The Russian XX Corps, pushed southward by the advance of the German Tenth Army on the northern flank of the Russian positions, lost the race to safety as units from the German Eighth Army blocked its retreat route. His scouts having found the seam between two German divisions, corps commander Pavel Bulgakov ordered an attack there to break through at any cost. His regiments had seen a week of defeat, retreat, hunger and cold, but still had to the will to fight. Unfortunately for them, a sudden warm spell had turned the icy ground to mud overnight.

The Russian attack forced a narrow opening through the German lines, at the cost of at least nine thousand casualties. “The honor of the XX Corps was saved,” wrote German war correspondent Rolf Brandt, “and the price of this salvation was 7,000 killed who fell in the attack on one day of battle over a space of two kilometers, finding a heroic death here! The attempt to break through was sheer madness, but holy madness.”  Very few Russians made it to the fortress of Grodno before the Germans counter-attacked and sealed the pocket.

Counters and maps from the first edition of August 1914 will work in place of those components of the second edition.

Maps from Eastern Front Deluxe or Panzer Grenadier: The East front may be used in place of those from Fire in the Steppe.

The German Oberleutnant should be a Leutnant.