Russia

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1914, Page 5

Russia

TROOP TRAINS COLLIDE.

400 KILLED : : 500 INJURED.

OFFICIALS ARRESTED.

[United Press Association.] (Received 8.35 a.m.) Petrograd, December 27

A crowded troop train from Prussia collided with a Kalitz train which was returning with wounded officers. Both trains were travelling at full speed, and twenty carriages were wrecked, 400 of the occupants being killed and 500 injured. The points had heen changed at tho last moment. The pointsman, stationmaster, and other officials have heen arrested for treason. IMPERFECTLY-BURIED GERMAN DEAD. (Received 8.35 a.m.) Petrograd, December 27. It transpires that 10,000 German corpses were found hardly covered with earth after the fighting at Ziechanow as cabled on the 14th ult. FIGHTING ON THE BZURA.

London, December 25,

The Daily Chronicle's Warsaw correspondent says the hattle of Bzura is raging unceasingly. It recalls the Yser in its terrible slaughter. The Russians and Germans are strongly entrenched on opposite sides of the river.

The Germans make incessant attacks in close formation, seeking to crush the Russians by sheer weight of numbers. So far the German charges have always been driven back with heavy loss. The Russians continue their dashing coun-ter-;iU;icks, an outstanding example [being one by the Siberians at Sochaj'jsew, on Sunday, when the Germans ibandoned five machine guns and two aeroplanes. The scene of the fighting was a flat expanse of damp .fields. There was no snow, but there was a bleak wind, and much water in the trenches.

The authorities at Petrograd attach much importance to the Russians making a serious breach in the German line on the Pilitza. London, December 26.

The Daily Chronicle's "Warsaw correspondent gives further details of the fighting on the Bzura. The Germans, on the 19th, made desperate night attempts to establish a footing on the eastern bank. .Though searchlights were playing, and the fire from the Russian trenches mowed down lines of the enemy's ranks, the Germans dashed into the icy, bullet-whipped water, which reached to their armpits. Only once did they reach the eastern bank. The rest of the attackers suffered immense losses. Sometimes a whole battalion was blotted out in a quarter of an hour. General Madritzoff, who made his reputation in the Japanese war, commanded the Russians in

this region. The fighting reached its climax on - the 20fch, when a second German attack succeeded in dragging several mitrailleuses into position and enfilading the trenches of the First Siberians, and captured the trenches. Two hours later the Siberians were reinforced, re-took the trenches, and drove the Germans into the river. They fought hand to hand in the water, each, side receiving reinforcements. The river, which was fifty yards wide, was literally dammed with corpses, and struggling wounded were drowned, entangled among the dead. Reuter's Petrograd correspondent reports that the Siberians, on the 19th, almost wiped out seven battalions of

the Wurtemburgers, who were attempting to cross where the Rawka 'enters Bzura. The Germans left 1200 dead on the field after the Siberians' bayonet attack on the 21st.

Spoils captured at Mlava include many waggons of Christmas presents for the Germans.

GENERAL.

Petrograd, December 25. The Government confiscated the, Warsaw gasworks belonging to a German Company. They found 900,000 roubles in the safe, evidently stored up for transmission to Germany.

A. bomb exploded outside the British Legation, and wrecked the neighbouring shops, killing the owner. The motive is unknown.