In the Russian Ranks: A Soldier's Account of the Fighting in PolandMorse, John
History
In the Russian Ranks: A Soldier's Account of the Fighting in Poland
Morse, John
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Poland; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
I went to see the bodies of two men who had been killed by one of these
poison-shells. They looked as if they had been rolled in flour of
sulphur, being completely covered, flesh and clothes, with a yellowish
deposit. Some wounded men, and others who had first gone to their
assistance, were similarly encrusted. Some of these were insensible;
others were gasping for breath, and discharging froth from their mouths.
The two men who were dead had been killed by pieces of shell and not by
the gas, though this may have helped to destroy them.
On the 8th March I was watching an aeroplane when the petrol tank
appeared to burst. There was a puff of smoke, and then the machine
dropped like a stone. It must have fallen a mile from the spot where I
was standing: but of its further fate I know nothing. It was a German
aircraft, and was, I suppose, hit by a lucky Russian bullet.
It is astonishing what a riddling these aeroplanes will stand. I have
seen them with from forty to sixty bullet holes in different parts of
them, and yet they were not forced to come down by their injuries of
this character.
Between the 8th and the 14th March I saw more aircraft of various kinds
than at any other time during the period I was with the Russian Army. On
the 9th six of ours hovered over the German positions for a long time,
and dropped many bombs. A tremendous fire was opened upon them by the
enemy, but not one of them was seriously damaged.
During the first fortnight in March we were moved very gradually towards
Ostrolenka. On the 14th we were at Roshan on the Narew, which is here a
small river with fords in the neighbourhood. It had been frozen over;
but the troops had broken up the ice for defensive purposes, as they
had on many other streams. It was also beginning to thaw.
Enormous numbers of Germans, fresh troops, were assembling in front of
Ostrolenka and Lomza; and, according to reports, on a line extending 400
versts north and west of these places. It was evidently the prelude to a
renewed attempt on Warsaw.
The persistence of the enemy to take the old capital of Poland is a
parallel to his perseverance in the endeavour to break through to Calais
in the Western area of the war. Will he do it? He has been within a very
few versts of the place, and made repeated efforts to gain his object;
but so far the Russians have been able to beat him back.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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