The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 25, 1919, Page 10

“MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS” aed Gen. Eric Von cog spiel thru epectat 10 by Mar oa. th Grea Mutoh be Monare ma Ores wo had taken on Mr. anpnticr by the midd ent 1914 (including the ustrian troops to the @nd of the line) had resulted | lain a#tiffer of the front We were still weak to dig blow Tt was natural that in Ation our eyes should ax the West. {asked myse 7 there Was any chance of obtaining Wiocess at Ypres, or whether Would not be once and DRO Festrict operations on the West )@8n front and carry out the conte epee overatic ns against Russia with @Ur available forces, Genera Mee Conrad (the er) had suggested this » tur whethe to better that in Novem This point of view seemed to me | to be the right one, and I aske command for rein the West. In add Walry divisions, the dispa' forces was contemplates arrived too late and at oh but odd FROM WEST FIT FOR BATTLE ‘The operation on tne flank could Attain a military decision if car Out as a surprise, that is, with great concentration of force in conjunction. with a strong attack, We dared not dehy Beginning of operations in the even if Be had seen our way | tely clear as regards rein nts on the 10th _The troops which came from the front had suffered so heav- } im the fighting there that they Feally no more fit for battle the Polish theatre of war and tin the West must, necessarily, | them adversely at first. the question whether, in view The reinforcements sent to us the West, something else could p ab have been done, I cannot p an opinion. For that rea- Tam unwilling to offer any criti- I have always held the view, T was a lecturer at the) that any criticism | on’ actual knowledge | though this was to be foresee! {reduction of the Eighth army was a y reflects on the critics. after the arrival of von cavalry corps, which up just in time for the ad von Hollein’s cavalry corps the Second and Fourth cavalry ance, Vela Austrian command: | of Novem-| with the Mot Nr rights don anada and la and the 5,000 PROOPS but only afte had be (ants MOR or forward The Thimd n Reseler r the ened neral ve and Sixth irteenth A.C, u von Fabe with xth infant fifth nd A, C. under ngen, with th infantry urth R. C Gerok the Forty-ne and Fortyelghth reserve divis (At full strength these —addit would number more than men.) These were posted cording to the requirements of the situation The means at our dixposal at the beginning of operations on the 10th of November were imperfect, but in spite of that, an attempt had to be made to deal the Russians such a blow as would not only bring their armies in the bend of tne Vistula t a standstill once and for all, « put an end to their offensive, crush them decisively This would be accomplished If we were able to force them tack fror Warsaw. If we were too weak to this, we must content ourselves with the lesser result, and en that woul! be of great importan In November fighting developed as anticipated. The Russian armies jeverywhere started upon the execu- tion of the great tasks set them by the grand duke. | BAST PRUSSIA AGAIN INVADED The Eighth army found itself ad tacked. Even though it had been de Pleted of the First and Twenty fifth R. C, it made an attempt to by the east frontier of Bast Prussia jAgainst the overwhelming Russian Assaults, but it was not able to do so permanently. Toward the middle of November we withdrew it to the Masirian Lakes-River Angerapp po sition Thus the eastern part of Fast! Prussia was once more exposed to a Russian invasion. A period of reat! suffering was in store for it, but, al the > us under ( Pitth the division and reserve division; the Genera Phir tons and t under Genera divi Twent 000 but) ev necessary evil. The Russians follow: led close upon their heels and also Attacked them in their new po-| sitions, In spite of all this we de-| cided to bring the First Infantry di- appeared. They were at-| vision of the Ninth army up to join to Zastrow's corps (to the of the Vistulé, where a feint was ie sande agyihat Warsaw trom the! _ ONE WEEK 4 STARTING | TODAY Li epee Ty ben apt err We staked much in order to attain! our objective at this most tapertget| point. CLE SEATTLES B | te | after | forces (80,000 men) were then to preas = Se Awan stance nal Baile 25, 1919. in | —= nd and ansailed oe Miawa Vistula) otire the Here the checked Zastrow's It# positions between Prasnyme (east of and itvelf forced dau-Neidenburg varios of tt heavy corps was Ladendorff — in Monday's Star tells of the greae winter battle in the Magurian Lakes of the mont remark conflicts in the war and other great reverse for thy It was fought in deep the Ge nh army or » showed ite best, the tor to ur yomy wae fighting, ‘The Viatula se mper and Weat I a, in particu mmediatel threatened, but Zastr corpa did Wo lived hour in I a the middie N Holl corps on both improved the situation nituation east of the emed m at thru but ite duty many an nxt the ar lal riva vember b oth: rive wine the ponition r Warta (40 mile was somewhat was the First which w#till nk of the med of from » Russians aa far aw the nouthweat) Here part « anit right bs of Vistula ny HIS PLAN TO ‘ 0 TRAP RUSSIANS certainly rely on In the mear elht to 10 di of the Ninw Vistula and the t and Immediately von n's cavalry wing V We gad was b obscure Russian extended to the Vistula. It was 10 to 14 divi We might being from between the Landsturm later on bank ternn 1 Ploek er to n's army and reache the nm 00 men) ther Warta north of ian cavalry pushing toward the of the Russian army was in om th Warta, north of Bier ads, thru N Nadomek ( tiles from the German frontier) to the re gion northeast of Cracow. Other por had arrived In Galicia on t Dur pushing into arpathians time the deployment had been carried aceording te the de As early weg the Warta forces were frohuer. The completed plan ne ft the army forward nent Apa Twenty-fifth of Thorn Wloclawee Le Riet ntioth A south of H * to march Kutne * teenth A. C., southeast of | testru rman re direct Lent nded effect ar First R. C. nm of and Direct fon ad tions river and were fen's cavalry and ‘Th corps rd guard di advance with movements me to a ndatill, for tion of railways (in the treat) had produced the in But were now mption of their f rensals kaa on the order march a eby tan Eleventh A. ©., east of Wreachen march direction, Kolo-Doble Fromme!'# cavalry corps march direction signs that Mackensen began op ut delay General von erations wit 11, We could The Russians wer by surpr days of our advanc waa very avy fighting expenntve near Wloclawee, Kutno beaten between on Novermbgr naree with hifn taken completely the Unieiov Lods Posen corps on the Kalina line; march direction, Lark My thia movement he aunched a striking force of about 0 ) men from the northwest corner ¢ ¥ jan Poland on a gate m nt Thorn troops (80. ad to march 90 miles southeast Lowies and cut the railroad between Lods and Warsaw, the chief munication line of the Russian armies in Vistula bend, Th troops from Hohensalza (92,000 men) Gnesen (40,000 men) and Wreachen (440,000 men) were to come by short er marches until they formed a line front of about 50 miles facing south on Lats and on the flank of the jane, The other two German and Steradz rady even early there extremely to both sides. and Dombe. The enemy were a everywhere SORELY PRESSED ON FLANK While the main body ef the Ninth army pushed forward unceasing!) the Lodz Kiliuseki station line, eral von Morgen od their flank north of Lowica with eo Firat KR. C. He was sorely premed, At first he had to rely for protection on his own vigorous attacks, and then he had to meet an attack from a Russian corps which had Crossed from Novo Geor. gievek to the left bank of the Vis tula, Thanks to the subsidiary op eration near Mlawa (the cavalry feint to the east of the Vistula) this movement proceeded but slowly The cenwr of the army, von Richthofen’s cavalry corpa, the Third guard division and the Twenty-fifth reserve corps finally broke sistance offered them, The the Lowice Lods pushed far to the south by Brehesh iny (12 miles east of Lodz. These the east almost at right angles to this Une and close the trap) From the Landsturm of the Bree: lau corps little was to be expected. and the same applied to the attached Austrian cavalry division." Other forces were at the time not yet in position. An offensive further south Was hot yet to be thought of. The idea of such a movement by General von Woyrech alone, who had already felt strong Russian pressure, could not be considered for a moment troops were now well in the regr of In the bend « o Vistula, Wioo large Russian forces), their attention | lawee (20 miles southeast of Thorn! fixed on the south and weet, and on the Vistula) was in the hands of they strove for a great success. MMER ST PHOTO PLAY HOUS the re army crommed ne and Five Crooks in Love With One Girl! REX BEACH’S VIGOROUS DRAMA OF THE NORTH “THE GIRL FROM OUTSIDE” An unusual Rex Beach story rile, red- blooded; yet deeper, more human than any of his former plays GUTERSON'S ORCHESTRA SOLO—Marimba, Xylophone, Chimes. Selections, “The Fortune Teller’. -Victor Herbert Played by Preston va Lodwick ORCHESTR A ied MBER Promise Me’ W. J. Blesington Dedi to Guterson’s Orchestra CHRISTIE COMEDY “0. ated the} ward movement waa to be expected. | An) Third guard — | Litamann, the Twenty-fifth R. C | have |of November in order to hold Lodz | reinfore IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A SHOW THAT’S FULL Jorder from the Ninth army, of which | 1 also knew, to fortify a position near Skierniwice (30 miles north of east of Lodz) did not reach them. Army headquarters was not far enough for. ward. The Twentieth, Seventeenth Ninth A. C., who had closed up siderably a strong north of Loads on the 17th a pled with ft corps and OF = PEP An intercepted wireless revealed to HERE IT IS us that the Russians thought of ro treating fr Lodz, Our satisfaction | was great, ut the strong will of| the grand duke held his forces where WITH A MATINEE and On nd grap alry cort od bank of thi on the cast they were, as we learned from a fur ther wired and intense was our! disappoin RUSSIAN Ff IS TARDY The bank of th tion « on the right Russian tro Vistula certain remain near Mlawa, were ordered to} crows the Vistula, It wax a good| thing that this operation was effected somewhat slowly; otherwise General von Morgen's position would have been made still more difficult, (These rkampt's and with the ur which were to were I Cossacks other fc The treating nn oon.) defeated thru Sk *aw were concentrated the fortre from to rewume their advan The Kuseian right trate round Lodz from the front of Fifth Russian armies not yet involved, pushed north on| Koluszkt (1 len cant of Lodz) and} west of Loc Here took the | Eleventh army by anc ‘| pre forces re War of were | sian niewlce to | due went which they were wing Keinfore concen. ements nd and whieh mi they surpr nty-fifth FR jeneral c ite trusty Schaffer ¢ Staft rd far thru rtions of von I Bresin Ain mwung round went; Er Then things were expected the situation changed, The Twenty-fifth R. C. with Twentieth A. C. The enemy near | Lodz was p back, but, on] the other ha wed back the Twentieth A and pushed their] way in between.the inner wings of the two corps, The Russian forces | | that had been rallied west of War- | saw pushed forward without oppo nition from Sklerniewice to Bresiny The Twenty-fifth RC. and the unite with it were cut off, being attacked from the south by the portions of the | Pitth Russian army which were marching’on Koliuseki station RUSSL KREAT OPPORTUNITY | The details of the various engage ments which now developed with the touch | wn division, under Genera! and | von Richthofen's cavalry corps, have been wonderfully described by Cap tain von Wulffen in a brochure. I | can, therefore, refer to it From enemy wireless measages we | tearned in Posen, far from the bat | tefield, how hopefully the Russians jTegarded the situation, how they Planned the various be how they already exulted at the thought of capturing various German corpa They were preparing trains in readi ness for the transport of the prison em I cannot describe what I then felt What was at stake? Not only the triumph of the enemy and the cap ture of #0 many brave men, but noth ing less than a lost campaign. After this defeat the Ninth army would bad to be withdrawn. What would then have been the position at the end of 19147 The Bresiny episode closed with a brilliant feat of arms. The sur rounded German troops broke thru northwards on the night of the 24th h of November. They took w them 10,000 prisoners and many cap tured guns. AGAIN SAVED BY RENNENKAMPF The units that posted between the and the First RC. In this way our front was much more dense, and when the Russians assaulted in force it waa in vain. (After the Germans got out of the trap General nnenkampft was missed by Grand Duke Nicho! cause he failed to bring troops from the north in close the ring firmly It ps who crossed the Vistul slowly, ax mentioned by Ludendorff,)| Proved that to be true The great aim of our operations, | °°! Just arrived in time the destruction of the Russians in the bend of the Vistula, had not been AUSTRIAN TRAP attained, as* we had not proved AGAIN FAILS strong enough for that purpose. ; 1 From now on to the end of Novem ber the Russians pressed the Ninth army and attacked further south but without much suc the end of November of Decem from ALSO broke thru were Twentieth’ A. C it 8 be his to up th was _ view this appear nd events The div © save the retical point of pas to be a mistake ision nrad intended en » southern wing to on von ans severely possible he had front. In the manova and the 14th of beating ver Duna. for the Aus At beginning First divisi and the reinforcements from West had at last arrived, I opportunity of resun (te ily) my original plan of operations In the bend of the Vistula t again a series of sanguinary flicts, NO CHANC! » BLOW left w conn and the army the when th tussians w It a triumy Hu artr rever they had suffere the war ure of our progress had an was yorar | tro arian 1 since the ere were con Under the press Russians UF ng t nth army for hae there anxie yw bee at r was no It « way toward the the Bzura (the outward defenses of very superior enemy which attacked them without hesita- tion. The Austro Hungarian troops, which were trying to envelop the enemy, were forced back into the Carpathians, Here a state of affairs veloping was destined inflr of the utmost upon the fF for nemy’s positions ¢ Warsaw), But this movement was now merely in the nature of a purely frontal attack and not an enveloping movement on bold lines, was ¢ which to exercise nce rtance The Second A. C. b positions east of S signing of December an by the Seeond A, © with success and they pushed for ward in the direction of Lodz. What would we not have given for this success a fortnight earlier. ha warfare I should The Russians ev bolder pblicy from December 6 danger was that the gain would not River Miashga. Further south, also,!}. commensurate with the loss. It We now gained more ground owing| was the duty of leadership to guard to the enemy having weakened that against this, part of his line in the latter half| fyuring the great trouble in ing the railway which we had ourselves previ mpletely destroyed, — into again. We worked nt and main to restore considerable time elapsed railway communications really in order roops, who wer ywhere exhausted, suffered much on account of this, It was particularly regret- 4 been sent to At the b attack made was crowned radz " nd of the V expecta urmy the tula some eal fig front of ght not to still inexperi on whieh nee. We in treneh pursued a the start. The ing occurred the Ninth have taken ph need have puated nd retired behind the Lodz on operations we On December 15 Lowicz was taken by our northern wing, and from our central front further local progress was recorded lines, ously but the South of Cracow the situation had become more acute The Austro Hungarian general staff had urgent ly asked for a German division the Austrian front. Re luctantly we sent the Forty seventh reserve division, From a purely hen before were to! The ve Frolic TODAY (MAT.) 27c; RIGHTS AND SUNDAY 406¢ NEW SHOW EVERY, SATURDAY | the 5 anow, } d pushed tor| i 7 tichthofen"s ca 4 corps had n *etrokof and Tom (26 miles cast of "zoe | q infantry diviatons southeast of | THE FINEST AND SMARTEST MUSICAL COMEDY IN TOWN BUSY” THE CLEVEREST OF ALL HEBREW COMEDIANS AT HIS FUNNIEST ANCE CRAZE The Frenchy Flirty PRETTY MAIDENS Sanaa THE LATEST PARIS RPHEUM THIRD THE HOME OF HIGH CLASS MUsiCal COMEDIES their Christmas parcels delivered in time. This gave considerable work to the railways, for at that time these marks of affection flowed in very freely. Leave, too, could not be granted to the extent we desired. DEFENDS SAC ‘G OF POLAND The measures for the government of the Poles in the occupied territory took up a great deal of time. They are now of no interest. The country had no reason to complain, even if the situation compelled us to remove valuable war raw material. (Poland was stripped of articles us Germans.) We negotiated with Austria-Hun gary the questions of the new boundaries of our respective jurisdic turally the agreements me in September, under needed altera ge head lin now interfered proba at the ia-Hungary . after the many/ on tions made by eral tion, Unfortunate quarters and Ber in the negotiat ation of A lid not help matters, as the question were not i with the actual facts, But of no account. In my duties I was myself with a political questions more annoyance inst ‘ourse obliged to number of military which brought me than satisfaction A shadow fell on the proud sat faction with which we contemplated the development of events on the Eastern front. The Austrian army had fought without final success in Serbia, At the end of December it had penetrated far into that o try. Belgrade had been carried on December 2. Joy reigned in Aus tria-Hungary. Yet, occupy Battle of Limanova, the troops were retiring from Serbia, feated They fighting had un they Austrian de were no longer a vigorous instrument. At first they estimated their oppone went to the other extreme, and over-estimated them. enemy's numbers alone terrified them. That superstition, bound up | with a certain feeling of impotence in the face of the adversary, the once now table that we were not able to get! brave army has never overcome, ul to thé} | were shattered. +with this. un: | as early as the! | days of the capture of Lodz and the had } ts, | ‘The | AND — MADISON UNDER THE KAISERIN'’S PALM Z We of the staff lived a harmonioug life in the castle at Posen. Common cares and common glory united us It became the custom for us to sit together awhile after dinner at night We used to sit at a round table on which stood a palm, the gift of her majesty, our kaiserin, a true German woman, of whom I always think with the greatest admiration, This short little hour was a relaxa tion for me in the midst of the ab moet crushing work of those fous months of war, A great battle had been fought and won. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been saved ‘from the Russian danger, All the grand duke's plan His attack on ast Prussian frontier, his advance on the west bank of the Vistula, and all the entente's hope of @ ietorious finish of the war in the ar 1914, had fallen to the ground surrender of the eastern portion Prussia and of a large pari hard as it was, was of ne sequence compared to these re sults. The second part of the campaigy in Poland was, too, an achievement, There is little in military history nat can compare with it Our troops, which had been con stantly fighting or on the move since the beginning of August, had shows themselves beyond all praise. Once more they had been victorious against an enemy with nearly twice their numbers. It was only wit? such leaders and such men that if Proved actually possible for us te translate bold plans into actios against such superior forces, Honor and perpetual remembrances to the German army of 1914! Let's go eat at Boldt'»—upto: ? HU 3d Ave.; downtown, 913 24 ‘ave ro kee