THE FIRST INVASION OF EAST PRUSSIA, AND THE RETREAT
By the 4th or 5th September it was pretty generally known, in that part
of the Russian Army where I was, that something was going wrong with us.
Great masses of infantry and artillery were formed eastward, behind, and
on the right flank of the cavalry; and yet we made no further advance or
progress in any direction. Some thought that our commanders were afraid
of the garrison of the Koenigsberg forts, which was believed to number
150,000 men. I, and others engaged on outpost and scouting work, knew
that German reinforcements were coming up rapidly, and that a large army
was collecting on the Vistula between Marienburg and Thorn. These
reinforcements, we knew, were coming from Belgium and the Western
theatre of war, and also from the interior of Germany.
On our side reinforcements were coming up in great numbers; but at this
period the chief fighting was on the Austrian-Russian frontier; and
daily, and often almost hourly, news came to hand of the great victories
which were being gained. It was asserted that in one day as many as
130,000 Austrian and Prussian prisoners were taken. The truth of these
reports I had no means of ascertaining: nor of the many other rumours
of the crushing victories of the Allies in the West, where the Germans
were said to be retreating on all parts, and in many places, in
disorderly rout. Now, eight months later, are they retreating at any
point? Evidently mistakes were made; and it was not realized that the
enemy was preparing a ring of defences which it would take many months
to force. It was also said that the Germans were beginning to run short
of ammunition. We soon had painful evidence that the Germans were short
of nothing.
On the evening of the 5th September, they trapped one of our cavalry
regiments and destroyed it, together with the greater part of a squadron
of dragoons. Many of the men, including all the wounded, were taken
prisoners.
On the 6th the enemy began to advance in force. The fighting consisted
mostly of artillery duels at long ranges. While we were watching the
action of some guns posted about two English miles away, a shell smashed
to atoms the head and shoulders of an officer in the midst of our group,
and we were splashed all over with his blood and brains--not a pleasant
experience. The man must have been killed instantly, yet his hands and
feet continued to twitch for some minutes after he was struck. It is
remarkable that only one man was hurt, as we were standing close
together under some trees, where we felt sure we were quite safe.
On the same day we began to retire, but slowly, and with much stubborn
fighting. Nearly all the cavalry was drawn back from the front, and
much of it must have been sent right away, as I never saw it again. The
5th Cossack division, however, remained; and for a long time was engaged
in covering a portion of the 11th Army Corps.
[Illustration: RUSSIAN COSSACKS ON THE GERMAN FRONTIER]
On the 7th the artillery fight continued without apparently decisive
results on either side, though our retreat continued, as it did on the
8th when the bulk of the Cossacks (about 1,500 men) were at Deutsch
Eylau, with orders to fall back on Soldau, a town seventy or eighty
versts east of Thorn. There followed a number of movements which I did
not understand, and about which I could glean no information. My
difficulties were so great that it was not until this day that I learned
we were under the direct command of General Rennenkampf, whom I had only
seen on one occasion, and then had scarcely more than a glimpse of him.
The little I learned with certainty showed that the Russians were
obtaining great and important victories over the Austrians, with whom
were combined a considerable force of Germans, and that the Prussians
were becoming exceedingly nervous about their progress. In consequence,
they withdrew a great many units from our front; and the Russians, too,
sent a great force to the south, including, I suspect, most of the
cavalry that had suddenly departed. Both sides, also, but the Germans
principally, began to form extensive systems of entrenchments; and two
new devices came into use in modern warfare--viz., hand-grenades and
armour breastplates.
The grenades were peculiar things, not at all resembling the weapons
which gave our Grenadiers their name; of a kind of elongated pear-shape,
these were iron cases divided into segments, and attached to a stick
which fitted the barrel of a rifle and enabled them to be shot, at an
acute angle, into trenches. They were, also, thrown by hand, and were
nasty viperish things, often doing a great deal of damage.
The shields were a kind of iron breastplate, roughly made, and held in
the hand by means of metal handles; so that the men had to drop them
when they fired their rifles, or used their bayonets: but afterwards
they were attached to the body by means of straps. Except at short range
they were bullet-proof. The method of use was for the front rank in a
mass of close columns to hold them up, protecting themselves and
comrades until they closed with the foe, when they were thrown down that
their bearers might use the bayonet. Hundreds of them were taken by the
Russians; but the contrivance was too clumsy, and was soon abandoned by
both sides. Before the men could drop them and unsling their rifles they
were heaps of corpses. The grenades, however, held their own, and were
much used in trench warfare.
There was frequent and much rain at this time; which was a great
inconvenience, and caused the ground to become in a very bad state for
the passage of cavalry and artillery, not to mention the misery of
bivouacking in drenching showers. The weather was often very hot; but
there was a singular absence of disease amongst our troops, though one
got to know that typhus and other fevers were appearing amongst the
enemy's troops, though not spreading to any extent; and probably no
campaign on a large scale was ever conducted with less loss to the
troops from disease.
Much of the scene of the operations I have been describing was very
beautiful country, studded with homesteads and farms that, in normal
times, must have been quiet and peaceful places, occupied by well-to-do
yeomanry and peasantry, living happy and contented lives. Orchards were
numerous, but the fruit had entirely disappeared, either prematurely
removed by its owners to make what they could of it, or plundered by the
passing troops. Frequently we rode by cornfields that had been burned;
and potato-fields had been dug up and wasted, thousands of potatoes the
size of marbles lying on the ground. Our raiders got hold of many fowls
and pigs; and for a week or two pork was always to be had at two or
three meals per day.
Most of the people had fled from this country; those that remained
seemed to fear their own countrymen as much as they did our Cossacks,
and remained in hiding while we were passing. Generally speaking they
were not ill-used when our men discovered them; but scant respect was
shown to the rights of womanhood by the Germans themselves, who had
become brutal. No doubt many of the German officers made great efforts
to maintain order; but the license of war is notorious, and many
opportunities for wrong-doing must necessarily arise in countries under
its influence.
Houses and whole villages were wrecked and burned. We were constantly
passing through smouldering ruins, and at night the land resembled our
"Black Country" for blazing fires, and reflections of fires. We saw
bodies of civilians who appeared to have been executed by shooting; and
in one wrecked and smoke-blackened street, a couple of our own Cossacks,
and another Russian soldier, were seen hanging to lamp-posts--probably
marauders who had wandered away from their ranks, and fallen amongst the
Philistines--a fate such people often meet.
Acting on orders, the cavalry spread out into a vast screen, covering
the movements of the infantry, and gradually fell back before the enemy.
The movement was described as being strategical, for the purpose of
drawing the Germans into a favourable position for attack; but this
assertion was probably made to keep up the spirits of our troops.
The enemy fired at us a good deal; but as they could not bring their
guns to bear on a group of men, very little execution was done. There
were some charges between small parties, always much less than a
squadron in strength: and in all these that I saw or heard of the
Germans got the worst of the fight; and besides those cut down, in three
or four days, our men captured more than 200 prisoners, half a dozen of
whom were officers. I believe that the Germans claimed to have captured
some of our soldiers, but I much doubt if they secured as many as a
score.
The Cossack has a strong disinclination to be taken prisoner; and I knew
of several of them sacrificing their lives rather than fall into the
hands of the Germans, who heartily detest these men, and usually
murdered such as they succeeded in catching--and murdered them after
preliminary tortures, according to reports which reached us. The country
people certainly showed no mercy to stragglers falling into their hands.
They usually pitch-forked them to death; and this lethal weapon was a
favourite with the ladies on both sides of the border, many a fine
Teuton meeting his end by thrusts from this implement. For in some of
the fights the peasantry, including women of all ages, took part, and
showed that farm instruments are as deadly as any kind of "arme
blanche." ("Arme blanche" is the term used by military scientists to
include bayonets, lances and swords of all descriptions. Perhaps the
nearest English equivalent is "cold steel.")
Riding through a burnt village near Neidenburg, half a sotnia of our
fellows fell into a Prussian trap and had a third of their saddles
emptied in a few seconds. The survivors were equal to the occasion;
and charged so vigorously that they completely routed their
opponents--about 100 of a reservist corps with the figures 239 on their
shoulder-straps.[2] Two of these men were impaled on the same Cossack
lance, an almost incredible circumstance. The Cossacks are in the habit
of lowering their lances as they charge without removing them from the
buckets. Holding them loosely by the lanyards they kick them into their
enemies with such irresistible force, aided by the speed of the charging
horse, that to parry the weapons is impossible. In the case mentioned,
the men must have been standing one close behind the other, and the
lance was driven right through bodies, packs and all. It was some time
before one of the men died: in fact, not before the Cossack drew his
sword and finished him off by a sabre cut. The soldier could not
withdraw his lance, so firmly was it embedded in the bodies, a
circumstance which much aroused his ire, for all Cossacks are much
attached to their weapons.
[2] 239 Reserve are said to have been in Flanders. There may be various
explanations; but it is certain that this small party of men wore the
number 239.
Having crossed the border, we fell back in the direction of Przasnysz,
hearing that Soldau was evacuated; but I did not myself enter that town.
We found that a long line of trenches had been made stretching towards
Lomza and said to be extended quite up to that place. The lines were
full of infantry; and redoubts were constructed at intervals in which
heavy siege artillery was placed; an encouraging sight, as it seemed
certain that these defences must effectually check the Germans.
We were not long left to ponder over the possible effects of an assault
on our position. On the 14th the Germans opened fire with their
field-guns, and at daybreak made a violent assault in their usual close
formation. The result was horrible. Whole sections of them were blown
away, the air being filled with showers of human fragments, dismembered
by the big shells from the siege guns. At the same time they were
subjected to a withering rifle fire and they soon broke and fled,
suffering terribly as they rushed madly away.
Perhaps the heavy guns were a surprise to them. They generally made
repeated assaults, often as many as seven or eight in quick succession;
but on this occasion they were fairly frightened: they even suspended
their artillery shooting until late in the afternoon, and made no
demonstration against the parties which went out from our lines to
examine the battlefield.
Of all the awful sights I had seen, or saw afterwards, none exceeded
this. The enemy could not reach the guns, on account of the skilful way
in which they were placed well in the rear, and protected by strong
cross-fire; but they had succeeded by superhuman bravery in forcing the
first line trenches. They held none of their gains longer than five
minutes, at most; but in that time lost so heavily that the pits were
filled with corpses flush with the ground outside of them. In some spots
the dead and the dying were lying in heaps eight or nine deep. The
shells which had been used appeared to weigh from 150 to 200 pounds
(English weight) each; and hundreds of bodies were rent to pieces. Arms,
heads, legs, entrails, pieces of flesh, were lying about in all
directions; and the proportion of dead to injured was very high--more
so, I think, than in any other action that had taken place, though in
some instances nearly all the casualties were caused by artillery fire.
We brought in about 7,000 wounded; and I calculated that at least 12,000
dead were left lying on the field. The Germans sent a flag of truce
asking for permission to bury their dead. A reply was sent that we would
do that job for them. But no attempt was made to bury the enemy's dead
until the 16th. There was rain in the interval, followed by a hot
morning: not more than half the bodies were disposed of until the 17th,
and by that time the stench from the field was sickening.
During this interval there was no firing worth mentioning. The Germans
were slyly waiting for their heavy guns to come up. However, on the
night of the 17th they made an attempt to surprise us, but went home
with a flea in their ear, leaving another 1,000 men behind them. At this
time so many men had been withdrawn to the Austrian front, that,
imitating the example of the British and French in the West, our cavalry
were dismounted and fighting in the trenches. So I had full opportunity
of seeing what was going on and taking a part in the operations. Often I
wished that I could move about even more freely than I contrived to do.
For the sounds of heavy firing miles away showed that our little hamlet
was not the only centre of a fierce fight. The name of this hamlet,
situated about twenty versts to the east of Przasnysz, by-the-by I never
heard. It had endured the horror of a visit from the Germans, and was a
heap of blackened ruins. It had occupied a slight eminence, and a
battery was now placed in front of it. Further back were some
gravel-pits and a scarped bank, where the Cossacks picketed their
horses, and a reserve of ammunition was kept, though it was not
altogether safe from the enemy's shells.
All through the 18th there was very heavy artillery firing, in which the
Germans got much the worst of it, as their guns were light; but on the
19th they had some heavy pieces in position which did us some damage,
blowing in many yards of trenches, and destroying hundreds of men. We
had, however, no experience of the terrible "Jack Johnsons," nor had we,
so far, heard of those monstrous pieces of artillery.
General Jowmetstri, our immediate commander, did not care to sit still
and endure this galling fire, which our guns were unable to subdue; and
on the evening of the 20th he ordered a general advance with the
bayonet. The Germans did not seem to be prepared for this, if they were
not actually taken by surprise. Our charge was a very fierce one and the
enemy was driven out of his trenches, and a large working-party which
was busy cutting parallel lines of defence was annihilated. The enemy's
troops at this point were evidently of inferior quality. Many of them
threw down their arms, and some begged piteously for mercy. Their
officers were furious, and cut and stabbed at their soldiers, as well as
fired their revolvers at them. I saw one fellow throw his arms round his
officer and literally howl for mercy, while the man of authority swore
and struggled to free his sword arm. Both men were taken prisoners. The
whole force was swept from its defences and compelled to retreat,
closely followed by our men. A sharp rifle-fire was kept up all night.
About ten o'clock in the morning the enemy joined a fresh force, and we
were compelled to halt. We could hear that very heavy fighting was
taking place to the right of our position, some of the sounds of
artillery firing being distant, in the opinion of experienced soldiers,
at least thirty versts; and the front of the battle must have extended a
much greater distance than that.
I was much perturbed about my horse, and those of the Cossacks with me,
numbering about fifty men, all that was left of the sotnia (or
squadron). I had not seen Rudovka for three days; and, in fact, never
saw him again, nor did I meet with anybody of whom I could make
inquiries concerning him. Chouraski was still with me; but communication
between us was chiefly by means of signs, though I was beginning to pick
up the names of a few things in Russian; and Chouraski knew what I meant
when I asked for "bread" (biscuit), "cheese," "water," "wash," "dress,"
etc.
Some of the articles indicated by these words were very different from
what an Englishman would expect them to be. Bread was a species of "hard
tack" compared with which dog-biscuits are fancy food: cheese was a
wretched soft mess resembling wet putty, sour and peculiarly flavoured.
Meat was plentiful and good, especially German pork, and fowls, many of
which were large and fleshy.
The fifty Cossacks had no officer left and only one corporal, and they
looked to me for guidance. Assisted by Chouraski I contrived to lead
them very well for five days, when they were taken charge of by a Staff
Officer, and, I suppose, sent back to their regiment. Whether they
regained their horses, or what became of mine, I never heard. I say
"mine"; but really I do not know to whom the animal, or the one
previously killed under me, belonged. Both had been found for me, no
explanations being asked for or given. I was lost without a horse, but
had no money to buy one. At this time all the cash in my possession was
L20 in English sovereigns, and I had nobody to whom I could apply for
more. I wrote several letters to friends at home; but none of these
reached their destination; nor did I receive a line from anyone during
the whole time I was with the Russian Army.
Campaigning is rough work. I had come into the country with a small
gladstone bag only; and now I wanted many things badly, including boots
in particular. But just now I had fighting to attend to, and that under
strange circumstances because, like George Washington, I seem to suffer
from a natural inability to become a linguist. Most of the Russian
officers are good French scholars; and I found the most facile way of
communicating with them was to pencil down in French what I wished to
say. "How was I to get a horse?" "Take one from the Deutschman," came
the ready reply. I resolved I would if I could. Boots and shirts were
another matter, and these were generously given me, together with an
officer's uniform of the 80th regiment.
The swaying backwards and forwards of the battle, so to speak, seemed to
be occasioned by the necessity the Germans were under to rush their
troops about to save the many threatened positions. They strove, often
with success, to pin the Russian troops to one spot while they sent
reinforcements to help their friends the Austrians. Their Allies set
right, back came the relieving force, and a fresh attack was made on the
Russians, too often with success, or partial success. I have already
repeatedly said that it was their splendid system of railways that
enabled the Germans to effect these rapid and confusing movements.
That the railways were the means by which they obtained their victories
was proved by a curious fact. When the Russians were beaten back so far
that the Germans could not command their railed lines of communication,
and were thus placed on an equality with the Russians, they began to
lose ground, and Russians to gain it. This accounts for the "swaying
backwards and forwards" of the contending forces to which I have several
times alluded.
In the present fight, however, I think they had a narrow escape of a
serious disaster, and I was disappointed that the Russians did not
evince more dash and push their enemies back on Berlin. They proved to
be not strong enough to do this; nor do I think they will succeed in so
doing, until the British and French make a decided turn in the Western
campaign. It is in the West that the fate of the German Empire will be
decided.
Germany too is full of strong fortresses; and the Russians have been
unable to threaten seriously any of these, and are, I feel sure,
incapable of taking any of them. They lack the necessary artillery, for
one thing; and I was never greatly impressed by the engineering skill of
their sappers. The Germans are masters in this branch of the service;
and that is a circumstance which is sure to tell both in field-works and
in fortress warfare.
That there was much anxiety amongst the commanders of both armies at the
end of September was betrayed by the movements of the troops, and the
disinclination which was shown by both Russians and Germans to take a
bold initiative before the arrival of strong reinforcements. There was
firing every day, it is true, and sometimes heavy firing; but no
attempts at those vigorous attacks in masses of columns which were so
expensive in life; and, I might add, so ineffectual that it is amazing
the Germans persisted in making them.
Attempts may have been made to conceal the arrival of reinforcements:
they were not successful. We learned of every battery and battalion that
arrived in the German line: and their prisoners, of whom we daily
captured hundreds, could tell us all about the fresh arrivals in our
camp. Something was learned through scouts and patrols; but there must
have been numerous spies in both camps. None of them were discovered to
my knowledge; but the Germans were continually hanging or shooting
suspected persons. The slightest suspicion of a stranger in their lines
was sufficient to insure his destruction. They shot first and inquired
afterwards, if they inquired at all.
Almost simultaneously it was announced in our camp that the Czar was
coming to command us in person, and the Kaiser to place himself at the
head of the enemy. The Germans were evidently most anxious to drive back
our armies, in order to have the greater part of their force at liberty
to deal with the French and British in the West: their prisoners
admitted this, and were not at all reticent concerning details, often
giving information which showed them to be little better than traitors
to their country. The Saxons, particularly, were communicative, and many
of them openly expressed their disgust at the war and the cruelties
perpetrated by the Prussians, who, with the Bavarians and Wuertembergers,
were undoubtedly the cruellest men amongst our foes, as they are the
most brutal amongst themselves. The roughs from Wurzburg,
Frankfort-on-the-Rhine, Berlin, and Hanover, were notorious for
wickedness, even in their own ranks; and prisoners from the other States
would often refuse to associate with them.
I moved about very freely amongst the German prisoners at the request of
several of the Russian commanders, for the purpose of gleaning
information. While at least 40 or 50 per cent. of the German officers
could speak French and English fluently, hardly any of the Russians had
a knowledge of the latter language, though they ware nearly always good
French scholars. On the other hand, German officers rarely understand
Russian. The German rank and file contained hundreds of men who spoke
English almost like natives of Britain; and no big batch of prisoners
came under my notice which did not contain men who had resided in our
Islands. Their officers were more reticent than the men; hence the use I
could be to the Russian authorities; and though spying is not to my
taste, I acted willingly enough on these occasions for what, I hope, are
very obvious reasons. I have been told by some pious people that the
meaning of the present universal imbroglio is that the end of the world
is imminent. I am convinced that it would soon be so if the wretched
Tyrant of Prussia won the day: and to prevent such a catastrophe I would
willingly stoop to meaner work than spying.
Sometimes the prisoners mistook me for a German; and I did not always
undeceive them. Many of them were miserably ignorant creatures; and I
formed the opinion that State interference with the education of either
the Classes or the Masses is not such a benefit to the people of a
country as many meddlesome faddists would like us to believe. Probably
there are very few Germans who cannot read and write; but these are
qualifications which may be much perverted if they are not "founded upon
a rock."
A great many of the prisoners taken by the Russians were men who would
better be described as deserters than prisoners. Lots of them hated the
military service, and had taken the earliest opportunity to run away
from it--into the arms of their enemies. "I have a wife and six children
in Magdeburg. If I'm killed who will look after them?" said one man.
Another fellow remarked: "I was married about three months before I was
called to the colours. I don't want my wife to be grabbed up by somebody
else." These, and other remarks, show that all the people in Germany are
not patriots. A soldier of the 54th regiment declared himself to be a
Socialist, and said he did not like killing his fellow-men. Another
declared that the only men he wished to kill were his officer and his
sergeant-major, who had been cruel to him; and he added: "I came away to
save myself from being killed by them." A large number of Jews
surrendered because they would not fight against their fellow Jews, who,
they had heard, were enlisting in large numbers in the French and
English armies.
The loss of men of these descriptions would not weaken the German Army;
but many thousands of the genuine prisoners were inveterate in their
hatred of Britain and everything British; and, strange as it seems,
these were the men from whom I gained the most useful information. They
were boastful and threatening: "Our Kaiser will be in your dirty country
on such and such a day; and then you'll catch it!" "Nonsense," I would
reply; "he hasn't got men enough to fight on this front, and invade
England as well." "Oh yes, he has. All our best troops have gone to
crush the English. Any men are good enough to defeat these red-snouted
pigs. The Guard Corps has gone to destroy your Guards;" and then the
fellow would go on to say where the various German corps were stationed,
which was valuable information. In this way I first learned that the
English Guards were in France; and many important details of the
fighting there--details which it was troublesome to verify, but I did
verify them: and so various and important was the information I gathered
that I was, for a time, much employed in this work by the Russian staff.
Much that I learned was at variance with what I afterwards read in
English newspapers. Evidently Germany was not so short of foodstuffs and
munitions of war as newspaper-men and politicians often fondly imagined
they were. I obtained clear proof that, in the early stages of the war,
and as late as February or March, both food and copper were sent in
large quantities by neutrals through neutrals, and also metals and
munitions. The Americans, I firmly believe, were generally antagonistic
to Germany and her policy; but there is in the United States a very
large body of people of Teutonic birth or descent, many of whom are rich
and influential tradesmen, and no effectual steps were taken to prevent
these persons from supplying their compatriots on the European Continent
with stores of goods of every description. They even did so on credit
and under promise of rich reward when that golden apple, Albion, had
dropped into the Kaiser's maw. Items of interest which I gained from
German prisoners were very numerous, and of intense interest. I heard
much about the brutal treatment of our prisoners, and the destruction of
our towns by airships; information which, I know, required to be
accepted with caution; but I verified it by cross-questioning and other
means, to the extent of learning certainly that places on our island had
been wrecked by aeroplanes, and many lives lost. The circumstantial
details given were too clear to leave a doubt on one's mind. Most of
those from whom I gathered information were men who had resided in
England.
Concerning the food-supply of our enemies, I learned what steps they
were taking to husband their stores, and I am satisfied that with what
they have got, and what is still leaking into their country, they can
probably hold out for two years at least. If they are beaten sooner it
must be by force of arms, not by starvation, though this will be their
ultimate fate if the war is much prolonged; for Germany is not
self-supporting, and as her troops are driven back, the area from which
she can draw supplies will be rapidly curtailed.