The Russian Campaign, April to August, 1915: Being the Second Volume of "Field Notes from the Russian Front"Washburn, Stanley
History
The Russian Campaign, April to August, 1915: Being the Second Volume of "Field Notes from the Russian Front"
Washburn, Stanley
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Eastern Front; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The General at once agreed to let me visit some observation point
where I could have a glimpse of his positions and the general nature
of the terrain. On his large scale map we found a point that towered
more than 200 metres above the surrounding country, and he advised
me to go there. So on the following day we motored to a certain army
head-quarters, where the General in command gave us one of his staff,
who spoke English, and an extra motor, and sent us on our way to
a division then holding one of the front line trenches. Here by a
circuitous route, to avoid shell fire, we proceeded to the observation
point in question. It was one of the most beautifully arranged that I
have ever visited, with approaches cut in through the back, and into
trenches and bomb-proofs on the outside of the hill where were erected
the hyperscopes for the artillery officers to study the terrain.
I could clearly see the back of our own trenches with the soldiers
moving about in them. In the near foreground almost at our feet was
one of our own batteries carefully tucked away in a little dip in
the ground, and beautifully masked from the observing eye of the
aeroplanist. To the south lay the line of the Austrian trenches, and
behind that a bit of wood in which, according to the General who
accompanied us, the Austrians had a light battery hidden away. Still
further off behind some buildings was the position of the Austrian
big guns, and the artillery officer in command of the brigade, whose
observation point was here, told me that there were two 12-inch guns at
this point, though they had not yet come into action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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