America's War for Humanity Part 31

Russian cavalry scouted far to the west and south, but otherwise the army-undertook no offensive operations in the days following a battle at Tannenberg.

The German forces, according to the German official account, were composed of the Second, Third, Fourth and Twentieth corps, two reserve divisions and five cavalry divisions.

General von Hindenburg, the German commander, meanwhile was a.s.sembling every available man, depriving the fortresses of their garrisons and calling in all but a bare remnant of the force protecting the southern frontier in the vicinity of Soldau, adding them to reinforcements received from the west.

General von Hindenburg again resorted to the customary German flanking movement, and since the German right, protected by the forest and marshes, seemed too strong, he adopted the daring strategy of sending the flanking force to the lake region to the south, the same character of movement by which the Russian Narew army had been defeated on August 28, in the vicinity of Ortelsburg, and which in case of failure might have been equally as disastrous for the Germans.

STRATEGY IS SUCCESSFUL

The strategy, however, succeeded, although General Rennenkampf offered a desperate resistance to the frontal attacks. After three days' fighting the Russians were forced back slightly in the center. When the flank movement of the Germans was discovered already threatening the flank, a counter-movement was launched with a new army collected at Lyck, including the Twenty-second corps and parts of the Third Siberian corps, just arriving from Irkutsk, and the balance of the defeated army. The counter-attacks failed and on September 10 the Russians began to fall back on their main position, retreating in good order and well covered.

The Russian artillery on the right wing appears to have made a good retreat owing to a timely start, while the left wing was hard pressed by the enveloping German infantry. From this wing the Russians retreated across the border in two columns, while the main body went northward and the others in an easterly direction, pursued by the Germans, who advanced far from the border.

The German government appointed Count von Merveldt as governor of the Russian province of Suwalki and other points occupied by them.

The University of Koenigsberg on September 18 conferred upon General von Hindenburg honorary doctors' degrees from all four of the departments of philosophy, theology, law and medicine, in recognition of his success against the Russian invader.

AUSTRIA STRUGGLING FOR EXISTENCE

In Galicia, however, Russian successes continued. The important fortress of Mikolajoff, 25 miles south of Lemberg, was captured and this cleared away every Austrian stronghold east of Przemysl, which was then invested by the Russians.

Austria was now struggling for her very existence as a monarchy.

Following the crushing defeats administered to the Austrian troops and with the Czar's forces sweeping Galicia, Vienna was hurriedly fortified.

All reports indicated that the large Austrian force, nearly 1,000, men in all, opposing the main Russian invasion had proved ineffective.

Help from Germany did not arrive in time. Official dispatches reported the main Austrian army retreating, pursued and hara.s.sed by the Russians.

The other important Austrian army was surrounded near Lublin.

While the Muscovite host went smashing through Galicia, chasing the Austrian army before it, the Russian staff belittled the retreat from East Prussia, saying that the Russian army was merely falling back on a new defensive position. The German artillery had been getting in its deadly work and the pressure on Koenigsberg was soon to be relieved.

There were many reports at this time of a popular demand in Austria that an end be made to the struggle. Peace talk was a marked feature of the sixth week of the war, but there were no definite results in any part of the immense theater of war.

The third week of September found the Germans, greatly reinforced, making a strong resistance to Russian progress, with the aid of the heavy German artillery. The shattered Austrian armies, under Generals von Auffenberg and Dankl, were making desperate endeavors to concentrate in the vicinity of Rawaruska, but were apparently surrounded by the Russians, who continued to capture Austrian prisoners by the thousand.

Fears were entertained for Cracow, one of the strongest fortresses in Austria, if not in Europe, which seemed likely soon to fall into the hands of Russia.

It was stated in Rome, and said to be admitted in Vienna, that the Archduke Frederick, commanding the Austrian forces in Galicia, had lost 120,000 men, or one-fourth of his entire army. German troops were reported marching south toward Poland to a.s.sist the Austrians.

The Russian successes in Galicia gave them command of the Galician oil-fields, upon which Germany largely depended for her supply of gasoline, which is a prime necessary in modern war.

RUSSIANS AT PRZEMYSL

On September 21 the Russians began the bombardment of Przemysl, having previously occupied Grodek and Mosciska, west of Lemberg. The shattered second Austrian army was evidently incapable of staying the Russian advance, and took refuge in Przemysl. A part of this Galician stronghold was soon captured by the Russians, forcing the Austrians to take refuge in the eastern forts, where the entire garrison was concentrated at the end of September, preparing to make a final resistance. The situation of the garrison was critical, as it was entirely surrounded by the enemy.

On September 21 also the Russian troops took by storm the fortifications of Jaroslav, on the river San, and captured many guns.

The German offensive from East Prussia was apparently halted October by the almost impa.s.sable condition of the Russian roads in the north.

Germany was said to have at this time thirty army corps of the line and the first reserve prepared to operate against Russia and to resist the Russian advance upon Cracow.

The German main defenses against Russia extended in a general line from Koenigsberg to Danzig, thence south along the Vistula to the great fortress of Thorn. From there the fortified line swung to the southwest to Posen, thence south to Breslau, the main fortress along the Oder, and from there to Cracow.

Early in October the Russian invasion of Hungary began. The Russian armies continued to sweep through Galicia and that province was reported clear of Austrian troops. The German successes claimed against the Czar farther north included victories at Krasnik and Zamoso, in Russian Poland; Insterburg and Tannenburg, in East Prussia.

ESTIMATE OF AUSTRIAN LOSSES

A Russian estimate places the Austrian losses in Galicia at 300, in killed, wounded and prisoners, or nearly one-third of their total forces. They also lost, it was claimed at Petrograd, 1,000 guns, more than two-thirds of their available artillery.

The Russian newspaper correspondents described horrible scenes on the battlefields abandoned by the Austro-German forces in Galicia.

"Streams," said one eyewitness, "were choked full with slain men, trodden down in the headlong flight till the waters were dammed and overflowing the banks. Piles of dead are awaiting burial or burning.

Hundreds of acres are sown with bodies and littered with weapons and battle debris, while wounded and riderless horses are careering madly over the abandoned country. The trophies captured comprise much German equipment. An ammunition train captured at Janow (eleven miles northwest of Lemberg) was German, while the guns taken included thirty-six of heavy caliber bearing Emperor William's initials and belonging to the German Sixth army corps.

"The line of retreat of the Austro-German forces was blocked with debris of every kind--valuable military supplies, telephone and telegraph installations, light railway and other stores, bridging material--in fact, everything needed by a modern army was flung away in flight. Over 1,000 wagons with commissariat supplies alone were captured."

Forty-five thousand Austro-German prisoners were reported to have arrived at Lublin. Russian correspondents with the armies in Galicia a.s.serted that German troops were interspersed with Austrian troops in the intrenchments in order to raise the morale of the Austrians. One correspondent declared that while the Austrians often took flight the Germans were ready, to the last man, to perish.

ON THE FIRING LINE IN RUSSIAN POLAND--VIVID DESCRIPTION BY AN AMERICAN EYEWITNESS

The first American permitted to witness actual battles near the eastern frontier of Germany was Karl H. von Wiegand, who wrote as follows from the firing line near East Wirballen, Russian Poland, October 9:

"The German artillery today beat back, in a b.l.o.o.d.y, ghastly smear of men, the Russian advance.

"Yesterday I saw an infantry engagement. Today it was mostly an artillery encounter. The infantry attack is the more ghastly, but the artillery the more awe-inspiring. This was the fifth day of constant fighting and still the German trenches hold.

"Today's battle opened at dawn. With two staff officers a.s.signed as my chaperons, I had been attached overnight to the field headquarters. I slept well, exhausted by the excitement of my first sight of modern war, but when dawn once again revealed the two long lines of the Russian and German positions the Russian guns began to hurl their loads of shrapnel at the German trenches.

"We had breakfast calmly enough despite the din of guns. Then we went to one of the German batteries on the left center. They were already in action, though it was only 6 o'clock. The men got the range from observers a little in advance, cunningly masked, and slowly, methodically, and enthusiastically fed the guns with their loads of death.

"The Russians didn't have our range. All of their sh.e.l.ls flew screaming 1,000 yards to our left. Through my gla.s.ses I watched them strike.

The effect on the hillock was exactly as though a geyser had suddenly spurted up. A vast cloud of dirt and stones and gra.s.s spouted up, and when the debris cleared away a great hole showed.

RUSSIANS TRY NEW RANGE

"While we watched the Russians seemed to tire of shooting holes in an inoffensive hill. They began to try chance shots to the right and to the left. It wasn't many minutes before I realized that, standing near a battery, the execution of which must have been noted on the Russian side, I had a fine chance of experiencing shrapnel bursting overhead. It was a queer sensation to peer through field gla.s.ses and see the Russian sh.e.l.ls veer a few hundred feet to the right. I saw one strike a windmill, shattering the long arms and crumpling it over in a slow burning heap. Then we beat a retreat, further toward the center.

"We had been standing behind a slight declivity. I hadn't caught a glimpse of the enemy. Sh.e.l.ls were the only things that apprised us of the Russian nearness. But as we pa.s.sed out on an open field, considerably out of range of the field guns, I could see occasional flashes that bespoke field pieces, a mile or so away.

RUSSIAN INFANTRY CHARGES

"Back behind us, on the extreme left, I was told the Russians were attacking the German trenches by an infantry charge, the German field telephone service having apprised the commanders along the front. With gla.s.ses we could see a faint line of what must have been the Russian infantry rushing across the open fields.

"We pa.s.sed on to the center, going slightly to the rear for horses. As we arrived at the right wing we witnessed the last of a Russian infantry advance at that end. The wave of Russians had swept nearly to the German trenches, situated between two sections of field artillery, and there had been repulsed. Russians were smeared across in front of these pits, dead, dying, or wounded--cut down by the terrible spray of German machine guns.

"I got up to the trenches as the German fire slackened because of the lack of targets. The Russians had gone back. Strewn in the trenches were countless empty sh.e.l.ls, the bullets of which had, as it looked to inexpert eyes, slain thousands. As a matter of fact, there were hundreds of dead in the field ahead.

GUN BARRELS SIZZLING HOT

"German infantrymen spat on their rapid firers as we reached the trench and delightedly called our attention to the sizzle that told how hot the barrels were from the firing.

"The men stretched their cramped limbs, helped a few wounded to the rear, and waited for breakfast. It was not long forthcoming. Small lines of men struggling along tinder steaming buckets came hurrying up to the accompaniment of cheers and shouts. They bore soup that the men in the trenches gulped down ravenously. Meanwhile men with the white bra.s.sard and the red Geneva cross were busy out in the open, lending succor to the Russian wounded. The battle seemed to have come to a sudden halt.