Eastern News

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 34, 11 February 1915, Page 5

Eastern News

THE LIGHTNING AMBUSH. HINDENBERC’S SOLDIERS ADOPT NEW RUSE. APPALLING CARNAGE AT BZURA ♦United Press Association. Petrograd, February 10. Throwing strategy to the winds, General Hindenberg’s massed attacks on Bzura resulted in appalling carnage.

In the first German onset from Skiernievicz, the enemy swarmed against the trenches along the railway, whole companies being annihilated. In u dash through the open, and six hours’ hand to hand fighting at Grabina in a heavy snowstorm, whole battalions frequently charged one another simultaneously,' when the Russians encountered the new German’'ruse, the so-called “lightning ambush.” A number of men feigned death, and then fired at the backs of the Russians. , Huge masses of dead lay between the trenches. At first the Germans charged and then the Siberians drove them back. Each charge added thousands of victims. The scene at the ’ wayside station of Badnary was terrible. The opposing forces used fragments of railway metal which had been shattered by a Russian mine, and clubbed each other fiercely. The enemy at Adnally were driven back in disorder. TO WARSAW!’’

In the second phase of the battle at Gumina, six miles northward, both sides reached a stalemate, when the Germans, utilising the railway, motor lorries, and vehicles of all kinds, rushed up an army corps and hurled against the Russian trenches. Half the assailants were shattered by the terrible Russian fire. Nevertheless, they came on, regiment after regiment, shouting, “On to Warsaw.” Some got fifty yards, but after showing themselves none got beyond a hundred yards. At one point the Germans advanced twenty deep, but only a hundred out of a whole battalion survived, and these were blown to pieces later by a Russian mine.

It is estimated that 11,000 were killed at Gumina in two days.

GERMANS LITERALLY SLAUCHT-

ERED.

Official: The Germans began operations in force in the Las Behiren region, East Prussia. We repulsed and exterminated almost whole battalions of Germans, who lost tens of thousands in six days in the attacks on Borjimoff, Gumina,. and Voliashidlowski. Our offensive in the Luyshowpas region continues. Sixty-nine German officers, 5200 soldiers, and eighteen machine guns crossing country in the Tukolka pass, made twenty-two violent attacks on our positions on tile Kozismaka heights. They advanced in mass formation, supported by fierce artillery fire, suffering great losses all day. Towards evening the enemy were greatly reinforced and captured our high position, being only dislodged after a desperate light, their strength being exhausted b'y our counter attack, which was accompanied by unprecedently long bayonet fighting. The mountain slopes were littered with dead Germans. CORROBORATION OF RUSSIAN SUCCESS, London, February 10. Mr Martin Donohue, correspondent for the Daily Chronicle, reporting from Bukovina, says that the AustroGerman attack at Dukla, Askid and Beskid was fierce and continuous, the suffering on both sides being intensified by the extreme cold. The last day’s [battle raged in a blinding snowstorm, (a hand to hand conflict ensuing, but [the Russians’ bayonet work was suIperior to that of the enemy, who, though numerically superior, failed to penetrate the Russian lines. RUSSIANS HOLDING THEIR OWN. ! (Received 9.25 a.m.) 1 London, February 10. The Morning Post’s Petrograd correspondent states that the Russians are firmly holding their own in East Prussia, and are advancing between Chorshele and Johannesburg front and on the lower reaches of the Vistula. The Russian advance on the left of the Vistula at the confluence of the Bzura, continues. The Germans content themselves with artillery fire, since their frantic attacks at Borjimoff were checked.