August 16th, 1915

- In Poland the right wing of the German 8th Army has advanced past Tykocin, and is in position to threaten the Russian fortress of Ossoviets from the south, while the German 12th Army has pushed beyond Briansk.  To the south elements of the German 9th Army, part of Prince Leopold's army group, have reached the Bug River northeast of Siedlec, while the Army of the Bug now covers a hundred kilometres of its namesake from Koden southwards.  It is only between the two armies that the Russians hold ground west of the Bug, centred on the major Russian fortress at the city of Brest-Litovsk, situated on the river where its flow bends to the northwest after running northwards for several hundred kilometres.  It is into this stretch of the line that the German 11th Army is advancing - X Reserve Corps, its lead formation, is today due west of Brest-Litovsk, while the Guard Corps is approaching the southern edge of the fortifications - and today Mackensen is instructed that the next objective of the German offensive is the envelopment and seizure of Brest-Litovsk.