BOAD TO WARSAW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8203, 28 July 1915, Page 8

BOAD TO WARSAW.

FRENZIED GERMAN ATTACKS.

STRUGGLE FOR A CHATEAU

The _ methods employed by. the Gornians in their frenzied efforts to force. h way to Warsaw are described in iho following account of tho battle .of Burza, written by Mr Feulinand Tuohy for the London" "Daily jlail.", „,The battlo commenced early in the. ■ y. New Year, arid is typical of much.of the sanguinary fighting in Poland:— j ■ On a front of two miles before Gumino the enemy attacked most furiously. . Here there were no more rivers to cross before- Warsaw is reached, arid hero iho Germans- were mown :down four and live deep by the Russian artillery. ' .. ■ :

The battlo fell into three phases— the struggle on the righi about Zyradov, the victory of the Gumine, and the defence of Volia Shildlovska. The first Gorman onset was delivered from Skiernievie-v.one of the German bases. Tile Russians -at first took it for a "bluff " to screen some stroke of the enemy's southwards. They could not beliovw. that the Germans, after the .lesson taught them at Christmas, Would' attempt another' pf their assaults in •masses upon 'the'multitude of trenches which had been carefully arid completely prepared, and on' the fortified positions shielding Warsaw, only three days' march away. Yet the attempt was made, and. was only discontinued after the Germans ..had lost thousands of men. The opposing Forces tore up ,tho sleepers arid fought with pieces of railway, metal, at the...wayside station of Bednary. At this stage the. "steam-roller "•• came into play, and. the onemy, still over a division (16,000 men) strong 'we're driven back in comparative disorder to the river Rawka.'

.The. Russians did not immediately attempt to dislodge them, as ' every spare man was needed to beat off Marshal yon Hindenburg's sanguinary assaults six miles northward, at Gumiiie. A Russian officer, who escaped from the inferno at Gumine with a shrapnel bullet in his thigh told this story-with perfect calm:—

"I have beard what happened before Liege. Flesh arid blood may stand such slaughter, but not the birth-rate. It must end soon. The German attack ivas unexpected. , Both . armies, had constructed earthworks and carried out saps till a condition of stalemate obtained on Tuesday night. But then, under cover ' 6i" darkness and a snowfall which paralysed aeroplanes and searchlights, the German command appear to havo emulated Hiti-' denburg's .famous feat at Thorn and to have rushed up fresh army corps by train, motor, and -every conceivable kind of conveyance along the railway which runs from Loyipz to Warsaw. }

" Quito half of these troops wereshattered. The enemy shrank from nd conceivable-ssacrifice. We had picked troops in Gumine, entrenched up : to the eyes,-but still the Germans came' on, regiment after regiment, shouting 'On to Warsaw!' Some got 50yds after showing themselves ; others.- were:, allowed to run farther,.but never more, than 100 yds, so us to avoid altering tho' range of our Mnxims. A battalion of the Prussian Guard charged, shouting ,' Prcvussen über alles ' (Prussia supreme). Poor t'ejlov.s! They looked so fine. . • :

"There were* Austriansy.'too, or. at least-Austrian'Uniforms, which, in this war of ruses, is not the same. ■ The men who invented these bright-colour-ed, glittering uniforms should bo shot. It was sheer murder. The victims in these uniforms at least conceived the idea of stripping the German dead of their invisible grey and changing clothes amid.the heaps of corpses. It was a veritable toilet of death.-

"At one point the Germans; came on 20 ranks deep, each a yard apart, and took one of our trendies, but only about 100 of the whole battalion (1000 men) survived. As soon as we were safe in a neighbouring trench, the re-; maining hundred were blown to pieces by one of our mines.: It would be the same all the way to Warsaw."

The three days of carnage culminated on the estate of Volia Shidlovska, two mil or from Gumiiie. The Uhlans occupied the Chateau and compelled the steward to cook them «'i meal. They were in the midst of a debauch, and the Russians had crept round the house, when a sudden cry went up anionn; them;' " Look, the' .chimney- is? smolcincr; we have been betrayed." On this they: shot the steward. , .

The Germans thus entrapped sent up rockets as a distress signal, but these wero rendered useless by the glare of the Russian searchlights". The.sky. for miles glowed with tho light of burning villages. Of 40 situated in the neigbbrmrhood of Boh'mov, Sokachev, and . Kurdvakov, only smouldering ruins remain. For 12 hours a sanguinary struggle raged for the possession of the chateau ■

The Germans were finally compelled to make barricades of the furniture and were dislodgfxl by training' artillery upon tho house. Then began; a second struggle between tho Russians in the.-chateau aud the .Germans in n distillery a quarter of a mile away. _

. The Russians wisely.decided to maintain an incessant artillery fire upon this position without risking the lives of thoir men in an.' dssault. They knew that sooner or later a/shell would ignite the spirit vats and , drive the Germans into, the open. , ' The plan succeeded. Sheets of blue flame shot up, and out of the. distillery poured the Germans, staggering intoxicated with the fumes, upon the bayonets of the Russians. Thus was Volia Shidlovska won.'