A Hungarian staff correspondent, who was with Von Hindenburg's army, had this to say about the siege of Dvinsk, or rather about the attacks on its outlying fortifications: "The German army could not make use of its heavy artillery, for it proved quite useless, owing to the extreme narrowness of the Russian trenches. In the lake district south of Dvinsk the Russians made the utmost of their natural defenses, and even the advanced trenches there were only occupied after very heavy losses, and then retained under the most trying circumstances. In taking Novo Alexandrovsk--a village about fifteen miles southwest of Dvinsk on the Dvinsk-Kovno post road--the losses incurred on our part were unprecedented in severity." Another correspondent in writing to his paper, the "Vossische Zeitung," describes the fortifications of Dvinsk as follows: "Every rod of land is covered with permanent trenches, roofed securely against shrapnel and shell fragments and connected with so-called 'fox holes'--small shelters in which the garrisons are safe against the heaviest shells. Sand trenches, skillfully laid out, so that they are mutually outflanking, smother exploding projectiles. The flanking fire of the machine guns often annihilates the assailants when they are apparently successfully attacking. One company alone thus lost fifty-one dead in one day. Between September 15 and October 26, 1915, Dvinsk, in a way, was captured fifteen times, but it is still in Russian hands. The bombardment has reduced the fortress in size one-half without affecting in the least the strength of the remainder." South of Dvinsk, however, the Germans had been able to advance their line slightly farther to the east. On September 27-28, 1915, and the following days they were fighting on the shores of Lake Drysvidly, about ten miles east of the Dvinsk-Vilna railroad, and at Postavy, ten miles south of the Disna River, a southern tributary of the Dvina. Again on October 1, 1915, the Russians attacked north of Postavy, as well as south on the shores of Lakes Narotch and Vishneff, but without success. Throughout the next day the fighting continued, although not particularly severe. But on October 6, 1915, stronger Russian forces were again thrown against the German lines. In the beginning they gained ground at Koziany, on the Disna, and south on Lakes Drysvidly and Vishneff, but the day's net results left the Germans in possession of their old positions. Russian attacks in that region during October 7-8, 1915, suffered the same fate.