THE DASH OF THE RUSSIANS

Nelson Evening Mail, 7 August 1916, Page 7

THE DASH OF THE RUSSIANS

"A WHIR,TJ WIND ADVANCE."

MEN CHARGE LIKE TIGERS.

History knows n-o whirlwind, advance like this of the (Russians, who are fighting as they have never fought before, wrote a correspondent recently regarding the Russian offensive. Regiment after regiment of young, fresh troops, some, never before in action, jumped out of their trenches like tigers and charged the Austrian lines. With Oossaolc-like fearlessness, these Russian infantrymen formi Itouman waves upon waves. The Russian artillery had' done its work ; barbed wire, as thick as the index -finger in places, woven together to a, depth of 30Q ; yards, had been literally torn in£o bits by tho hurricane of Russian shell fire. Hidden pits with s,piked bottons—caltrops, the device of Bannockburn—hampered the advance, 'but these the charging Russians traversed by using planks or rough sapling ladders, while their artillery threw a curtain of steel between themj and the A'ustrians. The Russians undoubtedly suffered heavy casualties, ■but the masses of blood' and steel did not falter. Sweeping over the enemy's foremost defences, they dashed on over the second and third. Even at the first mad rush the Austrians had,to fall back; the Tsar's cavalry then took up the work ; divisions of 'Cossacks and lancers threw their hardy mounts into the chase, and the fleeing enemy was utterly disorganised. Battered 'brigades, companies, and .regiments were cut off by these Aorsemeti, and' surrendered to the Russian infantrymen., who had- followed close on the hoofs 'of the Russian cavalry.