Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/497

LEFT WORLD WAR 427 WORID WAR ence of the Austrian armies. The opera- tions during June compelled Germany and Austria to recognize the magnitude of the Russian success. Lutsk, Dubno, and Rovno were retaken; an advance of forty miles in the N. threatened Kovel and Lemberg; twice as extensive an ad- vance in the S. had reconquered Buko- wina and east Galicia and had brought the Cossacks to the Carpathians. Ger- many was doubly forced to renounce Verdun by having to direct large re-en- forcements to Volhynia and Galicia to save Lemberg, as well as to the Somme to resist the French and British. This leaving a considerable dent in the battle line made by Russia. Before Russia had embarked on this drive to recover her lost territory, her armies elsewhere had shown considerable vitality. In Turkish Caucasia, where the Grand Duke Nicholas had been trans- ferred as commander-in-chief, a success- ful advance had been proceeding. The campaign in this region was related to that of the British in Mesopotamia, where the Turks had the advantage, and Russian activities were needed to relieve the pressure on the British at Kut-el- Amara. The Grand Duke's offensive in GERMAN DRIVES diversion of troops and guns to the E. saved the situation; it brought about a stiffening of the Austro-German resist- ance during the summer against the continued Russian drives on Kovel, Lem- berg and Stanislau. The Russians met a number of reverses and were held up at the Carpathians. With the coming of the fall and winter, the fighting waned, Caucasia was undertaken with this aim and also with the object of reaching Constantinople on the W. He first set out to capture Erzerum, the Turkish fortress fifty miles W. on the Russian Caucasian frontier. His armies moved in that direction from three points in February, 1916, the design being to at- tack Erzerum from three sides. The for-