The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915Parrott, Edward
History
The Children's Story of the War Volume 4 (of 10): The Story of the Year 1915
Parrott, Edward
World War, 1914-1918 -- Juvenile literature
Let us see how the campaign in Bukovina fared. Three Austrian corps and
one German corps crossed the mountains and advanced in two columns. The
Russians, you will remember, had only one division with which to meet
these four army corps. They were obliged to fall back, and thus Bukovina
was cleared. The Austrians captured town after town, and early in March
they entered Stanislau,[23] a railway junction only seventy miles from
Lemberg. They were delighted with their success, and they reported that
they had made huge captures of prisoners. They had now reached a
position from which they could threaten the Russian communications.
Soon, however, it was discovered that the Russians had only fallen back
to a point where they could be reinforced. As soon as their numbers were
sufficiently increased they advanced again, and pushed the Austrians out
of Stanislau, and almost back to the line of the Pruth. By doing so they
removed the danger to their communications.
[Illustration: Position of the Russians in Galicia at the end of 1914.]
Meanwhile what had happened in Galicia? Two Austrian armies had been
fighting fierce battles in the deep snows and slush of the Carpathians.
With infinite labour guns and transports had been hauled up the icy
slopes, where a foothold could barely be maintained. Infantry attacks
were difficult; the white snow threw up the figures of the men, who thus
became excellent targets, no matter what uniforms they wore. Even night
attacks were revealed, for on moonless nights the light reflected from
the snow made all things clear. Both sides suffered terribly from the
cold, but it told more severely on the Austrians than on the Russians,
who are accustomed to bitter winters. In the last week of January a
bright sun shone, and often the pure white snow was stained scarlet with
the blood of the fallen. Blizzards swept across the mountains during
February, and checked the fighting on the uplands, though it continued
to rage in the foothills. Perhaps the most terrible hand-to-hand
fighting known to history took place at a little village near the Uzsok
Pass. Large German forces for two months vainly tried to oust the
Russians, who had captured the position from them. Some idea of the
awful losses sustained by the Germans may be gathered from the statement
that one regiment changed from colonel to drummer boy three and perhaps
four times. The village stands on a height, and during the winter is
shrouded in snow. While the furious battles were raging, the height was
reduced to bare soil, every foot of its surface having been ploughed
with shell and drenched with blood. You can imagine the horror of trench
life in this region, with the thermometer below freezing-point and the
icy blizzards blowing almost daily. In some places the trenches were
only forty paces apart, and so fierce were the attacks and
counter-attacks that eight out of every ten men engaged in them are said
to have fallen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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