RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17946, 13 November 1918, Page 6

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

/Russia’s campaign against' the Gor»ans and the Austrians was shaped rom the outset with a view to the " -iefence o* tho great salient of. Poland vhich lay open to attack -from three ,- , S- f j Russian mobilisation was Mow, and tho army was handicapped insufficiency ot war material , which-later contributed largely to its undoing. Tlio war became largely one - 9f railways against no railways, because the enemy ’s High Comm unci was able to manipulate its forces with, a -aiuek greater celerity than the iiusnans could hope to attain. When the troops left tho railways, the Itus«fan° tactically wero equal to and often su.perior to their foes, and time alter time . they snatched victory from superior Haas backed by superior .material. But ultimately the great artillery concentrations broke the Russian defence. ' In tho opening stages tiie Germans were satisfied •to remain nurelv on tlio defensive while their plans ‘ .in France were being carried out. ■ At the ro- . Quest of the - Allies, the Grand Duke Nicholas sent an expedition into East Prussia, and the violation of the soil sacred to the Hohenzoll'erns brought their troops hot-foot to tho scene. The invasion -also brought Hindenburg out of obscurity, and made him , the hero of.the German nation.- At this time » powerful Austrian attack from the south -side of the Polish salient had developed and bad been shattered, and the Russians pressed forward, into Galicia taking Lomberg in September, 1914. - Tins movement was essential to " ‘the Russian plan, because no advance .could be.made against Austria, by tho Cracow gap or against Germany' until tlio Carpathian flank was secure' Twico Hindenburg struck straight for Warsaw and halted the Russians, and ropcafcedly ho endeavoured to drive in -behind the' Vistula, but throughout the earlier fighting the Russians held -their own. Russian cavalry at one stage indeed, crossed the Posen frontier and were within twelve miles of Cracow, lato in ■1914.. Early in 191.5, however, the enemy made several attempts against the flanks, through East Prussia and . across the Carpathians, to divert the Russian attention, and then in April, , Mackensen, with a great artillery concentration about which tho Russians knew nothing, opened tho real drive, smashing Demetriov’s army on the Dunajerz. .The full dangers of the salient were then uncovered, and the Russians commenced the wonderful retreat to escape destruction. .They fell back to the real frontier of Russia, their strongest position, abandoning all Poland and the Baltic provinces up to the Gulf of Riga. Using the Dvina in the north, and the Pripet marshes in the centre, and the iSeroth in tlio south, they presented a strong front to tho enemy, and frustrated his efforts to break through. Onp or two counter-offensives were un- : dertakeh, particularly Brusilov’s great thrust in 3.916 to relievo the Italians i- a «d bring Rumania, into the war. It ' shook tho enemy badly, particularly the Austrians, but it never looked ' like • breaking the. Teuton line. The next year, alter the revolution, Kornilov carried on Brusilov’s work, and was making. promising progress along the Carpathians, threatening t,o turn the Austrian lino and regain the greater part of Galicia, when the GennanoBolshevik propaganda and tho rcKxea discipline of the Russian armies, shattered the whole resisting power qr tlio forces, and Russia as a weapon of strength went out of the war. Notwithstanding the. apparently complete recovery in 1916 tho Russian military power was really broken in tho campaign of 1910. In 1916 the Germans were concentrated in • the west, and their' plan in that year was merely to hold the eastern ‘ front. Tho weak element on that front was the Austrian army,, which in 1914 had suffered a' series of smashing defeats and which, but for the German stiffening, would have gone out of tho war altogether, probably in 1915, certainly _in 1916. Conceivably but for the revolution the 'Russians would havo made a good, recovery from the defeats of 1915, hut the internal troubles paralysed the military effort.