DESPERATE FIGHTS IN POLAND

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 68, 20 March 1915, Page 6

DESPERATE FIGHTS IN POLAND

Jfc&GNIFICENT COURAGE OF THE RUSSIAN TROOPS. SUCCESS IN THE ARGONNE. WELLINGTON, this day. The High Commissioner reports underdate of London, 19th March, 1.5 pjn.:— Petrograd reports desperate fighting in Xorth Poland, small villages often changing hands eight times a day. Quick-firing and machine guns are playing an important part in the operations. The night bayonet fights, as a rule, are of an extremely desperate nature. The Russians captured several villages on the heights, five guns, forty-twoanachine guns, ammunition wagons, ammunition, and several hundred German prisoners. On the right of the Niemercthe-Russiajis captured two guns, four machine guns, two lorries full of ammunition, and a number of prisoners. Near Gravezik the Russians cut up three German attacking companies, and a bayonet charge captured the survivors, , three officers and ninety-three men. Przemysl fortress fires more than a thousand heavy projectiles a day, but the Russian losses are only about ten men a day. The commanders report that the Russian troops are fighting with magnificent courage, fired by. the examples of their officers, whose dash and daring are beyond praise. Left of Pilica German losses during the period beginning March sth are estimated at least twenty-five thousand. Paris reports that at Notre Dame de Lorette the French destroyed the enemy's lines of communication and killed and captured the defenders. In the Aigonne they progressed 150 metres, and at Boie Comben-woye maintained their gains. At Les Espages they took a salient east of the position.