New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-14
GERMAN SHELLS BLIND
FOE IN BORJIMOW FIGHT
Meinite Used for First Time in Poland in Recent
Battle-Story of Russian Victory Told
by Eyewitness

Guzon. Feb. z (by courier TO Petrograd.
Feb. 1.-0ne realized that events
we're shaping q week ago. when the
snowy roads about here began TO fill
with moving troops and guns pouring
through Zyrardow toward what has
since become the zone Of the hottest
hghtipg that has yet taken place on the
Rawka River. Exactly similar scenes
must have been taking place on the fur
ther side Of the river, where the Ger
mans were at work upon the concsntra-
ton of troops for an attack which
should have been In the nature Of
surprise.
Three army corps, If not four. were
, being gathered in the neighborhood OF
Bolimow. and ninety batteries
cally 900 guns--with a provision Of
shells of a kind not hitherto used on
this front. were being brought up TO
give weight to the blow which has just
been struck and give TO Field Marshal
Won Hinderburg's inflated reputation
some support of actual achievement.
not yet over, for though the Russians
have pushed forward and taken the viii
lage Of Borjimow. the Germans still, at
the time of writing, hold the great
vodka factory at VIOLA Zydlowiecka,
which straddles right across the line OF
Russian trenches south Of Gumin, and
have converted it into a fortress and
mounted pompons on the upper stories
of the main building, whence they COM
mand the line of trenches to the north
and south II is the only point al
which their great attack succeeded IN
piercing the Russian line, and the sum
total Of their success consists in hav-
ing gained for footing the most con-
spicuous artillery target IN the whole
! landscape.
The Germans made their first mo g
ment as long ago as January 81 with
ineffective and tentative attacks, but IT
was on the night Of February and
/ {, -oughout the next day and night that
! the battle took on the true proportions
of a great general engagement. 1t be-
gan with a cannonade which soon grew
! into a monstrous fire. from mile upon
mile of guns. Even the men who were
{ in LODI during the last days Of Russian
occupation say they never heard any
thing like il. There were times when,
fer several minutes together, one could
not distinguish any single detonatlon
in the great body Of tremendous sound,
and the noise of individual guns blend
ed in q mighty monotone OF thunder
from Zydlwiecka to Borjimow. The
Russian trenches and batteries were
drenched with a frightful hail Of shell,
as the Germans believe in heavy she'll
ing as a preliminary to their assaults
in columns.
Melnite Shells Used.
Since hitherto these always had
failed, the Germans seemed determined
to try the effect of sheer uncalculatlng
copiousness of fire. They were using
for the first time in Poland shells with
a bursting charge Of melinite and
some other unknown ingredient. One
effect of melinHe is temporarily to
bind those near the explosion, but here
the smell chung to the bodies Of wound
ed so that doctors in the hospitals
were obliged to go out into the fresh
air from time to time to recover from
tn sickening effects.
Il was about midnight on the night
of February 2 that the Germans de-
livered their first attacks in real force.
They have special fondness for as
sauits along the Bolimow Road and
upon positions to the north and south
of Gumin, and it was here again they
thrust forward with their biggest col
umns. 1t was only then that the Rus
SLAMS revealed the fact that they, too,
had brought together considerable
quantities of guns, and suddenly these
entered into the gigantic chorus from
batteries beyond the river, Smelling the
German columns as they crawled up
toward the trenches which lie just
west Of here.
It was a dark night, heavily overcast
with clouds and with a strong wind
and some snow. Searchlights and rock
cts tore the dark to rags, their huge
beams slicing across it to guide the OBJ
servers who governed the guns. There
were green German rockets, slanting
slowly down with the wind at the tail
of their parachutes, and Russian rock
cts. which burst into stars like fre-
works. And with these were the leap
ing, fickering flashes of guns and the
spouting fire of bursting shells.
In that hellish illumination were