BATTLE FRONT IN SOUTH POLAND

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2282, 16 October 1914, Page 5

BATTLE FRONT IN SOUTH POLAND

RUSSIANS FACE GERMAN ARMY ■ ENEMY'S LEFT REPULSED WEST'OF WARSAW Potrogracl, October 14. j Official. —A battle commenced in Southern Poland on Sunday on the left bank of the Vistula, along the roads leading.to Ivangorod and Warsaw, the Russian main force holding tho lino between Sandomierz, near the Austrian frontier, and Ivangorod against one and a half million Germans, including the Landsturm and the Landwehr brigades, in addition to 270,000 Austrians. Every Austrian division, was linked up with a German corps, whereby it was hoped to give it the necessary stiffening. Tho Gorman lino extends to Jaroslaw, north of Przomysl, but is only a tentative advance into Galicia, the chiof strength being in southern Poland, though German reports claim forty thousand Russian casualties near Przcmysl. The Austro-Gorman troops aro trying to effect a double envelopment_ of the Russians in Galicia and in Lublin. Tho German left was repulsed with heavy losses in a aeries of sangii skirmishes at Skierniewice, forty miles soutii-west of Warsaw. ' * ' In tho East Prussian fighting a recent engagement at Ratchka was a hand-to-hand fight between the Cossacks of the Don and tho Germans. The former swam a river.and got behind the Germans, and were thus enabled to capture three thousand prisoners, c<. ploto batteries, and eight armoured motors. ' . ' Tho fighting at Augustow was conducted in a dense fog. The Germans on several, occasions advanced to tho very muzzles of the Russian guns. During tho fighting wolves wero continually hovering round, pouncing on the dead and wounded. Stretcher-bearers frequently fired at the wolves. _ An incident on tho battlefield at Augustow shows Germans at their best and worst. Some Russians found a Russian officer with his face covered with a cloth. On his breast was a gold watch, and a rioto saying: "An honoured enemy; We have taken only his notebook, containing military . information.. Unfortunately, wo aro unnblo 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. Ivangorod is on' tho Vistula, halfway between Warsaw and ffio "Austrian frontier. _ Sandomierz is on the Russian side of the Vistula wher6 it forms the boundary between Russia and Austria-Hungary. It is about 70 miles south of Ivangorod. . ' REPORTED EVACUATION OF LEMBERG. (Rec. Octobor 15, 9.15 p.m.)" . • '■ . ■ The Hague, October 14. Tho Austrian Legation here states that the Russians evacuated Lemberg, the capital of Galicia, after a fierce fight. A ZEPPELIN CAPTURED AT WARSAW. (Rec. October 15, 10.40 p.m.) petrograd, Octobor 14. ' Cossacks brought down a Zoppolia near Warsaw, and cafilurod it intact,

ARMIES RANGED ON LONG FRONT. (Reo. October IC, 0.65 a.m.) Petrograd, October 15. Grand Duke Nicolas, Commander-in-Chiof of the llussian Army, announces that the battlefront of the main Russian and German forces extends from Przemysl to Warsaw with the Vistula and the San dividing the two lines. Elsewhere it is stated that the Russian Right rests on the fortress Noyoe Georgiewslc, 20 miles north-west of Warsaw. Already aeroplanes are dropping bombs on Warsaw, and cannon can bo heard at Chitty. There ate, indications that Germany has four armies: the first came from the fortress of Thorn, under General von Gnesen; the second under General von Tindenbcrg was concentrated at Kalisx oil the- frontier oppoeito Warsaw, and is now on tJio front Mszeonow-Sldeniiewice-Grojoc, south-west of Warsaw. The'third German army, under the King of Bavaria, is opera tins from Kielee. "While an Austro-German army, based on Cracow is under the German General von Dankl and lias advanced along the Vistula to Opatow and Sandomierz, near the Galician frontier. Tho forward German movement began on September 27 and the strategic deployment concluded on October 3. when the Germans occupied it front, Kiolce —Piotrkow —Lodz, witli the Thorn Army at Flock covering tho Left Wins. 1 The Thorn Army apparently contemplates an' enveloping movement on tho right bank of tho Vistula despite tho fact that tho marshy banks of the Bug and Narew B.ivers are serious obstacles to the attempt. The Russian plan bears a general resemblance to General Joflre'e, inasmuch as it compels tho Germane to fight at a distance from their own highly developed network of railways which with the efficiency of motor transport would increase the enemy's mobility to a degree equivalent to a great multiplication of their forces.