The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-06-16
HOW FORTS LOOKED
CORRESPONDENT DESCRIBES EF=
Feet OF BOMBARDMENT
DEFENCES ARE WRECKED

Huge German and Austrian Guns
Tore up Great Holes in Country
Surrounding Fortress, Which is
Now of Little Value Because of
Extensive Destruction.
The New York World publishes the
following dispatch from Karl H. Won
Wugand, the famous war correspond
ent in Galicia:
For the second time within ten
weeks the once powerful fortress Of
Przemysl has fallen, brief news of
which will reach the world long be-
fore this dispatch will get through
the various stages of couriers, tele-
| graph and the cable.
after four months of desperate
resistance by the Austro-Hungarian
forces the garrison under Gen. Kus-
manek surrendered to the Russians
on March % with many thousands of
prisoners; but hunger and disease
were the real victors. Yesterday
PrZemysl was stormed and fell into
the hands of the combined German,
| Bavarian and Austro-Hungarian
| forces, with several thousand Rus
slams as prisoners and with the girdle
of forts practically dismantled from
the blowing up by the Austrians in
March and the present bombardment.
"The overwhelming superiority Of
the German and Austrian heavy artil-
lery, wherein the Austrian 30.5 motor
mortars and the Austrian skoda 42's
were big factors, rewon the Galician
| fortress and is largely responsible for
it's taking in what amounted to only
three days of real besieging. In fact
| it can be said that Strategically
| Przemysl fell at Tarnow on May 2.
From Tarnow, where the Prus-
sian Guard. under Prince Eitel Fried
rich, broke through the Russian lines
on May 2, to Jaroslow, which was
taken on May IA, Germans under
Mack ensen had covered ninety miles
and had fought daily. Between ia
rosIow and Przemysl the retreating
Russians fought from trench to
trench, which were located every few
hundred yards. Five miles from
Przemysl we came upon scenes of the
last two days of fighting, where the
Bavarians and Silesians stormed the
works on the north side of the city.
Along the road here and there dead
Germans and Russians were jumbled
up in rifle pits.
"On little rise to the left near
Fort No. II, where the Russians re-
peatedly counter-attacked, dead Rus
slams lay in small heaps where they
had been moved down by machine
guns and shrapnel.
Russian prisoners were engaged
in the work of burial, carrying their
dead comrades in blankets to graves.
"On the way toward Fort No. 10
the dead were scattered in single
pairs and in threes and fours on the
green grass, some doubled up as II
they had died in agony, some lying
on their faces, others with blank
eyes staring heavenward and their
faces turned coal black by the torrid
sun.
Further up the ridge number of
badly wounded Russians were still
lying on the field in the blazing sun,
and it requires no Imagination to
conjure their sufferings. The Ger
mans were removing the wounded as
fast as possible.
cat the edge of green field on
both sides of the road where deaths
targets were lying, more than score
of barefooted women and children,
each with one or two cows on ropes,
were pasturing the animals, lending
peaceful, pastoral touch to a scene
where a few hours before battle rag
ed.
$50 peaceful was the scene before
us that it was difficult to believe the
bundles of dirty looking clothes dot
ting the green were men, and that
the moving figures, one at each end
of blanket, were dragging the dead
to holes in the ground.
"When. four hours later, I repass-
ed the field the wounded were remoV-
ed, the dead buried and searching
squads were picking up rifles and
stacking them in pyramids, which
dotted the fields like shocks of grain,
all with German characteristic econ
omy and thoroughness, even to the
picking up Of every cartridge clip.
Turning through a village on the
right we went up toward Fort No. 10
and met two wagon loads of wolinded
| comm. from the fort. Reaching the
sirdle Of forts, which was ad1oined
| by redoubts and trenches, we saw
| repetition of the terrible effect OF
German and Austrian heavy artillery,
as at Tarnow.
ION the heights at Tarnow the
| German and Austrian artillery had
simply crushed in the Russian front
with the weight of metal and had
turned the heights into an inferno
that human nerve could not stand.
Firing from a distance OF nine
miles the forty-two-centimetre guns,
with incredible accuracy, and thirty
centimetre guns, placed shell after
shell that effaced the trenches and
threw up huge craters. The edges OF
these craters often overlapped, and
many were used for graves. One con-
tained twenty Russians. An officer
told me that at Gorlice 900 German
and Austrian guns concentrated on
the Russian position and kept up
rapid fire for more than two hours.
Il have seen the effect of big guns
in Belgium and in front of Rheims
and was present at artillery duels in
the Argonne, in East Prussia and on
the Rawka, near Warsaw, but never
saw anything like the wholesale
slaughter from the fire Of the heavy
guns at Tarnow and Przemysl.
Against this the Russians were help
less, the effect of their own artillery
on the German positions appearing
like pinpricks in comparison. Forts
10 and II and the connecting works
received the concentrated fire from
the big guns.
Coming into PrZemysl I passed
two skoda forty-twos and two huge
cannon, apparently twenty or twenty
five feet long. Of the coast defense
+,.,o r,oupta1 On truckc drawn by