A MARVELLOUS VICTORY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1583, 29 October 1912, Page 5

A MARVELLOUS VICTORY.

FALL OF KIRK KIUBSE.

BULGARIANS RUSH A FIRST-CLASS FORTRESS.

ENTANGLEMENTS FILLED WITH DEAD.

By Telecraph— Press Association— Copyrieht (Rec. October 28, 11.20 p.m.) London, October 28. The "Daily Telegraph's" Sofia correspondent reports that the armament of the Turkish forts at Kirk Kilisse consisted of «ix and eleven-inch guns, ;>nd that there were altogether a hundred pieces. The fortress was reputed impregnable, except by mining and the major forms of assault. It was surrounded by redoubts and entrenchments. The Bulgarians were not possessed of a single siege gun, and their victory was something miraculous. General Dimitrieffs four divisions formed an immense flying column, provided with four days' rations, and an extra supply of ammunition. Assault followed assault, and the Turkish gunnery failed to dislodge any of the* attackers from their positions. Bayonet attacks were made at night-time, the- Bulgarians stealthily advancing on the redoubts, and they must have filled entanglements with their corpses They sacrificed everything to rapidity. Ladders swayed and tottered until they were placed in position, enabling the invaders to scale the modern Turkish forts. Hand grenades were used. The forts were without searchlights, and rain and darkness facilitated the approach of the Bulgarian troops. A Bulgarian aviator in. the day time perceived a Turkish division hurrying from Adrianople, and subsequently on his report the Turks were ambushed, decimated, and dispersed. Th;y abandoned , their artillery. The garrison at Kirk ICitee consisted of. forty thousand. It was two hours before'the crowning bayonet charge took place. Two regiments of Kurdish cavalry made a sortie towards the Bulgarian line, with a view to opening the road for the infantry to protect the withdrawal. The Bulgarian cavalry, however, caught them on the flank, leading to an inextricable and sanguinary enlaesment of horses and men. The Kurds fled, and the Bulgarians immediately annihilated the rpsriment of infantry in the vicinity. The Turks were seized with panic, and fled.

with the Servian Army at Sienitza, thirty miles from the Montenegrin, frontier.

•The Turks have reocenpied several captured positions near Scutari. Torrential rain is falling. HEAVY CROSS-FIRE. (Rec. October 29, 0.45 a.m.) Cetinje, October 28. c Scutari has been subjected to a crossfire from batteries in the north-west, the south,'and cm the island of Vranjina, in Lake Scutari, from which King Nicholas is watching the fighting. ' The garrison of Scutari is threatened with famine. General Vukorics has captured strongly-fortified heights at Rojaz dominating the approach to , Ipck, and continued Ms advance on Ipek. NO MORE TURKISH TROOPS AVAILABLE. Constantinople, October 27. Nazim Pasha, Commander-in-Chief of tho Turkish forces, interviewed, said that Turkey was unable to spare many men for the defence of Scutari. TURK FIRES ON TURK. CONFUSION AT KIRK KILISSE. A ROYAL NURSE. (Rec. October 29, 1 a.m.) Constantinople, October 28. The commanders of the Turkish divisions were unaware on the night of October 22 that the first army corps had suddenly been launched against General Dimitrieff's left wing between Tundja and Kirk Kilisse. The attack failed, and

the men streamed back into the other Turks, who mistook them for Bulgarians, assailing them. Two Turkish sections fired on each other, aud tho Bulgarians fired on both.

BODIES MUCH MUTILATED. (Rec. October 29, 1 a.m.) Sofia, October 28. Queen Elcanora, dressed as a Red Cross nurs3, spends many hours daily in the military hospitals at Phillopopolis, and assists in dressing wounds. The corpses of the Bulgaria.! soldiers captured by the Turks were found irith the noses and ears cut off, and bore deep knife cuts. The Turks leave their own killed and wounded on the battle-field, and the latter are now being treated in Bulgarian hospitals, which are 'overflowing with wounded Turkish officers, nnd men. A Bulgarian officer's divorced wife was court-martialled for espionage, and shot with two Macedonian spies on proofs of her complicity. Fugitives from Vlnhi, twenty-eight miles southward of the border, report that the Turks, before retiring when tho Bulgarinns approached, massacred a hundred inhabitants.

TERRIBLE LOSSES. FEW TURKISH OFFICERS ESCAPE. HOW THE ONSLAUGHT BEGAN. (Rec. October 28, 11.20 p.m.) London, October 28. Mr. Beaumont, the "Daily Telegraph's" Sofia correspondent mentions that there were terrible Bulgarian losses in the taking of Kirk Kilisse. He adds that, according to private accounts, there were 20,000 victims. Mr. Bsanett Burleigh mentions that one estimate is that IG.OOO Turks were killed and injured. There were many Bulgars among the Turkish prisoners, and they aro donning the Bulgar cap and joining tho King's forces. ■ A Constantinople message states that SO per cent, of the Turkish officers at Kirk Kilisse were killed or wounded. Renter's Sofia correspondent states that it is reported that the Turks left 500 dead at Kirk Kilisse. Tho Turks at Kirk Kilisse, imagining that the Bulgarians intended purely defensive tactics in their own territory - behind the Balkans, assumed tho offensive with inadequate forces. Three army corps, while making a reconnaissance, wero drawn 'into a general engagement, whence it was difficult to extricate tho units. : One impetuus division became separated from the third corps, which suffered heavily, and was obliged to Tetire, compelling the whole line to return. The Bulgarians followed up this success with a general onslaught on Kirk Kilisse. MUCH SPOIL TAKEN. Sofia, October 27.' The spoil taken 'by the Bulgarians at Kirk Kilisse included seven batteries' of quick-firers, with ammunition wagons, eighteen field guns, twelve howitzers, provisions, and tents. Mukhtar Pasha's forces are fleeing. Mukhtar abandoned a portion of his private baggage and twelve hundred soldiers, who are prisoners at Kirk Kilisse. A DARING SOLDIER. London, October 27. Fifteen hundred frontier refugees, including children and aged and decrepit women, arrived by train at Stamboul, and have been specially housed and fed. An Ottoman soldier, during a melee northwards of Kirk Kilisse, got mixed with tho Bulgarians. He seized a maxim gun, .and .carried it to his comrades. How he escaped death was miraculous. * AT ADRIANOPLE. HEAVY FIGHTING AROUND THE CITY. HAND-TO-HAND ENCOUNTER. London, October 27. General Ivanoff is steadily drawing a cordon round Adrianople, and strengthening his position by earthworks. There has been a heavy bombardment from the northwest of the town. A fresh sortie by the Turks towards Arnautkolj was repulsed. The Turks suffered heavily. Despite messages showing the satisfactory development of Bulgarian tactics, tho' Bulgarian sacrifices in the vicinity of Mnrnsh and other points weic heavy. Many corpses lie on the battlefield cast and 'west of Adrianople. Thero was sanguinary fighting in the woods around, and some instances of hand-to-hand encounters with daggers only. Tho Bulgarian turning movement towards Balm Eski, 35 miles south-cast of Adriauoplc, is developing. . An additional eighty thousand Bulgarian reservists have been summoned to tho colours. MONTENEGRO'S ATTACK. JUNCTION WITH SERVIAN ARMY. BOMBARDMENT OF SCUTARI. London, Oclober 28. The northern Montenegrin Army, under General Viikovics, lias crossed the sanjak of Novi Bazar and effected a junction.

Kochana and Istib littered with discarded Turkish, clothing. There is torrential rain, end the boggy stnto of the roads line impeded ftho advance. CREEK RULER IN TURKEY. CROSSES BORDER TO JOIN HIS ARMY. TURKISH BARBARITIES. (Rec. October 29, 0.45 a.m.) Athens, October 28. King G«orge was welcomed with, enthusiasm on his arrival at Elmssona. TCo has proceeded across the frontier to Serfije. .With their allies, the Greeke have occupied the pass of Pentepigadia, on the road to Yaniiia. The. fugitive Turkish army at Epinus chained together aud massacred tweutyfive young villagers. They tortured the women and children, and inirneA and pillaged several villages. Wounded TutMbli soldiers lying in hospital stabbed a Greek Ecd Cross petty officer. Three hundred volunteers from tho Aegean Islands have arrived. TURKISH TROOPS IN RETREAT. Athens, October 27. The Greeks hove occupied Smiraous, Fkilipplsda, Lunws, Eleutherokhori, and Strcbino. The Turks fled, abandoning ammunition and provisions. An officer and twelve men were captured. The Turkish inhabitants a.ro everywhere fleeing before the Greeks. Many are sending their families to Egypt. The Greeks are appointing officials in all the occupied districts. Turco-Albanian hands are pillaging,] massacring, and setting fire to property in Upirue. A detachment of Greek reservists froin New York received an ovaticm on arriral here. The .Greek losses in the ■ Sarnntoporos Pass prior. to the fighting at Serfije were 18 officers and IG9 men killed, and 40 officers and 1037 wounded. The Turkish losses were- extremely heavy. DISAFFECTED TROOPS. ' v REVOLT REPORTED IN TURKISH ARMY. PREPARATION FOR WINTER, CAMPAIGN. London, October 27. Mr. Bennett BuHeigh, war correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph," states that a revolt is reported in the Turkish army, near Constantinople. The Forte is preparing for. a winter campaign. ' The "Daily Telegraph'*" Constantinople correspondent states that cholera has appeared among the Turkish troops brought from Anatolia and Aleppo. STILL FALLING BACK. NAZIM'S HEADQUARTERS AT CHORLU. BATTLE NEAR THE CAPITAL. (Rec. October 28, 11.20 p.m.)

London, October 28. The headquarters of Nazira Paslm, Minister for War, ar« at Chorlu,'about thirty miles nearer Constantinople than Lulu Burgas, to which the army tecently fell back. It is reported that Kiamil Pasha, Foieign Minister, has been offered the Grand Vizierate. Tim Sultan urgently ttesired to proceed to +lio front to encourage the troops, but the Porte dissuaded him. MOBILISATION INCOMPLETE. Constantinople, October 27. Tho mobilisation of the Turkish Army is only half completed. Four hundred thousand men will shortly be concentrated near Constantinople, where a decisive battle will take place. ALBANIAN DEMANDS. (Rec. October 28, 11.20 p.m.) { London, October 28. The "Daily Telegraph's" Constantinople correspondent states that tho Albanians threatened tlio Porte that unless they are guaranteed peace and liberty they will seek Austria's help. TO STOP THE WAR. POWERS READY TO INTERVENE. BRITISH PRECAUTIONS. (Sec. October 29, L 0 a.m.) Paris, October 28. The Prime Minister, At. Pomcare, in a speech at Nantes, referred to the unanimity of the Powers assisting Franco in her efforts to maintain peace. France remained closely attached to Russia and Britain. A firm maintenance of the entente was necessary for European equilibrium, aud in the maintenance of this equilibrium lay tho best hope for the localisation of tho war, and that it would be stopped by Europe at tho first convenient opportunity. Perhaps the moment for mediation was even now near: BRITISH FLEET RESERVE WARNED. London, October 27. The newspapers state that Class A of the Fleet Reserve, numbering thirty thousand men, has been warned to be in readiness for an immediate call. EUROPE UNITED. London, October 27. Tho newspaper "Observer's" St. Petersburg correspondent states that tho wnr will be stopp2d within a few weeks by united Europe, and that all arrangements with that object are in progress. Thereafter Europe will ppeak concerning Balkan reforms. ' THE PORTE AND AUSTRIA. London, October 27. Renter's correspondent «\ys ilmt the appointment of Hussein Ililmi Pnshn as ambassador to Vienna is ascribed to the Povte's desire to .secure Austria-Hungary's support, at the moment oi' final settlement. AWAITING AX OPPORTUNITY. Berlin, October 27. Tho "North German Gazette" says the Towers are striving In act in unity as soon as Hie development of the war is ripe for action. RED CROSS AID. SUBSTANTIAL RUSSIAN GRANT. (Rcc. October 2!), 1 a.m.) St. Petersburg, October 28. The. Russian Red Cross Society has voted .€100,01)0 fov the enre of the tick iind wounded in the Balkans. HOSPITAL I'Olt MONTENEGRO. Vienna, October 27. Slav associations in Bohemia are sending to Montenegro a field hospital of 130 bods, also fifteen medical students end twentr-five llurio*.

MACEDONIAN ADVANCE. TURKS RETIRING IN DISORDER. PRISONERS. IN PITIABLE STATE. (Rec. October 29, 0.45 a.m.) Belgrade, October 28. The Turkish prisoners taken at Kumanovo were in a pitiable condition, and many were bootless. A witness of the Turkish massacres dcsoribes the finding of eleven persons in one house with their throats cut, including a woman. • Two thousand Servian volunteers fought at Kumanovo beside the regulars. The entry of the Servians prevented the massacring of the Servian notables imprisoned prior to the fighting. The Turks butchered the Servian peasants who had been requisitioned as transport drivers. The Turks at Uskub were seized with panic, and retired in disorder before tho Crown Prince's army. Tho prisoners report that their coniI rades had been without food for two days. The Turks are retiring towards Kuprili, 22 miles south-east of Uskub. According to private advices, the Tsar has congratulated King PeteT on the capture of Uskub. Albanians are surrendering as the Servians advance. When Prishtina was occupied a Servian sentinel was ordered to guard Sultan Murad's tomb. The Servians have occupied Verisovitch, a strategic position commanding the Kotchanik Pass. WHITE FLAG TREACHERY. London, October 27. ' The Servian Legation announces that 500 Arnauts (Albanians) and Turks at Kumanovo were bayoneted for attacking n. detachment sent to receive their surrender after the white flag had been hoisted. BULGARIANS COMING UP. London, October 27. The Bulgarian force which is advancing into Macedonia has occupied Istib, unopposed. The town is W miles south-east of Uskub, and 15 miles from tlio railway connecting Uskub with Salonika nnd Constantinople. KOCHANA CAPTURED. Sofia, October 27. The Bulgarians operating in the Bregalnitza Valley, iibout thirty-seven miles west of Uskub, had a sanguinary encounter with tho Turks. They captured Kochana, together with one hundred pri60licr?, a lattery of field artillery, a mountain battery, and quantities of ammunition. Professor Clamnont's Austrian ambulance, section has arrived. It consists of five well-known doctors, including two military, and fourteen nurses. The population of the Djuniiu Bnla . district, five miles from the Bulgarian border, are in full revolt against the Turks. ( Bulgarian bands have been greatly strengthened. They arc well equipped. Tho peasants have sent their cattlo to Bulgaria, and this, combined with the ruined corn crops, will prevent the Turks capturing the roving bands. The Bulgarians at Kirk .Inali seized n million cartridges nnd many shells, also quantities of food. TORRENTIAL RAIN, r (Rec. October 27, 10 a.m.) i Sofia, October 28. i Xha Bukariaiw found the road between

RESERVI/STS RETURNING. I

RUSSIANS .AIDING BULGARIA. Bukarest, October 27, Thousands of Bulgarian Teserviuts, and also Ku'jisian volunteers, have Toachod Bulgaria, from Russia. HQMH.FEOM AUSTRALIA, Sydney October 28, lirenty Crooks eailed on Saturday to join theip oouutrymou on tho battlefield. One thousand pounds has been cabled to Athens 'for tho war -fund, and it is ex-i pected,another thousand will be .sent this vfeek. FARMER AND SOLDIER. A DAY WITH THE BULGARIAN ARMY, SOME IMPRESSIONS. The Bulgarian soldier is ono of the first things that ctriko you in Solia, writes llr. b. Ward Brico ,iu the "Daily Mail" of beptember 17. It is not, ho adds, tho wiiform that makes tho impression, for his whity-broivn linen smock, -rougi ™» trousers, and unpolished, Jiwivy Welliugtoii boots are as ugly as they aro workmu-nlike. Kor is it his bigness, nor his sun-tanned face. But there is an intelligence of «xnrcssiou and an alertness of lyeariug in tlio drab companies that make you look at them twice as they tramp by. Tins combination of the 6tnrdincss of body and weather-beaten face that arc the marks of the ooiuitiyside, with the brightness and interest of expression that (ire usually the stamp of tho town, give you the whole eeuret of tho Bulgarian's excellence as war material. He is a true peasant—of a breed -which we scarcely know in England. Ho is a peasant-proprietor. Ho has his own land, his own cart, his own oj;en to pull it; ho J6 satisfied with his circumstances and 'interested: in his work. If ha lias any lintive intelligence he has every incentive to use and develop it, since the full profit of it comes to himself.

And so ho possesses the strength of the country dweller without being a chawbacon, mid the intelligence of the townsman without being a weed. Divisional manoeuvres are on fifteen miles from Sofia, and the "real Uidng" is near enough to make it an easy possibility that this may be the' last training the Bulgarian Army will 7-eceiye before it goes out to the supreme test in the attempt to wrest Macedonia from the Turk. Ko I applied at tho "War Ministry for permission, to spend a day with the troops.

It was (bat glorious golden weather Hint autumn sometimes brings. Here they call it the "Summer of the Poor," for "it puts, off for a while tlic coming of the deep winter snows, when the Bulgarian peasants, in their little steadings far up the roadless hillside, can only sit Tound the liro in sheepskins, working nt the embroidery which makes their summer dress eo handsome and longing for Uic spring. The road climbed n delile through the mountains at a height of nearly 3000 feet. White oxen yoked to lumbering carls shied clumsily as tlic car hummed by. Strapping Bulgarian, peasant girls in dresses elaborate with embroidery of red and white and gold, and with long hnir hanging in n dozen plaits linked by a heavy brooch, behind, smiled prettily nt us. And there, at last, crossing the stubble in tho plain, are troops—a column of two battalions and a battery of artillery. A mile ahead of thorn are a battery of mountain guns, a Maxim gun detachment—the guns carried l>y pack-horses —two squadrons of cavalry, and two more battalions of 400 men each. They aro marching to oppose a. force of exactly similar strength that-is coming down from the north through two defiles in the hills. A Country Without Hedges.

As in so many Continental countries,, hedge and fenco are unknown in the Bulgarian countryside, A "baulk' , —an.,.unploughed strip of turf—serves to mark olf Mil from h'cld. Vor manoeuvring this is excellent. The wholo country is one gigantic SnLisbury Plain, instead of being Ixrokon up into countless little compartments by impassable hedges. And though the green of the hawthovnchequered English champaign is wanting, there is a fine spaciousness in the farstretching sweep of the open landscape, and Nature's lino and perspective arc unbroken.

General Toscheff and his staff of whitecoated officers aro on the hillside watching the movements of the dots in Hie plain below through their field-glasses— sunburnt men, with all the marks of their calling about them, for (he Army is taken very scrijusly in Bulgaria, It is, indeed, the backbone of the State, the guarantor of her prosperity. Without an efficient army, tho Bulgarians could not hope to hold their own in the armed scramble for Macedonia that all I lie Ual-' kan States expect some day. To the building up of the army a great K<t of Bulgaria's £24,000,090 of national o'ebt has gone, and the- result that the can show is that of a. population •■? C,QIW,I'(X) ehe could put 400,000 trained laen into the field.

The invading troops from the rorth, debouching from two defiles on either side of ,«s, were engaging the advanced partits of the defending force in Hie p'.ain. But after a little skirmishing Hie latter fell back on their main body, now established in a strong position a mile (r two back in tho plain.

The. commander of the southern ftico had chosen his position veil—a huge natural earthwork, only approachable on tho front and on the right flank aeuss moro than p. milo of absolutely open stubble and turf.

Just bock of the crest of the hill vas ,i battery of artillery—French ci'ii«k-firing guns from Creusot of tlio latest pattern. Fifty yards away the commander oi tho battery' had his observation post, connected with the guns by a Uttlc i:<ld telephone. Below on the reverse sltpo of tho hill lay tho main body, of infantry. Widely extended lines of brown dots were advancing over the open plain that we had just crossed—doubling forward a little way, then dropping down into moticnloss specks on the yellow of (no harvested field.

But the country was too open for k, ecrious attack to bo made on tho fvont. It was on tho left flank, where rdiing ground provided some cover, that tl.e real assault would bo made. Handy Maxims. Here the defenders had a battery of four Maxim mitrailleuses at work. The pattern of machine-gun that tho Jiulgarian Army uses is much handier than tho Scivt. of Maxim and gun-carriage that 1 remember helping to pull out of a ditch in a certain Officers' Training Corps. On the march it is carried by pack hors?s, and it is brought up to ils position by two men bearing it between them like n stretcher. There were three men to orcli gun, and the battery was equipped with a n«w type of range-finder.

Gradually the enemy, rushing forward in small parties from tlio nearest diver, built up a strong firing line about 300 yards away from the crest of the hill, hero sloping much more gently. Tho moment i'or the counter-attack had come. Lino after line, with bayonets fixod, the defenders' infantry came up from the shelter of the rear slope of the hill and mossed in the copse on the ridge. Then bugles on lxith sides shrilled out, tlio drums beat a fierce roll that ..made tho nlcin. prirkle with involuntary excitement, and with a loud vhcor tho long line of brown infantry swept down tho hill at tlio charge. And then on the flank of the mcloe suddenly appeared tho enemy's cavalry. More cheering, gallopins, the shouting of umpires, ond then the bugles sang out to end tlio day.

Such a glimpse of the Hulgnrian wldior at work confirms the first impression of him.

One is struck by tho quick, intelligent way in which the men answer Ilieir officers. T hoard a non-commissioned officer call out to a man who was range finding that he wos masking the lire of u machine-gun. It was n small incident, but it showed that the corporal was interested in doing; his work properly. The infantry have tho Manulicher rifle, the cavalry Mannlicher t.irbinos ond swords. Their horses ooino from the great stud farms of tho Hungarian Government; the. artillery horsas aro bought in Rut~ia.

The number of the possible adversaries of the 13ulgaian Army is limited; it is to be hoped that it will never meet them in actual conflict. But should war come, to the Balko.ns no one con doubt flint the Bulgarians would give good account of theuwlyeei