LAND AND WATER 
September 18, 1918. 
offensive, v.itb heavy street fighting, Grodno 
was occupied, and for a \vhole week later the big 
bulge roughly defined by tlie rivers \ienien and 
Merezanca, a district badly provided with roads 
and full of marsh and forest, was the district 
wherein large forces of the Russians were held, 
threatened upon either flank with envelopment, 
and only with difficulty disentangling tfiemselves. 
Even as late as September 10 the enemy, who had 
pushed along the railway from Olita to Orany, 
was unable to master the whole course of the 
Merezanca River, while the southern horn 
of his envelojiment fighting to reach Mosty 
',-ould not master the little River Ross, and 
was still fighting upon the front Ozery- 
Skidel. Skidel, on September 10, changed hands 
iv-peatedly, but it seems to have been lost on the 
11th — at any rate, on the 12th it was fully in the 
hands of the enemy. But meanwhile the Russian 
forces in the salient had got safely away, the 
eight days or so following upon the evacuation of 
Grodno being the most anxious moment of the 
great retreat since the threat to the salient of 
Przemysl three months before. 
While this hammering at the front of Grodno 
and round either end of its salient at Orany and 
Skidel Avas proceeding the enemy was also attack- 
ing the line from Vilna to Dvinsk, and approach- 
ing the town of Vilna itself. It was here that he 
was making most directly for his main objective, 
the railway communication between Riga and 
Lemberg, which passes through Dvinsk, Vilna. 
Lida, &c. 
Already, by September 7, the enemy was 
attacking in force the town of New Troike, Avhich 
stands upon an isthmus between the two lakes, a 
day's march west of Vilna. He did not, and 
apparently has not yet, or had not last Sunday, 
forced the passage. But, by September 10 he was 
everywhere within a day's" march of the railway 
between Vilna and Dvinsk, and attacked with 
especially large forces along the road from Wil- 
komir to Sventsiany. All this advance through 
the district north of Vilna, and particularly the 
advance in force towards Sventsiany, is the more 
difiicult to understand from the fact that the 
whole region is a mass of small lakes, comparable 
to the Masurian district. At any rate, by Satur- 
day night, the 11th, or Sunday, at latest, the 
advanced cavalry of the German thrust here had 
reached the railway. On Sunday night the 
Russians were still holding Podbrozie Station 
On Monday, or Sunday night, the railway between 
Dvinsk and Vibia was reached at a few other 
points by the enemy's horse, and the railway com- 
munication, therefore, between Riga and Lem- 
berg, for the complete mastery of which all this 
advance was designed, was attained, and Vihaa 
IS cut off from the north. 
In the first days of the month, by the 3rd, 
simultaneously with the occupation of Grodno, the 
cavalry had got as far east as Kartuskai-Bereza, 
and the Russian forces on the north were rapidly 
falling back to get into line, and had already 
reached ^'olkovis, while the extreme left of 
Mackensen was at Antopol, upon the line through 
the beginning of the marshes from Brest to Pinsk. 
It will be seen that the advance on to Kartuskaia 
had proceeded further than anything to the north 
or south of it. The Russians to the north fell back 
under the threat of this advance to the south of 
them until they reached the line of the River 
Zelianka (a tributary of the Niemen), which they 
were still holding upon Sunday, the enemy fight- 
ing for the possession of the railway and road 
crossing at Zelva. A similar fight was going on 
at the same time for the point of Roshany, much 
higher up the water, where the great main road 
from Brest to Slonim crosses the river. As the 
advance along the Pinsk railway had not got 
further than Drogitchin, or a little to the east of 
that point, the whole line was here by Sunday 
night fairly straightened out. 
It is worthy of remark that the advance has 
not yet seriously penetrated into the marshes. It 
is as yet only on tne eastern edge of the really bad 
region. This district, it is true, operates as hardly 
against the movements of our Ally as it does 
against those of the enemy. But my point is that 
the effect of the marshes in thoroughly separating 
the northern from the southern operations, and 
the all importance of the obtaining of the railway, 
which cuts them from north to south, and is the 
sole means of connecting the southern with the 
northern armies, has not yet matured. 
So much for the main theatre of operations, 
the northern one with which the first three 
sectors are concerned. Space compels me, as 
I have said, to postpone until next week 
the consideration of the two last, south of 
the marshes, including the details of the 
Russian success west of Tarnopol, possible, but 
doubtful, development of which we shall be better 
able to judge in a few days. I say " possible but 
doubtful " because it does not seem likely, with 
the pressure exercised on the northern part of the 
southern Russian armies — that is, upon their 
right wing — that the left wing in the extreme 
south will risk pushing much further forward, 
even though it has had so great a success in front 
of Tarnopol. 
H. BELLOC. 
in.-THR ADVANCE IN THE CENTRE 
AND THROUGH THE MARSHES. 
The third of the five sectors we are studvine 
comprises the command of the Regent of Bavaria 
and the extreme left wing of the forces r^de^ 
SvT- ? ^^' ^^^'' *^« ^^«k of the forces S 
with fh' f'''^'^'/^ f^''^^'^ °^°^^ °r less in line 
with the forces to the north, nor have they met 
brSe^ rSd^r^"""^"- ^'^^^^ ^^^^^'^^^ ^^ ^^ 
W 
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" Belgium and Germany " is the title of a volume which 
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