Russian Campaign

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 11 February 1915, Page 5

Russian Campaign

APPALLING CARNAGE. TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GERMANS SLAIN. DESPERATE FIGHTING. MELEE WITII BROKEN RAILS. MASSES OF DEAD. LONG BOUTS WITII BAYONET. Received 11, 12.40 a.m. Petrograd, February 10. Throwing strategy to the winds. General llindenberg's massed attacks on ltoura resulted in appalling carnage. In the first German onset from Skiernicviez, the enemy swarmed against the trenches along the railway, whole companies being annihilated.

In h dash through the open, and six hours' hand to hand lighting at Grabma in a heavy snowstorm, whole battalions frequently charged one another simultaneously, when the Russians encountered the new German ruse, the socalled lightning ambush." A number "i men feigned death, and then fired at the liaeks of the Russians. Huge masses of dead lay between the trenches.

At first the Germans charged and then the Silurians drove them back. Each charge added tlvousapds of vie-

ihe scene at the. wayside station of Quinary was terrible. The opposing forces used fragments of railway metal which had been shattered by a Russian niino, and clubbed each other fiercely

Tiic enemy at Adnally wcro driven bauk in disorder.

I In the second phase of th e hattlo .it Gumina, six miles northward, both skies reached a stalemate, when the Germans, utilising the railway, motor lorries, ami vehicles of all kinds, rushed up an army corps and hurled against the Russian trenches. Hall the. assailants were shattered by the terrible Russian fire. Nevertheless, tliey came oil, regiment after regiment, shouting, "On to Warsaw.-"'

Some got fifty yards, hut after showing themselves none got beyond a hundred yards. At one point the Germans advanced twenty deep, but only a hundred out of a whole battalion survived, and these were blown to pieces later by a Russian mine.

It is estimated that 11,000 were killed at Gmnina in two days. Ollicial.—Tile Germans began operations in force in the Las Behircn region, hast. Prussia. AYe repulsed and exterminated almost whole battalions of Germans, who lost tens of thousands in six days in tne attacks on Borjimoff, Gumina, and Voliashidlowski, Our offensive in the Luyskowpas region continues. Sixty-nine German officers, 5200 soldiers, and eighteen machine guj'.s crossing country in the Tukolka pass, made twenty-two violent attacks on our positions on the Kozismaka heights. They advanced in mass formation, supported by fierce artillery Tire, Buffering great losses all day. Towards evening the enemy were greatly reinforced "and captured our high position, being only dislodged after a desperate fight, their strength being cxnausted by our counter attack, which was accompanied by unprecedently long bayonet fighting. The mountain slopes were littered with dead Germans.

RECOUPING THE REVENUE. COMPENSATING . FOR LOSS OF LIQUOR TAXES. KAISER'S MESSAGE TO AUSTRIA UNPOPULAR. Petrograd, February 9. The Duma committer of ways and means recommended the Government to declare a monopoly of tea, tobacco, oil. matches, and insurances of all kinds, such commodities to form a basis f or the revenue previously derived from the State monopoly of vodka. The passage of the necessary legislation is virtually assured.

London, February 9. An Italian report states that the Aus-tro-Hungarian Cabinet, found the results of Count Burian's visit to the Kaiser unsatisfactory, but Ministers are disinclined to give certain territorial concessions to Italy and Roumania as the price of their continued neutrality.

FIGHTING IN SNOWSTORMS. A FIERCE CONFLICT. RUSSIANS HOLD THEIR LIMES. Received 10j. 0 p.m. London, February 10. Martin Donolme, reporting from Bukovina, says that the Austro-Gennan attack at Duela, Askid and Beskid was fierce and continuous, the suffering on liotli sides being intensified by the extreme cold. The last day's battle raged in a blinding snowstorm, a hand to hand conflict ensuing, but the Russians' bayonet work was superior to that of (lie enemy, who, though numerically superior, jailed to penetrate the Russian lines. , : i*. i ! '