The Ocala evening star., 1915-09-07
HOW RUSSIANS FIGHT

While a large number of Ameri-
cans, with execrable bad taste, put in
much time in sneering at the Rus
slams, one of their German enemies
pays them the following tribute:
Although the Germans have a
great advantage over the Russians
with regard to guns and ammunition,
they admit the Russian army is full
of spirit, and still constitutes form
liable fighting force. A German "eyeI
Witness" DR.. Fritz Wertheimer,
writes in the Frankfurter Zeitung:
"The Russian army is far from be-
ing broken. The pressure which our
troops bring to bear upon it from the
north, south and west has, it is true,
caused the Russians to retreat, but
the withdrawal of their lines gives
them great advantages over US, one
of them-and that not the least-be-
ing that they are retreating toward
their reserves. Another advantage
they have is that they know the fea-
lures of the country better than we
do. Thirdly, they can easily bring
toward their lines fresh supplies of
munitions. In the course of the re-
cent fighting we were able to ascer-
tain that the Russian artillery appear
ed on our front in such numbers and
with such abundant supply of muni-
tions as never before since the begin
ming of the war. They employed
against single division two batter
les of heavy artillery and nine bat
teries of field artillery, and lombard
ed day and night, only interrupting
the fire to change the position of the
guns.
''The Russians have a most accur-
ate knowledge of the country, which
marshes and rivulets. The country is
generally fiat, but the Russian sol
diers adapt themselves most admir-
ably to it, and every casual bush or
small wood has to be taken at the
point of the bayonet, which naturally
makes our losses rather heavy, They
are very apt to lay ambushed. Some
| times they let small units of our
troops penetrate more or less deeply
into their position, and rhen attack
us in the flank with their machine
guns, forcing our troops to retreat on
/ marshy ground, which makes the re-
treat often well nigh impossible, the
few available passes being at the
cross fire of their artillery. Their
trenches are laid in splendid positions
in many rows wherever a dry spot
among the marshes allows it. This
all forces our troops to fight not in
closely drawn units but with small de-
tachments dispersed all over the
front. This, naturally, makes it ex-
ceedingly difficult to supply the fight
ing columns with ammunition and to
take away the wounded
'The days work is heavy enough,
and when at night one at last hopes to
get orders to dig ones self in and
rest the Russian artillery suddenly
| begins to lombard our lines and we
are forced to march again, exhausted
as we are. In order to snatch a few
hours rest, we must make strong
counter attacks, disregarding our
losses. This all takes place under
the hail of the shrapnel of the Rus
sian artillery, the guns of which are
frequently hidden and removed to new
positions without US being aware of
| it.
"But that is not all. The Russians
in their retreat not only destroy all
passes and roads, but fell trees over
them, making it impossible for our
cavalry and supply columns to move
without paying heavy toll for the
right to pass. These tactics are re-
peated at almost every second mile.
AS an example of how the Russians
are able to make the best use of the
country, l may mention that very
often their best sharpshooters are
posted in trees, where it is almost i'm
possible to discover them, while their
trenches are usually situated behind
more or less big woods, which makes
attack very costly. The crossing of
two small rivulets, Mogilnica and
Svinka, has cost US terrible efforts
and losses, while in ordinary times
one could almost jump over each OF
them."