[Special Dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
CHICAGO, Jan. 7.--John F. Bass, the staff correspondent of The Chicago
Daily News, who with Perceval Gibbon had a remarkable escape from being
blown to pieces by German shells while returning from a visit to a
Russian first-line trench in Poland, cables to his paper his version of
their experiences, which duplicates largely that by Perceval Gibbon
cabled to THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Recounting their arrival at the trench held by the Bielojevski Regiment,
in the centre of the battle line, he says:
"The officers, in small underground bomb-proofs, gave us a hospitable
welcome. The men had cut small recesses in the front wall of the
trench, where they were comfortably housed in straw with bagging in
front to keep out the cold. The trenches were in good condition and
clean for war time.
"In the loopholes rifles lay ready for firing. One man in every four
watched while the other three slept. As we walked through the trench we
stepped over dead bodies of men who had recently fallen. Two of the
regiment's battalions are commanded by Staff Capt. Podjio, one of the
finest specimens of a conscientious, hard-working line officer I have
met. He passed the night traveling the trenches, keeping a vigilant
watch and encouraging the men, who seemed to be in fine condition.
"It was bitterly cold, so we lay for a time on the straw of a
bomb-proof, watching by candlelight a giant orderly sending and
receiving messages on a buzzing telephone from different parts of the
line. It is a habit of Germans to make night attacks that bring them
within fifty yards of the Russian trenches before they are driven off.
"We saw indistinctly across the trenches the Russian videttes in front.
It is reported that the Germans do not take the precaution of posting a
line of sentinels before their trenches. Just before morning the
videttes came running to report activity in the German trenches. Quickly
the sleeping soldiers were roused to man the loopholes. The machine guns
cracked and the rifles rolled out volleys in the cold morning light. The
Germans answered and bullets kicked the top of our trench. Some of the
bullets seemed to crack on striking and it was reported to us that the
Germans were using explosive missiles. Under the Russian fire the
Germans failed to leave their trench.
"When the light swelled into day the German artillery began shelling the
houses, the tall chimney, and the trenches. Black clouds of smoke rose
from the spots where the shells struck. On our trench they used
shrapnel, which burst for the most part beyond us in white puffs. The
German infantry continued a heavy fusillade, but our machine gun fire,
which seemed to sweep the dust from the top of the German trench, caused
their rifle fire to go high and the bullets hissed overhead.
"Two German aeroplanes swept down the line above the Russian trench, but
retired when chased by a Russian biplane. In the distance a German
observation balloon hung in the sky like a huge sausage."
[Illustration: H.S.H. PRINCE LOUIS ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG,
Who Was Forced to Resign as First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty.
(_Photo_ © _by Pach Bros., N.Y._)]
[Illustration: FIELD MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS,
From a Photograph Taken on His Eighty-second Birthday.
(_Photo by L.N.A._)]