The Taking of Adrlanople

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 266, 2 April 1913, Page 5

The Taking of Adrlanople

• A* DECISIVE ACTION. BULGARIANS' RESOURCE. AN IRRESISTIBLE BOMBARDMENT. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 2, 12.45 a.m. ■ | London, April 1. Correspondents entering Adrianople describe as decisive the storming of the «x forts regarded as the most formidable. They crowned a great ridge three miles east of Adrianople. Thence sixty guns, had thundered for months. General "Svanoff, during the armistice, destroyed the vulnerable point at the. I

north-east, where Aivastabia formed the * apex, which could be bombarded from the north and east. Eighty siege guns were secretly placed in position, cases of shells being conveyed at night time to the appointed positions and hidden behind the reserve slopes on the distant heights. Each waggon load across the pathless fields consisted of six rounds for the heavy guns, yet fifty thousand rounds were thus patiently amassed for the casemates and big batteries. A general attack was ordered while General Ivanoff gathered 25,000 of a ■torming patty' behind the concealed bat-, teries. At the fiTst glimpse of dawn the Bulgarians bounded to their feet uttering ■with superhuman yells "To the bayonet!" and hurling themselves forward. They crossed three wire entanglements and thick spiderwebs. When they reached the last barrier the Turks fled without resisting the stormers, who captured the redoubts and trenches for a mile in front of Aviastabia. Menwhile.the eighty cannon threw an avalanche of projectiles, making it impossible for the forts on Aivastabia lo reply. The walls crumbled. DUMMY FORTIFICATIONS. TURKISH COURAGE KEPT UP BY FALSE'REPORTS. THE GARRISON WELL FED. Received 2, 12.45 a.m. Adrianople, April 1. Upon a front of two or three miles the fire of 160 guns was concentrated. Each shell contained twenty pounds of melinite, and they fell in flights of 15 to 20 at a time. « The bomoarded heights were invisible In the smoke and-dust raised by a tempest of thirty thousand Shells. The forts were silenced at 5 o'clock • on, Tuesday evening, but the bombardment continued all night, wliile the infantry crept up to Aivastabia, which was only capable of being stormed on ■the south-east. Its capture rendered the whole eastern position untenable. An examination shows that Aivastabia is merely brickwork. The much-vaunted fortresses of Adrianople are miserable, primitive works; the casemates are of 'brick, with a slight 'surface of earth, ■the gun emplacements "being hollowed .g<jU. There is not a cement wall, no protecting works, fosses, scarps or coun-ter-scarps, and the guns are fairly old; hence the modern fortifications of Adrianople are another Turkish myth. There was an insufficiency ot'big guns, and the Turks moved them to the poiints that were attacked, thus securing superiority of gun lire. General Ivanoff's general assault stopped the trick. The inhabitants were found to be in perfect health, and the troops were well j fed. Chufcri Pasha maintained the men's; courage with daily bulletins of victories j at the chief points in the Balkans, and i with reports of war "between the Greeks | and Bulgarians, and of a general Turkish advance. THE SERVIANS THANKED. Belgrade, March 31. King Ferdinand has sent a message to King Peter thanking the Servians for their aid at Adrianople. A NAVAL DEMONSTRATION. London, March 31. Renter's correspondent states that the Ambassadors' Conference approved of a naval demonstration against Montenegro, but all the Powers may not participate. FIGHTING AT SCUTARI. Cettinje, March 31. The Turks made a sortie on the southern side of Tarabosch, where a desperate engagement is in progress.