DESPERATE FIGHTING.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1916, Page 6

DESPERATE FIGHTING.

BATTLES OX RUSSIAN FRONT. HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTERS. HUNDREDS BAYONETED. The Exchange Telegraph Company's retrograd correspondence writes: From wounded officers and others back from the front I have obtained striking details of the great offensive of Ceneral IvanoiT's southern group of armies. One of my authorities, who went through the battles of the Bzura last winter, declares that the present fighting far exceeds those'for desperation, ferocity, ami the percentage of losses which both sides bear witlioutflir.chhig. First of importance is '.he fighting east of Czernovita, success in which wiil roll up the whole Austro-Grrman line. The Austrians hero have been entirely beaten by superior artillery, and only a reckless waste of infantry has saved them from a debacle. Their positions at Topornt/, and Ravanze wore totally destroyed. In eighteen hours' fire the woods were razed so that not one tree stood upright. The trenches were entirely levelled, and the smaller hillocks used by the Austrians to protect their jagor outposts were blown away. In part the Austrians succeeded in saving the situation by concentrated 'machine gun fire. Our'troops' charges in close, formation against hundreds"©? machine guns ail firing without a break, aro one of the greatest things of the war. Captured trenches, entirely destroyed, and full of earth and corpses, were extraordinarily hard to hold. The Austrians. spending their infantry without shrinking, sent wave after wave of men into the lost earthworks. Frolonged bayonet combat.-, resulted, some of which did not end till few on either side were, left alive. The Ravanzo attacks produced many dramatic incidents.. Sheltering behind their rolling shields, the Russians advanced on the first Austrian trencli. Before that, as was expected, was a mine. Volunteers offered to rush over the mine so that it might be exploded, ensuring safety for the men to follow. As the Russian shield* stuck in the deep snow, the Austrian bombers, seeing their chance, rushed out. But ere they had crossed their own minefield an explosion killed all. Afore Austrians, again with bombs, advanced, and a hand-to-hand fight followed. East of Tbroputz some of the bloodiest fighting on record took place. Attacks were made in dense mass, and the Austrians counter-attacking in an equally dense mass in the hope of taking the battered trenches were cut to bits. Over large snow-covered areas bodies lav touching. After two days' unbroken fighting the Austrians were too exhausted to bury their dead. They made holes in the snow, laid the bodies'in the holes, and covered them with snow. Next day, in the hand-to-hand fighting which raged over the same\area, the bodies were stumbled upon and kicked and pushed out of the snow. Mixed with them soon lay the newly killed. The event mp.de such a deep impression on both sides that a truce was arranged, and the dead were decently interred.

POISON (HAS. The assaults on Pflanzor's loft on the Strypa are being carried on with equal vigor. These are the strongest enemy positions on the south front, and during the present attacks parts are unapproachable, owing to numerous lakelets and streams which are only partly frozen over. On the left, where the natural defences nre weaker, the enemy's line is defended by a wire-entanglement forty yards deep, electrically charged in front. This entanglement is made with stakes and wire,, far apart, the aim being to limit the destruction caused by high-explosive shells. At Buchatch, the key to the position, the Strypa runs through a ravine, and the east slope of the hillocks which form it are mined. Xortli of here only, after three charges. in one. of which they iy,et and annihilated an Austrian counter-attacking force, did the Russians reach the river.

Our moii found the entanglements, wliich had been shelled all the preceding day, only half destroyed. The enemy has other defensive devices, one being the blowing of poisonous gas out of the mouth of a tunnel dug through the hill. Only such of our men as >, r oro collecting behind the rolling shields could stand the gas. They did this liv bending eloco to the shields. All we're killed. The en'my brought field artillery to within ."000yds, and fired shells direct into the shickl.s The exposed Austrian artillerymen were shot down, and a respite was gained. Russian supports came up, Mid, with the exception' of a short section, all of two Austrian trenches were taken.

In this fighting the enemy refused to give way. They poured infantrymen without cartridges into their lost trench. Our men had expended all their ammunition on the Austrian gunnel's, The result was a trench .bayonet fight, which lasted half an hour. Hundreds of men on both sides were bayoneted, and the survivors fought, standing an their bodies. Russian supports, with cartridges, arrived, and on the way picked on the struggling enemy. The trench remained in the JRussinn Jiands. At one point the Austrians lost in bayoneted 1100 men killed and several hundred wounded, mostly severely. At present the Buchateh bridgehead is still held by the enemy, the redoubt in front being defended by a Prussian Hanover regiment, but the field fortifications just to the north of It have been battered to bits, and a. hard frost, makbi!' the country passable, will give them into our hands; MAN v. MECHANISM. The Germans further north on the Strypa, tinder Bothmer, are being similarly hard pressed. Here, t.io, at PiurkanotT, is a strongly defended bridgehead. The talcing of the front trenches is a remarkable instance of man versus mechanism. The flermans had machine guns every five yards. In a captured second trench, half a mile long, were counted 140 cemented machine gun emplacements. The first trenches were lightly held, and after volunteers had bombed to bits obstacles in front, It was taken with a rush. While our men fought the thin (Herman defensive line with the bayonet, the machine guns played on the struggling mass, killing indiscriminately foe and friend. Before the Russians had set the first trench in order the enemy removed all the machine guns from the second trench, but left it strongly manned by riflemen. A series of attacks and counter-at-tacks was made, and the Germans were badly cut up. In the second stage of this fight the Germans were replaced by Austrjans. One counter-attack carried out "by a battalion of Austrians and some Hungarian companies persisted as far as a captured trench held by us, and a few men leaped into the trench. The rest were shot down, not one getting back unwounded. The Austrians here, in physical fighting, are doing better than

the Germans, most of whom arc elderly Landsturm men or indifferently trained men from the replacement reserve who have had no peace training. Attacks, which have so far been feints, have bccii made on the Archduke Josef Ferdinand's positions on the Styr-Chomin front. The Austrians here were "surprised, aiulnearly lost their auchdncal commander. Our men crossed snow-covered lhnrsh country which had not borne traffic the day before!' An increase in the frost made it possible. Austrian outposts were overpowered, and a dash was made into a thinly .manned advance trench, behind which was seen a group of stall' officers riding along the front of a second trench. From prisoners it was later learned that this was the Archduke and his staff. The | Archduke and his suite galloped away, leaving a dead orderly. Fighting here has not taken big proportions, but it \vas unusually desperate.