AVAR OF ARTILLERY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8201, 26 July 1915, Page 8

AVAR OF ARTILLERY.

WSTH THE RUSSIAN FORCES IN POLAND.

War in Poland is becoming a struggle of guns.. Artillery, wrote a corresponjdent: at 'Warsaw m March, is the only I arm left. In the past three months ! field guns, howitzers, and mortars have decided the battles in the pro:vinces of Petrokow, Plock, Radom, Jvielcy, and Warsaw. Artillery decided the three weeks' battle^ for Lodz; 'artillery decided the four weeks' battle of Warsaw on the Bzura. and Rawka .banks.' Victory is to the side which can. pile up the most big guns, shoot the .s'traightest, and pound the eu.. works hardest. ! Artillery war on tho Bzura and Jtawka is much the same as it is on the Aisno. The difference is that on the Aisno neither side resolutely attempts to effect a general advance. j-Tho individual tights are local; mobility is limited to a few. yards; 'the general position is static. Heie in Poland both sides saill aim at a mobile war; each hopes to send the 'other flying. Hindenburg has been (trying to push us over the Vistula and gain all Central Poland. Our aim is to .' repulse all attacks, and also to expeJ Hindehbuig. 'For three weeks past neither had much success. This is because artillery war means delay. As Hindenburg gets forward his artillery difficulties increase. Guns have to he dragged greater distances over worso roads; and the shell supply is hard to keep up.. Outside Lodz, which is nearer to Prussia's frontier,. Hindenburg was able to concentrate more guns, and to keep an unfailing ammunition supply. He was able to waste sholls as other armies waste rifle bullets. Before this can be done on the Rawka and Bzura, roads must bo ; made and., railroads restored. Grand I Duke Nicholas's troubles are smaller. The nearer he gets to Warsaw, the more effective is his artillery hail.

Nobody can say how many guns aro have in the field. Field-Marshal Hindenburg has 1700 field-guns and 400 mortars, howitzers, and siege guns. Austria-Hungary has in South Poland and Galieia. 800 guns of all kinds. Among them are... 12-inch howitzers. Hindenburg has not got any of the 'Krupp 42-centimetre "Thick' Berthas." He has not yet managed to besiege any of our fortresses; and his "Thick Berthas" are too heavy and- costly for use against trenches. Warsaw trembles at the notion of " Thick Berthas" shells falling among her palaces. But the "Thick Berthas' would be used only against forts. The shells cost £800. each, and each shot j does £200 damage to the lining of ,the ;guns. j Field-Marshal Hindenburg's genius I has been somewhat exaggerated by the Germans. But Russians admit that'he has improved the effectiveness oi attack by means of new artillery tac.tics, which were first tried a,t the .battle of Tannenberg in the last days lof August. Along the road to Passen- ■ he-im, on Samsonoff's right flank, the enemy posted the artillery of a whole 'army corps. This had within range a Russian army, corps. . The German guns were concentrated against a single brigade of our corps. From their a re-shaped position they poured in a. converging fire as the brigade marched to the attack. The .brigade was annihilated; 700 men escaped. This massacre took 20 minutes. Next the artillery assailed on the same principle an attacking division. Shrapnel was .poured dowji like hail. The invaders, : hampered by lakes and marshes, could not get cover or spread out. When the whole army.began to retreat, the artillery attack was concentrated against the leading unit. This unit was destroyed; and the road was so blocked with corpses of men and horses that the rest of the army was delayed. Through siiccessive artillery massacres the battle was decided, i Tannenberg began as a "mobile battle; in the first stage both sides were attackers. But it became a ; position artillery fight. It was the j first indication that artillery would play a decisive role in the war. j Grand Duke Nicholas has been aWe to hold the Bzura and Rawka defence line, and to shield Warsaw, largely because his artillery position has improved. There is abundant ammunition, and at Warsaw are artilWy repair, shops and. all the technical equipments which a successful artillery war demands. From Warsaw one can see that artillery is dominant. The infantrymfen snipe one .'another, and the infantry patrols' fight. „ But so-called: infantry fights for trenches are infan?' try expeditions to occupy trenches from which the guns have shelled the defenders. This is proved by the small losses from bullet and bayonet wounds. Of the last 1800 wounded brought into Warsaw, only 300 were wounded by bullets, and only a handful by bayonets. The rest were artillery victims. Shrapnel bullets and fragments of shrapnel cases accounted for 350. Percussion and time shells wounded the others. The Germans are using a new explosive which rends earthworks to bits and pours out green asphyxiating fumea. Many wounded are mangled, many are burnt, and many who are not wounded are stunned or deafened. Men have been found killed whose bodies were without wounds. They died from shock. The flames of exploding shells scorch at a great distance and set uniforms on fire.