THE RUSSIAN RETREAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1915, Page 2

THE RUSSIAN RETREAT.

"SEETHING SEA OF FLAMES." EVENTS OF 1812 RECALLED. An Austrian officer who has taken part in all the leading phases of the latest fighting in Russia is quoted from Breno as describing tlfe Russian retreat as "a second IS 12." "It is," the officer declares,-"a masterpiece of terrifying and systematic destruction. The line of retreat is one seething sea of flames. For miles without end the roads are bordered by houses on fire. At one place over 200 chimneys mark the spot where stood one of the largest factories in the country; all the rest was bare and blackened.

'■fieneral Mischenko's-army is brought up by a detachment of Cossacks, whose orders are to destroy and burn everything behind tlieni. These orders are implacably carried out. When the Hungarians entered ICrylof the heat was such that tlujy had to give up any attempt to march through the town, and lost precious hours in having to go round it. It was the same at VladimirVolinski and at Verbo. "This sea of fire rolled on wave after wave across the entire plain of Kovel—nothing escaped it.' For days and days our men were unable to find shelter of any kind, so thoroughly had everything been razed to the ground. The roads themselves were in an indescribable state. How we ever got anything along them is a miracle. Conveys crawled there somehow, but hours and days after they were due. Often it was necesary to tell off fifty men simply to pull a single waggon out of the mud. Sometimes it was literally up to our necks. The railways were little better; luckily we got the Sokal to Volinski line running just in time, or irretrievable disaster would have overtaken us."