Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-06

the banks. The French could not at
tack the trenches in front, here also
was barbed wire. Behind the wire was
a row of pits called by the soldiers
trench was shelled for seven hours and
1ve officers persisted. The loss in men
was only three. The officers risked
themselves by coming out to recon-
hotter The French, says Seydel,
tried series of ruses, one of which
cost us some of our best leaders. They
sent an aeroplanist over US, and he
dropped bombs. We shot at him with
out effect. The aeroplanist dropped
bomb which fell near our trench, rolled
indecisively and then exploded among
us 1t killed Yieut. Keller and wounded
three men. The lieutenant's head was
blown off. and it struck one of the
wounded men in the face.
One French ruse consisted in pre-
tending to enflade our right, while at
the same time dash was made through
the barbed-wired river on our left
During the night several hundred
They had machine guns. In the gray
of the dawn bullets from rifles and
machine guns flew furiously along our
trench line Twenty men were Killed
We could not tell where the bullets
came from.
While our men were busy ducking
and firing. the French cut the barbed
wire on our left, splashed through the
mud OF the stream. and rushed between
our two parallel trenches. They were
in tremendous force. Some of our men
lost their heads and tried to get into
the back trench. which was against
orders, and exposed them to danger
Capt Haechlen and two other reserve
officers of our battalion shouted. Fol
low u.s. and rushed on the French. Be
fore our men could realize the COM
mand the three officers were isolated.
They were surrounded by French SOL
diers and bayonetew. That is the way
our officers die"
In the eastern theater of war officers
are having the toughest work and run
the greatest risk. Many of the soldiers
in Poland are reservists of mature
years. landwehr or landsturm men, who
have volunteered 10 fight outside the
empire. These men are brave, but they
are bad marchers, and many of them
have forgotten the elements of drill.
They have to face Russians of the first
line and reservists who are largely
veterans from the Manchurian war
Hundreds of officers have to sacrifice
their lives in order that the inferior
landwehr and landsturm men may learn
their duties.
Such a hero was Capt. Staufenberg,
who defended town with the rem
nants of two battalions of infantry
after all the other officers had persisted.
Stauffenberg was in command of the
town after the Russians of Gen. Zelion-
off took the outer defenses. The frag-
ments of battalions left to him were
all Silesian landwehr men, who could
not shoot He kept the flag flying all
night. Next morning. with a hundred
odd soldiers who survived. he boldly
marched along the main street down
which the Russians were marching in
close battalions. He was shot dead
Had his men been infantry of the line
they could have held off the Russians
longer and given chance of escape.
Grimmer still was the fate of three
staff and engineer officers at Vilianowo,
on the Vistula. II was here that Gen.
Won Hindenburg made an Intellectual at
tempt to cross the Vistula and get at
the rear of Warsaw. Hindenburg made
a feint to cross at Karatchewo While
his men were finishing their pontoon
bridge the Russians appeared in
strength. The German shrapnel came
across the river in solid masses and
checked the Russian attempt to stop
the completion of the bridge. The Rus
slams bombarded the pontoons. Hin
denburg knew that he could not cross
there. He was trying to build second