| The great Brusilov offensive. The objective in the south was Kovel, an important railway center, but the advance extended over a front of 300 miles. The Austrians, taken by surprise, fell back, leaving many prisoners in Russian hands. The Russians took Lutsk (June 8) and Czernowitz (June 18). Heavy fighting continued about Kovel, Tarnopol, and Baranovici (battles of the Strypa, June 11–30; Baranovici, July 2–9; Kovel, July 28–Aug. 17) until September. The Russians advanced from 25 to 125 kilometers in the region from Pinsk south to Czernowitz and took half a million prisoners, but the offensive was stopped by the arrival of 15 divisions of Germans from the western front. The Russians had failed to take either Kovel or Lemberg. | 2 |
