[5] The task of the armies of the left flank of the Northwestern Front (4th, 3rd and 13th) was to prevent the breakthrough of the Central Powers to Brest-Litovsk and ensure the evacuation of Warsaw.

By the beginning of July, the Russian armies from the Vistula to the Bug were supplied with ammunition to a degree that made it possible to conduct defensive and offensive battles for a short time.

The Germans captured a well-fortified position, but the Russian 2nd Caucasian, 29th and 31st Army Corps organized defenses on the main fortified line.

But despite the capture of 6,000 Russian prisoners and the introduction of reserves (1st cavalry and 119th infantry divisions) into battle, the Germans failed to break through the main defensive zone.

On July 17, he was thrown into counterattacks in order to restore the situation, but by the end of the day it was only possible, together with the 10th Army Corps, to gain a foothold in the forest near the Orchowiec village .

In the evening, the Germans resumed the offensive, broke through the orders of the 21st Infantry Division, forced the 14th Army and Guards Corps to retreat.

On the afternoon of July 19, at the request of M. Alekseyev, the Supreme Commander, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, arrived in Siedlce, where, having familiarized himself with the situation, he allowed the Chief of Staff of the North-Western Front to independently order the withdrawal of armies, if necessary, from the line of the Vistula River to the east, including evacuate Warsaw.

But against the 8th Army Corps, the Austro-Hungarians launched an offensive, expanding the bridgehead across the Bug River, and in the evening threw back the 12th Infantry Division and cavalry.

By the morning of July 21, the Russian 12th, 13th and 19th Infantry Divisions reached the banks of the Bug River near Lake Bely Stok, captured 27 officers and 1,466 soldiers, 2 machine guns, but could not recapture Sokal and suffered heavy losses.

A. Evert considered the positions near Lublin more advantageous for defense than the line along the Wieprz River, but he asked for the assistance of the 3rd Army to organize stubborn resistance.

[17] On the site of the Russian 3rd Army, by the morning of July 22, the situation had strengthened: the Guards Corps was able to hold positions and captured 12 officers and 277 soldiers.

Considering that the Germans was tired, suffered huge losses and was experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition (according to the testimony of the prisoners), L. Lesh ordered to go on the offensive with all his might.

[20] While the Landwehr Corps began preparations for forcing the Vistula above Ivangorod, fierce disputes were going on between Falkenhayn and Hötzendorf about the direction of the further offensive of the army of R. von Woyrsch.

The chief of staff of the Woyrsch army, Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Heye, considered the crossing at Nowa Aleksandria to be meaningless, since it would have met strong opposition from the Russians.

On the night of July 25, when the first pontoons were already launched and reached the Russian coast under fire, the crossing was canceled by order of E. von Falkenhayn.

However, the heavy losses suffered in the battles affected the combat capabilities of the 8th Army: it was not possible to liquidate the enemy bridgeheads on the Bug River.

Attempts to throw the Germans into the Vistula failed, by 7 o'clock a 1160-meter bridge was built, along which the last regiment of the 3rd Landwehr Division crossed the river.

To a large extent, the actions of the troops of V. Gorbatovsky were facilitated by the transition to the offensive of the 8th Army of the South-Western Front on the night of July 29.

During the day, all remaining artillery and ammunition were removed from the fortress; stocks of flour, cereals and oats were transferred directly to the troops of A. Evert.

In the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, during the retreat, fortress artillery and the entire supply of shells were taken out, railway stations and bridges were blown up.

The option of flooding Warsaw and Novogeorgievsk was also considered, for which Major General A. von Schwartz (commandant of Ivangorod) was called to the headquarters of the armies of the North-Western Front.

In the sector of the 3rd Army, German troops broke through the positions of the Guards Corps at noon and brought large forces into the breakthrough.

At the new position, the commander of the 3rd Army, Lesh, ordered "to settle down for a stubborn defense, since a withdrawal from it, according to the current situation, cannot be made in the near future.

On August 10–11, the troops of the Central Powers continued their offensive with success in certain sectors of the front, meeting stubborn resistance from the Russians.

The German High Command has not yet lost hope of "setting up little Cannes" by encircling the Russian troops between the Bug River and Białowieża Forest.

The 6th Austro-Hungarian, Beskidenkorps and 22nd reserve corps attacked the positions of the defenders of Brest-Litovsk on August 25, when explosions began in the fortress and the city and a giant flame rose from warehouses set on fire by Russian troops.

During the retreat, it was necessary to spoil and fill up roads with fences, blow up bridges and gati.“The Commander-in-Chief orders to remember the great war of 1812 and to draw from it teaching and deep faith in our final victory,” Evert appealed to the troops.

But in the face of a shortage of ammunition not only for artillery, but also for hand weapons, which escalated precisely during this period, not only attempts at counterattacks, but also a long-term defense of positions broken by gun fire, turned into the extermination of Russian troops.

Therefore, the Russian side continued to adhere to the tactics of combining the stubborn defense of the occupied lines and nightly retreat marches.

As a result of arson and hostilities, 119,880 farms were destroyed, more than half of them with an allotment of less than 5 hectares, 698,600 horses and 213,000 cattle were stolen or slaughtered, 12,428 houses were burned.