the Tysmienica, gave up the resistance and fell back step by step through Macoszyn, Hola and Parczew, followed by the XI. Army and the left wing and centre of the Bug Army. The right wing of the IV. Army remained in the bend of the Tysmie- nica, the centre and left wing crossed the Bystrycza and came towards the Bialka section and Radzyn. Kovess and Woyrsch advanced by way of Lukow and Siedlce.
As the offensive progressed the allies' front had become considerably shorter. For whereas the length of front in the middle of July, at the beginning of the offensive, had been about 720 km. long from the German VIII. Army's left wing at Ossowiec to Mackensen's right wing, it had by the middle of Aug. been curtailed to the extent of 480 km. The armies drew closer together, and it thus became possible to relieve the fighting troops more frequently and also to withdraw whole corps and throw them into the battle at another point.
On the I3th the vigorous pursuit S. and W. of Brest Litovsk gained considerable ground. The IV. Army advanced in the general direction of Biala, the XI. steered straight for Brest Litovsk and fought its way to the region round Opole, and the Bug Army pushed forward its left wing as far N. as Hanna on the Bug. On the following day the Russians offered renewed resistance, but fell back again still farther early on the I5th, after the Guard Corps, reenforced by the XIX. Infantry Div. and the X. Reserve Corps, had penetrated their lines S.E. of Razwiedowka and at Gorodyszeze respectively on the i4th, and the IV. Army had also successfully attacked their positions. The German X. Corps came in to reenforce the ever-lengthening front of the Bug Army and, taking up its position on the army's right wing, undertook the protection of the Bug in conjunction with the I. Army at Dubienka.
On the isth the XI. and IV. Armies reached to Tuczna and the area S. of Biala in their pursuit. The left wing corps of the Bug Army gained the cross-roads N.W. of Slawatycze. Early on the 1 6th portions of the IV. Army crossed the Krzna hollow and established themselves N. of the road leading westward from Biala. To the N. of the IV. Army Prince Leopold of Bavaria's group of armies, with Woyrsch's . Army and the Kovess group, reached the Bug N. of Konstantynow, and the IX. Army crossed over in the direction of Leniatycze.
On the iyth the XI. Army had come up so near to the outlying positions of Brest Litovsk that the Guard and the Austro- liungarian VI. Corps, who were to invest it, could now move into the blockade position S.W. of the fortress on the line Okczyn- Dobrynka-Lachowka. The X. Reserve Corps established itself E. of Janow on the Bug, and the XXII. Reserve Corps pushed in between that corps' right wing and Lachowka on the front facing east. At Wlodawa the Bug Army built out a bridgehead. The main body of the IV. Army was' echeloned N.W. of Janow and crowded together on the S. bank of the Bug. The left wing was opposite Niemirow, where the VIII. Corps was fighting its way across the Bug. Adjoining was Kovess, who had taken the N. bank of the Bug between Niemirow and Mielnik, and was continuing the advance in conjunction with Woyrsch and with Prince Leopold of Bavaria's group of armies, which had reached Zerdycze.
The Bug Army, to which Arz's Corps had been added, and which now stretched as far as Krzna with its left wing, took the offensive across the Bug in a N.E. direction starting from the Wlodawa area. In the battle of Wlodawa the German I. Infantry Div. broke through the Russian positions on the i pth and pushed forward, followed by the XXII. Infantry Div. to Piszcza. The XXIV. Reserve Corps attacked Dubok and Czersk for the time being without success. At Slawatycze on the E. bank of the Bug the Russians put up a very strong resistance. They were concerned at this point to delay the advance as long as possible.
The Russian XXIX., XXIII., and II. Caucasian Corps were to take advantage of the protection of the lakes E. of Wlodawa to bar the approach to Brest Litovsk. But the retreating movements of their train columns, and the withdrawal of troops in the general direction of Kovel, Kobryn and Pruzany,
pointed to a fight to gain time, which would have to be cut short by the I. Army and the Bug Army in a vigorous attack. On the N. wing of the Bug Army no change took place that day as regards the Russian positions at Brest Litovsk, but the XI. Army gained ground N. of the Krzna in the direction of Kolczyn. The Russians attempted, by repeated counter-attacks, to delay the pressing pursuit of the allies until they should have had time to cross the Bug. The IV. Army succeeded in advancing as far as the Pulwa.
In face of the right wing attacks of the Bug Army the Russians had established themselves on the 2oth along the Kapajowka. Arz's Corps, before Brest Litovsk, forced the Russians back on both sides of the road leading from Biala to the fortress, to beyond the area N. of Dobrynka. In the zone of the XI. Army the angle of the Bug at Krzna was almost completely cleared by the XXII. Corps. The X. Reserve Corps pushed across the Bug at Ogorodniki without meeting with any great opposition. The Archduke Josef Ferdinand's Army and the Kovess group encountered renewed violent resistance on the line Wolczyn- Wolka-Tymianko. After hard fighting the Russians were driven farther back. The investing troops of Brest Litovsk also gained some ground.
On the 22nd the XLI. Reserve Corps of the Bug Army, after making their way through the lake defiles, reached the region E. of Oriechowo, and on the 24th, together with the XXIV. Reserve Corps, advanced to the line Zbunin-Mielniki after fierce fighting. The Beskiden Corps and Arz's Corps meanwhile were working their way step by step up to the particularly powerful positions and forts of Brest Litovsk. The XXII. Reserve Corps and the X. Reserve Corps of the XI. Army were also fighting hard to repulse the Russian counter-attacks. On the 24th Arz's Corps and the Beskiden Corps succeeded in penetrating the Russian lines in several places and in forcing back the Russian garrison (III. and V. Corps) behind the permanent ring of forts. In the meantime the XI. Army, fighting furiously, advanced over the Bug to the line Neple- Minkowice, and threatened the fortress from the north. Mean- while the XII. Corps of the Kovess group had broken through the Russian front, already greatly shaken, at Riasno, and had wrested from it the Pulwa position. A vehement fighting pursuit was carried out by the IV. Army and Leopold of Bavaria's Army group as far as Minkowice-Babinka. The S. wing of the German XII. Army pushed forward with the IX. Army to the swampy valley of the Orlanka.
Capture of Brest Litovsk (Aug. 25-6). On the 25th the XXXIX. Honved Infantry Div. of Arz's Corps broke through the outer ring of forts at Kobylany, S.E. of the railway leading from Biala, and took the fort from the rear. The posi- tions on both sides of the road coming in from Biala were also stormed. The XII. Infantry Div. of this corps captured a fort S. of Koroszczyn, and the XXII. Reserve Corps took the place itself and several forts on the N. front of the fortress, after which the Germans advanced to the railway bridgel and drove the Russians back into the citadel.
Farther N. the Guard Corps and the X. Reserve Corps pushed the Russians back to the Lesna, which river was crossed by the Guard Corps on the 25th to the N. of Brest Litovsk. The IV. Army and Prince Leopold's group beat the Russians back to Kamieniec Litowsk and the Lesnaja marshes.
After the hard battles fought on the 25th around the forts of the fortress, which culminated in the capture of the redoubt by the XXII. Reserve Corps and Arz's Corps, the Russians, on the 26th, abandoned the fortress and withdrew to the Ryta and the Muchawiec section, closely pursued by the Bug Army and the XI. Army. In the Bug Army the XLI. Reserve Corps and XXII. Infantry Div. pushed forward on both sides of the road from Wlodawa to Kobryn, to beyond the road leading E. from Brest Litovsk. Gerok's Corps gained the Ryta section, and the Beskiden Corps, advancing along both sides of the road from Brest Litovsk to Kobryn, reached the Szebryn region. The VI. Corps remained in the fortress and was once more put under the XL Army command. The XI. Army advanced in the area
