CHECKING UP THE SITUATION IN POLAND
Dated:
WARSAW,
_May 24, 1915_.
A few weeks ago the writer expressed the opinion that a permanent
optimism had come to Warsaw. For several weeks this impression seemed
to have every justification in fact, but since the commencement of
the Galician movement in the south the confidence felt by the saner
members of the community has been utterly submerged by the pessimism
which in waves has swept over the town. One finds it impossible to
know definitely from what exact quarters all the false stories start,
and if one tries to run them down the _trail_ speedily vanishes. The
explanation is that the Jews in Poland are so unfriendly to Russian
interests and Russian successes, that the slightest set-back, or rumour
of bad news, is seized on by them, and in a few hours is spread all
over the town, exaggerated grossly with every telling. It is really
extraordinary, after ten months of war, how persistent these hostile
factions are in their hope of German success. There are, besides the
Jews, probably many Austrian agents, who use the slightest pretext to
start stories in the hope of creating a panic.
Within the last two weeks every imaginable tale has been current. Last
week there was so much vagueness in regard to the news coming up from
the south of Poland, that it seemed wise to make a quick tour in the
rear of the Russian positions in order to get some opinion of the real
situation. The collection of war news falls very definitely into two
classes, descriptive writing and material which is merely indicative
of the situation as a whole. The former is of course more interesting
to the average reader, but the latter is far more important from every
other angle. After ten months of war, the vital question now is whether
the Germans are advancing or retiring, and not so much how the battles
themselves are conducted, or what sort of a picture is presented in
the different actions. So my trip of yesterday, though not in the
least picturesque in its happenings, was extremely interesting in that
it offered an emphatic contradiction to practically every adverse
rumour that had gained currency in Warsaw for the week previously.
[Illustration: The Polish Legion. Note the small boy in the ranks as
mascot.]
We left Warsaw at six in the morning in our racing car, and as soon as
we were clear of the town and headed in the direction of Radom, on the
fine macadam highway, we were able to develop a speed that no express
train in Russia has made since the declaration of war. This highway
has been the artery of travel and communication over which ammunition,
transport and guns have moved almost without interruption for ten
months. That the Russians have kept it in good condition, is apparent
from the fact that we were able to make above 65 versts an hour on many
stretches of the way. I passed over the same road many times during the
first months of the war, and its condition now is infinitely better
than it was in those days.
On every hand are evidences of increased Russian efficiency. The war
now has become strictly a matter of organization, and everything goes
on now without excitement and without confusion of any sort. Road
gangs have been organized, and these highways are maintained with as
much care as the permanent way of a railway line. One sign of the
times is the new departure of the Russian authorities, in building at
intervals of about every 5 versts a boiled water station, which is
distinguished by a special flag. Here in a shed closed on three sides
is a great boiler with numerous taps on it. When troops are passing in
any quantities the water is kept hot that the soldiers may always get
boiling water for their tea. When there is small movement on the road,
they can always get it cold for drinking purposes.
As it was Sunday we found the road practically free of transport.
Barring occasional soldiers sauntering along the highway there was no
sign of war until we were within a few miles of Radom, when, perhaps
20 versts to the west, columns of smoke, drifting lazily off in the
still air, indicated where some German battery had been shelling some
unfortunate village. Away off on the horizon a few faint puffs of white
in the blue showed where our batteries were breaking shrapnel under a
speck of an aeroplane, which had evidently been on a morning tour of
inspection. I was rather curious to see Radom, because for a week we
had been told in Warsaw that a terrible panic prevailed here, and that
the population were leaving in a frenzy of terror to avoid the sweep
of the Germans on Warsaw, that same old story which has for so many
months been circulated by the Jewish population. But Radom itself was
as quiet and casual as a city of the same size in far off America
might have been on a Sunday morning. The streets were crowded with the
population in their best clothes going to church, and the panic so
widely discussed in Warsaw was conspicuous by its absence.
I talked with a number of the townspeople, and they were as surprised
as they could be to know that they were all (according to Warsaw) in
full flight for the other side of the Vistula. What astonishes one most
is the absolute lack of information in one place of what is going on in
the next town. Kielce is but 30 miles from Radom, yet I could find no
one, neither officer nor civilian, who could say positively whether on
this particular day it was in our hands or in the hands of the enemy.
We did learn however from an officer that the road had been badly cut
up, and that fighting had taken place near Kielce, with destruction of
bridges, which would make it impossible for us to get there in a car.
As a fact, I learned later in the day that the road for perhaps 15
versts north of Kielce was held by German cavalry, and so was just as
well satisfied that we had not gone that way.
Radom I found was outside the army group which I had a special permit
to visit, and it was therefore necessary to call on the General
commanding the army before I could with propriety pay a visit to any
of the corps commanders in this theatre of war. It was necessary,
therefore, to motor to a certain point east of the Vistula to pay our
respects to this gentleman. Well on in the afternoon we motored into
the beautiful grounds of a Polish villa and spent several hours with
one of the men who, with a number of corps, was able to contribute an
important part to the defeat of the Austrians on the Grodek line in the
fall of last year. Here we were cordially received both by the General
and by his staff, two of whom at once ordered refreshments for us and
remained with us until we started back for Warsaw late in the day.
From this point we were in touch with the sources of information
flowing in from both Southern Poland and the great battlefield in
Galicia. All the Russian corps in Poland, with the exception of one
that lay next the Vistula, had been inactive during the past weeks, and
after shifting their position to the new line, made necessary by the
retirement of the Galician army, had been ordered to remain strictly
on the defensive. The corps lying next the Vistula, however, was only
across the river from the great action going on south of them, and
after days of listening to the roar of their brothers’ cannon to the
south, they were in anything but a placid or quiet mood. The whole
line, in fact, was figuratively being held on the leash, but this
last corps had been so infected by the contagion of the action to
the south that it proved very difficult to keep the units in their
trenches. At the first feeler of the German advance, which came up on
their side of the Vistula, they at once jumped at the conclusion that
the best defensive was a strong attack, and with this idea in mind they
considered, no doubt, that they were strictly in accord with their
defensive orders when they attacked the Germans.
[Illustration: The Vistula (winter).
Soldiers are seen in the picture destroying the broken ice. This is a
great danger to the bridges when carried away by the current.]
The ball was started, as far as I can learn, by a cavalry colonel who,
with a small command, attacked a pontoon bridge train that, in some
incredible way, was poking along in advance with only a meagre escort.
The advance of this small unit of horsemen served as a spark in the
Russian powder magazine, and within a few hours the whole corps was
engaged in an attack on the German infantry. It is hard to get any
accurate details of the operations, but this fighting lasted probably
two to three days. The ardent Russian regiments fell on the centre of
a German formation, which was said to be the 46th Landsturm corps,
smashed its centre and dissipated its flanking supports of a division
each. The Russians claim that 12,000 were left on the field and that
they took 6,000 prisoners. In any case there is no question that this
action put out at least one corps from further activity as an efficient
unit.
The German prisoners captured expressed themselves as greatly surprised
at the Russians attacking them. They had been told that the Russians
had all crossed the Vistula and were in rapid retreat to the west,
and that the probabilities were that the road to Moscow would be open
in a few weeks. From various members of the Russian Staff I obtained
many details as to the fighting in Galicia, which all agreed had been
terrific but was going extremely well for them on the line of the San
river. It is too soon to attempt a detailed account of this action,
but it will form one of the greatest stories of the whole war when the
returns are all in. Suffice it to say that the Russians had been aware
of the impending attack for several weeks, and had been preparing, in
case of necessity, a retirement on to a position upon the San river
with Przemysl as the salient thereof.
This Russian retreat did not come as a surprise even to the writer.
As far back as a month ago he was aware of feverish activities in
rehabilitating the Przemysl defences, and though at that time the
object was vague, it became clear enough when this crisis broke that
the Russians had foreseen the possibility of the failure to hold the
Dunajec line. The Germans carried this by a concentration of artillery
fire, probably greater even than that of the English guns at Neuve
Chapelle. So fierce was this torrent of flying steel that the Russian
line was eaten away in the centre, and in the Carpathian flank, and
there seems reason to believe that the army on the Dunajec was cut in
three sections when it began to retire. That it pulled itself together
and has been able to hold itself intact on the San up to the time of
this writing is evidence of the resiliency of the Russian organization.
The Russians having had the alternative in view, withdrew with great
speed, destroying bridges and approaches in order to delay the Germans.
In the meantime both their reserves of men and munitions were being
pushed up to await them on the San line. When the Germans came up in
strength with their tongues hanging out, and their formations suffering
from lack of rest and lack of ammunition, they found the Russian line
waiting for them. It is futile to estimate the German losses at this
time, but they will be in the hundreds of thousands, and a final
count will show them to be at least two to three times greater than
the Russian sacrifices. A German prisoner is said to have made the
complaint that the Russians fought like barbarians. “Had they been
civilized people,” he is reported to have said, “they would have
stayed on the Dunajec and fought like men. In that case we would have
utterly destroyed their army.” Instead of that they went away and
fought on the San. What seems to have happened is that the Germans were
not actually short of ammunition, but in extending their line to the
San they could not bring it up with the same rapidity as in the Dunajec
and Carpathian attacks; the result was that they were unable to feed
their guns according to their new artillery programme begun on the
Dunajec line, a programme no doubt borrowed from the west.
A VISIT TO THE POSITIONS