RUSSIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 11 January 1916, Page 5

RUSSIA.

MATTER' FOR CONGRATULATION

AMMUNITION SUPPLIES

PLENTIFUL

WOMEN LIGHTING IN RUSSIAN

RANKS

THE KAISER'S NARROW ESCAPE.

ABOARD A DAMAGED ZEPPELIN.

| LONDON, Jan. 10. The Times correspondent at Russian headquarters states that last Nfew Year t the whole of the Russian army were reduced to one shot per. gun daily, and •idle ..present contrast is a matter .for the heartiest .congratulations. . Early in October only thirteen German and .two Austrian divisions asisembled on the .Serbian frontier, iand a fortnight -ago missing divisions began to .reappear. There are now 245 battalions between Kovel and' Lemberg, under Archduke Joseph Ferdinand and iiSO^Jbattalions and seventy-five squadrons under General Mackensen, in addition to the divisions returning to the iDanuhe. They expect the severest blo.w irom the Russian left flank, and .are/endeavouring to counter it bv striking at.our centre and left. The slight frost had hardened the soil, without ■preventing .entrenching, and the Russians are capturing line after line <©f the .enemy's trenches. .

PETROGRAD, Jan. 10. There .are several well-authenticated sstoriescof,women serving in the Russian i.army, and the. most extraordinary i® --that oof twelve Moscow schoolgirls. iAt.the beginning of the war the,girls .-purchased uniforms and boarded atrosp vfcrain. They reached Lemberg, where tth&.-soldiers welcomed them as comrades. TPhey cconcealeH ttheir identity, but •officers heard of ;the gtory and ordered ihem.;to,:be:s^tlba«ek, but they pleadel -.to be''allowed Hio remain, ottering to i'get :their lhair ?cut. , -..'

i The regiment passed into the Carpathians, the /girls sharing all the horrors of .warfare. They admit that sometimes they 'Blubbeted when German shellsi rfell, but they add that even -the men were afraid. One girl, aged 15, ■was killed by a shell and others were rwounded.

One girl, was made, a corporal and decorated with the''Gross of ~St. George. The girls-Tverje finally persuaded to leave the "firing; line and go as nurses !in .the "hosTiitals. *

The "Gazette publishes the «tory of a 'narrow escape the Kaiser ha"d-in a rZeppelin flight over Warsaw.. One of the screws of the airship broke and tore a great "hole in the envelop©. .The airship" listed heavily/and a parachute was prepared for the Kaiser's use. ;ih the, -event the machine collapsing. The countryside was roused Tina -motor psfctrdls hurried out. Everything weighty, including the tfffreers' swords was : jettisoned, and the Zeppelin continued to fall until the -anchor caught -a tree and the machine .^grounded without serious damage. The Kaiser rewarded everyone aboard.