BALKAN WAR.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1713, 2 April 1913, Page 7

BALKAN WAR.

STORMING OF ADRIANOPLE,

DETAILED ACCOUNTS.

PRIMITIVE TURKISH FORTS, £y Telegraph—Press Association—Copyngb (Rec. April 2, 0.45 a.m.) London, April 1. Tlio newspaper correspondents, who art now entering Adrianople, have forwarded descriptions of the decisive storming ,ol the .six fori?, regarded as the most formidable, which crowned a' great ridge, threo miles east of Adrianople. Sixty gnus had thundered from these forts for months, but General lvanoff, the Bulgarian commander, during the armistice, had destroyed a vulnerable point in tiis north-east, where Aivastabiiy formed an apex which could bs bombarded from the north and cast.. Eighty siege. guns had been secretly got. into position, ami cases of shells conveyed at night-time to appointed positions, and hidden, bshijiel th 6 .slopes of distant heights. Each wagonload which was taken across the pathless fields consisted of six rounds for heavy guns, yet fifty-thousand rounds were 'thus patiently amassed iu the casemates of the big batteries. . < ; . The general attack was. ordered while General Ivanoft gathered twenty-five thousand nieii of the storming party behind concealed batteries. At the first glimpse of dawn the Bulgarians bounded to then feet, and uttering superhuman yells "To the bayonet !" hurled, themselves forward and crossed three wirp 'entanglements like thick- spider-webs." , ,As the Bulgarians reachell the last .barrier the Turks fled aiid did not resist the stormers who captured the redoubts and trenches along a mile of front. Meanwhile eighty cannon threw an avalanche of projectiles, making it impossible for Aivastabia to reply, as the walls of'the fort were crumbled away. ; Upon a front of . two pr threo miles the. fire of 160 guns was concentrated. Each shell- contained twenty pounds of mellinite and the shells fellin'.flights, of fifteen and twenty at a time. The bombarded heights were invisible in smoke and dust. ■ After a tempest of . thirty' thousand shells tho forts were, silenced at' five o'clock on Tuesday evening. The bombardment was continued at night while the infantry crept uiV Aivastabia which was only storninble from the south-east and its capture was effected while the castel'n position was rendered untenable; An examination shows that Aivastabia was merely brickwork, and that the muchvaunted fortresses of Adrainople were miserable primitive works. Tho casemates were brick, with a slight surface of earth, and tlio gun emplacements wore in hollowed soil, and not on cement. Thero Nero 110 protesting works, fosses, scarps, or countcr-scarps,. and' the guns were fairly old. . Hence tho modern -fortification's of wero another Turkish myth. As there was au insufficiency of big guns, the Turks had moved tho guns to the points attacked, thus securing superiority of gun fire, but General Ivanoff's general asrmilt stopped the trick. Tho inhabitants of tho city are in perfect health, and the troops were, well fed, . Shukri Pasha, the Turkish commander, had maintained tho men's "courage by daily bulletins of'victories at''the,' chief points' in, tho Balkans, and announced ,a jraeco-Bulgaria.il., ,war, ;. J and a.' general Turkish, advance. ' BATTLE AT SCUTARI. I' -Cettinje, March 31. :'-Tho Turks at Scutari have made a sortie .from the southern sido of Tarabosch. , A desperate engagement is in progress. A NAVAL'DEMONSTRATION. . Londorij March 31. Eeuter's Agency states that the Ambassadors' Conference has approved of a naval demonstration to impress - iloiitor negro, but that all the Powers may not participate in it. . , .-' BULGAEIA'S THANKS.' . Belgrade, March 31. King Ferdinand of Bulgaria sent a message" to King Peter, of Servia thanking the Servians for their;aid 'in capturing Adrianople. ' t