Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/832

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792
LOFFLER—LOGUE

wing decided in favour of Arz. Similar merciless attacks against the centre and N. wing recoiled without any result. The arrival of the combined brigade and the advance of Szurmay's group, reinforced by the 6th Div., on Neu Sandec in rear of the VIII. Corps had sufficed to turn the scale.

On Dec. 12 the Russian VIII. Corps fell back before Arz who occupied Chomranice and Marcinkowice. Szurmay drove the Russians out of Neu Sandec and found touch with the Arz group.

On Dec. 13 the Hungarian 39th Honved Infantry Div. pressed forward through Jakobkowice to Michalczow, where the Russian 1 5th Infantry Div. was lying, in order to ease the attack in front of the main body of Roth's group. The 45th Landwehr Infantry Div. had meanwhile taken the Russian positions in the Lososina valley, and the i3th Landwehr Infantry Div. had again seized the hotly disputed Kobla height. These victories by Arz's and Roth's groups, together with the rapid advance of the III. Army which by Dec. 14 had reached the area S. of Jaslo, Krosno and Lisko, decided the battle of Limanowa-Lapanow.

The effect of the Austro-German victory at Lowicz, coincid- ing with this, and of the earlier one at Lodz, was to cause the Rus- sians to retreat on Dec. 15 on their whole front.

By evening on Dec. 15 the IV. Army had reached the area of the mouth of the Szreniawa and Zacliczyn, while the III. Army remained in the area it had already occupied and joined up with the Szurmay group S. of Zacliczyn.

. General Tanassy's sortie from the Przemysl fortress on Bircza, with 19 battalions and 12 batteries, which took place at the same time, was intended to threaten the retreating Russians in rear, establish communications with Krautwald's group whi:h had pushed forward to the area S. of Lisko, and at least prevent any more troops being taken from the siege army to strengthen the Russian Carpathian front.

The heroic defenders of Przemysl were actually able by the 1 7th to reach the heights at Cholowicze, S. of Cisowa, at Struzyna, and the Szybewice height, and even to seize a Russian point d'appui. But when it became certain on Dec. 19 that cooperation was impossible, owing to the distance between themselves and KrautwaKTs group, and as at the same time a new Russian attack was threatening the foreground position of the fortress, Kusmanek drew the sortie groups back inside the ring of forts.

North of the Vistula the I. Army had advanced as far as the Szreniawa, Woyrsch's army and the II. Army up to the Pilica and Piotrkow. The German IX. Army was heavily engaged in the Bzura-Rawka sector.

On Dec. 15 the Austro- Hungarian 27th Infantry Div. took Piotrkow, and parts of Woyrsch's and Bohm's armies crossed the upper reach of the Pilica. On Dec. 17 Woyrsch pressed forward to the Nida, Dankl to the Nidzica. The IV. Army came up to the Dunajec, Szurmay took Tuchow, and Boroevic's army reached the line JoJlowa-Frysztak-Odrzykon-Korczyna and the area N.W. of Lisko.

The Russian Counter-Ofcnsive in Western Galicia. While pra:tically no opposition was encountered in the pursuit of the Russian IX. and IV. Armies in the bend of the Vistula and of the Russian III. Army N. of the river, Boroevic's army had to c!o some hard fighting against the Russian VIII. Army, particularly on its left flank at Lisko. Protected in the W. by the Dunajec and their strong positions on the Nida, the Russians on Dec. 18 began a counter-offensive in western Galicia directed against the IV. and III. Armies. During their retreat they had again brought up reinforcements to eastern Galicia and also parts of the siege army from Przemysl (6oth Reserve Div.) which they used against the III. Army.

Krautwald's group, which had pushed on in the direction of Lisko, was the first to break off the offensive. The W. wing and centre of the III. Army succeeded by hard fighting in holding the line Tuchow- Jodlowa-Brzostek until Dec. 20. On Dec. 21 an extremely violent attack was launched along the whole front in western Galicia, culminating in the battle of Jaslo (Dec. 21- 25), which caused the retreat of Boroevic's army (the III.). Although the Austro-Hungarian VI. Corps came into action on the W. wing, and the X. and XVIII. Corps on the E. wing, the

Russian offensive could not be checked. By Dec. 25 the W. wing of the III. Army (IX. Corps) had retired on Gorlice, the centre (III. and VII. Corps) on Zmigrod and Dukla, and the E. wing (X. and XVIII. Corps) on to the Carpathian ridge to the E. of Lisko. At the end of Dec. the IX. Corps was incorporated with the Austro-Hungarian IV. Army, where Arz took over the command of the VI. and IX. Corps and the Szurmay group and intercepted all attacks against the right wing of the IV. Army on the Luzna-Gorlice-Malastow front.

The III. Army continued its retreat as far as the line Konieczna-Alsopagony-Alsokimes-Rosadomb-Radoszyce and the heights N. of Cisna.

In the gap between the two armies in the Malastow-Konieczna area, the 4th and 6th Cavalry Divs. and the Honved Caval: Div. prevented the break-through by which the Russians wi attempting to outflank the S. wing of the IV. Army.

The Russian counter-offensive brought the campaigns of 19 to a close. During the latter half of Dec. active fighting in the bend of the Vistula died down. Mackensen's victory-hardened troops, indeed, took Skierniewice, Lubocz and Inowlodz, but at the end of Dec. his front settled down to a war of positions, which lasted throughout the winter, over the whole bend of the Vistula, until the spring offensive in Galicia.

On the Carpathian front there was no respite, for the actions fought by the III. Army during the retreat developed into new battles of gigantic proportions, by which the Austro-Hungarians hoped to achieve the relief of Przemysl, while the Russians were exerting themselves to break through into Austria-Hungary across the Carpathians and crush the Austro-Hungarian army, as a fighting factor, out of existence.

Although the battles of 1914 had given the Russians possession of the whole of eastern and central Galicia, the Central Powers for their part could point to their great success in bringing the Russian " steam-roller " to a standstill before the gates of Ger- many and, in addition, to having repeatedly seriously beaten the Russian colossus in battle and taken the initiative from him by repeated offensives which were distinguished by the rapid and effective shifting of forces. (E. J.)

LÖFFLER, FRIEDRICH (1852-1915), German biologist, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Oder June 24 1852 and educated at the universities of Wurzburg and Berlin. He early began the study of parasitic diseases, and his description of the bacillus of diphtheria, published in 1884, was the originating cause of the modern anti-toxin treatment. He died in Berlin April 8 1915.

LOGUE, MICHAEL (1840- ), Irish ecclesiastic, was born at Kilmacrenan, co. Donegal, on Oct. i 1840, of peasant stock. He was ordained priest in 1866 at Paris, where he had been professor of belles lettres and theology at the Irish College. In 1879 he was consecrated Bishop of Raphoc, was made Archbishop of Armagh in 1887, and was raised to the cardinalate in 1893. Though completely in sympathy with the nationalist aspirations of his Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen, Cardinal Logue maintained a correct and loyal attitude during the World War, and on June 19 1917, when numbers of the younger clergy were beginning to take part in the Sinn Fein agitation, he issued an "instruction" calling attention to the teaching of the Church as to the obedience due to legitimate authority, warning the clergy against belonging to " dangerous associations," and reminding priests that it was strictly forbidden by the statutes of the National Synod to speak of political or kindred affairs in the church. In 1918, however, he placed himself at the head of the opposition to the extension of the Military Service Act to Ireland, priests being allowed to denounce " conscription " from the altar on the ground that the question was not political but moral. He reprobated the campaign of murder against the police and military begun in 1919, and in his Lenten pastoral of 1921 he vigorously denounced murder by whomsoever committed, though the force of this denunciation was weakened by an almost equally vigorous attack on the methods and policy of the Government. The cardinal -was much respected by people of all classes and creeds. In earh'er life he was a keen student of nature and an excellent yachtsman.