The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-23

he now set about his new task with
 zest. He and his chief of staff, Colonel Hell, were men of great self-confidence and daring. General von Eichhorn
 was an officer of brilliant intellectual
 qualities, and had trained his troops in
 an exemplary manner.
 The reinforced 10th A C., under General Litzmann, was to carry out
 the attack. The general was extremely impetuous and his influence on the
 men was very great He had laid the foundations of his military fame in the course of the break through at Fresh iny on November 22 to 25, 1914 He
 once wrote against the guards officers corps. but he recognized on this occa- sion what 8 power this officers corps stood for.
 The attack on Kovno was rendered
 more difficult by the lack of the heaviest howitzers. But we allow ed no difficulties to deter us and we built the railways. The right wing of the at l tacking troops was always very se- riously threatened, and the menace in creased the more ground we gained. At any moment the Russians might rake its flank very effectively with their ar tillery. The left wing was covered to i the north by Landsturm brigade. By the beginning of August the rail- ways were ready. There was now a lack of ammunition for the heavy field howitzers I gave up my reserve. So | at last, on August s. after much trouble,
 everything was ready and the attack could begin.
 No fortress has even been attacked
 with such scanty material, but the
 troops entrusted with the work were
 inspired by the gallant spirit of their commander.
 On August the infantry in the as- haI Cnf c1nSa in order to obtain better artillery obser- vation. On the Sth the bombardment began. During the next few days a number of strong positions had to be
 stormed. The vigor of the attack ap- peared to be waning, but General Litz-
 mann continued to work his way along
 the line of forts until the 18th. Luckily the Russians proved to be incapable of withstanding the fire of the heavy artillery. A fresh attack, by & company which had joined the other troops, succeeded on the 18th in
 breaking through the western line of
 forts. On the 17th General Litzmann crossed the Niemen and took the town and the eastern forts
 The booty was not so great as at the taking of Novo Georgievsk, for 1t was not case of storming fortress which had been previously invested. The garrison had way out in the rear and was in touch with the Russian
 forces on the east front. I have never
 been able to find out why that army
 did not help them, or whether the
 speedy fall of the works took it by
 surprise.
 (Russians and others who now know
 the secrets of the Czar's time could tell Ludendorff much, if as he says, he does not understand why the fortress was captured so easily. Treachery among high officers left vital points thinly guarded, fortress secrets were given to German artillerists and much of the ammunition did not fit the fort ress guns, because of German intrigue)
 All the bridges including the very
 important railway bridge, and also the tunnel on the east bank, had been destroyed, the latter, fortunately not completely. It was soon restored. We were thus to certain extent able to the Niemen in the direction of Wilma, even before the railway bridge was ready.
 Immediately after the taking of Kovno General von Eichhorn sent Gen. eral Litzmann and his advance guard on towards the Wilma railway, and him. self took the troops next in line across the Niemen. At the same time he di- rected the rest of the 10th army to push on with Olita as their main objective. and lighter forces to advance through Augustowo Forest towards Grodno. These forces co-operated very closely with the advancing Sth army. with which they were almost level.
 The center and right wing of the 10th army advanced. but with heavy fighting Under pressure of events at Kovno. the Russians had completely de- stroyed the railways and bridges over the Niemen. abandoned the left bank and withdrawn in the direction of Orany. By August 18th the 21st A. C. had taken Olita. By the end of August the 10th army had crossed the Niemen and was slowly advancing towards the Grodno no-yilna railway. Before they reached the railway they met with very strong resistance, which was too much for them at first. The Russians began | to bring up endorsements from east ] to Northern Poland.
 The tactical results of the advance of the 10th army across the Niemen in the direction of Grodno were small, : owing to the vast region of forest to the northwest of that fortress But the
 (Contfnued on Page Nine.)
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