Because of the pressure from the Germans at Verdun, French Commander in Chief, Joseph Joffre, pressed his allies to launch offensives of their own to draw forces away at Verdun. Britain responded with the Battle of the Somme, the Italians responded with another Isonzo Battle, and Russia, led by Chief of Staff Alexeev, responded with an offensive drive in the Vilna - Naroch area. 1.5 million Russian forces were faced against 1 million combined German and Austro - Hungarians. Chief of Staff Alexeev chose to launch the offensive in the north and instructed General Alexei Kuropatkin's to attack from the northeast towards Vilnius. However, the focus of the attack was to be east of the city, led by General Vladimir Smirnov's Second Army, which consisted of 250,000 men and 1,000 guns. They were fighting against the German Tenth Army, led by General Hermann von Eichhorn, who had only 75,000 men and 400 guns. The attack began on March 18th after a wildly inaccurate artillery bombardment with an infantry assault that became rapidly bogged down in the mud of the spring thaw. The Russian forces bunched up during the attack and made ready targets for machine gun fire. The Germans lost 20,000 men while the Russians lost 70,000 men at Lake Naroch and another 30,000 further north. Follow - up attacks on the 19th and the 21st proved similarly unsuccessful. General Alexei Kuropatkin's advance from Riga, began on March 21st, was beaten back within a day and lost 10,000 men. Russian artillery attacks continued into April but the Germans gained back the little land they lost through counter - attacks.