THE FIGHTING UP TO THE 26TH AUGUST
There appeared to be nearly 300 men in Polchow's battery when we went
into action: only fifty-nine remained with the four guns we saved at the
close of the day, and not one of these escaped a more or less serious
hurt, though some were merely scratched by small fragments of shell or
bruised by shrapnel bullets. At least twenty of the men would have been
justified in going to hospital; several ultimately had to do so, and one
died. Even British soldiers could not have shown greater heroism.
Chouraski, the non-commissioned officer who had attached himself to me,
had a bullet through the fleshy part of the left arm, yet he brought me
some hot soup and black bread after dark; whence obtained, or how
prepared, I have no idea. I was much touched by the man's kindness. All
the soldiers with whom I came in contact were equally kind: and I have
noticed that the men of other armies with whom I have come in contact in
the course of my life, even the Germans, seemed to see something in my
personality which attracted them, and to desire to be friendly. Perhaps
they instinctively realized that I am an admirer of the military man; or
perhaps it was the _bonhomie_ which is universal amongst soldiers.
Certainly I got on well with them all, though some time elapsed before
we could understand a simple sentence spoken on either side.
For two days I was not fit for much: then I went to the front with a
detachment of sixty gunners which had arrived from Petrograd via Warsaw.
I found the battery and the rest of the regiment encamped to the
westward of Przasnysz.
Heavy fighting was going on somewhere in front; but the contending
troops were not in sight. The whole country was full of smoke, and the
smell of burning wood and straw was nearly suffocating. The Germans had
set fire to everything that would burn, including the woods. During the
night heavy showers of rain fell, and these extinguished most of the
fires and saved a vast quantity of timber.
I could see that the Germans had been driven back a considerable
distance; and the Russians claimed to have won great victories in the
neighbourhood of Stshutchen and Graevo, and to have already passed
500,000 men across the German border. That they were making progress was
obvious; and on the 20th August I witnessed some desperate infantry
fighting.
The Germans came on, as they always did, in immense columns, literally
jammed together, so that their men were held under fire an unnecessarily
long time. The usual newspaper phrase, "Falling in heaps," was quite
justifiable in this case. Thousands fell in ten minutes; and the
remainder broke and fled in spite of the efforts of their officers to
stop them. I was well in front and saw what took place. The German
officers struck their men with their swords and in several cases cut
them down; and I saw one of them fire his revolver into the crowd. I did
not actually see men fall, but he must have shot several.
The Russians, too, adopted a much closer formation than was wise, and
suffered severely in consequence, but they never wavered. The Germans
came on again and again, nine times in all, and proved themselves
wonderful troops. Four out of the nine charges they drove home, and
there was some desperate bayonet fighting in which the Teutons proved to
be no match for the Muscovites. The last named used the "weapon of
victory" with terrible effect, disproving all the modern theories about
the impossibility of opposing bodies being able to close, or to come
into repeated action on the same day.
On the contrary, it may be taken as certainly proved that men's nerves
are more steeled than ever they were, and that the same body of men can
make repeated and successive attacks within very short periods of time.
In the above attacks fresh bodies of troops were brought up each time,
but the remnants of the battalions previously used were always driven on
in front. I noticed this: on three occasions the 84th regiment (probably
Landwehr) formed part of the attacking force.
"Driven on" is the correct term. The German officers invariably drove
their men in front of them. Arriving in contact with their foes, the
soldiers fought with fury. It was the preliminary advance that seemed to
discompose them: and, indeed, their losses were dreadful. They
certainly left at least 30,000 dead and wounded on the ground on the
20th. The greater number were dead, because those who lay helpless
received a great part of the fire intended for their retreating
comrades, and thus were riddled through and through.
The Russian artillery played on the masses both when they advanced and
retreated; but the fight was chiefly an infantry one. The full effect of
the guns could not be brought into play without danger of injury to our
own men. In the end the Russians chased the enemy back and the artillery
was advanced to support them. Considerable ground was gained; but four
or five versts to the rear of their first position the Germans were
found to be strongly entrenched. The day's fight was finished by a
charge of a large body of Cossacks and Russian light cavalry. They swept
away the force of German horsemen who ventured to oppose them, and also
drove back several battalions of infantry. That part of the Russian Army
which had been engaged bivouacked on the ground they had fought over.
The cries of the wounded during the night were terrible to hear, and
came from many different points and distances. Hundreds must have died
from want of attention, and hundreds more, on both sides, were murdered.
The Germans, who were hovering about in small parties, persistently
fired on the Red Cross men, so little could be done for the dying; and
the cruelties which were perpetrated, and which were revealed (so I was
told) by the shouts, entreaties and imprecations of the sufferers,
aroused a nasty spirit in the Russians, and particularly in the
Cossacks, and led to fearful reprisals, so that in one part of the field
I know that not a German was left alive. I am bound to add that after I
had seen two Russians brought in with their eyes gouged out, and another
with his nose and ears cropped, and his lacerated tongue lolling from
his mouth, I had not a word of protest to utter against these reprisals.
The Germans were finished fiends, and deserved all they got from a body
of men notorious for their fierceness; and they _did get it_. I will say
this, though: that throughout the campaign no instance of a Russian
injuring a woman or a child came under my notice; nor did I hear of any
such cases. But I was told that three Prussian girls, who were seen to
be on friendly terms with some Russian soldiers, were nearly flogged to
death by their own people; and the horrible treatment the Polish women
received from the hands of the Germans has already been mentioned, and
was ever recurring during the whole of the time I spent with the Russian
Army.
I would here make mention of the quality of the Russian and German
soldiery. Conscription sweeps into the ranks of an army numbers of men
who are totally unfit for a military life and a still further number who
abhor it. In the present war, hatred and vindictive feeling generally
has run very high on the northern side of the fighting area; and this
circumstance seems to have greatly increased the war-like instinct of
the masses, and consequently decreased the number of what I may term
the natural non-combatants. In the Russian ranks, and I believe in the
German also, this class is weeded out as far as possible, and relegated
to the organizations which have least to do with the fighting line--that
is, the administrative services, and troops organized to maintain the
lines of communication. But these fellows--the natural non-combatants,
or haters of the soldier's life, I mean--are, when found in the fighting
ranks, the most detestable scoundrels imaginable; and I believe the
greater part of the atrocities committed may be laid to their charge.
They lose no opportunity of indulging in lust and murder; and as in
civil life they are mostly wastrels, thieves and would-be murderers,
they find in war an opportunity to indulge in those vices which,
practised in time of peace, would bring them to the prison and the
noose. In other words, the scum of the big cities is brought into the
army, and often proves as great a curse to its own administrative, as it
does to that of the enemy. Not all the Germans were fiends--not all the
Russians saints.
Early in the war many of the German regiments were composed of
exceedingly fine-looking men. There was a decided deterioration later
on, but this was more in appearance than quality: they still fought with
determined, or desperate, courage; I am inclined to think, often the
last-named. They were taught that the only way to escape the brutality
of their officers was to face the courage of their foes. They chose the
latter. Often hundreds--whole companies together--rushed over to the
Russians, threw down their arms, and surrendered themselves prisoners of
war. No such instance ever occurred in the Russian ranks. The Russian
soldier is a very pious man, and, like the North Aryan stock from which
he has sprung, is a great worshipper of ancestry and his superiors. His
commanding officer, like his Czar, is a Father, or a Little Father--a
sacred being--his priest as well as his temporal master. The consequence
is that officer and soldier are one, a conjunction that is of great
value from the military standpoint.
This is never the case in the German Army. The Teutonic officer is a
brute and a slave-driver, and his soldiers fear him if they do not hate
him. I doubt if any German soldier ever gets through his training
without being repeatedly struck by all his superiors from the
unter-officer upwards. Feathers show how the wind sets. A Prussian
regiment (the Pomeranian Grenadiers) was route-marching. One of the
musicians blew a false note: the bandmaster immediately turned and
struck the man a stinging blow on the face. I believe the German Army is
the only one in the world where such an incident could occur. Like
master, like man. One brute breeds another.
Taken on the whole the old adage that "one volunteer is worth two
pressed men" is true; but an army of ten or twelve millions could not be
successfully met by one of a million or two. Numbers must count when
they are excessive; though things militate against this rule sometimes.
If an army has not its heart in a contest very inferior numbers may win.
In the present case it soon became clear to me that both the great
nations had their hearts in the war: the surprising thing is that Russia
with her huge hordes has so far done so little--Germany hard pressed on
all sides effected so much.
These words will reveal that I do not take the general view that Russia
is progressing as fast and as well as she might reasonably be expected
to do.[1] Yet I am unable to point out very clearly where her principal
defect lies. She brought up troops very rapidly; and by the 20th August
she had an enormous army in the field on the East Prussian frontier. At
this time, and later on, I learned that her lines extended throughout
the German border and far along that of Austria to the Bug; and she was
said to have at least 5,000,000 men massed in these lines. The Germans
had not nearly so many--probably not more than 2,500,000 or 3,000,000;
but they had the power, by means of their railways, to concentrate on a
given point very rapidly, and so equal, or more than equal, the
Russians, who, being without adequate railway communication, could not
take advantage of their superior numbers. If the last-named saw a
weakness in any part of the German defensive and attempted to take
advantage of it, before they could bring up an adequate number of troops
the Germans had discovered their intentions and rushed up a sufficient
force to secure the threatened point: and this they did by bringing men
from positions so numerous, and so distant, that they nowhere materially
weakened their line; or, if they did so, they were enabled to conceal
the fact.
[1] This paragraph was written four or five months ago.
Europe, Austria and Germany, is surrounded by a ring of armed men,
extending, roughly, a distance of 1,500 miles, and defended by a force
of about 14,000,000 men, or some five men to the linear yard. This is,
in modern war, a sufficient number for effective attack or defence, on
ordinary ground; but it is not too many, and in prolonged operation may
prove to be too few on some descriptions of terre-plein. Yet, after ten
months of the fiercest and most destructive fighting the world has ever
seen, this ring of armed men has not been broken, though persistently
attacked by three of the most powerful military nations on earth.
My estimate of the number of German and Austrian troops actually in the
fighting-line at the beginning of the war is much in excess of the
numbers stated in English newspapers. I note this; but do not think that
14,000,000 is an exaggeration. I have information, and am not merely
guessing. Nor are the losses of the enemy overstated by me.
Down to the present date the losses of the Germans and Austrians amount
to about 3,000,000 men; but it must be remembered that quite two-thirds
of these would be wounded men who would recover, and go back to their
respective fighting-lines; so that the actual number of men permanently
put out of action is about 1,000,000, including those accounted for by
the French, British, and Belgian armies. The losses of the Russians are
nearly 2,000,000 men. Of these the greater part fell in the fighting I
have described and am about to describe, fighting which may be called a
prolonged battle for the possession of Warsaw on the one side and its
defence on the other. The importance of this combat will be recognized
when it is considered that the taking of Warsaw is the first necessary
step towards the occupation of Petrograd.
The vision of one man, especially in war, is limited; and I did not see
everything that took place in the region in which I was. I heard a good
deal, and was ever on the watch to learn and verify, but it could not be
otherwise than impossible to be always sure--always correct; and without
doubt there are many errors in my narration. What I saw, I saw, and this
may be relied on: what I guessed, or was told, I have advanced with
caution. Taken as a whole I think my account of the fighting in Poland
and East Prussia is as reliable as that of any one man can be: and let
it be remembered that I held no official position which could help me in
gaining knowledge.
On the evening of the 20th, and morning of the 21st, many rumors reached
our corps of Russian successes in the neighbourhoods of Gumbinnen and
Suvalki, places which were said to be but little more than 100 versts
from our position. The first-named is an open town in East Prussia
twenty-five versts over the border; and the news gave great joy to our
troops, as it proved that Germany was actually invaded. My informants
of the details were Major Polchow and two or three officers who spoke a
little English and French and were able to make themselves understood to
me.
There was said to have been desperate fighting, with heavy losses, the
capture of many German prisoners, and the complete annihilation of a
whole division of the enemy.
The occupation of Gumbinnen was of great importance because it is on the
Prussian direct line to Vilna, one of the most important railway centres
in this part of Russia and perhaps in the whole empire. Although the
Russians could not maintain their hold of it, its temporary occupation,
no doubt, had an important effect, and possibly helped more than seems
to have been seen in saving Warsaw from the enemy's hands. For had they
succeeded in seizing Vilna, the Russian force in Poland would have been
deprived largely, if not entirely, of reinforcements and supplies in
general. It was one of the peculiarities of the war in Poland and East
Prussia that neither side seemed able to keep an important position for
any length of time. Places were seized which had a telling effect for
the moment, and which one would have thought would have greatly
influenced the fate of the campaign; and yet they were soon retaken or
rendered untenable and the advantages of their seizure lost. In fact the
fighting swayed to and fro. Here to-day, there to-morrow, the battle was
lost or won. It was all a question of railways.
On the 21st the Russians crossed the frontier between Janow and
Chorzellen, and advanced towards Ortelsberg, driving in a force of
Uhlans and smashing a battery.
The next day they were met by a force of Villenberg, which partially
outflanked us. Desperate fighting ensued, the Germans suffering terrible
losses: but they had an object to effect--to hold the Russians until
reinforcements arrived. These were run down rapidly from Koenigsberg and
the Russians outnumbered and forced back. The fight was lost because the
Germans had a network of railways behind them, while the nearest Russian
line was 45 versts away. These facts require no comment. A Russian
railway at Chorzellen would have saved the day, and led to the
investment and probable fall of Koenigsberg. It would have made the
occupancy of Tilsit and Memel permanent, and would almost certainly have
changed the results of the campaign in this region.
As it was, we had to fall back; but we did so fighting stubbornly, and
giving ground very slowly, reinforcements hourly arriving by
march-route. Finally we made a stand at Chorzellen, and the Prussians
tried their usual tactics of repeated attacks in masses. They left
10,000 dead before the town (it is scarcely more than a big village),
and then entrenched themselves at a hamlet called Straffenberg, several
miles in a south-westerly direction towards Unterberg: and then a
terrific artillery duel commenced. I calculated that 30,000 shots an
hour were fired from both armies. The air, the ground, everywhere and
everything, seemed to be alive with bursting shells. The roar of guns
and explosions was incessant and quite drowned the sound of the infantry
firing. Afterwards many men were deaf; I myself could hear no sounds for
two days.
I do not know how many guns were in action, nor the calibre of them. On
our side only field guns were used, and if the Germans had any of larger
size they were, at this time, few in number. Hundreds of machine-guns
were used on both sides, and yet the slaughter was not at all in
proportion to the amount of ammunition expended. As in all battles,
according to my experience, the principal part of the destruction was
due to infantry fire. Of course the loss of life was very great. I can
only say the ground was heaped with dead and dying. At each successive
assault the Germans mounted the heaps of corpses to get at our men and,
falling on their comrades, caused the slain to lie in heaps and ridges
in an extraordinary and dreadful way. The wounded in the underlying
layers must have been suffocated; and the blood ran down the slopes in
streams.
This fearful form of fighting went on from the 22nd to the 28th August
without any intermission, except occasionally a few hours in the
night-time, rarely even then. I, like others, sometimes slept the sleep
of utter exhaustion; but during the wakening hours I do not remember
that the firing ever entirely ceased. Generally the sound of it was a
continuous roar. The heavens were lit up by the reflections of
discharged guns and bursting shells, and the pandemonium was dominated
by a shrieking sound, probably occasioned by the rush of projectiles
through the air. The terrific noise affected my brain so that for weeks
afterwards I was afflicted with a head-noise resembling a loud hissing,
almost intolerable to bear as it interfered with necessary rest.
The front of this terrific battle was very extensive--200 versts I was
told; and the Russians claimed to have had 3,000,000 men in action. At
the same time fighting was going on in Galicia, and there were some
isolated contests, south and west of our position. The fortune of the
contending parties varied greatly; in some places the Prussians were
forced back, in others the Russians. Neither side had a decided victory
in any part of the field, and the ground lost or won never exceeded a
verst or two in extent and was often less than a hundred yards. So it is
proved that close and hand-to-hand fighting are not things of the past,
as many have thought them to be. On the contrary, close fighting is more
often and more extensively resorted to than ever it has been previously,
even in the open field; and I think, more fiercely contested. At any
rate I saw several battalions on each side so nearly destroyed that they
were practically wiped out. A battalion of the 9th West Siberian
regiment on our side, and a territorial battalion of the 59th Prussians
met with such a fate. Not fifty of the Russians nor more than a dozen of
the Germans came out of the scrimmages. They were greatly outnumbered,
and some of those lost were probably taken prisoners; but I can say,
from actual sight of the incidents, that in each case the men fought
with desperate bravery and evinced no desire to surrender.
There was some cavalry fighting too; but, generally, the Russians were
numerically superior to their foes; and the Germans, more often than
otherwise, avoided proffered battle. In a few instances squadrons and
regiments charged one another, the Germans always getting the worst of
it, and in one case at least being much cut up. The Russian cavalry even
attacked infantry, but though they got away without serious loss, it is
pretty evident that only in exceptional instances can cavalry now
successfully contend with modernly armed foot soldiers.