COSSACK DASH

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 30 December 1916, Page 2

COSSACK DASH

BRILLIANT NEW TACTICS. Remarkable new battle tactics, never before seen in the -history of warfare, are largely responsible for the great scored by the Russians this summer. Austrian officers here agree (writes the New York World correspondent with the Austrian Army). In these manoeuvres General Brussiloff's cavalry, the famous Cossacks from the Don and other parts of the Czar's far-flung Empire, figure prominently. ;

Brussiloff, now in charge of the whole southern half of the Russian front, from the Pripet inarsfres to the Black Sea, is himself a cavalry commander par excellence. He was in charge of a cavalry division at the beginning of the war, and had it not been for the great struggle, which brought out his remarkable ability as a generalissimo, he probably would be to-day simply an expert horseman, unknown cutside military circles. It is easy to see B"russiloff*s hand in the new Russian tatctics, say the Teuton staff officers. CREDIT TO OTHERS.

But a large share of credit also goes to Lieutenant-General Count Keller, the cavalry chief of the army of General Letchitsky, whose troops formed the southern wing of the Brussiloff army group until Roumania entered the war. Austrian and German officers do not withhold praise and admiration for their foe's "come back" after the terrible defeats sustained at the hands of von Mackensen and von Hindenburg last summer.

It is from these officers, who directed the Teutons as they were forced to fall back time and again before the hammer blows cf Brussiloff. that the following account of the Russian tactics which have won a large share of Volhynia, Galicia, and the Bukowina, is drawn.

When a Russian attack begins today the Muscovite infantry advances, but suddenly halts about 3500 yards from the hostile trenches and starts to dig in furiously. MAD COSSACK DASH.

While the Austro-German artillery is endeavouring to get the range of the infantry, clouds of Cossacks appear. They dash over the quicklydug trenches in a wild gallop. It looks as if these masses of wild horsemen were about to override the positions attacked. In some cases, indeed, the Cossacks have been known in their impetuous sweep to ride up to the wire entanglements, where they are mowed down by machinegun fire. But their orders are to dismount about 1000 yards from the trenches which are to be taken.

With lightning-like rapidity the Russian cavalrymen jump from their horses and throw themselves to the ground. Their animals have been carefully trained to lie down too. With their bodies in a row, the horses serve as living barricades for the riders.

While the Cossacks open a hot carbine fire from behind their horses, the infantry draws up. At the same time the reserves are set in motion, in eight, ten, twelve, and even successive waves. LOSSES ARE HEAVY. The losses of the brave Cossacks are invariably very heavy, because they have to hold out in the firing line until the infantry columns come up and dash through the wire entanglements, which have in the meantime been shattered by the drum fire of the Russian artillery. Often the Cossacks are not able to stand the hail of shrapnel to which they are exposed, but in these cases they never retreat. Jumping on their hairy, rough-look-ing little horses, they again gallop ahead, take the torn entanglements like hurdles and break into the Austrian trenches, where they generally are killed or made prisoners.