FIGHTING IN POLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 63, 15 March 1915, Page 2

FIGHTING IN POLAND.

A WAR. CORRESPONDENTS EXPERIENCES. (By STANLEY WASHBURN.)

It seoms incredible that one can be within 1,000 or 1,500 yards of actual attack and yet can hardly see anything except the bursting of shells. Such is the fact even in the day time—at night it is still worse. I had an opportunity of being practically in the heart of Buch an event on February 4, when a colleague and I accepted the invitation of a member of the Red Cross to run out with him from Warsaw and look at some oi the field hospitals. After visiting an improvised hospital in a quaint Polish village, we started, for the firing line where a -guard offered to conduct us. Once in the main road we came upon a transport which filled every highway and byway. Day and night long strings of artillery caissons, bearing shrapnel, plodded along through the falling snow, the weary drivers nodding in the saddles, while the soldiers on the caissons lay crossways on tbe limber. The whole transport seemed to move intuitively at night with half the drivers sleeping in their seats. STUCK IN" THE MUD. _"or more than an hour we travelled down one of the great avenues of trees that line nearly all the main arteries of travel in thi3 country, and then turned off across a field. For another half hour we zigzagged about over a route, which seemed to us as planless as the banks of Newfoundland in a fog. Finally alter driving for nearly two hours, we stopped at', tlie' bank ~ol" a ; r kinall creek. Our guide discovered a .'ord,'we drove in and stuck fast. While trying to tease our patient horse to make one more effort there came a sullen boom from far off in the west. "That's a long way off," said our guide. Another and another boom came. "Ha," said our guide. "German guna We are in luck; they are planning an attack." As he spoke there came a quick red light to the left through a haze of snow, and "bang!" .aid a sharp, incisive field gun hidden somewhere in the darkness. BATTERY IN ACTION. "Bang, bang, bang!" said two or three brothers in unison. Almost simultaneously a second battery on our right came into action- -with a suddenness of'rapid reports that shook the air. Our little horse made an extraordinary effort and we got upon the river's bank. Once more there came a shaking crash and a flash of lightning a s * _ shell from one of the big batteries a mile or more to the rear screamed 'maliciously J overhead. We heard its melancholy wail fade away, then a long way off the sullen boom of its explosion. A sudden i contagion of fire seemed to eweep the countryside. In an instant the peaceful, stilly night was torn and shattered by the crash of artillery, the whine of shell and the reverberations of heavy ex- : plosions. The small German guns now broke loose. We could plainly see where the j Russian trenches were located from the quick jagged flashes of the bursting shrapnel above them. We pushed on toward the front as rapidly as possible.

For ten minutes the thunder of artillery shook the air. Then, puncturing the greater tumult, came the sharp little crack of rifles, followed by a series of reports like a pack of firecrackers. Then it seemed as though some one had thrown a thousand packs of these crackers into a fire. The artillery redoubled its rapidity of fire, and to our right front a machine gun came into action. Another began just 'before us, then a whole series went off on the left, until it was impossible to pick out any single piece from the direction pf the noise.

The flash of guns and the breaking shells gave a light like that of a pale moon.' We could readily see the road ahead, so leaving- bur cart, we pushed forward on foot toward the trenches. The snow was deep and we kept stepping into holes and going head first into drifts.. Still the crackle of musketry, hammering of machine guns and the 6teady roar of artillery went on around us, and the whine of shells kept up above us.

After stumbling about in the snow for half an hour our party came to a halt. The attack which was a thousand yards before us continued. Rockets from tho German positions soared high and burst with a great white light. Somewhere some chaps had a searchlight. We could see its long finger of light sweeping here and there across the sky.