BATTLE OF PRASNYSH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 281, 6 May 1915, Page 6

BATTLE OF PRASNYSH.

RUSSIA DEFEATS TIIK PRUSSIANS. A NEW ZEALANDER'S ACCOUNT. London, March 5. The best account of the decisive victory of the Russians over the Prussians at Prasnysh is cabled by Mr. Harold Williams (late of New Zealand) to the Daily Chronicle, which paper lie represents in the Russian capital. The victory was crushing and complete.

"The Germans are thrown back to their frontier, leaving behind them over 10,000 prisoners and a great quantity of guns and stores." lie savs. "The Russians are in hot pursuit and inflicting heavy loss on the German rearguards. Whatever Von Hindenburg's general plan was in ordering the advance from East Prussia, this part of the plan—and the main part —has failed, and in failing has exposed a distinct deterioration in the German military quality. The object of the German commander in the. Mlawa zone was to press back the Russian left wing nearer the Vistula, and, delivering a crushing blow on the Russian right near Prasnys'h, to force the whole Russian army in this region on to the Vistula. GERMAN! ADVANCE CHECKED. "They did succeed in pressing the Russian right back to Plonsk and Raciaz —just north of the crucial point where, at the Fortress of Novo-Georgievsk, the Narcvt" joins the Vistula. 'But here their advance was eil'ectivo'y checked, and in tho meantime the rush from Chorzele with a strong force brought the German;; to the neighborhood of Prasnysli.

"■Host of Prasnysh runs the River Orzic, the course of which here is almost parallel to that of the Xarew. The Germans tlircw out along the Orzic a screen consisting of the 30th Division, which, curling to the south-east of Prasnysh, was to guard the operations of the main attuning force from interference from the direction of th.e Narew. Then their main force, having enveloped the town, attacked—from front and rear—the Russian infantry brigade that occupied positions in Prasnysh and in the villages immediately to the west. They drove back the Russians from this narrow front, ami enteral the town; but their screen on the Orzic was steadily giving way undei' the vigorous attacks of the Russian force that advanced from the Xarew. Finally, unable to maintain its hold on the river, the German Sfith Division retired . It was now that success began to incline to the Russian side.

"Russian reinforcements advanced to Prasnysh. from the south, and, after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, wrested the town from, the Germans This seemed to be the culminating point of the battle; but the Germans'made one final effort, and, hastily bringing up reinforcements, fought their way back into Prasnysli. This was on Friday night; but they were driven out ngain by a determined Russian attack twenty-four hours afterwards. Then came tlie collapse.

THE GALLANT RUSSIANS. '"Tlie Prussian retreat became general confused and disorderly. Regiments and transports were jumbled up along all the roads leading to the frontier; the Russian cavalry gave the enemy no peace, and the Rusian infantry, in' spite of its- having undergone long marches and four days' hard lighting, pressed on eagerly in pursuit.

"This brilliant victory shows two things—Firstly, that man for man tne German soldier is not superior to, but is in many respects inferior to, the Russian soldier; secondly, that German technique and German organising power no longer stand on their former high level. * "The whole German effort in the Prasnysh region shows signs of hasty improvisation. The prisoners captured belong to fifteen different .regiments,-show-ing that the attacking army—in contradiction to the hitherto inflexible German rule—was a scratch force hurriedly pieced together in pursuance of an immature plan.

"Then, in spite of the ostentatious display of sleighs an<l runners and other preparations for operations in the snow, their transport was badlv organised, and frequently broke down. " As a result of their reek-less plunge, the Germans have not only left 3000 dead in the town of Prasnysh alone, but have lost more .prisoners than in any previous single battle on the Russian front."