RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 10 December 1914, Page 5

RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN.

THE FIGHTING IN POLAND. - CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS. I BOTH SIDES CLAIM SUCCESS. ! DISASTER TO TWO GERMAN CORPS. _____ ! FURTHER DETAILS OF THE DEATH TRAP. TERRIBLE CARNAGE AMONGST GERMANS. ■ POLISH PLOT AT CRACOW. COLLISION BETWEEN AMMUNITION TRAINS. PETROGItAD, Dec. 9. - The first stage of the battle has ended in the Germans being thrown back from Lowicz and Lask. They are now threatening Lodz and Piotrkow, hoping to save East Prussia and hamper the Russian operations at Cracow by pouring in reinforcements, which may oblige Grand Duke Nicholas to concentrate the greater part of his forces between the Vistula and Warta. The latest German attack from Kalisch spent itself. Thus far Grand Duke Nicholas has riot been obliged to relax his attack on Cracow, though a new Austro-German counter-attack is developing southwards of Cracow. AMSTERDAM, Dec. 9. An official Berlin message states that' I the Germans east and .south-east of ! Lodz are pursuing the rapidly retreati ing Russians. The latter have lost 5000 prisoners, 16 guns, and ammunition waggons. ROME, Dec. Q. In Berlin the capture of Lodz was celebrated by a universal display of flags and demonstrations in the streets. Herr Basserman, addressing the National Liberals in the Reichstag, said : "We shall hold fast for all time the countries fertilised by German blood, and bring a bloody war to splendid victory. That is our motto at this great time." " LONDON, Dec. 9. The Daily Chronicle's Petrograd- correspondent, writing on Friday, forwarded details of the disaster to two of General yon Mackensen's army corps. When the 25th' and 3rd Guards were cut off south of Lodz, General yon Mackensen's and other troops were ' bombarding Lodz from the west. The two army corps were unable to retire, and attempted to cut their way via Breziny. Their road lay in a hollow, in wooded country. Hard pressed in the rear, the two army corps fought desperately for four days, though short of ammunition. On the fifth day they made a final attempt at Breziny, ■where the troops which held Ivangorod in October were stationed. The Russian commander, after shelling Breziny for nine hours, until only half the town was standing, then ordered a general assault. By nightfall only the scattered remnants of 80,00$ men remained. Twenty thousand surrendered, and a large percentage of the remainder were killed or wounded. The rest are fugitives in the woods. The horrors were accentuated by the confined area of the carnage. The dead lay in great heaps at Breziny, while occasional heaps of dead were dotted about the countryside for miles. The Ist, 2nd and 3rd December saw the climax of the German attempt to capture Lodz, where the Russian defenders were almost surrounded. The Germans had reached Rokier, within four miles of the south end of seven miles of street which makes up to Lodz. Heavy guns meanwhile shelled the north of the city from Zgierz, .and killed severa Ihundreds of civilians. The Russian artillery was unable to locate the German battery until an aeroplane, on 3rd December, reported the approximate position. The colonel of the artillery, with a few assistants, dragged a field telephone by night within half a mile. Despite the searchlights, the colonel lay on the ground and directed the Russian fire until the battery was silenced, and he returned uninjured. During the night of the. 3rd there were seven hundred guns in action at Lodz. The sound was faintly heard at i Warsaw, sixty miles distant,

A Gez-man assault followed. Masses of men dashed on, in the glare of the searchlights, regardless of the inferno of bullets. The Siberians allowed the Germans to come within fifty feet before they fired with rifles and machine guns. The assault was an utter failure. The Russians had relatively light casualties, but the Germans had over a hundred thousand killed. In the Lodz district it is impossible to estimate the wounded, of which scores of trains continue to pass to Kalisch. There are many German spies in the district. On Ist December, the Council of War decided to evacuate Lodz, but cancelled the order on the following day. While the convoys commenced to move, the Germans, knowing of the order to evacuate, and being ignorant of its cancellation, thought that there was only a rearguard protecting Lodz^j and swooped clown on the city.' They were promptly driven back, losing four thousand. JPETROGRAD, Dec. 9. The Novoe Yremya says that when the corps were surrounded, they uiarched in every direction, seeking an outlet, but they always came up ngainst a wall of Russian bayonets. Then they buried their guns and ammunition, abandoned their transports, left the high roads, and marched through the fields to avoid the Russian fire. Finally they took refuge in houses -at Breziny, which proved a death-trap, where they .were relentlessly exterminated by the bayonet. ROME, Dec. 9. The Austrians have withdrawn all the Polish regiments from Cracow, and expelled the Polish inhabitants, owing to the discovery of a plot to surrender the city to the Russians. PETROGRAD, Dec. 9. A terrible collision occurred between two German trains, loaded with pyroxilin and shell's, at Kielce. Both were utterly destroyed, and none survived. The explosion was heard thirty miles away.