DEATH DRIVE IN POLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 60, 11 March 1915, Page 8

DEATH DRIVE IN POLAND.

AWFUL CARNAGE. 30,000 GERMANS KILLED AND WOUNDED. •LONDON, February 7. 'With the German and Russian Emperors as eye-witnesses, the armies of Russia are still contending for tho position which protects the Polish capital of Warsaw from the invaders. The Russian Eniperor has been at Russian headquarters for several days, and the German report says that the German Emperor has joined his generals, and has actually visited some of the troops in their trenches. |

Not since the battles around Lodz, in Russian Poland in the early part of December, have the Germans delivered such vicious attacks as those when they attempted to break through the Russian line at Borjiniow.

Probably never before in the eastern arena of the war have they concentrated such a force on a single point. In a distance of six miles between ilumin and Borjiniow, the Germans threw 105,000 infantrymen together with heavy forces of cavalry, the whole supported by 100 batteries o. artillery, or (JOO guns. It is estimated that in this short line there were nearly 30,000 men to the mile coming in on ten or Uvclvc lines, like tlie waves of the sea.

The Russians, warned by the attacks of previous days, in this same vicinity, had concentrated correspondingly heavy forces to resist the German advance. So close were both sides packed in this narrow space, that the artillery became practically useless. The battlefield wa 6 a flat plain, unobstructed bj- cither trees or houses. The latter had already been demolished by shell-fire. The Russians mot the German advance with rifle fire and the bayonet, the first lines' struggling forward and 'backward, from trench to trench. At some places the trenches were only a few hundred yards apart. The closeness of the line made the fighting extraordinarily sanguinary. Whole companies were exterminated. The most desperate German resistance was at Wola Szydlowiecka, which the Ruffians succeeded in taking at 10 o'clock in the morning, after a fight which lasted all night.

German prisoners relate that in the , German camp the division chosen to lead I this undertaking was dubbed " The Division of Death," since it appeared to be a foregone conclusion that none would survive. Russian military observers, with the meagr.- details before, them, ara likening this fisht to the battle of Borodino, where Napoleon lost his Russian campaign. The battle at Borlimow h continuing, with virtually unabated violence. From all accounts the Germans flung q;reat again-st "t!ic Russian lines, and.although they gained ground .at some points., the assault did pot succeed in breaking through the Russians, and the latter were able to take the offensive in parts of the field. With the tremendous concentration of artillery and rifle fire and bayonet work the losses were great.

The latent reports from tbe front in Russian Poland bring some brief details of the important Russian victory on .the Bzura River.

While the Germans with three-quarters of thcir'forces along the rjzura continued |to hammer at the Russian line, the Russians seized this opportunity to throw ; their forces across the Bzura at Kamion, jnear the junction of the Bzura with the Vistula, and captured the German fortified position at this place. At the same time they drove the Germans across the Zzura at Dakhova, which is close to Sochaczew. STEEL SHIELDS CAPTURED. At Kamion the Russians captured a quantity of steel bullet-proof shields which they immediately utilised in the succeeding fighting. They also took a number of quick-firing guns from the enemy, and in this district and also on the upper Rawka River they were successful in capturing a good many German outposts.

I Near Bolimow the Germans were unrelenting in their attack and the Russians countered with equal ferocity. The German forces repeatedly made use of armoured cars on which machine guns land quickfirers had been s-ct up. A hail of shrapnel from the Russian lines, however, forced them to retire.

In the fiercely contested group of farmsteads between Roumine and Borzimow the men fighting for the crest of the dominating position at Roumine declare they have never heard such a roar from the sound of artillery cannonade 6incc the war .began.

The Germans had 6-inch, S-inch and 11-inch guns in astonishing numbers, all trained on the trenches outside the fringe of the woods held by the Russians.

I Their' infantry crowded forward in dense processions. Where their ranks were shot through the gaps were im- | mediately filled, and they still surged on. The foremost men when they reached the-Russian, trenches were so exhausted ' that they could only gasp for mercy, but their comrades immediately behind them i were so near that nobody could he [spared.When their last charges were turned j into complete defeat the Russians had 'td move forward- among thick bands of the dead.

The Russians found in the new position they seized from the Germane a great supply of defence tools and shields by which the Germans meant to turn Roumine into their own stronghold.

The terrible slaughter of these battles has served to disclose Marshal yon Hindenburg's limitations. His preparations were ajmed at delivering a. sudden shock at one narrow vantage point, but the element of suddenness failed.

The Russians in two days established their ascendancy both in strength and readiness.

•The Russians, according to Saturday's official statement, had strengthened their positions on the western bank of the Bzura River, which they had crossed near its mouth, and captured a. long line of German trenches near Borjimow, which has-been the centre of most desperate fighting. SMASH TOWARD WARSAW. On his chosen ground to the west of .Warsaw, 7 General yon Hindenburg, the German, commander, is continuing Ibis Mostly lunges to break through to the i Polish capital. At the same- time the Russians, farther to the north, have pressed forward, and after crossing., the Bzura River they, are seriously threatening the Germans with an outflanking movement. :.....

Thus another great battle for Warsaw is on, involving perhaps a greater loss of life 'than any other conflict in-f'the war. Tlie issue is.still undecided, but the Russians claim that the initiative has' passed to them, although further furious German attacks are expected. RUSSIANS MAKE PROGRESS. .-■Oh affront half a mile wide the Germans "have got into array more than 100,000 infantry and 600 guns; The tar-

get offered to the Russian artiUery must be ideal-from the Russian point of view. On Wednesday," Thursday-and Friday, day and night, a desperate struggle was in progress, positions changing hands, men fighting with the bayonet and butt, artillery thundering ceaselessly, and still no decision reached.

If the German' attack fails it cannot be repeated; if it succeeds, the military gain is.glory only. "Cruel folly" is the verdict passed upon the. German commander of this phenomenal attack by the Russian public, without awaiting the result of. the j frantic attempt. More than 100,000 men supported by ! 600 guns in a ghazi rush is a fearsome thing to contemplate. But the Russians .stopped.it and made counter-attacks, capturing German trenches and annihilating the forces which held them. GERMANS DIG OWN GRAVES. Now, to stand ready to kill continually is the task which is laid .upon the Russian line in Poland. From the outset the Russians have been fulfilling ordcr-5, and | the Germans have been digging their own graves. It is said that the German killed and wounded already number' 30,000. ACCOUNT BY AN EYE-WITNESS. I The correspondent of the '''Novo Vremya " gives additional particulars of . the German attack on the Bolimow-Gou-j mine front, of which he was an eye- : witness. He writes:—

j " The object of the Germans was to break through at Goumine, which the Getmans regard as the key position. The actual assault began at 11 a.m., when the Germans, advanced in five lines. The densely-packed columns were met by pur artillery and rifle fire. The first rows fell, and momentary confusion ensued, but the column closed up its ranks, and the foe again came on.

"' The foremost units breaking into the trenches begged quarter, while those behind charged us. We bayoneted all within reach. Behind our demolished embrasures new ones were formed of piles of ,the bodies of German soldiers.

'" Thus the engagement continued till 1 p.m. (Between 1 and 2 p.m., German reinforcements poured in. and more bayonet work followed,, while our shrapnel wrought great havoc.

"' AVc then received reinforcements, and our men, without firing a shot, charged with the bayonet. The hand-to-hand fighting with cold steel lasted until 6 ,p.m. All in the foremost ranks of the j Germans were annihilated. save a handful of wounded. Not a single man of , those who broke into our trenches re- | turned alive." NEW OFFENSIVE MOVE ON. I The general opinion expressed by military critics in Petrograd is that the recent German attacks along the Vistula lin Russian Poland arc part of a new, great offensive movement, says a dispatch from the- '•.Temps " correspondent |in the Russian capital. The message continues: —

*" The German general staff have profited by the last few weeks of comparatively calm to bring up heavy reinforcement.*. The German plan is believed' to bo the concentration of larger forces along the Vistula and in the Carpathians, leaving but a corps and a half in the centre. The combined Austro-Gcr-man offensive then will be -made hurriedly, as tbe Franco-Anglo-Belgian menace is" constantly growing to the point where the • Germans will -once ■again be forced to .strip their linos in •Poland.

"Warsaw still appears to be the great objective, and for its possession the Germans submit to enormous sacrifices and untold hardships. To this end seven divisions composed of approximately 105236 men. aided by 600 cannon which arc divided into 100 batteries, occupy a front six miles in extent. GERMAN ADVANCE ON WARSAW ABANDONED. Telegrams from Petrograd, under date February S, state:—Another sudden change has taken place in the situation on this front. The Kaiser appears to have abandoned his efforts to break through on the Bzura-Rawka line and to be concentrating his main energy on an attempt to roll up the extreme left of'the Russian position in Bukowina and the eastern ridge of the Galician Carpathians. The Germans have also hurried . reinforcements into Eastern Prussia and assumed the offensive in the valley of the Sheshupa, thus far without success.

It is still an open question whether these movements have immediate connection with one another. In military circles the idea seems to predominate that the Germans hare convinced themselves nothing is to be gained from further sacrifice of life on the insurmountable barrier to the west of Warsaw. It is even a question whether the Germans * alter their colossal losses of the past few;' days any longer possess a sufficient number of fresh, unshaken units to make any serious assaults on tbe trenches of the Russians in that quarter.

The German sudden lapse into inertia is the more remarkable because ' recent battles appear actually to have, cost him a good' deal of ground. The Russians have evidently got quite a firm footing on the left bank of the Bzura just above its junction with the Vistula. They are also taking the initiative further south, where they .have broken up-'a column marching from Zemyari to Bolimow. These places are only a few miles distant from one' another, however, and-it must not be taken as ..an absolute certainty that the Germans-arc weakening their forces here - to strengthen their position-in-East Prussia and lend assistance to their sorely harassed allies.in the Carpathians. v <^