South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-08-05
BEL CLAN AUTOS
HELP RUSSIANS
Armored Cars Are Brought to
Eastern Front and Assist
Advance.

PETROGRADf Aug. "A cor
respondent Of the Russkoe Slovo
describes in some details the cooper
alton OF a detachment of Belgian
armored cans in the Russian ad
vance These cars, he says were
built and organized at Paris. They
We're originally intended for the
western front. but as the allies in
France were we'll supplied with We
hicles Of this kind, and opportuni-
ties OF using them were exceedingly
rare. II was decided last autumn to
send a number Of them to Russia.
At the same time. a detachment of
English cars was sent here.
The Belgian cars. which are un-
der the command Of Maj. Semet.
have been on the Galician front
since January They had done
good work prior to Gen. Brussiloffs
advance, but il il only now that the
censorship has permitted any men
ton of their presence here The
crews consist entirely OF volunteers,
and include many men of wealth
and education. During the four
months which preceded the present
operations they spent most of their
time studying the ground and re-
connoitering the Austrian positions.
1t had been arranged that the cars
should take part in the first move
ments Of Gen. Brussiloff's armies.
but an untimely thunderstorm trans
formed the Galician roads into rivers
Of mud, and made it impossible TO
send them forward A couple of
days later. however. they again re-
ceived orders TO prepare for action.
The sphere assigned for their op-
erations was the highroad between
Tarnopol and Lem berg, which runs
parallel TO the railway and cuts the
Austrian trenches just TO the south
of Zebroff. about eight miles from
the former town.
Attack Prepared.
The attack had already been pre-
pared by the Russian artillery,
which swept away the enemy's wire
barbados and wrought great havoc
in his trenches. The task allotted to
the motor cars was to destroy the
machine guns which were still left
in position, and to complete the de-
moralization Of the Austrian infan-
try, who had taken shelter from the
bombardment. but were certain to
emerge in considerable numbers as
soon as the Russian infantry ad-
vanced. Only FIVE of the cars were
employed for this purpose. Three
of them were armed with light guns.
as well as with maxims. but the
ether two carried only the latter
weapon. To each of them was allot-
ted a definite section of the Austrian
position. on which it was to concen-
trate its fire.
1t was 4 o'clock in the afternoon
when the cars went into the attack,
moving backwards like gigantic
grey-green crayfish.'' This method
of locomotion has the advantages
that the car can return 10 its own
lines with full speed the moment
any unforeseen danger makes a re-
treat advisa bic, and that the engines
are less exposed TO the enemy's fire.
The cars left at short intervals, and
the leader drove right up to the first
line OF the Austrian obstacles. a
maze Of hewn trees, with which the
highway was barricaded. The road
itself, for some reason or other the
enemy had spared; its surface was
quite intact, and the trenches broke
off abruptly on each side OF it,
one after another the cars took
up their positions. swung their tur-