In the eastern theater of war the conflict during October was waged with
fortunes that favored, first one side and then the other. Contradictory
claims were put forth from time to time by Petrograd, Vienna and Berlin,
but the net result of the operations at the end of the thirteenth week
of the war appeared to be that while the intended Russian march on
Berlin had been completely checked, the Germans had been repulsed with
heavy losses in all their attempts to cross the Vistula and occupy
Warsaw, the capital of Russian Poland, which was at one time seriously
threatened.
The fighting along the Vistula was fierce and prolonged for several days
at a time. The Germans made numerous attempts to cross the river at
different points by means of pontoon bridges, but these were destroyed
by the Russian artillery as fast as completed. The slaughter on both
sides was considerable. On October 28 the Russian battle front reached
from Suwalki on the north to Sambor and Stryj on the south, a distance
of about 267 miles. The German operations on the Vistula were still
in progress and Poland furnished the main arena of battle. East Prussia
was practically free from Russian troops, save at a few points near the
boundary, but they strongly maintained their positions in Galicia.
THE AUSTRO-SERVIAN CAMPAIGN
After eleven weeks' bombardment by the Austrians, the Servian defenders
of Belgrade were still bravely resisting, although half the city had
been destroyed. The situation was such as to cause at once astonishment,
pity and admiration.
In the open field the Servians continued to hold their own against the
Austrian forces opposed to them. Their Montenegrin allies, under General
Bukovitch, were reported to have defeated 16,000 Austrians, supported by
six batteries of artillery, at a point northeast of Serajevo. The battle
terminated in a hand-to-hand bayonet conflict which lasted four hours.
The Austrians are said to have lost 2,500 men, killed and wounded, while
the Montenegrins claimed that their losses amounted to only 300 men.
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE PACIFIC
Beginning with the loss of its colonies in the China sea, Germany was
compelled to witness during the first two years of the war the passing
into enemy hands of practically all its colonial possessions, which more
than balanced its temporary possession of enemy soil in Europe. One
by one its colonies in Asia and Africa were captured, and in these
operations not only the Japanese but the Belgians assisted, the latter
in Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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