FORTIFYING MARCHES.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 May 1916, Page 6

FORTIFYING MARCHES.

GERMAXS IX PIXSK REGIOX. PREPARATIONS FOR DEFEXCE. A description of the German preparations for the defence of their line in luiSMft is given by an American correspondent who was permitted to visit the enemy's lines. Writing from Pinsk under date February 22, lie savs: Every mile of this front fa'irl'v bristles with deadly machine-guns, which cover every inch of terrain. Though the correspondent iKfd no means of ascertaining ho'.v many men defend tin- Pinsk seetor. the multitude of rapid-firin<» nins gives tlie impression that even a" small number of men should be able to hold the line indefinitely. In addition to the guns, millions of running feet of barbed wire entanglements 'transform each village and house into a fortress SWAMPS REMAIX UNFROZEN. The swan,lK, from two to ten mile wide, in the region of Pinsk, have r.o once been frozen over entirely duriii" the winter. In fast, the mild'weather with the resultant open swamp land between the German and Russian lines has made extraordinary fortification in; necessary thus far. li'robablv nowhere en any front is tin; term "stationan warfare" more applicable than in the Pinsk district, where lonely oiitimH-i blockhouses erected 011 tiny islands ii, the swamp lands and roving patrols got "the only real touch of lighting. The German lines at Pinsk protrm"' farthest east of anv alomr the wliiiie front from tiie Baltic to Galicia. They project in a semi-ovai form. The greaiest danger to the forces at Pinsk, titerfore, is a flanking movement from tie north—the swamps all'ord protccti. 1 from the south. In consequence tlinorthern lines have been made extreiiKly strong. Xot only is every yard ci this front fenced in with entanglement 100 to l'2oft wide, but there are suj. ' Porting points at very short intervals' which are veritable fortresses in themselves They are surrounded by starshaped barricades of wire. Each of these supporting points i> subdivided into barricaded sections, with bomb-proof shelters, and with machineguns to fire along both sides of ene'n point of the stars. As a filial precau- j tion, each supporting point is surround- j ed by a single wire, stretched knee-hish I on which hang ten pairs of empty hot- ] ties, which clink the alarm the moment : the wire is touched by any person who ! approaches. DISMOUNTED CAVAT.PvY AS DEFEXDERS. A novel feature of the German defence in this section is that the troops arc composed almost entirely of crack cavalry regiments, numbering nobles among their officers. A short time ago they would have scofl'ed at the idea of being dismounted, but now they live cheerfully in part or wholly underground. riding their horses only for sport in improvised hippodromes. The lot of the troops on this northern flank of the front, however, is happier than that of those east and south o f Pinsk, for they have been able to entrench themselves in the dunes bordering the swamps, while in the other section- it has been necessary to con- ' .struct a large part of the defences almost in the water itself, or at the best on marshy land. A MACHIX.E.GUX FRONT. The waterfront line of Pinsk itself, past which the River Pin a Hows, more than any other, creates the impression of being a "machine-gun front/' Trenches have been dug where the 1111puved sidewalks used to be. There is scarcely a house that has not been fortified with sandbags and earth against Russian attack. Xear the city lies, out in the swamp, a small island, which is the nearest point to the Russians. The Germans have built a staging to the island and have fortified the island itself. On it they have installed troops commanded by the ruler of a Gorman State, who lives unostentatiously in a dilapidated villa. The whole German side of the swamp, to a depth from half a mile to a mile, ■ is criss-crossed with staging running to e\cry hummock of solid land large enough to hold a blockhouse, machineguns and men.