. Nelson's History of the war. h Corps, which theGerman Staff asserted that they had completelydestroyed. But during the fortnight which endedon Saturday, the 20th, at least half of that corpsand more than two-thirds of its guns safely madetheir way through the Augustovo and Suwalki woodsto the position which had been prepared for theRussian defence. The total Russian losses mayhave been 80 guns and 30,000 men ; they wereno more. The two southern corps, in spite oftheir stubborn delaying action at Lyck, crossed thewoods between Augustovo and Ossowietz withoutserious disaster. By the 20th the v
. Nelson's History of the war. h Corps, which theGerman Staff asserted that they had completelydestroyed. But during the fortnight which endedon Saturday, the 20th, at least half of that corpsand more than two-thirds of its guns safely madetheir way through the Augustovo and Suwalki woodsto the position which had been prepared for theRussian defence. The total Russian losses mayhave been 80 guns and 30,000 men ; they wereno more. The two southern corps, in spite oftheir stubborn delaying action at Lyck, crossed thewoods between Augustovo and Ossowietz withoutserious disaster. By the 20th the vigour ^^^ ^^of the German thrust had spent Russians were entrenched, and the inevitablecounter-attack had begun. Once again the rivalforces were on equal terms, for the zone of German 30 HISTORY OF THE WAR. railways had been left behind. Motor transportwas impossible, and the big Pomeranian horses vyerefor work in snow and slush far inferior to the littleRussian ponies. The Russian stand, which was virtually a coun-. .>j marsEy forestsSiiwalki TJie Diaastec oflhe 201hi-Buasian Corp^ ter-attack, began about the 19th. The line held?p , was well to the west of the Niemen. It ^ ran from Kovno, covering Olita, Miro-slav, Drusskeniki, and Grodno ; then in front ofOssowietz down the line of the Bobr, and then wellnorth of the Narev. For the present we are deal-ing only with the thrust of von Eichhorn and vonBuelow on the Niemen and the Bobr, and may BATTLES ON NORTHERN FLANKS. 31 neglect the operations developing along the German aim was clear. The map will showthat the main line from Warsaw to Petrograd crossesthe Niemen at Grodno, running about thirty milessouth of Ossowietz, and at an average distance oftwenty miles from the Upper Narev. If this linecould be cut, then one of Warsaws chief communi-cations would cease, and the road would be openfor the capture of the city by an advance from thenorthern flank. Obviously, the most deadly move-ment against this l
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