Postcard map of East Prussia and Polish Russia with a message and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915. From a series that asks, 'Do you know the high times?'

Kennen Sie schon 'Die grosse Zeit'

die neue vom Verlag Ullstein & Co. herausgegebene illustrierte Kriegsgeschichte? Wenn nicht, lassen Sie sich die bereits erschienenen Hefte von Ihren Buchhändler vorlegen. Das Werk gibt in zeitlicher Reihenfolge eine packende reich illustrierte Darstellung der Kriegsereignisse; jedes Heft ist erzeln erhältlich und kostet 30 Pfennig.



Do you know 'The big time'

new from publisher Ullstein & Co., a published illustrated history of the war? If not, you can acquire the already published issues from your bookseller. In chronological order, the book gives a gripping and richly illustrated presentation of the war; each issue is available and costs 30 cents.



Reverse:

B.Z. Kriegskarte

Verlag der B.Z. am Mittag, Berlin



B.Z. War Card

Publisher of B.Z. at Noon, Berlin



Message and postmark, Vienna, August 20, 1915

Other views: Larger, Back

Wednesday, September 8, 1915

". . . the line had been so shortened—from 1,700 kilometres to 1,000—that Russian reserves could now be freed for the northern sector. Moreover, the Russian output of shell was increasing: 100,000 rounds per week in July, 220,000 in September, while reserve-troops began to come in greater numbers. X Army around Vilna had 105,000 men, most of them with rifles, and 600 guns, with up to 200 shells to use.

. . .

The German offensive took the form of a frontal attack on Vilna, which failed, and a flank-attack to the north, which succeeded. On 8th September [1915] three German infantry divisions and three cavalry divisions came round the northern flank of the Vilna defenders."

Quotation Context

By late August, 1915, the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, which had driven the Russian Army from the Carpathian mountains and Russian Poland, was coming to an end. Defending a shorter line, able to arm its soldiers and provide more shells for its artillery, the Russians faced invaders who had marched hundreds of miles, extended their supply line, and were reaching their limit. German Commander Erich von Falkenhayn had instructed his generals to stop in August and again on September 2, but General Erich Ludendorff proceeded with his plan for a continued offensive, one Falkenhayn had rejected in June.

Source

The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 by Norman Stone, pp. 188, 189, copyright © 1975 Norman Stone, publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons, publication date: 1975

Tags

1915-09-08, 1915, September, Vilna