Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-09-26
FROM THE FRONT
An Austrian Reserve Officer,
After Being Wounedd, Re-
turns with Graphic Story of
His Experiences on the Field
of Battle

Press.)
Rotterdam, Sept. 13-The psycholo-
gy of the battle field gets a rather
thorough and able treatment by an
Austrian reserve officer, who, after
having been wounded in an engage
ment with the Russians, gave the fol-
lowing interview to an Hungarian
journalist. The officer in question was
with General Dankl in the fighting
outh-east of Krasnik.
You feel little or nothing while in
battle he said. "At least you forget
how things affect your mind. The eyes
see and the ears hear. but those are
perceptions which do not result in i'm
pressions one could coordinate. They
do not even affect your sentiments.
But it is not cynicism for all that,
merely the lack of appreciation of
what takes place. My Captain,
most Iovable fellow whom / did not
alone respect as an officer, but of
whom / also thought q great deal per-
sonally, was leading his company into
fire when three bullets hit him in the
abdomen. I saw him fall, but thought
nothing of 1t and marched on.
In spite of the fact that you have
no i'll feelings against the enemy, and
may not even fear him. you destroy
him as best you can. On the evening
before our first battle We were sitting
about the mess table-most of us Of
ficers of the line. None of us had
ever killed a man. I said Friends,
when | meet the first Russian officer
tomorrow my impulse will be to shake
his hand My comrades agreed with
me. But on the following day / was
obliged to lay number of Russians
low.
My SloVacs are the most phlegmat
ic people in the world, but excellent
soldiers. They shoot without anger
but simply because they are fired up
on. One fights because one is on the
battle field and can not do any differ
ent. The terrible thing is that often
you are shot at without being able to
| return the fire. But this is not as
fear-inspiring as it is discoura ging.
You learn to know what fear is when
you begin to realize that you might be
| killed without killing somebody first.
of course, have been scared. That
was after / had been wounded. We
had been firing a long time and when
next we advanced we came into a
deep sandy road, out of which We
could not get because of the enemys
terrible fire. We had to lie perfectly
still while bullets simply poured over
| us. That was awful"
The officer omitted to state that
while in this position he was shot
three times in the arm, but continued
IN
ton.
1T is a wellknown fact that the
! soldier sees very little of the battle
On August "a early in the morning we
received orders to occupy a low hill at
the edge of 4 track covered with brush
wood. Forming part of the reserve,
we were expected to remain under
cover. In front of us was a large
open battlefield. To each side of us
were batteries which had Numbered
away since early morning. The result
of this was that many of the enemy's
shells dropped right in front of us. l
remember noticing that while the
smoke of our shells had a lilac color
that of the enemy's was white.
80 far we had not been disquieted
by the shells at all. On the edge of
the brush wood had been planted
yellow black flag, showing that some
where in that vicinity was to be found
our general staff. Our colonel left us
and walked towards 1t, possibly to
get orders, but just as he got there
a shrapnel exploded a little ahead of
him in the air and we saw our COM
handing officer, in whom We placed
all our confidence, go down. After that
* was a terrible feeling to lie still.
From that moment on, too. veritable
hail of shells began to come. Some
sappers, who had been busy digging
trench for the protection of the gem
eral staff, started to run. l feared
that my soldiers would follow the ex-
ample, and began to make fun of the
poor sappers, scolding them at the
same time. Thank God, my battalion
found that funny and began to laugh.
They lived through a terrific shrap
mel fire with not care and even found
occasion for laughter.
"A major took command of the reg
iment and we received orders to re-
take hill which the enemy had TAX
en- under heavy fire. But of the enemy
nothing at all was to be seen as we
neared the position, though the hail
of shells and shrapnels increased In
fury. The flag bearer marched about
800 PAGES off my side. BY accident
looked in his direction, saw the white
cloud of smoke of a Russian shell and
where the flag bearer had been there
was nothing more to be seen.
The enemy meanwhile had taken
to flight and later we saw the Rus
SLAMS wading through a swamp Then
they got to the river Por, and crossed
tive after them shooting. wading,
out OF breath. OF a sudden a village
behind us went up in flames, the light
falling on us like the rays of a huge
reflector. Then and there we received
a rain of fire and saw the enemy had
taken possession in good order of the
other bank. We had to fall back, not
because we were afraid, but because
those were the orders. The sensation