CHAPTER XXIX.

WARSAW AGAIN SAVED.

Fresh troops were now brought up from Germany, and a determined effort was made to envelop the Russians by striking hard at their left while the rest of the line was strongly held up. The Russian left wing was pushed back, chiefly because it had broken roads and railways behind it, and was farthest from its base of supply. Lodz, to the rear of the Russian lines, now formed an ugly salient, much like that at Ypres. Ruzsky knew that if he were forced to retreat through the seven miles of the Lodz streets he could only march slowly and in crowded formation, and would probably be badly cut up in the process. It was a risk which there was no reason to face. Lodz was of no value in his plan of campaign, though, of course, it was valuable to the enemy because of its resources. Ruzsky therefore determined to give it up, and to straighten out his line by falling back. Accordingly, on the 27th he slowly retreated. His withdrawal lasted more than a week. German shells began to fall in the streets of Lodz on 5th December, and the next day the enemy entered the city, and were received with great joy by their fellow-countrymen, who form a large part of its population. For the second time the Germans were masters of Lodz.

There was much joy in Berlin, and the capture of the city was acclaimed as a great victory, in which "we did not lose a single man." As we have seen, the Russians gave it up of their own accord, because the game of holding it was not worth the candle. As a matter of fact, there was no battle and no victory. It is said that for fifteen hours the Germans shelled empty trenches, from which the Russians had withdrawn on the previous day. Nevertheless they still speak of the Battle of Lodz, and consider it a feather in their caps.

A few days later von Hindenburg thus addressed his men:--

"In the course of severe fighting, lasting several days, my troops have brought to a standstill a Russian army superior in numbers. Over 60,000 prisoners, 150 guns, and about 200 machine guns have fallen into our hands. But the enemy is not yet annihilated. Therefore, forward, with God, for King and Fatherland, till the last Russian lies beaten at our feet."

No doubt the Germans had made large captures, but so had the Russians. Von Hindenburg, though he called upon his men to rejoice, knew that he had really failed in his object, which was to make the Russians retire from Galicia and come to the help of their hard-pressed comrades in North Poland. They had done nothing of the sort. As you know, the Galician campaign went on without interference.

Von Hindenburg had promised his troops that they should eat their Christmas dinner in Warsaw. He was still seventy miles from the city, and December was already six days old. There was no time to be lost if his promise was to be kept.

He now hurled his left against the Russian right wing, which lay north of the Bzura and well east of Lowicz. At the same time he increased his forces in East Prussia, and ordered them to march southwards from Mlava so as to cut the main railway from Warsaw to Petrograd. Had this move succeeded, the Russians would have been obliged to abandon Warsaw. Happily, a force advanced from the fortress of Novo Georgievsk, and drove back the Germans from East Prussia almost to their frontier. For the time being, the Russian right flank was secure.

The Russian wing just south of the Vistula was not, however, well placed to meet the other attack. It was cut into two by the river Bzura, and its communications were very bad. So, with great wisdom, Ruzsky determined to withdraw this wing behind the Bzura and its tributary the Rawka, which flows north to join the Bzura, a few miles east of Lowicz. Behind these rivers he would have good communications, by means of which he could easily bring up food, munitions, and reinforcements. So far the winter frosts had not been severe; there was only a thin coating of ice on the Polish bogs, and the Vistula and the Pilitza were still open for river traffic. Just when Ruzsky was planning his retirement a complete thaw set in, and in a few days the whole countryside was one slough of despond. The Germans advancing against his new position would have to flounder through many feet of mud to get at him.

For a fortnight the Russians slowly fell back all along the line, and the towns to the west of the line of the Bzura and the Rawka were occupied by the Germans. By the 18th of December the Russians were in their new position, which soon proved itself to be as strong as the Allied position from Arras to Nieuport. The same kind of warfare now took place both in East and West. The Russians dug themselves in close to the shallow, muddy streams, and on the other side the Germans occupied the fairly high bank which marks the rim of an old channel.

Attacks and counter-attacks were nightly incidents of the struggle. When the early darkness set in, the Germans, in close formation, crashed through the cat-ice along the shore, waded breast-high through the bitterly cold waters, and, in spite of severe losses, frequently gained the Russian bank. Sometimes they captured an advanced trench, but rarely could they hold it, and all the time they were losing heavily. Warsaw was only thirty-five miles away, and the roar of the German guns was clearly heard in the city. But there was no panic; the Russian lines were proof against every assault. By Christmas Eve the enemy was doing no more than hold his trenches. In East and West alike stalemate had set in.

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A writer thus describes Christmas Day in the Russian lines: "The Bishop of Moscow," he says, "arranged a solemn Christmas Day service, with trained singers who were serving in the army. He later visited the hospitals, giving short and plain addresses, and blessing each branch of the service in turn. There was a great Christmas tree in the station, where presents were distributed to the wounded. Gifts were also distributed under fire by the hospital workers to the soldiers in the trenches. In the evening I took part in a Christmas gathering in one of the big hospitals. Every one's health was drunk in turn; the persons toasted were mentioned by their Christian names, and all was woven into a long song. Afterwards we sang songs of the Volga."

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The failure of the second attempt to capture Warsaw brings us down to the end of the year 1914, and the moment is convenient for summing up the work of the Russian armies during the first five months of the war. In common with her Allies, Russia was not ready to take the field when war was declared; most of her soldiers had yet to be called up, and she had not sufficient rifles, ammunition, and uniforms for them. Further, by means of her very imperfect railway system, she had to transport such forces as were ready many thousands of miles before they could reach the theatre of war. In spite of all these difficulties, she had a force prepared to strike a full fortnight before the Germans believed that she could put her men into the field.

While the Kaiser's hosts were swinging through Belgium, in the hope of overwhelming the French and the British, the Russians, though still too weak for the purpose, invaded East Prussia, the sacred land of the German squires, and by doing so relieved to some extent the strain in the West. Dearly did Russia pay for this act of chivalry. She suffered one of the most terrible defeats in her history at Tannenberg; but she was still undismayed. In Galicia, on the other hand, she crushed the Austrians in two mighty battles before the Germans could come to their aid, and captured the whole eastern half of the country.

Her troops were rapidly approaching Cracow, which alone barred the road to Silesia and Berlin, when the Germans, who from the first were greatly superior in numbers, made a dangerous move against Warsaw, the great railway centre which it was essential for Russia to hold if she was to maintain the war on the enemy's frontier. To meet this grave threat, the Grand Duke ordered his forces to fall back from Galicia, and hold the long line of the Vistula against the determined invader. Then when von Hindenburg had made his furious thrust, and had been flung back almost from the gates of Warsaw, the Russians sprang forward once more, and drove the Germans in rout behind their own frontier. Again they swept into Galicia, and there they were maintaining themselves when the year 1914 came to a close.

By means of the network of railways on the German frontier von Hindenburg rapidly massed troops for a march across the undevastated north of Poland towards the city which had already foiled him, hoping that this new threat would have the former effect. It failed in its purpose. The Russians met his many with their few behind the marshes of the Bzura, and the late arrival of Rennenkampf's troops alone saved the Germans from being completely wiped out. As it was, they suffered terribly, but reinforced, made another frenzied attempt on Warsaw. Again the Russians retreated, and behind a river front of great strength defied the Germans to do their worst. By Christmas Eve the Germans had failed, for the second time in three months, to capture the city of their desire.

Such in the briefest possible outline is the record of Russia's part in the war during the year 1914. The Russians had most loyally supported the Allies; they had sacrificed thousands of men in order to draw against them the greatest number of Germans, and by their stubborn and persistent efforts they had caused the enemy after 15th November to abandon his offensive movements in the West. Their commander-in-chief and most of their other leaders had shown fine generalship and great resolution, and their soldiers had given fresh proof of the dogged courage for which they have always been renowned.

All this came as a great surprise to those who remembered that the Russian armies had been utterly baffled and overthrown in the war which they had waged ten years before against Japan. Then they were badly trained, badly equipped, and badly led; but Russia had taken to heart the bitter lessons of defeat, and during the intervening years had so thoroughly reorganized her forces that they were now able to inflict defeats upon the foremost military nation of the world. As an armed power Russia had been born anew.