THE FIRST FIGHT
It became necessary to know what the Germans were doing, or appeared to
be going to do. Fugitives from Kalisz and the country eastward of it
reported that thousands of Germans were pouring over the border, and it
was known to Headquarters that they were gradually pressing onwards to
Lodz.
On the 6th, 7th, and 8th August, the 4th Cossacks of the Don, and five
other cavalry regiments, with some light guns, were engaged in
reconnaissance, and the result was to ascertain that the Germans were
entrenching themselves on a line from Kalisz to Sieradz, covering the
railway; and also extending their earthworks right and left along the
banks of the Warta, thus forming a strong point, on Russian soil, for an
advance on Warsaw. I was riding in the ranks of the 4th, and can say,
from personal observation, that the works mentioned were of a formidable
description, and armed with heavy guns.
On the 8th the Zeithen Hussars charged the 4th, which fell back; and the
hussars were taken in hand by the 12th Russian Dragoons and very roughly
handled. I counted forty dead bodies; but the Germans advanced some
infantry and guns, and saved their wounded. Their total loss could not
have been less than 140 men. The dragoons had two men killed and about
a dozen wounded, mostly by the fire of infantry. The general idea that
the Germans are good swordsmen is erroneous. They are very poor
broadswordsmen; and the Russians are inferior to the French in the use
of this weapon.
I expected that the affair would develop into a general action, but it
did not. The force of German cavalry was much inferior to that of the
Russian, and they soon fell back, trying to lure our men under infantry
and artillery fire. In this they did not succeed; but I believe that on
our extreme right they did some execution with long-range shell fire.
Why the Russians did not bring up infantry and artillery I am unable to
conjecture. It is my opinion that there was something behind which did
not appear to a spectator in my position. The Germans had certainly
prepared something resembling a trap; and possibly the Russian commander
saw, or suspected, more than was perceptible to the ordinary eye. At any
rate he held his men back at a moment when I expected to see them
advance and outflank the enemy. The fighting which followed was
decidedly desultory and without important results. There was much
artillery firing from guns which were, I think, four or five English
miles from that part of the Russian position where I was. It did so very
little execution that I considered it was a mere waste of ammunition.
In this combat the Russians seemed to be superior in strength of all
three arms, which was the reason, I suppose, that the enemy did not make
a decided advance. He was probably waiting for reinforcements, which
did not arrive until late in the day, if they came up at all. On the
other hand, there was a force of German infantry lying in wait, and this
body of troops may have been stronger than appeared.
I can only be responsible for what I saw, though I feel at liberty to
repeat what I heard where probability of its truth may be inferred. I
have also looked through files of English newspapers; and I cannot
attempt to veil the fact that I must often be, or appear to be, in
contradiction to accounts that were published about the time the
narrated incidents were recorded to have taken place. Naturally, first
records were imperfect, or needed explanations; but some things appeared
in English papers which it is difficult to understand. For instance, it
is said to be "officially reported from Petrograd" that the frontier was
not crossed by the Germans in the neighbourhood of Kalisz, and that no
fighting took place until the 14th or 15th August. (I am not sure which
date is meant; or whether the old or new system is intended.) Both these
assertions are incorrect, and could not have emanated from an "official"
source. The Russians are our allies, and personally I received great
kindness from the hands of many of them; but the only value of a
narrative of the kind I am writing is its correctness, and I intend to
record the truth without fear and without favour. I cannot perceive that
it would be any advantage to them to make a misstatement. The assertion
is probably an error. At any rate I can state, and do positively state,
that the frontier was crossed by the Germans at Kalisz; and that
fighting took place at several points before the 14th August. Possibly
the accounts were published before correction.
At this time I learned that there was a line of strong posts from Dabie
to Petrikau, a distance of, roughly, eighty versts. These, probably,
outflanked the Germans; and reinforcements were daily arriving in vast
numbers, prolonging the line in the direction of the Vistula some
seventy versts north of Dabie. The country between Dabie and the named
river was patrolled by an enormous horde of cavalry--at least
20,000--and infantry and artillery were coming up by march route, there
being no railway except the Kutno-Warsaw narrow-gauge line, which was
used chiefly for the transport of ammunition and stores. This line runs
direct to Thorn, one of Germany's strong frontier fortresses; and the
Russians tried to push along it as far as possible; but the Germans sent
flying parties into Russia as far as Wroclawick, fifty versts from
Thorn, and completely destroyed the line. In doing this they suffered
some losses, for a Russian force crossed the Vistula near Nieszawa and
attacked one of the working-parties. They claimed to have killed and
wounded 300 of the enemy, and they brought in ninety prisoners, four of
whom were officers.
The only fighting I saw during these operations was between two cavalry
pickets. There were thirty Cossacks on our side. I do not know how many
Germans there were, but they were reinforced continually during the
fight until they compelled us to fall back. They held the verge of a
pine-wood, while the Cossacks sheltered themselves behind some scattered
trees, fighting, of course, dismounted with their horses picketed a mile
behind them and left in charge of a trumpeter.
So far as I could see, the fight was a completely useless one. It
resulted in the death of two men on our side, and six wounded. The
firing lasted nearly three hours and would probably have gone on much
longer had not our men run out of cartridges. In this little skirmish I
shot off a hundred rounds myself, with what result must be left to the
imagination; for, as the distance was 900 yards, I had not even the
satisfaction of seeing the branches of the trees flying about. The
German bullets cut off many twigs from our trees, and the trumpeter
afterwards reported that several of their shots fell amongst the horses
without doing any damage. It showed the great range of the German
weapons, and also the very bad shooting of the men.
We drew off, and some of the hussars came out of the wood, mounted their
horses, and looked after us; but they did not attempt to follow us.
Enterprise was not a prominent attribute of the German cavalry, nor,
indeed, of the mounted force of our own side, though the Cossacks
sometimes showed considerable boldness. Often I longed for the presence
of a few regiments of British or French cavalry, for some splendid
opportunities were let slip by the Russian troopers; not from want of
bravery, but simply from the lack of that daring dash which is a
distinguishing feature of all good horsemanship.
Yet, notwithstanding the want of energy on the part of the Russian
mounted men, they were continually on the move, and, as I soon
discovered for myself, were gradually moving to the north, apparently
covering the advance of an ever-increasing mass of infantry and
artillery. Polchow's battery was attached to the brigade of Cossacks of
which the 4th was one of the units. The reason that I connected myself
with this particular corps was because one of its officers spoke a
little English; but it was so little that we frequently had much
difficulty in understanding each other. I soon learned the Russian words
of command and the names of common things and objects, and I often acted
as officer of a squadron (or "sotnia," as the men call it); but I felt
that I would rather be with Polchow, and I soon became attached to his
battery as a "cadet," though I was the oldest man in the unit.
It was a "horse" battery; but the horse artillery in the Russian service
is not a separately organized body as it is in the British Army. The
guns are simply well-horsed, and the limbers, waggons, etc., rendered as
light and mobile as possible. The batteries have not the dash and go of
English horse-artillery; and I should be very sorry to see a Russian
battery attempt to gallop over a ditch or other troublesome obstacle, as
I can foresee what the result would be. The Russian horse-artillery is a
sort of advanced-guard of the gunnery arm and has no special training
for its duties. In several important particulars its equipment and
organization differs from ours.
At this time there were said to be several Englishmen, two Frenchmen,
and Swedes, Norwegians and Dutch, in the Russian service. I never met
any of them, but I know there was a German, born and bred in
Brandenburg, an officer in the 178th line, who was permitted to remain
in the Muscovite Army; and who fought with invincible bravery and
determination against his countrymen. There was a mystery about him, the
actual nature of which I never learned; but it was said that he had
received some injury which had implanted in his breast a fierce hatred
of the land of his birth.
For two days after I had joined the artillery we were making forced
marches to the north, and on the 16th we crossed the Vistula at Plock.
The next day we were in front of the enemy between Biezun and Przasnysz,
with our left flank resting on a marshy lake near the first-named place.
Beyond the lake this flank was supported by a very large body of
cavalry--twenty-four regiments I think, or not less than 14,000 men.
This large force effectually kept off the much inferior German cavalry.
It suffered a good deal from shell-fire, but our artillery prevented the
Prussian infantry from inflicting any losses on it.
The country had been raided by the Germans before our arrival, and they
had committed many atrocities. The young women had been abused, and the
older ones cruelly ill-treated. The hamlets and isolated farms had been
burnt down; in some cases the ruins were still smouldering; and what had
become of the inhabitants did not appear. Some at least had been slain:
for we found the body of one woman lying, head downwards, in a filthy
gutter which drained a farmyard; and on the other side of the building,
two men hanging from the same tree. The woman had been killed by a blow
on the head which had smashed the skull, and her body had been treated
with shameful irreverence. The gunners of the battery buried these three
poor creatures in the same grave while we were waiting for orders to go
into action.
Afterwards, while searching the ruined house, the men found the body of
a bed-ridden cripple who had been murdered by bayonet-thrusts; and,
under the bed, were three young children half dead with fright and
starvation. There was also a baby of a few months old, lying in its cot,
dead from want of food and attention, we supposed, as there were no
marks of grosser violence on the little mite.
These sights and others seen in the neighbourhood had a terrible effect
on the usually phlegmatic Russian soldiers, and afterwards cost many
Germans their lives: for I know that wounded men and prisoners were
slain in retaliation, and civilians too, when portions of the frontier
were crossed, as will be found recorded later on.
We were puzzled what to do with the children, for it would have been
inhuman to leave them in a plundered and wrecked home; the oldest
appearing to be not more than six years old. It was remembered that we
had seen a woman at a cottage two miles to the rear, and so, accompanied
by an orderly, I rode back with them. We found several women taking
refuge in the house, and, though we could not understand one another, it
was evident that we were leaving the poor little creatures amongst
friends, as I could see by the attitude of the orderly.
When we got back to the farm we found that the battery had been
advanced, and we had some difficulty in finding it. I had to leave that
work to the orderly, an old non-commissioned officer named Chouraski,
who afterwards acted as my servant.
The battery, with the rest of the regiment, and several others, about
200 guns in all, was massed behind a sandbank--not a wise arrangement.
Other batteries were bringing a cross-fire to bear from distances which
I computed to be two and three miles from our position. The Germans were
evidently suffering severely, and so were we. One of our batteries had
all its guns dismounted or put out of action, and many other guns were
destroyed, though in some cases the gunners got them on fresh wheels, or
even limbers. All the men were cool and brave beyond praise, though the
effects of the fire were very terrible. One shell burst as it hit the
body of a gunner, who was literally blown to pieces. Another shot
smashed away the head of a man standing close to me. He threw up his
hands, and stood rigid so long that I thought he was not going to fall.
The sight of the headless trunk standing there with blood streaming
over the shoulders was so horrible that it was quite a relief to the
nerves when he dropped. The gunners, who had stood still paralyzed by
the sight, resumed their work; but they had not fired more than a round
or two, when a shell smashed the gun-shield and wiped out the whole
detachment. A piece of this shell entered the forehead of my horse and
it fell like a pole-axed ox, dying with scarcely a quiver of the
muscles.
Although the shield was destroyed the gun was not put out of action, and
I got a couple of men from another gun, and we continued to fire it.
This went on hour after hour, until all the shells (shrapnel and common)
were expended. Twice a fresh supply was brought up by the reserve
ammunition column men, and altogether about 500 rounds per gun were shot
off in this part of the field, or about 100,000 in all. As there were at
least 600 guns in action it is probable that 500,000 shells were thrown
against the enemy; an enormous number; and nobody will be surprised to
learn that the slaughter was terrible. Many of our guns were cleared of
men over and over again, reserve gunners being sent up from the rear as
they were required, the men running up quite eager to be engaged, and,
generally speaking, taking no notice of the casualties which were
constantly occurring close to them.
I strove hard to draw the attention of every officer within reach to the
faulty position of the guns; but all were very excited, and my
unfortunate ignorance of their language prevented me from making myself
understood. I did not know what had become of Major Polchow, but late in
the afternoon he came up with a staff officer, and I pointed out to him
the unnecessary slaughter which was taking place owing to the exposed
position of the guns. He said that the error had been observed long
before, but that it was considered to be unwise to retire them. Now,
however, so many of the artillerymen had fallen that dozens of the guns
were silenced, so an attempt was made to draw back the most exposed of
the batteries. The horses had been sheltered in a hollow a hundred yards
in the rear, yet even in their comparatively protected position so many
of them had been killed and mangled that it was only possible to move
back three guns at a time.
The Germans observed the movement, with the result that men, guns,
waggons, and horses, were smashed to pieces in a horrible and very
nerve-trying confusion. Many of the incidents were almost too horrible
to be described. The leg of one man was blown off by a bursting shell.
He saved himself from falling by clutching a gun-carriage; but this was
on the move and dragged him down. The bleeding was stopped by a roughly
improvised tourniquet; he was laid on the ground with his coat under his
head and left to his fate.
When the guns were drawn back to the new position very few casualties
occurred; but at this time the Germans made a determined onset with huge
masses of infantry in close columns of companies--an amazing formation,
but one which I was prepared to see executed, knowing their general
tactics as practised on peace manoeuvres.
At this moment we had only twelve shells per gun left. These twelve cut
great lanes deep into the advancing masses, but did not stop them, and
orders were given to retire. Two of our guns were drawn away by the
prolonge (that is, by means of ropes manned by men on foot), and two
were abandoned. We should certainly have been overtaken and destroyed;
but about a thousand yards to the rear we found three regiments of
infantry halted in a slight hollow of the ground. These 12,000 men
suddenly rushed forward and opened a tremendous fusillade on the
advancing masses, bringing them down so fast that the appearance of
falling men was continuous and had a very extraordinary effect. But they
were not stopped, and our infantry was compelled to fall back with the
guns, losing heavily from the fire which the Germans kept up as they
advanced.
Our infantry, like that of the Germans, kept much too close a formation,
and the losses were therefore appalling. Thus, early in the war, all the
Russian units were at full strength; infantry four battalions per
regiment--fully 4,000 men. The three regiments behind us lost half their
strength, equal to 6,000 men, in twenty minutes; and the remnant was
saved only by reaching a pine-wood about a mile in length and some 300
yards in depth. This enabled them to check the Germans; and two
batteries of artillery coming up, evidently sent from another division
to support us, they were compelled to halt, lying down on the ground
for such shelter as it afforded, to wait for their own artillery. This
did not come up until it was nearly dusk. Before it opened fire we began
to retreat and we were not pursued.
We fell back on two small hamlets with a farm between them, and here we
entrenched ourselves, putting the buildings into a state of defence.
Distant firing was heard all night, and we received a fresh supply of
ammunition, and heard that 150 of the guns were saved. As we had thirty
with us it was estimated that about twenty had fallen into the hands of
the enemy besides twenty or thirty machine-guns.
Outposts reporting that the German division which had pursued us had
retired northwards, I proposed, as soon as it was light enough for us to
see our way, that a party should go out to look for the wounded men of
our battery. These brave fellows had done their duty as only heroes do
it--without a moment's hesitation, or the least flinching at the most
trying moments; and with scarcely a groan from the horribly wounded,
whose sufferings must have been excruciating.
Although unable to understand a word I uttered, all who stood by, when
informed by Polchow of what was proposed, volunteered to accompany me. I
took about thirty men with stretchers, which were mostly made of hurdles
obtained at the farm.
It was about three English miles to the spot where the batteries had
been first posted and the whole distance was thickly littered with dead
bodies of Germans and Russians intermingled. All the wounded except
those desperately hurt had been removed, but none of the enemy were
about. They appeared to be kept off by strong patrols of our cavalry,
which could be seen in the distance; and, doubtless, the German horsemen
were in view, as desultory shots were fired from time to time.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN ARTILLERY GOING INTO ACTION]
Dying men made piteous appeals for drink. One poor fellow expired while
we were in the act of attending to him. The horribly inhuman nature of
the Germans was evinced by the circumstance that they had made prisoners
of all the wounded who would probably recover, and count in their lists
of capture; but had left the mortal cases (even their own) unattended,
to linger out a dreadful and agonized end. Their lack of feeling was
fiendish. They had not even endeavoured to alleviate the sufferings of
the men thus abandoned: for we found one German groaning, and seemingly
praying for succour, pinned down under a dead horse. He was not even
dangerously hurt, and would, I think, recover under the treatment he
would receive from the Russians. For though these northern men were
often barbarous enough on the field of battle, they were never cruel to
their prisoners, or to injured men, unless these were known to have been
guilty of atrocities.
The sights of that battlefield, and others which I afterwards witnessed,
will be a nightmare to the end of life. I had often read of rivers
"running red with blood," and thought this simply poetic exaggeration;
but when we went to a brook to obtain water for some gasping men, I
noticed that it was horribly tinged with dark red streaks, which seemed
to be partly coagulated blood. Some light fragments which floated by
were undoubtedly human brains; yet at their urgent entreaty we gave of
this water to poor creatures to drink, for no other was available.
This horror was not comparable to what we witnessed when we arrived at
the spot where the artillery slaughter had taken place. The ground was
covered with dark patches--blood blotches. Fragments of flesh, arms,
legs, limbs of horses, and scattered intestines, lay everywhere about
that horrible "first position." On the ground lay a human eye and within
an inch or two of it, a cluster of teeth; all that remained of some poor
head that had been dashed away. Where the body was that had owned these
relics did not appear. The force of impact had probably driven them
yards and yards; and it was a mere chance that they met my view. Close
to one of our guns, too badly broken to be worth carrying away by the
enemy, were two brawny hands, tightly clasping the handle of the sponge
with which their owner had been cleaning the piece when they had been
riven from his body. The man was close by, a mere mass of smashed flesh
and bones, with thousands of beastly flies battening on his gore, as
they were on that of all the corpses. The sight was unbearable. Sick and
nearly fainting, I had to lean against a broken waggon to recover
myself.
Our wounded had been murdered. There could be no question of that. For
we had not left any behind who were capable of fighting, yet a dozen had
been finished off by bayonet wounds--and German bayonets make awful
jagged wounds because their weapons have saw-backs.
One bayoneted gunner was not quite dead. At long intervals--about a
minute it seemed to me--he made desperate efforts to breathe; and every
time he did so bubbles of blood welled from the wound in his breast, and
a horrible gurgling sound came from both throat and breast. There were
two doctors in our party, but they looked at each other, and shook their
heads when they examined this miserable man. Nothing could be done for
him except to place him in a more comfortable position. War is hellish.
We found another of our men alive. His plight was so terrible that it
was hardly worth while to increase his suffering by carrying him away.
We did so: but he died before we had gone two versts. On that part of
the field which the Germans had been compelled to cross without waiting
to carry out their fell work, we found more survivors, and took back a
dozen, of whom three were Germans. There happened to be no Red Cross men
with our division just then; but we sent them to the rear in empty
provision waggons.
This is what I saw of the battle of Biezum, if this is its correct
designation. According to Polchow the Russian centre was at Radnazovo, a
town, or large village, eleven versts further east; and the whole front
extended more than thirty versts, though the hottest fighting was near
Biezum. It was afterwards reported that 10,000 Russians were killed in
this engagement, and 40,000 wounded. The Germans must have lost heavily
too. I saw thousands of their dead lying on the ground near Biezum
alone. The fight was not a victory for the Russians, and scarcely could
be claimed as such by the Germans. The two forces remained in contact,
and fighting continued with more or less intensity until it developed
into what modern battles seem destined to be, a prolonged series of
uninterrupted operations.