RUSSIANS IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1917, Page 11

RUSSIANS IN FRANCE

ADEPTS AT TRENCH WARFARE.

v The finssian sector, of the French, front was under show, and the grey uniforms and high fur cap of the Cossack officer who guided us through the trenches seemed -strictly -in keeping with "the wintry surroundings and the ihelahchbly rolling plaons (writes H. Warned Allen, from' France, in January, t6 the Morning Post). Ten months ago I visited the first-Russian, troops that reached France at the Camp de 'Mailly before they Went up^ to take their places in the firing ■line. Iheii .they-formed ari admirable force of highly disciplined troops who had seen, almost all of them, service oh that Eastern front where -'open warfare still exists, and it was clear that" they would nbt take long to adapt themselves to the conditions, of trench warfare, as it. exists 09 the Western front. To-dayv they have-more than served -their apprenticeship in the ' trenches, and. are masters in all the' arts aha. Wiles of modern warfare. They, have .chosen'as their speciality the gentle art of surprise attacks on the German lines. ' .

As soon as the Russians appeared oh the front the .Germani manifested a strong desire to capture some Russiaji prisoners; Hoping no doubt to obtain iriformation from them concerning the force that had corns., to France from, the eastern side of the beleaguered fortress that Germany is to-day. Accordingly they began a series Of raids, on the trenches that the Russians had taken over, acconipEtnying their, attacks. With heavy bombardments. They idori discdvered that the'game was one -which two c'6iild play, ilnd that .'the Russians Were 1 past masters in it. Their effort to take prisoners proved-'unavailing .for the- Russian is a stubborn fighter, ready to die rather than surrender. On the Contrary, the. enemy in "these local actions lost quits' a, number of men both killed and wounded and prisoners, flic particular Russian regiment that I visited had, after several months in the front trenches, only one man retitrried as missing, and "that man was amidSt cei'taiilly 'Killed in ths course of a raid. This regiment liad carHeel out a 1 krge. number of Surprise attacks oii the enemy's: lines and had-re-pulsed many, similar assaults, with the result that it'cduld boast a long list of German prisoners.

The French line bulges forward towards the north. The obtuse angle thus formed is to-day held by the Russians arid'the country lends itself ' admirably to the form of warfare Which suits them best. The ground slopes away' fairly rapidly towards , and between the opposing: lines in tho valley- formed by this stream there is a No Man's Land cklled- by the soldiers -"The' Gulf." In the Gulf there is continual, skirmishing, that fighting of patrol against /patrol in which the human element is the decisive fac'tdr. In this fighting the Russians Rave shdwh themselves again and again the superiors of the enemy.