The Russian Campaign.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 122, 16 October 1914, Page 5

The Russian Campaign.

BATTLE OX THE VISTULA. AUSTRIAN FORCES STIFFENED BY GERMANS. lIEAYY CASUALTIES BEFORE PRZEMYSL. fiAND-TO-lIAND FIGHTING IN EAST PRUSSIA. Petrograd, October 14. Official. —A battle commenced on the left bank of the Vistuia along the roads leading to Ivangorod and Warsaw, the Russian main force holding the line Sandomierz to Ivangorod against one and ahalf millions of Germans, including the Landsturm and Landwehr brigades, and ■270,000 Austrians. Every Austrian division was linked with a German corps, by which it was hoped to give the necessary stiffening. The German line extends to Jaroslau, north of Przemysl, but it is a tentative advance in Galicia, the chief strength i being in Southern Poland.

German reports claim that there have been 40,000 Russian casualties near Przemysl. The Austro-Germans are trying the effect of double envelopment of the Russians in Galicia and at Lublin. The German left was repulsed with heavy losses in a series of sanguinary skirmishes at Skierniewice (south-west of Warsaw).

In East Prussia, the recent engagement at Ratchka was a hand-to-hand fight between the Don Cossacks and the Germans. The former swam the river and got behind the Germans, and were thus enabled to capture 3000 prisoners; and complete batteries of tight armored motors.

Tho fighting at Augustow (West Russia) took place in a dense fog. The Germans on several occasions advanced to the very muzzles of the Russian guns. During the fighting wolves were continu- | ally hovering round and pouncing on the dead and wounded. Stretcher-bearers [frequently had to fire on the wolves.

An incident of the battlefield of Augustow shows Germans at their best and worst. A Russian found a Russian officer with his face covered with a cloth, and on l/is breast a gold watch and a note saying, "Honored enemy, —We have taken only a notebook with military information. Unfortunately, we are unable to take this severely-wounded man, as we have ourselves many wounded." Near by were the bodies of six Cossacks, with their ears cut off and their eyes gouged out.

J RUSSIANS EVACUATE LEMBERG. , AN AUSTRIAN OFFICIAL REPORT. Received 15, 9 p.m. The Hague, October 14. The Austrian Legation states that the Russians evacuated Lemberg, after a fierce fight, DISPOSITION OF THE TROOPS. FOUR GERMAN ARMIES IN THE FIELD. BIG ENVELOPING MOVEMENT AFOOT. BOMBS DRQPPEDO IN WARSAW. Received 10, 12.55 a.m. Petrograd, October 15. Grand Dnke Nicholns lias announced that the battle front of the main Russian and German forces extends from Przemysl to Warsaw, with the Vistula and the San dividing the two lines. Elsewhere, he stated, the Ru.ssif.n right rest?, on the ovtress of Novoe Gecrgiewsk. Already aeroplanes are dropping bombs in Warsaw, and cannon can be heard

at Chitty. The indications are that Germany has four armies against the Russians. Tho first operates from Thorne to Gnescn.

The. second, under General Lindenberg, concentrates at Kalier, and now has its front on itezconow, Skverniewici, and Growec.

The third, under the King of Bavaria, is operating from Kieler.

The fourth, an lAustro-German army based on Cracow, under the German General Dankl, has advanced along the Vistula to Opatoa and Sendomir.

A forward German movement from the '27 th September, a strategic deployment; concluded on 3rd October, when the Germans occupied the front, Kieler, Petrokow, and Lodz, with the Thome army at Ploek covering the left wing. The Thome army apparently contemplates an enveloping movement on the right hank of tho Vistula, despite the fact that the marshy banks of the Bug and Narew present serious obstacles to the attempt. The Russians' plan bears a general resemblance to General Joffre's, inasmuch as it compels the Germans to fight som distance from their own highly-de-veloped network of railways, which, with the efficiency of their transport, would increase the enemy's mobility to a degree equivalent to a great multiplication of forces.

A ZEPPELIN CAPTURED. Received 15, 10.40 p.m. Petrograd, October 14. Cossacks brought down a Zeppelin near Warsaw, and captured it intact.