The campaign in the east therefore, opened in the most inauspicious circumstances for the Mailed Fist. All was well with Russia and all was wrong with Austria. The troops were sullen and utterly lacking in the fighting spirit; they were badly led and their equipment left much to be desired. The Kaiser realised that in relying on Austria he had made another serious miscalculation. Instead of being a useful ally she appeared far more likely to prove a millstone about his neck. Cripples are of little use in war. Desperate efforts were made to obtain more satisfactory help. Italy and Turkey were alternately coaxed and bullied. The world was deluged with a frantic flood of wireless lies which were obviously designed to attract help from anywhere. But they were all in vain. Fate seemed to have taken especial care to have the last word. Accordingly, Germany had to content herself with an attempt to revitalise the Austrian millions. At any rate the material was there, if only it could be forced into shape. So German officers were requisitioned for the Austrian army. The operations during this preliminary phase of the war, during which Russian effort was concentrated upon preparing for the coming advance, were necessarily of a somewhat desultory and unimportant nature. They were interesting chiefly as showing in what way subsequent and more important fighting would be likely to develop. For some days nothing more exciting occurred than a few collisions between patrols guarding the frontiers. Then, on August 3rd, the Germans made a definite move. A small force from Lublinitz, a town near the point where the Russian, German, and Austrian frontiers meet, crossed into Russia and occupied Tchenstochov. Further to the north other German forces seized Bendzin and Kalish, in Poland. Russia immediately answered this move by making a cavalry raid into Prussia, with the result that Johannisburg was occupied and a rather important railway was broken.