LAND & WA T E R 
June 22, igi6 
But the shifting of the line in its soiithorn portion right 
back to Brest would weaken it and would prepare the 
way for better tilings later on. Therefore this advance 
npon Kovel. though not decisive, has great value for the 
Allies, and a corresponding disadvantage for the enemy. 
How is the enemy meeting the pressure of this ad- 
vance upon Kovel wiiich. after the threat of the direct 
south-westward advance, is the principal danger menac- 
ing them ? 
In the first place, by directly opposing the main 
advance, secondly by bringing all the pressure lie possibly 
can to bear upon the Russian right flank. The accompany- 
ing Map III will make the position clear, I hope. 
Kovel Junction with its five converging railways is 
connected with Lutsk by a railway and by a road which 
will be seen upon the sketch ; I have divided both roughly 
into sections of five English miles, starting from Kovel. 
Up this road and railway the Russians are pushing, but 
at a certain point marked X upon the map, at 21 miles 
from Kovel by the railway, their advancing body has come 
across the obstacle of the River Stokhod. 
This river, like all the watercourses of this region, 
runs through soft black soil and its banks are marshy. 
It is of httlc depth at this point, and perhaps no more 
than 50 yards across, but I behev^e there is no hard ford. 
Just where the railway crosses, upon the further bank 
(from the direction of the Russian advance), is the village 
of Svidniki, the possession of which by the Russians 
obviously gives them a bridge-head across the obstacle. 
For three or four days the fine of the Stokhod held up the 
Russian advance towards Kovel. But upon Friday 
last the passage was forced — how we are not told — and 
the village of Svidniki securely held by our Allies. 
So much for the direct advance. It had by Friday 
night, the i6t h June, got to about 20 miles from Kovel 
Junction, and there lay between the head of its column 
and that objective no formidable natural obstacle. 
Now consider the attack in flank by which the 
Germans and Austrians — but the (iermans in very large 
proportion — propose to spoil the Russian plan. 
It is clear that an enemy advancing towards a point O, 
the reaching of which would strategically affect you for 
the worse, and making a big bulge forward in his line to- 
wards this objective, O, gets intrt an angle more and more 
acute as he advances. You will check his advance and 
put him in peril in his turn, if by striking upon either side 
of the bulge, say upon the right liand side as by the 
arrows at A-A, you can bend in his line. F'or by so doing 
you threaten his hnes of communication C-C. 
That is exactly what the Austro-Gormans, but par- 
ticularly the German Higher Command (which we can here 
see at work) is trying to do in the Lut.sk-Kovel region. 
If the reader will turn back to Map I he will see what 
the enemy is about and what advantages support him. 
The Russians are holding the line of the Styr from the 
bridge-head of Tchartoriisk up the river of" Kolki and 
beyond. They are holding it on tiie defensive and the 
enemy are putting forth all their energy in an attempt 
to cross the Styr here and to force the Russians back 
southward and eastward from the river until the head 
of the bulge out by Svidniki is in peril. If the enemy 
could get across this part of the Styr in the Kolki or 
Godomichi region ujwn any reasonably broad front, they 
would have in front of them two fairly good roads for 
advancing down upon the rear of the Rus.sians. 
Note that tlie Austro-Germans have for this attempt 
the support of an excellent lateral Hue of communica- 
tions. Their troops lying along the Styr in this region 
are supplied by the railway which runs from Kovel to 
Tchartoriisk, and just up to the neighbourhood of 
Tchartoriisk station itself this line is in their hands. 
F""rom this railway there runs the good road marked 
on Map III with the numbering i i r ; and the distance 
across which the fighting units have to be munitioned from 
railhead at Manievice station is only twenty miles. 
The actual situation of the Russians on this imperilled 
flank is a little obscure because the various communiques 
do not exactly fit in to each other. But this much would 
seem certain : 
The Russians firmly hold the bridge-head of Tchartoriisk 
and are on the West bank of the Styr as far as Kolki. 
Some days ago a certain and unexpected piece of 
pressure from the enemy in front of Kolki forced our 
Allies here on to the further bank of the river. They 
have recovered this point and are again upon the northern 
bank at Kolki, holding the bridge-head. I find it diffi- 
cult to determine from the very scarce evidence available 
whether they hold the whole stream up to Godomichi, 
but there upon the eastern bank (" the wrong side " 
from the Russian point of view), enemy pressure very 
heavily developed as late as last Saturday. By the last 
advices the enemy is thrust back again on to the western 
bank at Godomichi also. 
Such is the situation in this region at the moment of 
writing (Tuesday afternoon, June 20th). The Russians 
have advanced on the Kovel road as far as Svidniki, 
leaving a flank on the north against which the enemy is 
hammering as hard as he can, and with particular violence, 
at the critical points of Kolki and (iodomichi, where he is 
nearest to the main roads by which the Russian advance 
on Kovel is supplied, as well as by the railway. 
Mmieh'Lce Stii£u>n 
Thorn Kovel 
' ' ' ^p''* / 
Sussuutlaze 
Scmday last June /8. 
All along the northern bank of the Styr from Kolki 
to Rozyszcze there is open land above flood or marsh 
level, immediately behind which begins the great mass 
of the woods. Before the Russians seized the bridge-head 
at Rozyszcze the Austro-Germans had laid along this high 
open land and along the edge of the woods a light railway, 
which followed a rough road of the neighbourhood and had 
its terminus just opposite Godomichi. But when the 
Russians had got hold of the bridge-head at Rozyszcze 
this railway was no longer available, and the attack on 
Godomichi had to be supplied from beyond Kolki 
To Kolki the enemy can bring comparatively large 
forces along the road "which leads directly through the 
woods and the marshes to the railway at Manieovice 
station — a road which now certainly has a light railway 
laid along it. 
At (Jodomichi the enemy is hampered by the absence of' 
a good road. He can only bring up mun'itionment along 
the comparatively open high land north of the ri\er where 
