CHIEFLY PERSONAL MATTER
The Russian soldier is a splendid fellow: I do not go so far as to say
that he is a first-class fighter. It is really difficult to describe him
correctly. He has been represented repeatedly as a dogged being; so he
is. His courage, too, is unimpeachable; but it is not a very intelligent
courage. The Russian soldier must be led, and the better led he is the
better he will fight. He has, as I have already hinted, an almost
religious reverence for his acknowledged superiors; and he is a
religious man. Perhaps it would be better to say, a superstitiously
religious man. He nearly always carries a relic or a little ikon of some
kind, and to this he frequently prays, kissing it at the same time. He
has an intense reverence for the Holy Virgin, and a common form of
greeting is, "Brother, Christ is risen," to which the comrade addressed
replies, "He is risen, indeed." Faithful, true-hearted and generous, he
never forsakes a friend; and, on the other hand, I am afraid he never
forgives an enemy. He can be dreadfully cruel to those he hates; yet, in
his ordinary mood, it would be difficult to find a man who has a
stronger natural dislike to shedding blood. He makes a good husband, is
passionately fond of children; but is not a merciful man in his dealing
with dumb animals. He is pudding-headed, but not obstinate in the usual
acceptance of the word; and his friend, or his officer, can lead him
anywhere. In a fight he dies like a Roman, and never abandons his
leader. It is difficult to imagine him a revolutionist or a King-killer,
though history has recorded that he can be either; and some terrible
things have occurred even in the reign of the present Czar.
That part of the Russian Army with which I was mostly in contact was
composed almost entirely of Siberians, people who retain very markedly
the features of their Mongolian origin. They are Asiatics, as, indeed,
are many Russians. At any rate, this seemed to be perfectly clear,
judging from their features and other indications; though, I must
confess, I am not learned on the subject of the origin of nations. Their
habits, too, are largely Asiatic, and there was a considerable admixture
of Tartar blood in some of the regiments; and in others many of the men
would easily have passed as Chinese. Some of the regiments were composed
of Kirghiz; and one, at least, of Mongolians pure and simple.
I fell into some confusion concerning the numbering and naming of the
regiments, because there seem to be several distinct armies in the
Russian services. The Siberian is one of these armies: and some of the
regiments were only known by their territorial designation, while others
had both name and number. The army from "All the Russias" seems to be
considered the elite troops; but in my opinion the Siberians are not in
any way inferior to them, and the Tiflis Rifles is one of the finest
bodies of light infantry I have ever seen.
The physique of the men, generally, is magnificent, and their powers of
endurance unsurpassed by that of any soldiers in the world. They can
march and fight, too, on rations so scanty and coarse that I much doubt
if any other European soldiers would tolerate such food. Many of the
regiments for days had no better diet than tea and biscuit. Milk was not
drunk in the tea, but sugar was used when it could be obtained. The
troops were supposed to have a ration of sugar, and also salt. Some
years ago the sugar ration was abolished, but the health of the men
deteriorated so much that it was again served out to them with
beneficial results; so it would seem that sugar is necessary to human
health. "How did people do when there was no sugar?" "When was that?"
"Before sugar honey was universally used; and honey is certainly a
natural sugar." The faddist is a very tiresome person anywhere; above
all things he should be kept away from armies and navies, where he may
do much mischief. Now the non-alcoholic idiot is getting the sway. What
a pass things are coming to! Waterloo was fought on beer, and Trafalgar
on rum; but I remember at the "Battle of Dorking" a Staff-Officer "came
between a poor cove and his grub," who nearly got himself shot for
complaining--the "poor cove" I mean, not the Staff-Officer.
The victory at Suvalki had far-reaching effects. Even at the few
posts where the Germans were not forced back they were compelled to
retire. Some of their cavalry made an effort to check the pursuit, but
it was unavailing. What appeared to be parts of two regiments, hussars
and dragoons, had the temerity to charge a battalion of our regiment.
The greater part of them went down in a heap, men and horses together.
On our side a regiment of Cossacks (said to be the 3rd of the Don)
charged a battalion of Prussians and dispersed them, taking 100
prisoners, including a colonel. During the retreat of the Germans many
small fights occurred which had no particular results on the campaign.
By the 3rd October whole corps of Russians were on Prussian soil.
[Illustration: RUSSIANS HURRYING AMMUNITION TO OPERATING LINES]
It was unfortunate that heavy rains again began to fall, as they
prevented so close a pursuit as would otherwise have harassed the enemy.
The country west of Suvalki, naturally a marsh, was rendered a huge
lake. The water was not deep enough to prevent the advance of cavalry
and infantry; but guns could not be dragged through the mud, and without
them it would have been unsafe to advance very far. Many of those
captured from the Germans were lost owing to the state of the ground,
but I do not think they were recovered by the enemy. They sank into the
morass and so disappeared.
I was very glad when a halt was called and we were ordered to find what
shelter we could, the regiment being far in advance of the main body.
The Germans had sadly devastated the country. We passed over many miles
of country in which scarcely so much as the shell of a house was left
standing: all were charred and blackened; and men, women and children
were found murdered. The bodies of two young boys under twelve years of
age lay on the roof of a low outhouse. They had been bayoneted and
thrown there, nobody could surmise why. Some bodies were burnt to
cinders, and others had been torn and partly eaten by swine and dogs.
The dogs, by-the-by, were numerous, and very fierce brutes.
In some spots, where the Germans had bivouacked, the heads and offal of
pigs showed that they had shot some of these animals, and also killed
ducks and fowls, for food, and cooked them at open-air fires made of the
belongings of the peasantry. Chairs and tables were left outside, just
in the positions in which they had evidently been used. A dish-cover was
left on one table, and when it was raised it revealed two pairs of human
hands severed at the wrists. The men to whom these hands had belonged,
and a woman, were found shot in the farm-house. All were old people, as
nearly all the murdered persons were, except some young women and
children. Besides the two boys already mentioned, a younger child and a
little girl of about fourteen years were seen lying on the ground. The
cause of the death of the girl did not appear, and it was probably
caused by fright. A woman clasping her baby had been shot. The bodies
had, in many cases, been treated with disgusting irreverence. Even a
hunchbacked man had been shot, and a poor old fellow with beard and hair
as white as snow. One sturdy dame seemed to have attempted to fight for
her life, for she held a hoe in her dead hands. Her body was riddled by
bullets.
To escape the rain I climbed up the half-burnt rafters of a cottage to a
room in which a portion of the floor and a corner of the roof were still
in position--I cannot say intact. Here, in imminent danger of a fall, I
slept the instant I stretched myself on the boards. Below were a score
of exhausted soldiers, too utterly weary to care a rap for danger from
falling walls: and long and soundly we all slept.
No food had been served out for two days, and when a commissariat waggon
came up only about half the men obtained biscuits. I was thinking of
cooking a pig's head left behind by the Germans when a soldier
generously gave me half a biscuit. Others followed his example, and in
this way I obtained a breakfast. The pigs which had escaped the
Prussians had all run away, but later in the day one was found and
killed, and about two pounds of its flesh found its way into my hands.
We resumed our march at 11 a.m., the enemy being known to be not far
off. During the afternoon we came up with one of their abandoned
waggons. It was full of champagne and hock! I am glad there were no
teetotallers about to witness the capture. What King Jamie meant by
being "fu'" I do not presume to know; but I am quite sure some of us
were "tight" before that waggon was done with, and I should like to see
the teetotaller, of exalted or humble rank, who would resist the
temptation of a good "swig" after forty-eight hours of such misery as
we had just gone through.
Apparently the Germans observed this capture; for they fired two shells
at us from a range of about three miles. One shot fell 200 yards from
us, the other came a little nearer, but neither interrupted the
interesting work in hand.
Notwithstanding the preconceived opinions of book strategists,
long-range firing does not seem to be productive of very destructive
results, even with heavy artillery. It was certainly not much resorted
to in this campaign. Even rifle shooting seldom took place at a longer
range than 1,000 yards; and much oftener at not more than half that
distance; while firing at point-blank range was frequent. The bayonet
did as much work as in any war that ever took place; in some fights half
the casualties were caused by its use. Cavalry, too, faced infantry fire
boldly and successfully. We were to have no more charges of masses of
cavalry according to the theorists. But on at least half-a-dozen
occasions bodies of over 4,000 horsemen made most telling charges. In
one case at least 10,000 cavalry took part in a charge, riding over the
Prussian infantry as they might have ridden over stubble. The Cossacks,
like the Uhlans, have hooks attached to the butts of their lances; and
with these they whipped officers from their horses, and men from the
ground in the most extraordinary way, sometimes pulling them up into
their own saddles and bringing them in prisoners. How they liked the
humiliation of this treatment may be gathered from the remark of one
officer made to me in English, "D----n it! I would rather have been
killed"; but he joined in the general laugh at his accident.
Perhaps I have no right to record mere impressions and ideas; and I
intend to avoid doing so generally; but there are some opinions and
beliefs which had a general bearing on what I did, and especially on
what I recorded; and I think I may be excused if I sometimes refer to
these.
As a case in point, I was generally very ignorant of what was taking
place in other areas of the war. German newspapers were pretty plentiful
in all our camps; but very few French or British found their way into
our hands. German accounts were not reliable in my opinion, but some of
their statements could hardly be altogether untrue. The news of the loss
by submarine torpedoes of the three battleships, _Aboukir_, _Hogue_ and
_Cressy_, perturbed me greatly. The reports in German newspapers,
combined with other rumours which reached us, made it clear enough that
the British Navy had met with a great disaster, though I was compelled
to rely on the translations of Russian comrades of these German reports.
The Russian cavalry made some attempts to penetrate East Prussia, and
get at the trains which were conveying troops from Koenigsberg
southwards; but none of these attempts were successful so far as I have
heard. A few isolated patrols got a long way into Prussia, but, I think,
in no case did they succeed in wrecking a train.
For a time I was out of action, though I tried to reach the scenes of
fighting I heard was in progress. The East Prussian frontier is a very
difficult country for military operations, especially those of an
offensive description. The marsh lands are very extensive, and there are
numerous lakes and ponds which greatly aid the defending force, while
much hindering those engaged in the attack. Lakes and marshes enable an
army on the defensive greatly to extend its front; which those engaged
in the assault cannot do without at any rate incurring great risks. The
Germans often threw up batteries between two lakes, or a lake and a
marsh situated near each other. As these could be approached only on a
narrow neck of land, they could be defended by a mere handful of men,
while the attacking force was not only compelled to advance a strong
party, but had, also, to keep others in hand to prevent being
outflanked.
Something of this kind of fighting I saw; but much of it occurred
further south, near the Vistula river, in a district where I was not
engaged at the time it took place.
These marshes and lakes greatly assisted the Germans and probably saved
them from the rout which they are supposed by some people to have
sustained. I do not know of any instance where they were forced to
evacuate such a defensive position as that I have described. In fact the
marshes of East Prussia saved the country from a serious invasion, and
certainly checked the Russian advance into the heart of the country. If
heavy siege guns could have been brought up they might have effected
something; but as it was, not even light field artillery could be moved
over the ground in any quantity. The amount of rain which fell was quite
abnormal, and was often almost incessant for days together. Then there
would be some signs of a clear up; but long before more than the surface
of the ground was dry it would begin to pour down again. I never saw so
much mud in any other country, nor such deep, tenacious stuff. Even men
sometimes stuck fast in it and had to be hauled out of quagmires with
the aid of ropes. I have recorded that the Germans lost many guns owing
to their sinking into it; some also were lost by the Russians, even when
they were not under fire; and the destruction of horses through being
smothered to death or by exhaustion was deplorable. In fact the mud
sometimes troubled the Russians far more than the foe did. It prevented
the commissariat and reserve ammunition waggons from coming up; but, on
the whole, lying in it, and being subjected to a continuous downpour of
rain, did not seem to adversely affect the health of the men. The field
hospitals were always crowded by wounded, but the sick from disease were
singularly few in number.
Amongst other things about which there were rumours in our army was the
destruction that airships and aeroplanes were causing. The Russians had
aeroplanes; but they were not strong in this kind of military force, and
we seldom saw one. The Germans, however, occasionally sent a few over
our lines, and on the 5th October I saw one shot down. It swerved a good
deal, and I expected to see it turn over and drop, but it came down
slowly enough to prevent the airmen from sustaining much hurt. The
"navigator" was one of the most irritable and arrogant rascals I ever
met. He was very angry at his accident, and fumed and swore incessantly
and had not the least fear of consequences before his eyes. He shook his
fist in the faces of the Cossacks and officers who first came up to his
wrecked machine, beat and kicked his unfortunate mechanic, and raved
like a lunatic. Even his captors seemed to be in considerable awe of
him. Some hours afterwards I saw this fellow eating a meal outside a
tent. He was devouring the food like what he probably was--a human hog.
Another astonishing trait in the German Army was the remarkable way in
which it frequently recovered lost ground. The Battle of Suvalki, and
the operations further south, had the effect of causing a general
retirement of the enemy's line; and amongst other places they abandoned
was Radom; but in a week or ten days they were back in this place, and
had even pushed much nearer to Warsaw. Our scouts ascertained that they
were in force along the Vistula from Ivangorod to Varko; and their Uhlan
patrols were seen at the hamlet of Vistikar, near Gora, not twenty
versts from Warsaw. Whether they ever got nearer to the ancient city I
do not know, but for a time we all expected and feared that it would
fall. Nobody believed that the old capital of Poland could long stand
against an investment by our powerful and cunning foes.
But, while recovering themselves in the south, the Germans did not, at
this time, do so in the Suvalki district, or in those parts near the
Spirding See where the recent severe fighting had taken place: Russian
soldiers still remained on German soil.
The weather grew worse, and seriously affected most of our important
operations. Gloom began to settle on the troops; especially when
accounts of adversity to our forces in Galicia reached us. These
generally came from German sources; but some of our own officers brought
news that progress was being stopped by floods, and the enormous
reinforcement the enemy had succeeded in bringing up. Often we did not
know what to believe; the reports were so contradictory that it was
evident one side or another was telling deliberate lies. A comical side
was once or twice given to the matter, owing to German, Austrian and
Russian "unofficial sources" giving diametrically opposite accounts of
the same circumstances. Willing as we were to believe our own side to be
the most truthful, it was not always possible to ignore the
circumstantiality of our opponents. It became evident that all three
sides were a little given to exaggeration--not to give it a harsher
designation.
The dreadful weather was more than I could endure, and I was obliged to
fall out. I was taken by rail to a convent hospital at Grodno, and there
so well and carefully nursed by the sisters, with whom were associated
many of the ladies of the town, that I quite recovered and was fit for
service again in less than a week.
I could not find my old regiment, however, and my adventures with the
Russians might have terminated at this point had I not happened to run
up against an officer with whom I had some acquaintance. Captain
Shalkotoff belonged to the commissariat department; and as he was going
south with a convoy he invited me to accompany him as far as Ostrolenka,
his first destination; and I accepted his kind proposal.