THE RUSSIAN HAMMER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16285, 19 January 1915, Page 5

THE RUSSIAN HAMMER

AUSTRIAN DEBACLE IN SERVIA. PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING ABANDONED. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) LONDON, January 17. A war correspondent with the Servians, describing the Austrian retreat from Suvobar in its early stages, says he was impressed by the nuinber of heavy guns that had been buried. They were surmounted by wooden crosses, like fallen' warriors. The Austrians removed the breech-blocks from the siege guns. Later the retreat became a debacle, the Austrians' only thought being to get beyond the range of the guns. They abandoned everything. Cannons, Maxims, and ammunition wagons were found intact, and thousands of rifles were thrown on the roadside. The wounded were left to their fate. FIGHTING IN POLAND AND G ALICIA. RUSSIAN SUCCESS AND A REVERSE. PETROGRAD, January 17. A communique states that successful progress continues on the Lower Vistula. Six German regiments made violent assaults on the 16th near Gumine, supported by exceptionally heavy artillery fire. The result of seven attacks, with desperate bayonet fighting, was that the Germans captured a single advanced trench. The Germans at Konopnitza one evening sapped within 30 paces of our entrenchments, but were overwhelmed by hand grenades, and Russian volunteers, taking advantage of the confusion, used grenades on the communication trenches, forcing the enemy to retreat. Three attacks south of Pinczow were repulsed. Our advance guards at Bukovina stormed the Kirlibaba Pass, in the Carpathians, bordering Transylvania.