The Campaign in Russian Poland 9

The Campaign in Russian Poland 9

“Our visit to Rava-Ruska presented much greater military interest; we

drove round the south, east, and north front of the Russian attack on

this little town and very valuable explanations were given by an able

officer of the General Staff. On the southern front near the station of

Kamionka Woloska, where there were lines of trenches, the deep holes

made by bursting Russian shells, and sometimes filled with water, lay

thick together.

 

“The eastern front was more interesting. Here there were many lines

of rifle-pits, Austrian, Russian, or Austrian converted into Russian.

The Austrian rifle-pits were much shallower and less finished than the

Russian, which were generally squarer, deeper, and with higher cover.

An officer’s rifle-pit just behind those of his men showed their care

and work, as was indicated in letters written just after the battle.

Casques of cuirassiers, many Hungarian knapsacks, broken rifles,

fragments of shrapnel, potatoes pulled up, and even such oddments as an

Austrian picture postcard, were to be found in or near the rifle-pits.

 

“These wide plains, practically without cover, were reminiscent of

Wagram. A high landmark was a crucifix, on which one of the arms of the

figure was shot away; underneath it was a ‘brothers’ grave,’ containing

the bodies of 120 Austrians and twenty-one Russians. Another cross of

fresh-cut wood marked the Russian soldiers’ tribute to an officer:

‘God’s servant, Gregory.’ Close to one line of trenches stood a village

absolutely untouched, and in the fields between stood a picturesque

group of villagers at their field-work, one in an Austrian uniform and

two boys in Austrian shakos.”

 

He noted that cavalry had played but an inconspicuous part in this

desperate fighting. The Russians, he says, were always attacking. They

felt the supremest confidence in the power of their artillery (“though

the proportion of field-guns to a unit is less numerous on the Russian

side than on the German or Austrian”), and, when questioned as to the

enemy’s rifle-fire, they would reply, in characteristic Tommy Atkins

fashion, “Oh, nothing striking.” Many men told Mr. Pares that they did

not believe the Austro-German liked fighting at close quarters with

the bayonet as much as the Russians did. The one thing for which the

latter felt respect was the hostile heavy artillery, though claiming

that their own field-artillery was superior. Their extraordinary

endurance in the trenches, and their calm resolution and unswerving

belief in their own prowess and the justness of their cause impressed

him profoundly.

 

This commentator felt compelled, however reluctantly, to bear witness

to the brutality of the retreating Austrians to the Polish peasantry.

Of this he saw numerous examples, as also instances of the people’s

retaliation upon the enemy, such as the wholesale destruction of the

Austrian General Desveaux’s beautiful chateau. Little things will stick

in the mind, and Mr. Pares noted amid the ruins of this noble house a

map of the Austrian army manœuvres of 1893, “twenty years after.” The

Russians deemed themselves among friends when they mingled with the

Ruthenian inhabitants of Galicia, speaking their language and treating

them with all good fellowship. The invaders’ relations with the Jewish

population were scarcely so amicable in all cases.

 

Another correspondent of a great newspaper who had the harrowing

experience of traversing some of the battle-fields of Galicia after the

Austrian breakdown presents the following vivid and touching picture:

 

“In the very centre of this zone of misery two roads intersect, and

at the angle stands a huge wooden cross on which hangs the carved

figure of the Saviour. For a hundred years, no doubt, this monument

to brotherly love has hung above the cross-roads so that the pious

might pause in their journey to cross themselves and mutter a prayer.

Nothing could be more incongruous than to see this sacred emblem: the

mute evidence of a religious people. The top of the wooden upright

is shattered by a bullet, while one arm of the figure of Jesus has

been carried away by a shrapnel shell. What, indeed, must have been

the thoughts of the patient Austrians lying in their exposed position

and dying in hundreds as they beheld the shot and shell bursting about

the carved figure of Him whose work on earth was to spread peace and

brotherly love! The patient face of the Christ looks down upon a newly

made grave wherein lie the shattered remains of 124 men who died almost

at the foot of the sacred figure.”

 

For the defence of Przemysl many thousands of workmen were impressed to

assist in the work of strengthening the fortifications, being called

in from the neighbouring villages under threat of extreme penalties.

The quantity of ammunition in the place was enormous, but the shortage

of provisions is claimed by the Russians as being due to the swiftness

of their initiative, whereby great quantities of stores intended for

the defending force had been captured. The investing army had now a

large number of batteries in position, and though they could well

afford to take things easily so as to avoid needless wastage of life,

the progress made was steady. German, and not Austrian, leadership was

directing the defence of the stronghold. Every effort was made by them

to hearten their men into the belief that the combined Austro-German

operations proceeding towards the river San might, and in all

likelihood would, culminate in the relief of the place. On this point,

and of the operations in Galicia generally, Colonel Shumsky wrote

during the second week of October:

 

“All the attempts of the enemy to cross the San have ended in a

miserable fiasco. The Austro-German forces are making their attempts

at various points of the river. First the artillery deluges the right

shore with shells, and then infantry detachments approach the river;

but Russian shrapnel causes them enormous losses. Dead bodies are

washed down the San to the Vistula, and on to Sandomir and Ivangorod.

 

“Before this fortress the battle continues day and night without a

moment’s intermission. The Germans are giving the defence a very

energetic character. To all appearances the fortress is well supplied

with ammunition. Our troops are making a gradual but persistent attack.

Sometimes a regiment becomes impatient with the slowness of the

progress and storms the nearest line of works. Sometimes a sharp blow,

delivered in the night, brings about the fall of a strong fort. In this

way several works have been taken.

 

“These unexpected blows clearly greatly excite the garrison. Right

through the night projectors search the battle-field, and their long

white rays rest tremulously on every fold of the ground. At times

something alarms the forts, and the air is instantly filled with the

thunder of roused Austrian guns. The fire is then kept up for thirty

minutes to an hour before it again subsides.”

 

He adds that “the tremendous strategic front becomes elongated just

as it does in France.” This immense battle-line was now beginning to

be known to the strategists as the line “Cracow-Przemysl-Thorn,” as

it began to be growingly obvious that Austrian Cracow and Silesian

Thorn would presently be the scene of the biggest operations of the

conflicting Empires.

 

On October 13-14 great Austro-German columns were in touch with their

enemy south-east of Sandomir and west of Przemysl. On the first of

the dates named an Austrian force deploying by way of Samok-Lisko

upon Sambor was hurled back with the loss of 7 officers and 500 men

captured, and next day they lost several hundred more prisoners.

Hitherto the success of the Russian arms in Galicia had been so

continuous that the official despatches and the newspaper reports in

the Petrograd papers were fairly representative of the facts, patriotic

feeling experiencing no temptation to practise a diplomatic “economy of

the truth.” But now we find it hard to reconcile the Petrograd reports

with reliable information from other sources as to what was happening

in the region of the San.

 

The news that came from Petrograd, directly or through Rome and Paris,

told of repeated victories over the Austrians on the San. But it would

seem that these reports were only repetitions of news already sent, and

referred to the opening stage of the fighting with the Austrian advance

on Von Hindenburg’s extreme right.

 

There appears to be no doubt that the peril of Warsaw and the need

of drawing heavy reinforcements from Galicia to assist in repelling

the German invasion of Poland and then in following up the enemy’s

retirement, led to the army on the San being so weakened for the

moment that all it could do was to hold its own for a while about

Sandomir, near the junction of the San and the Vistula. In doing this

it rendered a solid service to the Grand-duke Nicholas, as it prevented

the line of the Vistula being turned above Ivangorod.

 

But something had to be sacrificed to secure this result. Jaroslav

was abandoned for the moment, and reoccupied by the Austrians, and

the siege of Przemysl was raised. There was a day of enthusiastic

rejoicing when the relieving column marched into the hard-pressed

and half-starved city. Received at the gates by the civil and

ecclesiastical authorities, the troops marched amidst cheering crowds

to the town hall, where General von Kusmanek, the commander of the

fortress, stood waiting to greet them.

 

Even more welcome than the battle-grimed soldiers was the long convoy

of supply wagons that they escorted. The garrison and the people could

again enjoy an unstinted meal, and looked forward to a long respite

from the trials they had endured. But the military authorities had

no illusions in the outlook. Przemysl had hardly been relieved when

bad news came from the scene of the great battles in Central Poland,

and the pressure of the Russian forces began to be felt at once, for

on the news of the Grand-duke’s success against Von Hindenburg they

at once abandoned their attitude of stubborn defence for a vigorous

offensive. It was realised that Przemysl might soon be once more

ringed round with fire and steel, so steps were taken to prepare for

a new siege. Supplies of all kinds were poured into the place by day

and by night, the control of the junction at Jaroslav facilitating

this revictualling operation. At the same time some thousands of the

non-combatant population were sent away so as to reduce the number of

“useless mouths” to a minimum. In a week Przemysl was ready to defend

itself again, and to face a siege under greatly improved conditions.

 

The work had indeed to be interrupted before Von Kusmanek had done

all he hoped to accomplish. For the retreat of Von Hindenburg in the

centre was at once followed by the column that had attacked Ivangorod

returning through Radom. The whole invasion was collapsing and the

Austrian position on the San had become untenable. Petrograd could

now resume a true record of Galician victories, as the retiring enemy

fought a series of rearguard actions each of which ended in the

capture of Austrian prisoners by the pursuing columns of the Russian

left.