In spite of all the severe fighting before Dvinsk and Riga, neither of these cities had yet been brought within the range of the majority of the German guns, even though continuous local successes had been gained on the part of the German troops. The losses which the latter suffered cannot be stated definitely, because no official figures, either Russian or German, are available. They must have been severe, however. The net result of all the fighting in the region before Dvinsk, which had then been in progress practically for fifty days, therefore, was next to nothing for the Germans and hardly more for the Russians. Neither had been able to gain any definite success over the other. Throughout all this time the Germans not only made innumerable infantry attacks, but also kept up an incessant artillery fire, throwing as many as 100,000 shells a day against the Russian positions. That they did not gain their point speaks well, not only for the valor of the Russian army, but also for the ability of its leader, General Russky. CHAPTER XXVI WINTER BATTLES ON THE STYR AND STRYPA RIVERS As the autumn of 1915 drew to an end and winter approached, the fighting along the eastern front changed from attacks over more or less extensive spaces to trench warfare within very restricted territory and to artillery duels. This change took place, as we have already seen, as far as the front from the Vilia River down to the southern limits of the Pripet Marshes was concerned, as early as the end of September, 1915. Farther south, however, along the Styr and its tributary, the Ikwa, and in the region through which the Strypa, Sereth, and Dniester flow, in the Russian provinces of Volhynia and in Austro-Hungarian East Galicia, the severest kind of fighting was kept up much longer. The preceding chapter carried us, as far as this territory was concerned, up to October 7, 1915. On that day the Russians attacked with all available forces of men and munitions along the entire Volhynian, Galician, and Bessarabian front. One of the principal points of contention was the little town of Tchartorysk on the Styr, about five miles south of the Warsaw-Kovel-Kieff railroad. To the northwest of it the Germans under General Linsingen began a counterattack on October 7, 1915, and threw the Russians across the Styr. A Russian counterattack, undertaken on the 8th with the object of regaining their lost position, was frustrated by artillery fire. To the north, just across the railroad at Rafalovka, attacks and counterattacks followed each other as regularly as day and night. For about two weeks a series of local engagements on this small front of ten or fifteen miles took place with such short periods of rest that one may well speak of them as the Battle of Tchartorysk. Neither side, however, seemed to be able to gain any marked advantage.