The German offensive from East Prussia was apparently halted October by the almost impassable condition of the Russian roads in the north.  Germany was said to have at this time thirty army corps of the line and the first reserve prepared to operate against Russia and to resist the Russian advance upon Cracow.

The German main defenses against Russia extended in a general line from Koenigsberg to Danzig, thence south along the Vistula to the great fortress of Thorn.  From there the fortified line swung to the southwest to Posen, thence south to Breslau, the main fortress along the Oder, and from there to Cracow.

Early in October the Russian invasion of Hungary began.  The Russian armies continued to sweep through Galicia and that province was reported clear of Austrian troops.  The German successes claimed against the Czar farther north included victories at Krasnik and Zamoso, in Russian Poland; Insterburg and Tannenburg, in East Prussia.

ESTIMATE OF AUSTRIAN LOSSES

A Russian estimate places the Austrian losses in Galicia at 300, in killed, wounded and prisoners, or nearly one-third of their total forces.  They also lost, it was claimed at Petrograd, 1,000 guns, more than two-thirds of their available artillery.

The Russian newspaper correspondents described horrible scenes on the battlefields abandoned by the Austro-German forces in Galicia.

“Streams,” said one eyewitness, “were choked full with slain men, trodden down in the headlong flight till the waters were dammed and overflowing the banks.  Piles of dead are awaiting burial or burning.  Hundreds of acres are sown with bodies and littered with weapons and battle debris, while wounded and riderless horses are careering madly over the abandoned country.  The trophies captured comprise much German equipment.  An ammunition train captured at Janow (eleven miles northwest of Lemberg) was German, while the guns taken included thirty-six of heavy caliber bearing Emperor William’s initials and belonging to the German Sixth army corps.

“The line of retreat of the Austro-German forces was blocked with debris of every kind—­valuable military supplies, telephone and telegraph installations, light railway and other stores, bridging material—­in fact, everything needed by a modern army was flung away in flight.  Over 1,000 wagons with commissariat supplies alone were captured.”

Forty-five thousand Austro-German prisoners were reported to have arrived at Lublin.  Russian correspondents with the armies in Galicia asserted that German troops were interspersed with Austrian troops in the intrenchments in order to raise the morale of the Austrians.  One correspondent declared that while the Austrians often took flight the Germans were ready, to the last man, to perish.

ON THE FIRING LINE IN RUSSIAN POLAND—­VIVID DESCRIPTION BY AN AMERICAN EYEWITNESS