Eastern News

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 79, 7 April 1915, Page 5

Eastern News

THE ENEMY IN RETREAT. STREAMING BACK ON TO HUNGARY’S PLAINS. United Press Association. (Received 9 a.m.) Rome, April 6. The Tribuna publishes a telegram from Vienna stating that a sanguinary engagement has been prr'’''''ding at Sanok since Sunday, and that the whole of the Austro-Germans from Dukla Pass to Eperjes are retreating. They lost 15,000 on Sunday. CARPATHIANS CAMPAIGN. RUSSIANS’ DESPERATE FIGHT AGAINST NATURE. BADLY-SHATTERED AUSTRIAN CAUSE. (Received 8.0 a.m.) Times and Stdnet Sun Service. Loudon, April 6. The Times’ correspondent, describing the operations in the Carpathians, says.: The passes are naturally exceptionally strong, but have been strengthened by every method known to military science. In many places three or four lines of trenches on the crest of the hills are so steep that they are nearly unclimable, and the slopes are covered with entanglements which, being painted white, are invisible against the snow. In spite of the obstacles, the Russians are slowly but surely capturing the desperate positions in face of really powerful Austro-German forces. Owing to the altitude and the heavy snow, it is terribly cold. It is stated on absolutely reliable authority that the Austrians are being put to their last strength in holding these lines. When the defence collapses, there can be no force sufficiently strong which can be marshalled in the south to check the Russian advance on the Hungarian Plains.

The last batches of Austrians arriving are poorly clothed, and have had little training, and they surrender in huge blocks on the smallest provocation. The officers are mostly untrained lads incapable of licking into shape the almost raw recruits under their charge. The condition of the trenches is frightful, untold thousands having been frozen or having died through lack of suitable clothing and exposure., The failure to advance has greatly damped the Austrian ardour. The news of the fall of Przemysl was greeted with cheers from many who exclaimed that the war would soon be at an end, and that they would be able to go home. The fall of the fortress administered a tremendous moral blow to the already badly-shattered Austrian cause. There is .a widespread opinion that the Austrians would gladly make independent peace, but fears it would be instantly followed by a German invasion of Austria. .Many consider that if the Germans once receive an effective defeat, their Austrian allies will abandon further efforts in an active campaign. RUSSIANS FORCING USZOK PASS. Venice, April 0. Seven divisions of Russians have arrived in the n icinity of I’szok Pass from Przemysl. Przemysl virtually commands the

three passes known as the Dukla, Lupkow, and Uszok Passes. The most important of these passes from a military point of view is the Dukla Pass, though no railway runs through it. Whoever holds this pass holds the easiest road to Budapest, the chief city of Hungary. GERMAN SUPPORT FOR THE AUSTRIANS. London, April 6. The military correspondent of the Times estimates that seven German, army corps are directly supporting the Austrians, indicating the German fear that the Austrian defence is breaking down. FIERCE WORK IN THE CARPATHIANS. Petrograd, April 5. Official: Fierce artillery and bayonet fighting is reported north of Bartfeld. We made prisoners twenty officers, and 1200 men. We also captured twenty-five officers, two thousands men, and three guns on the front between Meyola, Bovey, and the Uszok Pass. Desperate fighting occured on Saturday and Sunday about the village of Okna, north of Czernowitz. We captured a thousand men left behind by the Austrians.

A GERMAN “IDOL.” Von Hindenburg, or, to give Id rn his full name and title, Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, Generaloberst, Commander-in-Chiei of the German forces in East Prussia, is one of the most popular military leaders the nation has ever known (writes Mr Norman Draper in an Ame-oan paper). He is the idol of all Germany. And, indeed,' why should he not be? He was at the battle of Koniggratz, and took part in the battles of Gravelotte and Sedan, as well as the siege of Paris, and the heroic storming of Lo Bourget. It was during this last-nam-ed action .that he won the Iron Cjoss His foresight with regard to the region where he recently ndieted a great defeat on the Russians was most remarkable.

Almost on tlie boundary between Russia and Prussia there He the Jlazuriau Lakes, the largest being about the size of Lake George. I'or years these lakes had been the subject of debates among the military men of Germany. The younger generation of olneers contended that it would be an impossibility to defend them should the Russians ever try to cross the border. Von Hindenburg, at the head of the older generation of military men, said that not only could the lakes be defended, but that they were of immense strategical importance, as they would prove a barrier to the Russians.

“These lakes,” he said, “are of more military value to Germany than a wall 200 ft. high.” And to make sure that the officers and men under him became familiar with the lakes and the region surrounding them he would lead them through the water and the marshes adjacent for days at a time. In the two years that preceded this war von Hindenburg’s sole activity consisted in working on the problem for the defence of the border at these lakes.

In the Reichstag one day it was proposed that the lakes hey. filled up and the reclaimed ground over to farming. Von Hindenbnrg heard of the proposition, and ,being out of the capital, be caught the first train he could for Berlin. With his bundle of maps be hastened to the Kaiser. He talked lakes strategy and defence for a solid half-hour. Then the Kaiser stopped him. “I 1 or heaven s sake, keen your lakes!” said he to von Hindenbnrg: “1 promise yon they shall not be filled in.”