 
heights were carried and Jaroslav was in tho 
enemy's hands. 
During all this fighting and in the previous 
days, the Russians had been able to ascertain what 
units had been withdrawn from the Western 
front for this main enemy effort in Galicia. They 
would seem to have been the 1st and 2nd Division 
of the Guard, the 10th active and the 41st Reserve 
Corps; two more composite divisions formed of 
regiments specially picked for this work, and 
simdry detached units over and above these. The 
very high proportion of heavy artillery accom- 
panying and permitting the advance of the whole 
great force along the railway may be judged by 
the fact that the Guards alone were backed by 
fifty heavy pieces. 
On Monday, the 17th, the critical day in this 
area, the San was crossed in several places. The 
river offers, along the ten or eleven miles below 
Jaroslav, several opportunities for forcing such a 
passage under the cover of heavy bombardment. 
The chief passage seems to have been effected 
at the fords of Lezachow. It would seem as 
though the enemy, once in possession of points 
upon the right bank of the San, had pushed down 
it, clearing the whole bank, for there was fighting 
in which certain Russian bodies were pushed 
across the Lubaczowska, where the enemy line 
touched Pradawa. 
By the Tuesday morning, the 18th, it was 
fairly clear that the Russian line parallel with, 
but behind the San, at this point, would hold. It 
is true the Austrian body captured Sieniawa upon 
that day, but the enemy advance got no further. 
Roughly speaking, the Russian line now lies in 
Line on Iieight held 
ijf Russiaa. Division, 
fijhtiy deldi/in^ 
actioa a,3 a 
"Rsarguard 
Maierkof 
- Jaroslav 
this region, as do the dots upon the above sketch, 
and has been able to maintain this position for a 
week. 
Meanwhile, on the extreme north of the line 
in Russian Poland the Russians had successfully 
advanced on the Monday, and on this same Tues-^ 
day were consolidating their advance at Iwaniska. 
Their total line upon this day followed the stream 
from Iwaniska to the Vistula; uncovered Tar- 
nobrzeg ; cut across the Peninsula between the Vis- 
tula and the San to the neighbourhood of Nisko, 
and then ran up covering the river and lying on 
the left bank as high as Lezachow. The whole line 
is shown on sketch VII. on the preceding page. 
After Lezachow it yielded both banks for a 
stretch of eleven miles down to above Jaroslav, 
after which point it ran to, and corre- 
sponded with, the works surrounding Przemysl, 
went round by the south of that ring of 
forts, but came up dangerously far north on the 
east, only just covering the railway at D, then 
coming down sharply to the marshes of the 
Dneister. Beyond these it is not very clear how it 
ran, but apparently corresponded roughly to the 
Dneister line until the approaches of the Buko 
vina, where the success of a fortnight ago put it 
well to the south again, occupying Nadworna, but 
failing to include the important junction of 
Delatyn, failing to cut the railway between Dela- 
tyn and Kolomea, failing to occupy the bridge- 
head of Kolomea itself, but further down crossing 
the Pruth and occupying the point of Sniatyn. A 
little below the latter it went round north of the 
Pruth again, just failed to occupy Czernowitz, 
and so reached the frontier. 
Such was the shape of the Russian front on 
May 17. This shape it still retains at the 
moment of writing (Tuesday, the 25th), and, 
as has been pointed out above, the danger-point 
is probably no longer the sector just north of 
Jaroslav, but the dent D, east of Przemysl. 
