which in eighteen days' fighting had been reduced to about half its
strength. As we approached, we saw it drawn up under arms and in a
hollow square. A priest was preaching. He was arrayed in rich blue
vestments, which showed up in the dull earthen colour of the slope and
of the soldiers. His strong handsome features and long hair recalled
pictures of Christ. His deep voice carried without effort to the
ranks in the rear. As I approached, he was saying, "Never forget that
wherever you are and whatever is happening to you the eye of God is
on you and watching over you." After the sermon followed prayers, a
band of soldiers at his side, led by a tall Red Cross soldier, joining
in the beautiful other-world chants of the Eastern Church; they were
trained singers and sang just as in church, without any accompaniment
and with perfect balance and rhythm, the tall soldier conducting them
very quietly with his hand. At one point, the prayers for the Emperor,
all crossed themselves. All fell on their knees again at the prayers
for the Russian troops, for the armies of the Allies and that God
should give them every success. Once more all knelt at the prayers
for their slain comrades, while the beautiful "Eternal memory" was
chanted by the little choir. The rest of the service was standing;
the men remained firm and motionless, in fixed and silent attention.
There were impressive moments when the priest placed a little Gospel,
bound in blue velvet, on an improvised lectern of six bayonets crossed
in front of him, and when turning to all sides shadowed the men with
a little gold cross which he waved slowly with both hands. After
the service the Colonel stepped forward and with a quick movement
called for the salute to the flag, and every musket was raised with
a dull rattle that sounded out over the vast open space under the
grey sky. Next he read out in a loud clear voice a message from the
Commander-in-Chief congratulating the regiment on the brilliant bayonet
attack at Kazimierz, and called out: "For Tsar and country, Hurrah!"
This cheer rose like low thunder and died away in distant peals. Some
twenty to thirty men had received the cross of St. George for personal
bravery, and these, at a word from the Colonel, stepped out and filed
by with quick springing step, circling round the priest and the piled
bayonets, then stopped in front of him to kiss the Cross which he
pressed in turn to the lips of each. Then the whole regiment fell into
movement and swung round the open square, the cross movements, carried
out slowly and in perfect order, giving the appearance of a labyrinth.
One could not tell which way the men would turn, but they swung round
with precision and came forward with the strength of a great river.
An officer had asked me to carry a postcard message for him, and while
he wrote "I am alive and well" and a short greeting, we were caught
in the current, which parted to each side of us at the words of the
kneeling writer, "Brothers, don't come over me." As each section passed
the saluting point, the officer ordered the salute, the Colonel replied
with a word of congratulation, and the men gave a short sharp cry
expressing their readiness for work. There was a remarkable regularity
and springiness in the march of the men, and their motion was that of
an elemental force moving well within its strength, like the flow of
the Neva. After the march past the Colonel handed to us a whole bundle
of postcards for home.
We passed from the bare grey slope with all this strong life on it
and drove forward to the next village, lately held by the Germans and
now abandoned. Here we saw a very different spectacle, showing the
effectiveness of the Russian artillery. The houses were for the most
part long and spacious, built of huge stones with a superstructure of
wood and roof of thatch. Some of them still remained intact; but most
had only the stone basis standing. Everywhere were groups of the bright
orange-coloured peasants, just returned, and in one house stood an old
woman making her first examination of her devastated home. We stood in
the slush on the dirty lane listening to the last report of a mounted
staff officer, and as the Germans were evidently retreating rapidly we
turned back to Skiernewice. We had followed the Russian advance some
seventy miles from Warsaw.
It is well to recognize the value of these operations. The Germans
would obtain obvious advantages from a rapid seizure of Warsaw. So
far western Poland, lying between the two military lines of defence,
had been a kind of no-man's land, and as the main operations were to
north or to south, the Germans had made here a number of raids and
had secured partial and transitory successes. They now, as at Grodno,
tasted the actual Russian line of defence. The Russian forces in the
centre were much stronger than anticipated, and making a great effort,
not only repulsed the attack but made any real success on the German
side impossible. The political aspect of the attempt and the character
of its failure are illustrated by the following incident. The King of
Saxony, whose ancestors were kings of Poland, had sent a court official
with presents and decorations for those who should take part in the
capture of Warsaw, and this official was himself captured by Cossacks
after the repulse. The Germans, on the failure of their attempt,
withdrew quickly but in good order, leaving few prisoners and spoils of
war. The country was not devastated. There had been, after the repulse,
some disgraceful incidents, _e.g._ they had made a Polish landowner
and his servants stand in the Russian line of fire: and clocks and
ornaments were taken away. But I have no evidence of any atrocities
such as those in Belgium, and these could hardly have escaped
observation. The German troops seem to have been partly reservists,
with whom excesses are less likely. The signs indicate that the retreat
is definitive, and such is the inference from the reported incendiarism
at Lodz, which is full of German factories.
_November 4._
Trustworthy eyewitnesses speak with great enthusiasm of the conduct of
the Russian troops on the Upper Vistula, where more serious fighting is
to be expected. The influence of the Commander-in-Chief has produced
the selection of capable commanders everywhere, and the subordinate
officers are full of spirit and energy. Here again the German heavy
artillery commands respect, but the Russian field guns and howitzers
are served with remarkable precision and alertness and meet with
great success. The complete confidence of the Russian infantry in
the effectiveness of the Russian artillery is a striking and general
feature. The men are always keen for bayonet work, which the enemy
consistently avoids.
The Russian cavalry has, by different accounts, shown great dash and
has been handled with dash and skill. In a raid beyond the river on the
enemy's communications, a Russian cavalry division came on Germans in
the dusk, and the troopers with the baggage column in the centre left
the baggage and, charging, completely routed the enemy. The division
several times got into the German forces, taking many prisoners. Large
numbers of stragglers have been taken by the Russians. A Hungarian
division put up a good resistance for three days and then collapsed.
German officers pay ridiculously small sums for their keep; for
example, two marks for two days' keep of three officers, and they
appropriate valuables and take all stores. The population in southern
Poland is in a state of profound distress, and the Russians are
organising extensive relief work. The Germans compel captured officers
to work with the men, spit at them and drive them about bare to the
waist.
A competent eyewitness in East Prussia says that the German
communications are very good, and that underground telephones are
frequently discovered. Large forces are in close contact here, and
the Russian counter-stroke has much impressed the enemy. Our men bear
fatigue and privations with great endurance.
The Polish population shows the greatest alacrity in assisting the
Russian troops both in the country and in the towns. All Poles
now readily speak Russian. Yesterday the Warsaw Press entertained
the Russian and foreign correspondents. There was a distinguished
gathering, and both Russians and Poles spoke with striking frankness
and feeling. One eminent Polish leader, Mr. Dmowski, said that all
the blood shed between the two nations was drowned in the heavy
sacrifices of the present common struggle. Polish politicians are
keenly enthusiastic for France and Great Britain, and are studying the
development of closer economic and other relations with Great Britain.
The Russian advance is now much more complete in southern Poland and
is better lined up with the forces in Galicia. This advance tends
to secure the Russian position on the northern frontier, where any
German initiative becomes daily more hazardous. The ordinary fresh
yearly Russian contingents mean an increase of half a million men. The
arrangements for the wounded provide, if necessary, for over a million.
_November 8._
I have just made a journey over the country lying between Warsaw and
Cracow, where the Russian advance is now proceeding. My previous
communication spoke of the original line of Russian defence along the
Bug, and the later and more advanced line along the Vistula and the
Narew. Present events are rapidly converting the new advance west of
Warsaw from a counterstroke into a general transference of the sphere
of operations and a most valuable rectification of the whole Russian
line.
In East Prussia the Germans are being slowly driven back by a double
turning movement. Further westward the northern frontier of Poland is
well secured. The Russians have now occupied and hold firmly Plock,
Lodz, Piotrkow, Kielce and Sandomir, as also Jaroslaw and all the other
passages of the river San. A glance at the map will show the importance
of this line, which is only a stage in the general advance.
On the repulse of the German attack on Warsaw, the enemy was pressed
back south-westward in three weeks of continuous fighting. Near
Ivangorod, a famous Caucasian regiment forced the passage of the
Vistula under the fire of German heavy artillery. The advance guard
crossed the broad stream--here unbridged--in skiffs and ferry-boats,
and held good under a devastating cross fire till the construction of
a pontoon bridge allowed the passage of reinforcements. The supports
coming along the river bank from Ivangorod had to advance through
flooded swamps almost breast high. Their footing was made good at
Kosienice, where desperate fighting took place. Later they made a
series of brilliant attacks in forests, after which the Germans were
thrown back on Radom. The general advance drove the enemy back beyond
Radom and Ilza.
At the small town of Szydlowiec the German commandant threatened,
as the Russians approached, to blow up the remarkable town hall,
in Florentine style, conspicuous for thirty miles around, and the
beautiful Gothic church, six hundred years old. The inhabitants
offered to ransom them by a contribution of 5000 crowns. The offer was
accepted; but twenty minutes later the town hall was blown up, and the
church followed at the end of another quarter of an hour. This story
was narrated to me with great indignation by the inhabitants.
Some miles in front of Kielce the Austrians--now abandoned by the
Germans, who had retired--made a stand near Lesczyna on a high sandy
position with a large fir copse in its centre and extending over a wide
front. The attack on it was delivered by a Russian corps including a
division mainly composed of Poles, and fell chiefly on an Austrian
Polish regiment from Cracow. The assailants kept up a fire all day,
and finally rushed the enemy's rifle pits with hurrahs. The Austrians
left Kielce at night and in the early morning--some were captured by
the Russians, who came in close upon their heels. They were pursued for
some miles, and brought to action again later on the same day. Next day
the Russian artillery was also heard to the south-east of Kielce. The
Germans had retreated in the direction of Czenstochowa.
All this three weeks of fighting was in the characteristic Russian
style: bayonet attacks were repeated for two hours; small units eagerly
attacked larger ones of the enemy. In general the Russians outflanked
the enemy, but in one case they broke through his centre. Often the
Russian artillery caused him to decamp in the night.
Officers describe the enthusiasm of the rank and file as growing if
possible greater. It is clearly visible in the rear of the army, and
shown by the energy with which transport is being pushed up. The enemy
has thoroughly destroyed the bridges, but they are quickly repaired,
and meanwhile the ardour of the troops and of the transport trains
minimises all delay.
It may be noted that the German rifle fire is superior to the Austrian.
Some Austrian regiments have been found to be officered by Germans. The
Austrian Slavonic regiments resist well for two or three days, but then
break up and surrender in large bodies--they have sometimes asked for
guides to take them to the Russian lines.
The inhabitants speak well of the Austrians, but with indignation of
the Germans. Prisoners confirm the bad relations between the two allied
armies, and Austrians and Germans when captured have to be kept apart.
I saw at Kielce ample evidence of the enthusiasm of the Poles for the
Russian cause; they show the greatest courtesy and kindness, especially
in the villages. I am told on good evidence that at Kalisz, when a
German soldier defaced a portrait of the Tsar, a Polish official
struck him in the face, and for this was bound to a telegraph post
for two days, and then taken down and shot. All evidence of prisoners
shows that the Russians are treating enemies as well as their own
comrades--often I have seen them giving the captives the best of
everything.
The following interesting proclamation was posted to-day by the
commander of a Russian army corps at Radom, where the Germans had
remained for over a month.
"Poles! Our wounded officers and soldiers, and also our prisoners
who have fallen into the hands of the enemy and have passed through
the town or province of Radom, speak with deep gratitude of your
cordial treatment of them. You have tended the wounded, fed the
starving, and clothed and sheltered from the enemy those escaping
from captivity. You have given them money and guided them to our
lines. Accept from me and all ranks of the army entrusted to me our
warm and hearty thanks for all your kindness, for your Slavonic
sympathy and goodness."
The theatre of the present operations is of crucial importance. Here
Austria and Germany join hands. Serious reverses would compel them
either to retreat on diverging lines, or to expose one or other of
their capitals. Either event would have political consequences of the
highest military significance.
_November 9._
I left Warsaw on November 2 by motor and arrived without incident at
Radom (sixty miles to south-south-west). The town was held by the
Germans for a month and four days. They made themselves objectionable
to the inhabitants, taking all supplies on which they could lay hands;
but I came on no evidence of any particular outrages. The inhabitants
showed the heartiest friendship to the Russians, as is recognised in
the proclamation of the Commanding General which I have already quoted.
Nothing could exceed the care and thoughtfulness of my own Polish
hosts; the Russian soldiers, for instance the one who accompanied our
party, were on friendliest terms of intercourse with the Poles, and
the objection which the Poles previously had to speaking Russian had
vanished as if by magic. It should be noted that the inhabitants of
all this area are particularly strong in Polish patriotism. Beyond
Radom the excellent high road to Cracow, running on an embankment and
lined with poplars, was broken at every bridge and cut up for some
distance by a road plough. Side tracks had been made at every necessary
point. We travelled in the midst of troops all hurrying forward to
participate in the taking of Kielce. They moved slowly along the road
in straggling groups like an enormous family on its way to a huge
picnic, but the unity of each regiment is never lost and the most
remarkable impression which one receives is that of destination--of
movement to "the appointed place." Every artificial barrier was little
more than an occasion for thought and effort: the Russian peasant,
everywhere accustomed to obstacles of this kind, has all sorts of ready
and resourceful ways of surmounting them; and they call forth all his
brotherly instincts of joint work and mutual help. Any number of men
run up from their loose ranks to push a motor or cart or transport
wagon over a marshy stream, and the travellers call back from their
vehicle, "Thank you, brothers." It is like a current that slows up and
takes thought against some barrier, but whose general movement seems
not even to be checked. Some of the side passages looked very bad
indeed, but every one somehow got through, no matter what the size of
their carriage. Often at such points there were companies that rested
along the grassy banks of the road; in other places one saw, to the
side, great parks of small grey wagons. Those carrying straw for the
bivouacs were in front; but sometimes one came upon a resting battery.
The brotherhood between officers and men is another notable feature of
the march of a Russian army.
[Illustration:
a.b. _Austro German march on Warsaw_
c _Russian resistance_
d _Russian offensive on Kosienice_
e _Germans driven west_
f _Austrians driven south-west_]
At Szydlowiec, seventeen miles south of Radom, I saw the first signs
of devastation, but these were not the work of the advancing Russian
artillery but had been perpetrated deliberately by the retreating
Germans. The tower of the town hall was crumbled to ruins. The church
is not large, but has a high pointed roof, of which the open woodwork
still remains, with the cupola as if caught astride of it in its
fall. Inside, the beautiful painted inner roof is mutilated, but the
monuments of the ancient Szydlowiecki family, and notably the graceful
figure of a sleeping woman, have for the most part escaped. The floor
was covered with rubbish and the damage is estimated at a very high
figure. While I was in the church, the dignified old priest entered
with six young men, who knelt with faces full of reverence before
they set to work to clear the nave of rubbish. The Pole who told me
the story of the ruin of the church told it quietly but with flashing
eyes. He said the inhabitants asked rather that the whole town should
be destroyed and the church be left standing. The only excuse was a
few shots from the advancing Russian infantry and artillery, and there
was no regular fighting there, the Germans making no resistance and
retreating too quickly to blow up the castle.
After Szydlowiec, the Cracow road on its way to Kielce (twenty-seven
miles) passes through country of quite a different character. A long
rise, and we were now close up among the troops. At one point the long
train of wagons branched away to a village on our left, and out of it
by another road there came in another stream of fighting men. We passed
some two hundred Austrian prisoners in their blue shakos and uniforms;
they were all Poles, with hardly any guard but giving no trouble; one
of them courteously stepped out of the ranks to pick up my field glass,
which I had dropped. These men, who talked freely to us, did not look
at all miserable, only confused. The Russians behaved to them as to
their own people.
At last we came to the hills above Kielce. It was now clear what had
happened. Troops of all kinds were streaming into the town and all
resistance was over. On the main street we were stopped for a few
moments by a general and his staff. At the chief hotel large parties
of officers were sitting down to lunch. All the streets were full
of movement, but with no sign of any conflict or friction--horses,
dismounting messengers, soldiers eating, talking or resting, the
townspeople standing watching, satisfying the requirements or questions
of the newcomers or joining in their talk. We had no difficulty in
securing good rooms, and our lunch was as good as it would have been
in Warsaw. Many of the troops had passed or were passing on along
the broad road in the direction of Cracow. Mounting the high hill
south-west of the town we could see the scattered stream of men, horses
and carts going forward past pleasant houses, hills and villages,
and the thunder of artillery came to us from beyond a ridge in the
distance. Our plans, however, prevented us from going further. At the
hotel the regiment which had done most of the fighting was sitting at
dinner and singing the regimental song and the national hymn. The song
began with a Mahometan word, "God has given us victory."
Next day, November 4, with villagers guiding and recounting to us, we
went over the scene of the last Austrian resistance about six miles
east of Kielce. A long curving line of rifle pits ran over a broad high
front; sometimes the line ran along the inside of an extensive copse
of small fir trees; some of the pits contained extemporised pallets
of fir boughs, in others were bullets, weapons or even letters. The
Russian advance was indicated by two hostile lines running almost side
by side, where within a few yards I picked up undischarged bullets of
the two armies. In a little wooded cemetery on the bare ridge lay a
number of bodies, Austrian and Russian, brought in by the villagers
for burial. It was not a sight to dwell on; but one thing that I shall
not forget was the body of a young Austrian of not more than twenty,
full of grace and beauty, the head thrown back, the breast bared, and
the hand lifted as if waving on the attack. Outside, other bodies were
still being brought in, the Russians greatly predominating in numbers.
Some Austrian wounded still walked about the village. One, with whom I
spoke, had the lower part of his jaw bound up and complained that he
could drink nothing. He was greatly depressed but had no rancour and
evidently felt at home with the villagers, who were of the same blood
and behaved to him rather as people would to an interesting traveller
in their midst. He was a Pole from no further off than Cracow, where he
was a master--"professor" as he put it--in a secondary school, a very
intelligent and educated man who seemed quite out of place in a uniform
and on a battlefield. He told me how they replied all day as best they
could to a cross fire, till in the evening the Russians came on them
shouting "Hurrah!" A day earlier, and we should have seen this fight.
The Germans had left them in the lurch--"as they always do," he added.
It was in the main a battle of Poles against Poles. He himself was a
"Pan-Slavist," he told me, but could not say so because of his post. If
the Russians got Cracow and maintained the appointment of Polish civil
officials there, including a Polish Governor, as at present, he felt
certain that all western Galicia would be on their side. I left him a
little tobacco and took the address of one of his colleagues in Cracow.
Heavy firing from the south was all the time audible.
We returned to Kielce, passing regiments of all kinds. On our way
back to Radom my motor broke down, and after sitting for three hours
amidst marshy ground, with wounded; transports and villagers passing
and occasionally hearing stray rifle shots, I had to return again to
Kielce for the night. The discomfort of this _contretemps_ disappeared
before the unconquerable wit and good humour of my French colleague, M.
Naudeau, who improvised little songs on our mishap.
The next day, the 5th, there was nothing left but to return to Radom,
occupying three seats which a Russian general, a man of charming
simplicity, kindly put at our disposal in his motor. The strength of
the Russian advance was everywhere before our eyes. The great stream
was still flowing on. There were troops of all kinds--we inquired the
name of each regiment, which they always gave in a kind of jovial
chorus; there were food transports, field kitchens, pontoons and, not
least important, the post. At one point we saw a large body of Austrian
prisoners sitting by a wood and drinking water with their very small
escort. These men helped some of our motors over difficult places.
Streams, their bridges broken down, were still being crossed by the
great onflowing current of men and wagons, only with more ardour than
before. Teams of white horses, which, because of their conspicuousness,
are only allowed to serve in the transport, were dashing through the
mud and water with a fervour as great as if on the field of battle.
At one place a bread wagon dropped all its cargo and turned over on
its side, but horse and driver, evidently not noticing, carried it on
into the stream with no diminution of pace--one wheel high in the air
and the other broken beneath the wagon. Our General spoke frequently
with the men; and we all helped one another through difficult places,
on each occasion with a hearty "Once more thank you, brothers," from
the General. Nothing will remain with me longer than these endless
irregular lines of big, sleepy, almost stupid-looking faces moving at
a walk which might last for ever, and all in one direction and all
with set eyes, a people that lies down to sleep at the roadside, that
breakfasts off stale biscuit soaked in water, that carries nothing but
what it can put to a hundred uses, that will crouch for days without
food in flooded trenches, that can die like flies for an idea, and is
sure, sooner or later, to attain it, a people that never complain, a
brotherhood of men.
In Radom I found our Russian orderly from Kostroma fraternising with
the Polish servants, joining in their work and singing them songs of
the Volga. I told him he was another Susanin who had led the foreigners
into the marsh. We were soon on our way back to Warsaw.
_November 25._
I have dealt with the Russian advance from Warsaw and Ivangorod, by
which the Russian front was carried forward some one hundred and
seventy miles in all from the original defensive line on the Bug and
the communications of the Austrian and German armies were threatened in
the neighbourhood of Cracow. This movement was necessarily completed by
an advance of the Russian forces on the San.
[Illustration: THE ADVANCE FROM THE SAN
Tarnow.
a _First advance of the Russians_
b b _Russian line on the San_
c c _Russian advance after the German retreat to the North_
d _Connection with Russian line to the North_]