A Popular History of The Great War/Volume 1/Page 197

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THE ATTACK ON IVANGOROD


other Austrian positions northward between Lublin and Khohn. The main Russian army had to wait for a successful issue of its detached southern forces. Naturally, Dankl knew what was happening far to the south. Furious were the attempts he made to retriev^e the defeat of the distant right wdng by shattering the main Russian army in front of him. On August 31 the Austrians made a desperate advance oil Ivangorod, a fortress towm possessing the only available bridge over the great river. Had Ivangorod been w'on, the main Russian army would have had the tables turned on it and have been taken in the rear. But the Ivangorod garrison, with Russian forces operating round Warsaw, defeated the, Austrian^?. These retired up the river tow^ards Opole, where General Dankl had entrenched, threw two pontoon bridges over the w^ater, and joined his army. Sfrengthened by them, Dankl again tried to reach the Lublin railw^ay, but the Russian commander, having thrown all his reinforcements on this side, beat batk the advance once more. While the attack on Ivangorod w^as being made by the Austrians 6ver the river, with Dankl cooperating with them on the opposite side, the Austrian centre also violently assailed the Russian main army. The Russians w^ere hard put to it to with- stand the onslaught of the Austrians. The position suddenly changed about September 6. By a w'onderful feat of marching. General Russky brought some of his troops up from Lemberg, and the Austrian army penetrating into Poland w^as then attackedonthreefronts. Alltheoffensivewasknockedoutofit by the heavy losses it suffered ; it was completely reduced to a defensive role, and compelled at some points to retreat. For a few^ hours it looked as though the Austrian front w^ould be pierced. But the Austrians worked with great energy to repair their centre and right wing. Reinforcements of 300,000 German troops with heavy artillery were railed to them in the nick of time, together with supports from Tirol and Hungary. One hundred and fifty thousand of the Germans marched with their big guns into Russian territory, and w^ere placed on the hills round Turobin. The other three German army corps were used to stiffen a new right wing, formed of the fresh Austro-Hungarian troops and the fugitives from the battles of Halicz and Lemberg. These fugitives were mainly loyalists, the disaffected Slavs to the

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