The offensive had already continued for several days.
During the first stage of the operation, the Russian Army had genuinely achieved significant successes.
Across a number of sectors, Austro-Hungarian defenses had been broken, some enemy formations were retreating toward secondary defensive lines, and in certain areas Central Powers units were abandoning positions under the threat of encirclement.
Russian columns moved continuously along the roads of Galicia.
Infantry, artillery, ammunition wagons, medical detachments, and reserves all slowly advanced behind the moving front.
The air almost constantly carried the heavy smell of smoke, gunpowder, and wet earth thrown upward by thousands of explosions.
On some sectors, Russian units had already advanced so far that artillery batteries had to be urgently dragged forward through ruined roads and shattered villages.
In many places, the offensive still maintained momentum.
Austro-Hungarian formations continued retreating under the pressure of the Russian advance.
Particularly heavy fighting erupted near the second defensive line south of Berezhany.
There, the Austro-Hungarian command attempted to stabilize the front by throwing in its remaining reserves.
But Russian artillery continued pounding enemy positions almost without interruption.
Then the infantry advanced once again.
On one sector, a Russian battalion attacked a fortified height near a destroyed village.
Artillery fire had already transformed most of the buildings into piles of stone and burned timber.
As Russian soldiers began climbing the slope, Austro-Hungarian machine guns opened fire once more.
The leading ranks immediately suffered losses.
Soldiers fell among shell craters and shattered fence lines.
A young sub-lieutenant, ducking beneath the fire, waved his arm forward.
—"Don't stop! The trenches are close!"
Nearby, an exhausted sergeant pulled several soldiers out of a crater.
—"Move! Before the artillery stops again!"
The Russian infantry continued climbing the slope in short rushes.
Behind them, heavy batteries continued firing.
Dense columns of smoke and earth rose once more above the Austro-Hungarian positions.
On another sector of the front, a Russian company was already storming the second trench line.
The battle quickly turned once again into chaotic slaughter inside the narrow trenches.
Grenades exploded almost point-blank.
Soldiers fired at one another from only a few steps away.
Inside one trench passage, a Russian infantryman smashed an Austro-Hungarian soldier into the mud with the butt of his rifle just before a grenade exploded nearby.
Several men collapsed simultaneously onto the floor of the trench.
Behind them, commanders could still be heard shouting:
—"Forward! Don't stop!"
Despite the losses, the Russian Army still continued pushing the front forward.
Inside many headquarters, the mood gradually began changing.
The first days of the operation had already created the feeling that the offensive might truly repeat the success of Brusilov's breakthrough from the previous year.
Telegraph reports announced newly captured positions, prisoners, and continued advances.
In Petrograd, newspapers increasingly wrote about the Russian Army regaining the initiative.
At the same time, however, the front itself was gradually changing.
During the first days, many Austro-Hungarian formations had retreated after heavy artillery bombardments.
Now resistance was becoming increasingly organized.
On several sectors, Russian officers began noticing that new enemy formations fought differently.
Machine guns operated with far greater precision.
Artillery responded much faster against attacking Russian positions.
Counterattacks were conducted more aggressively and far more effectively.
During a short pause beside a destroyed Austrian trench, one Russian captain heavily lowered himself to the ground beside his soldiers.
Some drank greedily from canteens.
Others silently bandaged wounded comrades.
Nearby, medical teams carried wounded men from the battlefield.
One soldier quietly remarked:
—"The Austrians used to break easier."
An older sergeant spat into the mud.
—"Because now it's not only Austrians anymore."
After a short pause, he added:
—"The Germans have arrived."
Several soldiers exchanged silent glances.
More and more units across the front were beginning to realize the same thing.
The offensive continued.
But with each passing day, advancing forward became harder and harder.
The arrival of German formations was felt across the front almost immediately.
During the previous days, sections of the Austro-Hungarian defenses had begun collapsing after heavy artillery bombardments.
Now Russian troops increasingly encountered a completely different kind of resistance.
New enemy defensive positions were organized far more quickly.
Counterattacks were carried out with far greater coordination.
Artillery from the Central Powers increasingly responded almost immediately after Russian assaults began.
At railway stations deep behind the front, German troop trains arrived almost continuously.
Soldiers rapidly unloaded artillery pieces, ammunition crates, and machine guns.
Officers barely stopped studying maps, assigning units, and directing reinforcements toward the most dangerous sectors of the front.
Inside one German headquarters, an officer carefully examined the map of the Russian breakthroughs.
Several commanders of newly arrived formations stood nearby.
One of them gloomily remarked:
—"The Austrians nearly lost half the front again."
Another officer answered much more calmly:
—"The Russians are already exhausting themselves."
He pointed toward the offensive sectors with a pencil.
—"They've advanced too far. Their artillery constantly has to be moved forward, and their units have become disorganized after days of fighting. If we hold the front now, it will only become harder for them."
German officers already understood well that the Russian Army of 1917 differed greatly from the one Germany had faced at the beginning of the war.
It still remained enormous.
It still possessed massive artillery and huge numbers of soldiers.
But discipline was gradually collapsing, and the army's ability to maintain the momentum of a prolonged offensive was weakening more and more.
On one sector, German formations occupied defensive positions near a ruined village and a fortified height that Russian troops had been unsuccessfully assaulting for several days.
The positions were quickly reinforced with machine guns and trench mortars.
Artillery observers almost continuously transmitted coordinates of Russian troop movements.
When another Russian assault began advancing across the field, German batteries opened fire almost immediately.
Heavy shell explosions quickly tore through the attacking formations.
Russian soldiers once again threw themselves into shell craters.
German machine guns swept the open ground almost without pause.
On one flank, a young Russian officer attempted to raise his company.
—"Forward! Just a little farther!"
But a German machine gun immediately opened fire again.
Several soldiers fell near a shattered section of barbed wire.
The others pressed themselves back into the ground.
Nearby, an exhausted infantryman muttered bitterly:
—"We've been storming these damned positions for days already."
Another soldier nearby wiped mud from his face.
—"At least the Austrians used to retreat."
Nobody answered him.
Almost everyone already understood that against German formations, the offensive had become an entirely different kind of war.
Nevertheless, the Russian command still attempted to maintain the momentum of the operation.
Across many sectors, attacks continued almost daily.
Headquarters continued demanding pressure against the enemy before the Germans could fully stabilize the front.
But with every new assault, the losses became heavier.
Regiments gradually thinned out.
Some formations had barely left combat for days.
The roads leading to the rear no longer carried only prisoners.
Now endless columns of wounded soldiers filled them as well.
Medical stations overflowed with casualties.
Military doctors worked almost without sleep.
Inside one ruined village, a Russian regimental headquarters operated from within the remains of a shattered school building.
Maps, field reports, ammunition boxes, and bloodstained bandages lay scattered across the floor.
The regimental commander tiredly studied the newest reconnaissance reports.
—"The Germans have brought up more artillery."
One officer quietly answered:
—"And more machine guns."
After a brief silence, the commander asked:
—"What about the men?"
The officer hesitated for several seconds.
—"They can still attack. For now."
Those words sounded far more troubling than most of the men present wanted to admit.
Because over the past days, the front had already begun changing.
The Russian Army still continued attacking.
But the feeling of a rapid breakthrough was gradually disappearing.
In its place came exhaustion, prolonged fighting, growing casualties, and the understanding that the Germans were beginning to seize the initiative.
After days of continuous fighting, the offensive gradually began losing its earlier momentum.
Russian formations still continued attacking on certain sectors of the front, but every new assault now became harder than the last.
German defenses grew denser.
Central Powers artillery increasingly shelled Russian assembly areas before attacks even began.
Machine guns almost continuously swept the approaches to enemy positions.
In some regiments, losses had already become so severe that officers were forced to merge the remnants of several companies together.
The soldiers themselves increasingly looked exhausted beyond their limits.
Many had barely slept during the previous days.
Faces were covered with mud, soot, and dried blood.
Some formations had remained in near-constant combat for days without rest.
On one sector of the front, a Russian battalion prepared for another assault against German positions near a small height that had already been attacked unsuccessfully several times.
Behind them, Russian artillery fired heavily.
But even the soldiers themselves had begun noticing that the Germans endured bombardments far better than Austro-Hungarian troops had during the first days of the offensive.
Inside one trench, several soldiers sat against the wall of the position, breathing heavily after another bombardment.
One slowly drank from a canteen.
Another stared silently ahead.
Finally, someone quietly asked:
—"How many days have we been storming the same positions already?"
An older sergeant answered tiredly:
—"Too many."
Nearby, a junior officer attempted to prepare the company for another attack.
—"After the signal, we move forward again. Artillery will hit the first line, then we push through the wire quickly."
But this time, the soldiers listened differently.
Some remained silent.
Others turned away irritably.
Finally, one infantryman lost patience.
—"How much longer? We've already lost half the company."
The officer sharply turned toward him.
—"If we stop now, the Germans will move forward instead."
The soldier angrily wiped mud from his face.
—"And what are we doing now? Just walking into machine guns?"
The trench noticeably fell silent.
Conversations like these were becoming more common.
Earlier in the offensive, complaints usually ended with curses and another assault.
Now soldiers' committees increasingly interfered inside some formations.
Before one attack near a ruined village, representatives of a regimental committee openly argued with officers directly inside the trench.
—"The men won't attack again without proper artillery preparation."
The captain barely controlled his irritation.
—"If we wait for perfect conditions, the Germans will only fortify the position even more."
One committee member immediately answered:
—"Right now, the men will simply get slaughtered again in front of machine guns."
Behind them, artillery thundered once more.
Fresh explosions rose above the German positions.
The officer irritably checked his watch.
—"The attack begins in minutes."
But the argument continued.
Some soldiers now openly admitted that they no longer wanted to assault positions that had resisted for days.
Eventually, part of the company still climbed from the trenches after the order was given.
But the movement forward no longer resembled the assaults of the first days.
The soldiers advanced more slowly.
Many almost immediately threw themselves to the ground under fire.
Some refused to leave the trenches at all.
When German machine guns opened fire once again, the attack quickly stalled.
Beside one shell crater, a young Russian officer attempted to raise the men again.
—"Forward! The Germans are taking losses too!"
But the only response he received was scattered rifle fire and the heavy breathing of soldiers pressed into the mud.
Shells exploded continuously behind them.
Dense smoke covered the battlefield.
At that moment, many officers had already begun understanding that the army was gradually ceasing to function as a single organism.
Some formations still continued attacking in an organized manner.
Others were already close to openly refusing further assaults.
Chaos also steadily increased along the rear roads.
Columns of wounded men mixed together with reserves, medical wagons, and artillery units.
Messengers increasingly failed to deliver orders on time.
Field communication lines were constantly destroyed under bombardment.
Some headquarters had already begun receiving reports that certain formations were abandoning positions without orders after especially severe losses.
Yet despite all of this, the offensive officially still continued.
Headquarters continued demanding new attacks.
Kerensky continued sending telegrams insisting that the initiative must not be lost.
Newspapers in Petrograd still wrote about the continuing advance of the Russian Army.
But at the front itself, more and more soldiers already felt that something was beginning to break.
The Russian offensive still continued on certain sectors of the front, but the initiative was gradually beginning to pass to the Central Powers.
The German command had managed to bring forward fresh reserves, stabilize the most dangerous sectors, and prepare a counterstroke.
Now the front itself slowly began changing direction.
Russian formations first noticed the growing strength of German artillery.
The bombardments became heavier and far more precise.
Shells increasingly struck not only front-line positions, but also supply roads, reserve assembly areas, and headquarters.
On one sector, a Russian regiment was preparing for yet another assault when German artillery suddenly opened massive fire.
Heavy explosions immediately engulfed the trenches and approach routes.
The ground shook continuously.
Messengers struggled to move between positions beneath the bombardment.
Field communication lines were torn apart one after another.
The air itself seemed filled entirely with the roar of explosions.
Inside one dugout, a Russian captain attempted to obtain new orders from headquarters.
Nearby sat soldiers exhausted after days of combat.
Another heavy shell exploded nearby.
Earth fell from the ceiling of the shelter.
Someone quietly cursed.
The captain listened to the bombardment for several seconds.
—"The Germans are preparing an attack."
Those words were quickly confirmed across the front.
After the artillery strike, German formations launched counterattacks on several sectors.
Unlike the increasingly chaotic assaults of recent days, German units operated with far greater coordination.
Artillery fire shifted forward with precision.
Machine-gun teams covered the infantry advance.
Small assault groups bypassed shattered positions and struck the flanks of Russian formations.
On one sector, a Russian company that had held captured trenches for several days suddenly came under a German counterattack.
First, heavy shells once again smashed into the position.
Then German soldiers rapidly emerged from the smoke.
—"Germans!"
Russian infantrymen hurriedly opened fire.
But the German formations continued advancing in short rushes, using shell craters, ruined trenches, and folds in the terrain for cover.
Machine guns almost immediately pinned part of the Russian soldiers to the ground.
German grenades soon began exploding directly inside the front trenches.
Inside one trench, a young Russian soldier looked back in panic.
—"Where are the reserves?"
But behind the line, nearly the same chaos already existed.
Communications with headquarters had once again collapsed.
Some neighboring formations had already begun withdrawing after particularly heavy bombardments.
Confusion steadily spread along the roads to the rear.
Wounded men, retreating groups of soldiers, wagons, artillery pieces, and medical detachments all mixed together along the shattered roads of Galicia.
Some officers still attempted to stop the retreat.
At one crossroads, an elderly colonel shouted at passing soldiers:
—"Back to the positions! The Germans haven't broken the front yet!"
But many men already looked completely exhausted.
Days of continuous fighting, casualties, bombardments, and constant attacks were gradually breaking the army apart.
One soldier heavily sat down beside the roadside.
—"A week ago we were the ones moving forward."
Another infantryman nearby gave a bitter laugh.
—"And now the Germans are advancing like we don't even exist anymore."
Nearby, artillery thundered once again.
Fresh explosions rose above the road.
Horses pulling wagons began panicking.
Someone shouted that the Germans were outflanking a neighboring sector of the front.
Part of the soldiers immediately accelerated their retreat.
Yet despite the growing chaos, the front had not completely collapsed yet.
On several sectors, Russian formations still continued holding positions and repelling German attacks.
Some officers still attempted to restore control.
Russian artillery still answered with fire.
But the overall mood of the army was beginning to change.
The offensive that only recently had seemed like the beginning of a new victory was increasingly turning into a desperate struggle simply to hold the front.
And more and more men were beginning to understand that the crisis of the army was only beginning.