The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-10-14
CLAIM Big BATTLE
RUSSIANS ANNOUNCE DECISIVE
DEFEAT OF GERMANS
WHO ALSO SAY They Won

River Niemen is Scene Of Conflicting
Claims, Where Allied Newspapers
Tell of Marvellous Russian Victory
the Germans Talk of Captur;ng
Body of Russian Troops.
Petrograd official statements con-
tinue to repeat in a general way what
has been accepted in Paris and Lon
don as fact for days-that the Ger
man army along the East Prussian
frontier has been routed more or less
and cut 10 pieces, but as this is only
small portion Of the front, it is ex-
ceedings hard to get anything like
cIear-cut perspective of the conflict.
The defeat of the German army
which invaded Russia from East
Prussia appears from Russian ac-
counts to have been even more de-
cisive than previously stated. Ac-
cording to the Russian ambassador
at Rome the Germans were routed
completely with loss Of 10000 men
and have been forced to abandon
everything.
What purports to be an official dis
patch from Vienna insists in broad
terms that the condition of the Ger
man and Austrian armies, both in Po-
land and Gaicia, is favorable and
that in attempting to breast the Car
pathians at Uzsock pass the Russians
have been beaten.
"Breasting the Carpathians and
pouring on to the plains of Hungary"
\ by the Muscovites has been so often
referred to that it is becoming trite,
and the fact remains that generally
speaking, aside from the defeat OF
Rennenkampff's army In the early
stages of the war in Poland, his re-
venge by crushing return, and
steady advance of the Russians
through Galicia there has been moth
| ing from the East to stand out In the
nature of clearly defined conflict
Like the battle of the Aisne.
| Petrograd official statement deals
entirely with the German stand on
the East Prussian frontier, making
no mention of the situation either in
Galicia or Hungary. The much-her-
aided battle Of Cracow, which, it
seems, all the correspondents antici-
pated, yet has to be recorded as a
matter of history.
/ From Budapest-not often heard
from as a source OF war news-can1e
a dispatch saying that, though no bat
ties in Hungary had been decided yet
the invaders were being repulsed.
| The German statement Monday
| claimed that near Augustowo the
Third Siberian and parts Of the
Twenty-second Russian Army Corps.
composing the left wing of the Rus
sian army, on crossing the Niemen
River were defeated after furious
battle lasting two days. More than
$4,000 unwounded Russians were
made prisoners and a large quantity
of guns and machine guns was cap
tured."
The newspapers of the Allies tell a
different story. A dispatch from the
Matin of Paris adds this information:
1.-THE German army in the east, oper-
ating in the Suwalki region, has been
cut in two. One section has been
crushed between Augustowo and
Suwalki with losses amounting to
| so, 900 men. The second section pro-
ceeded to Marlanpol, which place the
| Russians have occupied, inf1ictins
enormous losses upon the Germans.
| The River Niemen is choked with
German dead"
Dispatches state that Gen. Rennen-
kampff applied against the Germans
| the tactics which Gen. Ruzsky en-
ployed so well against the Austrians
in Galicia. He feigned retreat, lured
| the Germans to indiscreet pursuit
and then delivered an irresistible az
tack.
|. The correspondent Of the London
Times reports that slight skirmishes
have taken place on the left bank of
| the Vistula near Kieice. According
to the Russkoe Slovo, Cossacks sud
| denly made their appearance on sew
eral sides of the city of Piotrokow,
causing great panic among the Ger
man raiders. Uttering their alarm
ing war cries the Cossacks galloped
| through the streets, spearing and
sabering right and left. Over 500
Germans we're killed in the main
thoroughfare alone.
Elsewhere in the province Of Pio-
| .rokow Cossack detachments cut Up
9utposts of Uhlans and Jaegers. Fugi-
tives arriving at Warsaw who ira
| versed the region of Czenstachowa,
Novo and Radomsk relate that many
Germans are moving southwark, pre-
sumably to Join the Austrians. The
invaders told the natives that they
had come from fighting the British
and the French.
The London Daily Telegraph gives
interesting details of the fighting
along the Niemen. A dispatch says:
1.-The Germans appear to have fall
len into a Russian trap. On Septem-
her 90 the rear guard OF the army OF
Cen. Rennenkampff was transferred
10 the right bank of the river. The
following evening the Germans ap-
preached the stream. The next day,
seeing no signs of opposition, the
Germans proceeded to construct pom
toon bridges and completed the work
without molestation.
at was only when the troops we're
pouring across to the right bank in
fancied security that sound like the
roll Of thunder was heard and dozens
of Russian guns, deftly posted and
screened, opened their concentrated
fire upOn the crowded bridge Be-
fore the blast of shrapnel and ma
chine gun proiectiles the Germans
were swept into the river by hun
dreds.
speedily, however, the challenge
of the Russian guns was taken up by
the German artillery, and for long
time the duel continued. According
to one account no fewer than 10000
bodies of German soldiers were car
ried down the Niemen after the aw-
full carnage"