The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
World War, 1914-1918
Over the slushy roads of the valleys and into the snow-laden passes
the Germanic armies advanced, each of the widely deployed columns
with a definite objective: From Dukla, Lupkow, and Rostoki to relieve
Przemysl; from Uzsok through the valley of the Upper San to Sambor;
through Beskid and Vereczke northward to Stryj, thence westward
also to Sambor; over Wyszkow to Dolina; via Jablonitza to Delatyn;
and across Kirlibaba and Dorna Vatra into the Bukowina. Opposed to
them were the Russian Generals Brussilov, Ivanoff, and Alexieff,
respectively.
Correspondents with the Teutonic troops in these weeks wrote in
wonderment of the scenes of the slowly forward toiling advance
into the mountains which they had seen. On every road leading into
Galicia there was the same picture of a flood rolling steadily on.
Everywhere could be seen the German and Austro-Hungarian troops
on the move, men going into the firing line to fight for days,
day after day, with the shedding of much blood, among the peaks
and valleys, under changing skies.
Here is a word picture of the supply columns winding upward into
the Carpathians to the support of the Teutonic troops furnished
by a German correspondent:
"Truly fantastic is the appearance of one of these modern supply
caravans, stretching in zigzag, with numerous sharp corners and turns,
upward to the heights of the passes and down on the opposite side.
Here we see in stages, one above the other and moving in opposite
directions, the queerest mixture of men, vehicles, machines and animals,
all subordinated to a common military purpose and organization by
military leadership, moving continually and regularly along. The
drivers have been drummed up from all parts of the monarchy, Serbs,
Ruthenians, Poles, Croats, Rumanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Austrians,
and turbaned Mohammedans from Bosnia. Everyone is shouting to his
animals and cursing in his own language. The whole mix-up is a
traveling exhibition of most variegated characteristic costumes,
for the most part, of course, extremely the worse for wear. Common
to all these are the little wagons adapted to mountain travel,
elastic and tough, which carry only half loads and are drawn by
little ponylike, ambitious horses. In between are great German
draft horses, stamping along with their broad high-wheeled baggage
and ammunition wagons, as though they belonged to a nation of giants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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