INGENIOUS DEFENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16372, 28 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

INGENIOUS DEFENCES.

WIRE THAT LIGHT UP.

After the Russian pressure on the south of their battle line the Germans fled from the district to the north of Chnrtorysk, and wont to the country lying between the River Styr and the River Stokhod. a belt of land from 25 to 40 versts in width. This region (says a writer in the Russkoye Slovo) is purely German, and both its 'ortiliration and organisation are more formidable than those of the Austrians. In Polesie there is no compact line of front, only a series of forts, and each separate fort supplies a lesson in military science. Every kind of mechanical device is employed in order to make up for the lack of human material. Each fort is surrounded by layers of barbed wire protected by machine guns. Some of the German forts contain appliances by means of which six rifles are fired simultaneously. The entanglements are for the most part steel. Some of them are formed of barbed wire of a special description, which emits a brilliant light when it is cut, and in this way signals to the Germans the precise locality where the break has occurred. In the neighbourhood of the German trenches the fields nave been sown by the enemy, and here and there suitable places for football and tennis matches have been provided. The Germans had evidently made up their minds they were remaining in their quarters for a considerable time. Now they have been driven to the Stokhod they are continuing the work of fortification, hut the new defences are by no moans so strong as (he old ones. The new lines have had to be made in the open, and in the open they must now fight.