THE EXTENDED COMMAND ON  THE EAST FRONT, AUGUST,  1916
(See Fig. 8, page 223.)
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N the 3rd or 4th of August we were in Kowel, the headquarters of General von Linsingen. His Chief of Staff was Colonel Hell, hitherto Chief of Staff of the loth Army. He had taken over his new duties in July, and was the right man in the right place to deal with this extraordinarily difficult situation.
The East Front had passed through another critical period. The terrific Russian offensive had burst on us, and the end of the fighting could not be foreseen. We were heavily engaged, and there was small hope of relief. There were too many troops of the oldest classes on the Eastern Front, and we did not like to place such men in the hottest corners.
While the attacks at Riga were dying down, the Russians resumed their offensive on July 23rd, north of Baranovici, where they imagined they were facing Austro-Hungarian troops and had some success. But this had since been limited by a German counter-attack.
The Russian attack, carried out with great violence on the 25th and 27th, remained without result.
The actions on the front of von Linsingen's Army Group had been continued into the second half of July. They never actually came to an end. The strain on this group was severe. The front was not firm.
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