New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-25
Fall of Novo Georgievsk
Opened River tor
Kaiser's Barges.
HUGE SIEGE GUNS
MOVE ON QUICKLY
As Last Forts Fall, They Are
Headed Away to Batter
Other StrOnghOlds.

Novo Georgievsk, Aug. Fl (by courier
to Warsaw and London, Aug. 24).-By
the capture of Novo Georgievsk the
Austro- Germans have opened the great
Vistula River transportation route into
the interior OF Poland. German steam
ers are in waiting at Wyszogrod. a few
miles below the fortress, and within
day or two tows of bsrges laden with
ammunition supplies for the army and
coal and provisions for the occupied re-
gion Of Poland will be heading past
Warsaw to the Galician frontier.
The capture of the fortress also
opens a highly important railroad line
from Germany by way Of Mlawa to
Warsaw, north Of the Vistula, whereby
rail communication can be established
with Eastern Poland and the present
military front without awaiting the re-
building of the great bridges across the
Vistula at Warsaw, which were de-
stroyed by the Russians before their
retreat.
The importance Of Novo Georgievsk,
for these strategic reasons, presumably
Nexplains the Russian decision to at
tempt to hold this one Vistula fortress
after their retreat. II is too early yet
TO tell the size of the besieging forces,
but. as at Antwerp and Maubeuge, u
was small compared with the captured
garrison. The prisoners taken seem 10
include not only the regular garrison,
but also many soldiers and units which
had gone astray in the Russian retreat
Russians Fired Fortress.
Novo Georgievsk is purely fort
ress. It's buildings and bridges are
virtually all of a military nature. Inc
town was fired by the Russians Just be.
fore they capitulated. The walls OF
fame rising on every side, spitting
from the embrasures of the citadel ana
the military storehouses, and the great
pail of smoke floating down the valley
Of the Vistula made one OF the most
spectacular scenes furnished by the
war.
AT the summit Of Citadel Hill mas
sive building, with a Red Cross flag
floating from its staff, rose above the
city. In the shadow Of the flag burning
storehouses of small arms ammunition
provided an uninterrupted fusillade as
the flames reached one depot of cart
ridges after another.
Along the railroad track were long
rows of freight cars loaded with shells
and other supplies, to which the Rus
slams applied the torch before their
surrender. These explosives would
have made the entrance of the Ger
mans highly dangerous bad not the
slow burning powder merely blown out
the fuses, instead of exploding the
shells.
Broken Bridge Altered Plan.
These munitions apparently were
loaded on trains to be carried away
with the retreating army, but the
breaking OF a small railroad bridge
within the fortress under the weight
of a fat car loaded with a heavy NOR
tar prevented the Russians from saw
ing them. This may have been con-
tributing reason for the Russian de-
cision to defend the fortress.
General Won Beseler's siege opera
tions were directed chiefly against the
northeast front of the fortress, where
the approach is least hampered by
swamps and rivers. The fate Of the
fortress virtually was sealed as soon as
the heavy siege guns were brought into
position. Behind the covering infantry
these big guns were pushed forward
within range of the first of the outer
forts, and then of the inner girdle.
Comparatively few shots were needed
to finish the work.
Some of the surrendered forts were
scarcely disfgured. One Of the inter
| l. vlo
by The Associated Press correspondent
did not show a single she'll mark.
Huge Guns Do Not Halt.
General Won Beseler's sie.,e park in
cluded several of the famous forty
twos," of both German and Austrian
make, together with Austrian l2-inch
automobile mortars. whose mobility
| and power placed them IN class with
their bigger sisters, and batteries OF
| German mortars, to which the krupps
have given an ingenious carriage, max
ing them easily transportable as siege
artillery. 1t took scarcely an hour to
| demount one of these guns which few
/ hours earlier had helped pound the last
| Russian fort into submission. A little
while later gun and mounting, on great
caterpillar wheels, were well on their
way to a new scene Of operations.
The celebrity with which the siege
park was headed for other fields was
one of the features Of the siege. The
Russian flag barely had disappeared
from the last two forts, which for a
time were inclined to disregard General
Bobr's equalization and conduct an in
dependent resistance, when the great
guns were headed away from the fort
ress. The officers and men did not even
visit the stronghold they had helped to
take.