LAND AND W A T E il 
August 21, 1915. 
7^ 
^^^^^at fpom SalUixt, 
A 
Lomza 
^ Line 
^^.sa;^ 
^nh 
^A^ 
O' 
Reading . vd^^a 
(Uoshan) n^<J^>\>>"^ 
The Thames &'Narew Compared 
Ar^a round 
LONDON 
(Warsaw) 
Central 
London 
(Novo . 
Geor^tev^k) 
Kingston 
(Sierok) 
Narew from Lomza to Novo Geor^ievsk. 
Thames from Lechlade to London. 
IV 
of the last three weeks, a space of time ample for 
the deliberate retirement of the Eussian armies, 
it would read on the English map somewhat as 
follows : 
Three Tuesdays ago, on July 20, the army 
coming up from the Channel stood in front of 
lechlade, Abingdon, Reading, and Windsor 
(Lomza, Ostrolenka, Roshan, and Pultusk). 
Each of these places had fortifications thrown 
up on the south side of the Thames to defend the 
crossings there. Three days later, on Friday, 
July 23, the enemy had thrown a force across 
fjust above Windsor, in the neighbourhood of 
Bray. Five days later, on Sunday, the 25th, he 
had thrown another force across at Reading. He 
had failed to carry Lechlade, which he had already, 
begun to attack. He had his last columns to the 
right trying to get across at Kingston. 
By Tuesday, the 27th, after a full week had 
passed, those who had crossed at Reading had not 
been able to get three miles beyond the town on 
the further bank. Those who had crossed at 
[Windsor were still fighting to get across the 
Colne, and had hardly reached, immediately in 
front of them, the road that passes through 
Slough. Meanwhile the retirement they were 
pressing to cut oft" already had a full week's start. 
By the next Sunday, August 1, the fortifica- 
tions of Lechlade were "still being attacked. The 
column that had crossed at Reading had not yet 
got to Henley. The column that had crossed at 
[Windsor was not yet over the Colne, but had got 
about two miles north of Slough. The column at 
Kingston was still fighting to get across the river, 
and so far had failed. 
Remember that all this time the fighting is 
of the heaviest character and that the forcing of 
the river and the attempt to get something of a 
belt on the further side is only achieved at a mur- 
derous cost in men. Already twelve days have 
passed, during Avhich the retreat to tJie north is 
quietly proceeding, and those who have at various 
places crossed the Thames with the sole object of 
cutting off that retreat are still a very long way 
off from the London and North- Western line — let 
alone the cutting-off of the troops retreating from 
the great salient, the main bodies of which are 
now quite fifty miles away. 
By Tuesday, August 3, after this effort had 
been going on a whole fortnight, a crossing is 
effected near Abingdon. On the same day a fifth 
attempt to cross at Kingston is thrown back, and 
the fortifications at Lechlade are still holding the 
enemy up there. 
By Sunday, August 8, we find that the army 
that is trying to force the Thames has a column 
still held up at Kingston ; that the column which 
crossed at Windsor has not yet reached Uxbridge; 
that the column which crossed at Reading is fight- 
ing to get a mile beyond Henley; and that the 
column which crossed at Abingdon is not yet two 
miles beyond the river. 
On Tuesday, the 10th, at the end of three 
weeks of fighting, a crossing is at last effected at 
Lechlade. The columns which have crossed at 
Windsor and at Reading are in touch near 
Marlow. The column which had crossed at 
Abingdon has hardly advanced five miles. 
There is the situation after twenty-one days 
of the most expensive effort and an outHanking 
movement, success in which demands of its very 
nature rapidity and even surprise. There has 
