ABSTRACT
Approximately sixty miles east of Vilnius in generally marshy terrain, Lake Naroch and several other lakes of smaller size had become part of the Eastern Front since the fall of 1915. Faced with French appeals for help following the onset of the German offensive at Verdun, the Russian High Command decided to unleash a major attack against parts of Colonel General Hermann von Eichhorn's Tenth Army in the Naroch region and adjacent sectors. The chief effort was to be made by General V.V. Smirnov's Second Army, which was built up to a superiority of about five-to-one over the opposing German forces.
