VIVID STORY OF A GREAT BATTLE

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 319, 2 November 1915, Page 3

VIVID STORY OF A GREAT BATTLE

GERMANS KILLED BY THEIR OW.N GAS. RUSSIANS’ VICTORY SONG. The first graphic eye-witness narrative of the great battle on the banks of the Bystreza (the river on which Lublin stands) is given ti the world by La Stampa, of Turin, in a despatch from Signor Ferri Pisani, its special war correspondent in Poland, who was privileged to watch the successive phases of the fight from Russian pisitions on hills when the Austro-Germans were pounding their way from the south towards Lublin.

“While the roar of Mackensen’s guns far away on the horizon, heralded the steady oncome Of the Teuton hordes, our Russian Allies,” he writes, “were toiling in the fret and fury at the construction of defence works. The vast Krasnik Plain was deluged with convoys plied higr with cartridges, grenades, and cannon cement.” Describing the ensuing battle, the correspondent says: “The German advance continued unopposed, except for skirmishes with cavalry patrols, which fell back methodically. The task entrusted to the Cossacks during the days preceding the clash of infantry masses on the Bystreza was to lure on the adversary to the ground we had chosen.

“However, the enemy fortified himself every step of his advance till the German-Russian trenches were only 3000 yards apart. “The completion of our defensive lines was effected under the thunder of the enemy’s artillery and a heavy hail of grenades. The Germans had concentrated all their cannon in the centre along the Krasnik Road.

“For five hours without ceasing we engaged nr a fierce artillery duel. The infantry suffered no harm, for the opposing guns were bent solely on demolishing each other’s battsri ss. The background scenery of the battle was no longer flat, dry, monotonous plain, but the beautiful, refreshing woodlands by the banks of the Bystreza, where murmuring springs and rushing waters course beneath the willows, and where the big ponds reflect trees and the sky like untarnished mirrors.

“On our left, near the limpid, yet deep Bystreza, the Bavarian, columns, despite terrible losses inflicted by the Russian machine guns, were continually advancing and attempting to force a passage. Finally, they succeeded in throwing forward a section behind a hillock only about 150 yards away, which hid their troops from -nr fire , THE JUSTICE OF THE WINDS.

“While our batteries were busy regulating their fire, and we were wondering what the Germans could hope for from this latest move of theirs, we suddenly beheld a Russian officer leap from the first trench followed by a number of his men,. Were they rushing madly to death in the face cf he enemy’s shrapnel? “Then we saw them shielding their faces with their handis and falling forwards. Forthwith, we under,3t mi.

“The Germans were pouring forth their poison gas. The order was shouted to soak sponges and don protecting masks, but the asphyxiants used that day were new gases of hitherto unknown competition. Alas! masks were useless.

“Our left wing was thereupon driven to abandon its position. “In this critical condition we were wondering whether we should be constrained to retreat right back under Vilcola.z, when, lo and behold! the wind changed, and the enemy’s barbarous weapon recoiled upon them. Soon the poison was working its foul, suffocating and lung-lacterating effect cn the German ranks, ‘and the Austrian reinforcements, advancing on the right bank, were obliged to pull up and fall back. The Russian left wing re-formed, buoyed up with fresh courage, and bided its opportunity.

‘INor was this long coming. With a terrific bang one of our shells sent the enemy’s bridge bylng in pieces in mid-air; leaving the Bavarian forces isolated on the left bank.

“Then a cry from the Russian officers: ‘Wierot na zuyki!’ (‘Forward with the bayonet!’) Onward swept our companies, thrusting through the foe. The trenches once again in our possession, we found that many of our comrades who had taken fainting, from the gas fumes, had been mercilessly massacred by the Austrian invaders. “This ghastly carnage so lashed the Russians into fury that they pursued the Bavarians with the bayonet right into the Bystreza River bed. In vain did the enemy call for pity and yell ‘Camasade.’ ; “So determined was the onrush that the left bank was swept clean of the foe in the space of a few minutes. “As we came into array for the supreme dash against Mackensen’s hordes, what we now heard was no longer the raucous orders for bayonet onslaughts, but a grand, harmonious hymn soaring to Heaven in the Polish tongue. It was the self-same, chant that King Stanislaus’ soldiers sang fiOO years ago when they assailed the Teuton cavaliers at the battle of Grunvaid; ‘Pod Twaja Corone Uciekamy sie Swieta Bota Rodzicielko’ (‘O, Holy Motm-r of God, in Thy Hallowed keeping we confide ourselves). “As the last strains of that soul-stir-ring battle anthem died aawy, a spirit of superhuman force seemed to sway the Russian host.

“Right mightily they 'surged forward, defying the stinging fire of the mitrailleuses, springing and splashing across the Bystereza, till the very river itself seemed s"wallowed up by this immense human avalanche.

“Under the terrific charge that followed in the waning light we witnessed Mackensen’s men recoiling, and then beheld them routed and beaten hack.

“As the night’s curtain fell upon the scene we saw the Siberians lining the hilltops on the right bank and waving their rgey birettas, while the air rang with their triumphant ‘Hurrahs.’ ”