the single practicable road, by which alone a deliberate with- drawal could be carried out by the Austrians. The situation being now critical, the II Army command on April i gave the order for a retreat. The sorely tried II Army had to fall back in one bound between April 2 and 4 to the line Patakofalu- Nagypolany-N. of Virava, to the S. of the Carpathian ridge; only Szurmay's group, detached to the Southern Army, was to hold the Uzsok pass on the crest itself.
The effect of this surrender of the main ridge was not only to shorten the Austrian front, but also to utilize the mountains, hitherto an impediment to their operations, as an obstacle against the Russians and improve the internal situation of the II. Army (practicable roads and billeting facilities right up close behind the front). The Russians did not molest the with- drawal; indeed when it began they were endeavouring with the forces set free by the fall of Przemysl to break through in the Laborcza valley. The attack fell on the battered X. Corps, which was slowly pressed back; the gate of Hungary seemed on the point of being forced. Fortunately for the Central Powers, the German Beskiden Corps arrived just at the right moment to close it again in concert with the X. Corps, in the " Easter battle " (March 2 to 5). While the II. Army was falling back over the frontier ridge on the 3rd, the pressure in the Laborcza valley was checked; on the 4th the Russians lost ground, and by the 5th the situation had been restored.
The Grand Duke now extended his attack on both flanks, but in vain. The III. Army repulsed all the mass attacks of the enemy, and by April 9 the great battle on its front, which had continued without interruption since March 20, came to an end. On the II. Army front the Russians suffered considerably from cold and hardship in the inhospitable mountain country and were compelled to halt to reorganize their lines of communication, so that they could only follow up the II. Army slowly, and had to leave much of their artillery behind. The II. Army was therefore allowed time to dig itself in and bring up enough troops to hold its chosen line of resistance. Better weather (sunny days, and night temperatures of only 23 F.) did much to improve the condition of the troops.
As the roads became better, the main weight of the Russian attack was transferred to the left wing (astride the Telepocz road near that place). This, the last serious offensive against the II. Army front, was finally repulsed on the i3th after a fresh division 1 from the IV. Army had been put into line. Despite the most desperate efforts, the Russians failed during the following days to secure any further success. Their last gain of ground was the capture of the hotly contested height of Kozialata on the i ;th ; a series of unsuccessful Austrian counter-strokes prolonged the fighting till the 2oth, when the consolidation of the opposing fronts and the mutual exhaustion of the combatants ended it.
Only on the E. wing of the army, which had cooperated with Szurmay's hard-pressed troops of the Southern Army at the beginning of April in the defence of the Uzsok pass, was there still considerable activity. The Russians repeatedly assailed the pass and the Upper Ung valley from N.W., N. and N.E., between April 21 and 26, but were held off by the united efforts of Szur- may's group and the E. wing of the II. Army. The railway, which had only been repaired after great difficulty, remained available for use during the spring offensive.
Elsewhere the Southern Army front remained on the whole unchanged. After some weeks of sapping the hotly contested Zwinin ridge was stormed on the gth, and the Ostry on the 25th by the Stryj detachment (detached E. wing of Brussilov's army, 4th Div.). Pflanzer-Baltin's group, reenforced in March by three cavalry divisions, also held its old positions in Galicia; it had once more driven the Russians from the northern Bukovina although the IX. Army in its front had been increased to 8 infantry and 9^ cavalry divisions, and 7 reserve brigades.
The character of the battle in the Carpathians, which stemmed the Russian advance southwards, is shown by the figures given in tabular form in the following statement, which was issued by the Austrian high command on April 20.
1 The 51st Honved Div.
| A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
Army.
Front- age
Rifle Strength (inch cavalry).
German X. Army
85 miles
79,000 against 180,000 Russians*
VIII.
56
45,000 124.000
Gallwitz' Army. GermanlX.Army
92
72
139,000 104,000
304,000 196,000.
1 Woyrsch's Army
58
84.000
90,000
Austrian I. Army.
44
57,000
50,000
" IV. "
72
108,000
100,000
" III. "
48
110,000
106,000
II. "
38
90,000
115,000
Southern Army Pflanzer-Baltin's
63
85,000
' 120,000
Group .
92
100,000 .
" 155,000 "
Total .
720 miles
1,001,000 against 1,540,000 Russians
The positive objective twice attempted by the Central Powers, the relief of Przemysl, was not achieved. Their negative aims were, however, successfully accomplished; the Russians were prevented from attacking Germany, and their attempted inva- sion of Hungary was also frustrated. Finally the gradual melting away of the best elements of the old Imperial Russian Army was one prominent cause of the great successes of the Central Powers during the spring offensive. (K. M.)
CARPENTER, WILLIAM BOYD (1841-1918), English divine, was born at Liverpool March 26 1841, the son of the Rev. Henry
Carpenter, incumbent of St. Michael's, Liverpool. He was
educated at the Royal Institution school, Liverpool, and at
St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1864,
being ordained the same year. He earned a great reputation as
an eloquent preacher, and in 1882 became a canon residentiary
of Windsor, two years later being made bishop of Ripon. He
resigned his see in 1911, and was made canon and later sub-dean
of Westminster. He died in London Oct. 26 1918.
CARR, JOSEPH WILLIAM COMYNS (1849-1916), English
art critic and dramatist, was born in London March 1 1849, his father being a member of an old Cumberland yeoman family. Educated at the university of London, he was called to the bar in 1869, but soon became a writer of art criticism for the Pall Mall Gazelle and, after 1875, editor of L' Art. He also founded
and edited the English Illustrated Magazine, and was associated
with Charles Halle in the founding of the New Gallery, an off-
shoot from the Grosvenor Gallery, in 1888. In his later years
he engaged in theatrical enterprises, and he was the adapter,
alone or in collaboration, of a good many plays, notably Hardy's
Far from the Madding Crowd (1882) and the version of King
Arthur produced by Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum theatre in
1895. He published Some Eminent Victorians (1908) and Coast-
ing Bohemia (1914), both containing reminiscences of his own
early life and the people he had known. He died in London
Dec. 12 1916.
See /. Comyns Can: Stray Memories, by his wife (1920).
CARRANZA, VENUSTIANO (1859-1920), Mexican revolu-
tionary and president, was born Dec. 29 1859, at Cuatro Cienegas, Coahuila. He was educated in the Ateneo Fuentes at Saltillo
and in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria at Mexico City. Defective eyesight prevented a legal career for which he had studied.
Entering politics, he became presidenle municipal of Cuatro
Cienegas in 1887. In 1893 he and his brother Emilio led a revolt
against the repeated candidacy of Garcia Galan for the state
governorship, and they succeeded in inducing President Diaz to name General Muzquiz as governor. Carranza was first elected senator suplenle (alternate) for Coahuila for 1900-2. On the death of the proprietary Ortiz de Montellanos, he took his seat April 5 1901. He was elected proprietary senator for 1904-8, and again for 1908-12, but served only until Dec. 15 1910. In the position of senator he was amenable to the control of Diaz. in 1909 he became candidate for the state governorship in opposition to the wishes of the central Government. In the following year he joined the Madero revolution, serving as a member of the Junta Revolucionaria at San Antonio, Texas. Madero made
2 Infantry divisions reckoned as being 14,000 rifles, cavalry divisions as 2,000 sabres.
'Including Austrian reenforcements arrived since April 15.
