Russia.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 36, 18 January 1916, Page 5

Russia.

RUSSIA'S TASK. THE CALIGIAN CAMPAIGN. AUSTRIANS OVERWHELMED. United Press Association. London, January 17. The Daily Telegraph's Petrograd Correspondent says that the Russians opened a stupendous battle in Galicia at Christmas. The cannonade became a continuous roar, and after a day the enemy left the first trenches, where the Russian shells were bursting like a shower of hailstones. The Germans had five rows of wire entanglements in this area, and their defences on the Strypa were transformed into pits and hillocks. It was a scene of devastation, littered with splintered posts, tangled wire, and mangled bodies of Austrians. The intensity of the bombardment was without precedent. Many men were buried in the fountains of earth which were thrown up by the explosions, while more were deafened, and the nerves of others" were so shattered that the men are practically imbeciles.

When the guns had done their work the Russian infantry dashed forward, daring pit after pit. Many of the Austrian s frantically waved handkerchiefs as a signal of surrender. The Russian guns at Czernowitz pulverised the Austrian fortifications that had been built three weeks before. Among the prisoners were thirty Germans who had been supervising the Austrian machine-guns and entrenchment sections.

During the battle the roads t 0 Czernowitz were choked with trams of Austrian wounded, many of whom were left in the open streets for hours in bitter weather.

A rapid thaw is converting the countryside into a waste of mud, rendering the transport of artillery impossible and tlie movements of infantry difficult.

THE CAUCASIAN CAMPAICM RUSSIAN CAPTURES. Petrograd, January 17. A communique reports: In the Coucasus we captured, on Friday, 120 officers and four hundred men, together with six guns and much ammunition.