Day by Day with the Russian Army, 1914-15Pares, Bernard
History
Day by Day with the Russian Army, 1914-15
Pares, Bernard
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Poland; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, English
I arrived at the N regiment in a cab, or rather did not arrive, because
we stuck in a sea of mud. The Polish cabman, plaintive but polite,
described it as an "awful drive," and seemed inclined to stay there all
night, till some soldiers came and dragged us out.
The Colonel and his two adjutants lived in the usual hut. These Polish
cottages are very clean and well furnished, with handsome stoves,
decorated roofs, sometimes a divan, and in all cases rows of religious
pictures encircled with wreaths of artificial flowers.
We had the usual telephone-interrupted night and a long talk about the
Colonel's earlier experiences in Austria. He now had in front of him an
Austrian regiment whose guest he had been when on his travels.
Next day I rode to some of the positions. One could get close up to
them without danger. We walked forward, through brushwood and swamp,
with sentries at various points, up to the rapid Dunajec. To the right
some of our positions were across the stream; to the left it was itself
the dividing line. Here there was a broken bridge, and on either
side of the break were the opposing sentries, who occasionally took
snapshots at each other at short range. The German lines and their wire
entanglements were plainly visible, but at midday the view was as bare
and desolate as the ship of the "Flying Dutchman" before the awakening.
One of the most curious things in war is the tacit convention that
develops itself illogically out of a set of circumstances entirely
novel. In open day to show oneself here is ordinarily to be killed, yet
at certain hours, fixed rather by instinct than by reason, there is an
unspoken truce of which both sides take advantage. Photographs could be
taken, and we returned in peace to the main positions.
In the evening I set out for some more distant trenches where the
enemy was Austrian. I stopped to take tea at a point where some of the
inhabitants were being examined. I have seen a good deal of this, and
have always found that the Russians, if anything, erred on the side
of leniency. There are undoubted communications between the lines,
but, apart from the most obvious espionage, the most that is done is
to remove suspects from the ground nearest to the trenches. We went
forward on foot in the twilight, with a good moon and a clear sky,
and with a full view of the enemy's ground, though we ourselves were
indistinguishable from our surroundings. We soon came on the trenches,
which were elaborate, deep, and for the most part dry. My host here
was one of those ideal persons who seem made for such conditions
of life. I will call him George, because he is one of the most
worthy knights of that Order of bravery. I asked him how he won this
distinction, and after starting the briefest account of a village taken
and communications secured he broke it off saying: "For execution of
orders." He was a big man with kind eyes, a manner prompt and natural,
and the simplest address to his soldiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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