THE DREADED MARSHES OF PINSK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2686, 4 February 1916, Page 6

THE DREADED MARSHES OF PINSK

THE GRAVE. OF MANY TEUTONS. A Berlin newspaper recently described tlie privations endured by the-German armies on the Kussian front, special attention boiug devoted to the hauisliija of the troops in the Pinsk marshes, it is surmised that this article is an advance notice to the public to preparo for news of enormous losses of ineu in that "accursed" region, as the paper terms it, where the treacherous ground sometimes swallows up whole columns of guns and munition wagons, with men and horses. "Squads of our soldiers," says the German newspapej-, "who stray from' the beaten trails, will often find themselves all of a sudden engulfed in a quagmire, where they must inevitably perish, unless somo other contingent is in the neighbourhood and can bo summoned to their assistance. The forests and bogs Pinsk resound with moans and cries of distress. The fastnesses of .the wood and the lichen covered marshes aro' haunted by the spirits of German soldiers, who have met a miserable death there. "Considerable forces have been employed in this unfortunate Pinsk campaign. The difficulties of the territory itself have been further aggravated by the actively hostile attitude of the inhabitants in tho wild region. Death is hiding behind every tree and shrub, and it has been found useless to try to patrol the district in the ordinary way. Entire platoons and cavalry troops are detailed for duties which in a less primeval region could bo attended to by individual soldiers. The peasant population is offering tho invaders a stubborn resistance, and their sharpshooters aro picking off any German soldiers who may be caught away from their command. The marshlands are practically dotted with £5o bodies of such victims of the vindietiveness of tho natives. In many a case when the corpse of a German is found, half immcrsod in some quagmire, an examination is likely, to disclose that a bullet from some hidden enemy lias helped to dispatch him from his misery. "Nature has made the Pinsk territory a stronger defence work than any forts could have effected. Its occupation by our troops is an adventurous undertaking, which should rather bo put off until the ground has frozen sufficiently to provide at least some measure of safety to tie invading army."