BLOOD MADNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12698, 29 October 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

BLOOD MADNESS.

RUSSIAN OFFICER'S STORY OF • BUTCHERS. . ' - AN AWFUL WAR PICTURE. Lieutenant KtrziriNSKT has given a Russian correspondent the following vivid :. account of his experiences during the counter attack on the Motien-ling Pass on July 17:— . ' ." I'This was my first light, and such were its horrors that at one time I hoped that a merciful bullet would make it my last. We set out in a thick mist, the junior officers having no idea of the object of the movement, whether to reoccupy the pass permanently or to make the enemy disclose their strength. If the latter was our object it succeeded only too well. "The mist was so thick that even in daylight we could not have seen the ' road a dozen yards ahead; before dawn there was no road visible at all. Soon, however, it made no difference, for our battalion was ordered to leave the road, and, under the guido of a Chinese, march up the path and surprise the Japanese in flank. Each time, not knowing how far we were off, we expected a challenge, followed by a volley. " The first Japanese withdrew without even firing. Then the mist blew off, and along the hillside above us we saw Japanese artillery, and trenches full of their infantry. .. . . As our men emerged from a gully thev fired, knocking over a dozen. Then we deployed and attempted to rush the slope. "We got half-way up without suffering serious loss. Then the Japanese fire became effective, and a trench on our. right was suddenly revealed by a blaze of firing which knocked over nearly the whole of our first rank. I was some way behind, but in the dim light I could see the strange effect of the fire, the men tumbling backward one after another like a card building. Then a man beside me shrieked, staggered twice, and, falling forward, impaled himself on his bayonet. The soldier behind him marched on doggedly, sotting his foot on his fallen comrade's arm. ... APPALLING SCENES. "I saw nothing more, but then, for the first time, felt the desire 1,0 rush on and be at the enemy regardless of results. In ten minutes a swearing, howling, ferocious mass of our men tumbled over into tire Japanese. trenches. Jabbed at with a bayonet from one side, I felt maddened, and fired with my revolver into a set, yellow face standing out grimly before me. The figure trembled, and then I saw with horror that the man had previously been killed, and was really lying against the back of the trench,,

"Some of our men in their eagerness jumped clean over the trench, and one, amazed to see no enemy before him, stood confusedly while a Japanese coolly thrust his bayonet in up to the hilt. " Another, standing in bravado upon a huddled heap of Japs and Russians, held his rifle by the muz?s!e, and swung the stock round and round among the crowded Japs. The riiid flew from his hand and struck one of his comrades, knocking him insensible. "The Japs defended themselves desperately. Not one opened his mouth, and among our swearing, defiant giants, the general silence seemed ominous and terrible. All the time our men kept crowding into the trench, and in the dim light and general confusion how many were killed by foes, how many by friend, I; should not like to gay. Bui 1 saw . one Japanese driven from the top of. the trench by. one of our burly men, falling back heavily upon a comrade, and the latter, blinded 'or iritated, letting Ins baronet slip through the helpless body. It was horrible to.hear the threats and vaunting of our men mingling with the pious ' With God' which each successive rank shouted as it hurled itself over the trench. • "The position was won. A hideous butchery ensued of the surviving Japs, who, disdaining alike flight and surrender, croucheel stolidly while our men tumbled over them, kicking in their faces, braining them with their rifle butts, m running them through. One of our non-commissioned officers, a big Ukrainian named Lobenko, seized a little Japanese by the collar, and throwing .his rifle aside, choked him, and in the ferocious ccstacy of victory hurled his body fully ten yards'down the hill. And as he did so, from his throat, hoarse with thirst and blood mania, rang that awful cry of triumph, 'With God!' .v.

A SWIFT VENGEANCE. "We held the entrenchment and waited; and then, just; as wo expected orders to advance Mid attack the works on our right', a terrible transformation occurred. The mist finally vanished from the landscape and the enemy's artillery on our left, getting oiu range" almost with the first shot, began to rain down shrapnel and shell. A prolonged hiss overhead, a dozen men down in a line and then the roll of the gun from afar like a funeral hymn. Dropping prone in the trench the men avoided the shrapnel, but shell after shell burst directly overhead, and like raindrops of molten load swept away our men in a tempest of destruction. "To increase the horror the sun went in, and the cold mist again crept slowly up the hill. But the enemy, having the range, continued to pour :iu shell; and, surrounded, by an impenetrable veil, we waited, hopeless of relief or recall, while the roar of the guns grew louder and the bright flashes and squalls of lead more frequent. Then, sullenly, without orders, for in the darkness no one* knew who survived, a sergeant crawled from his hiding-place and walked down the slope. One by one the men followed his example; and finally, seeing that the position' could not be held, all retreated sadly, and, with feelings of despaii and vindictiveness in our hearts, a shattered remnant escaped to the main road and tramped to our last night's camp. "To the last the roar of the Japanese guns continued. Unaware of our retirement and believing they were still cutting vis to pieces, the enemy continued to rain down projectiles vainly into the forsaken trench. Even the dead with which the position was piled must be wakened, it seemed to me, by that unparalleled bombardment. " When, starving, athirst and downhearted, we emerged from the concealing mist, I feared to turn my eyes upon the remnant of our battalion, knowing too, well that of the comrade officers beside whom I had marched and camped through two laborious months perhaps not one remained."