The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 31, 1919, Page 13

THE SEATTLE STAR | SEATTLE, WASH., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1919. TELLS HOW AUSTRIA AND GERMANY QUARRELED at | LUDENDORFF SAYS THEY COULD NOT AGREE ON DIVISION OF POLAND BY EUGENE J. YOUNG jauthority over Mackensen, QVar Editor of the New York World) | vancing eastward from Warsaw, or How lucky were Russia and the| Prince Leopold, further south, and so allies that Ludendorff was over | could not coordinate the marchir Fuled by the kaiser and his court/of their ‘armies with the two to * ring and was not permitted to carry | the north under Gallwits All these Out his grand strategy of 1915 {s| forces came together in the neck of Plainly shown by the atcount he | the between the Pripet gives of the advan thru Poland| marshes and the, Russian fortress @nd into Lithuania. Time taken to/ line. Feduce Russian forts which he had| It was an opening of barely more Planned to outfiank, time lost fn) than 125 miles, How Leopold jostled frontal attacks with huge Mackensen and Mackensen jostled Minalty the jostling of the German | Gallwits and forced him out of his Pursuing armies in consequence of y to the north Is plainly shown. @ivided command—all combined to h jostling could not help but tn the great Russian army get away | terfere seriously with the advance. Zrom Poland in such condition that} Once thru tho neck of the bottle M8 coukt make a new stand and pin | the opposite thing happened. Macken fm the East huge forces which the/sen and Leopold turned in a more Germans could have used to advan therly direction and Gallwits tage on other fronts, turned more northerly and co-opera Tt was explained yesterday that/ tion was lost for a time. That also Diddendorff’s strategy had been to| was a factor that made for delay G@trike far in the rear of the grand bottle losses Ludendorff, late in July, was able} @uke's army of about 1,500,000 men fm the great pocket in Poland. He Wanted to advance his left wing thru | Kovno, Vilna and the Minsk district, @utting across the three northern trunk lines, and send the Austrians and Germ: of the right wing, on a rive east of the Bug river against the trunk Ine the south. Thus he would have closed his ring against the great Pripet marshes and forced @ colossal disaster, He was overruled by the kaiser, at| the instance of General Palkenhayn, | nd forced to advance on Warsaw And west of the Bug. As a result| the Russians got thetr main forces | Back of the Bug and started their re. treat along the lines north of the marshes. At a time when every man and) BUN were needed to follow the Rus | @ians a large force had to be detach Sed to reduce the fortress of Novo Georgievsk. Osowtlec, surrounded by | @wamps, blocked the progress of the| Pursuit. Kovno and Grodno could! Mot be taken by the relatively weak | forces that had been assigned to the | Teft wing. Ivangorod was still in fact to the south. | So the Germans, instead of being | f@ble to outflank and surround large Bodies of the Russians, were forced | to make a hammering advance, ex. | Kovne and Vilna—and forced him to/| Lapy railway geedingly costly tn men and material. | jeral Falkenhayn, at last to take up his plan of ad vancing thru Kovno on Vilna in a less ambitio way. It was too late The Russians were out of the trap, they could throw more forces to hold their flank, and he had not the men to do what he wis Mackensen had taken away many troops to con quer Serbia, and Prince Leopold, who had taken the southern part of the front, was having a hard time in the Pripet swamps and the greac Finlowiece forest to the north of them. One of the things that rankles deeply with Ludendorff ts the cam- paign against the Russians tn the summer of 1915. He shows unmis takably his bitterness over the row with Falkenhayn which caused him to be overruled and humiliated at a] | time when he felt that he had the greatest chance of his life. As told yesterday, the inner circle surrounding the kaiser had become alarmed over a wide intrigue to make Hindenburg chancellor and Ludendorft chief of staff. So Gen kaiser, overruled the scheme of Ludendorff to strike behind the main Russian forces from the north—thru carry out FalKenhayn's plans for backed by the! — hoped to entrap were 100 miles or more back of their original lines.) By the ena of August the Russian general government of Poland had] fallen completely into the hands of he As before, Germany Austria-llungary ehared the adn j istration, The frontier on the west lof the Vistula was formed by the Piliea, and on the east it more or less followed the lower Wiepra. We rn ed a German general government of Warsaw, under General von Heseler, and the Austrians established a mill tary government at Lublin, The/ partition was injurious to the com- mon interest of the allies; many im-/ peratively necessary measures were ecked on It. The commander tn chief in the Fast had had the administration of occupied Poland tn his hands since | the autumn of 1914, He now made way for General von HBeseler, and had more than enough administra Uve cares In the northeast Instead. Novo Georgievak will poasibly prove the last ring fortress to be| taken after Investment. Not that I believe in disarmament, The world will very soon learn ite lewon in regard to that delusion, However much it may be regretted, mankind will never come to that. But the day of the ring fortress is past, They cannot stand against modern artillery and its scale of munition. ment, and must give way to some thing else. Land fortifications will still be necessary, bat they will as sume the character of long fortified lines on the frontier. FOUR GREAT ARMIES ADVANCE When, on August 10, the Twelfth army received instructions to marc with the right wing up the Bug, on the West, it was in the rear of the Eighth army, which was advancing on either side of the Narew against Loma. 1 endeavored to maintain j this echelon as the advance | progressed in order to make use of the ponsibilities of mutual coopera tion on the flanks. But by degrees the two armies came up level with | their inner wings on the Ostrolenka. South of the Hug | Field Marshal Prince Leopold's army Lacking ammunition as they were,|™uch narrower movements against) group bad moved forward to corre- Bometimes forced to make stands only with the bayonet against forces | Warsaw and Brest-Litovak. Not only that, but the armies of Mackensen spond. On August 9 Lomza was taken asmulting with plenty of ammunt-| 2nd Prince Leopold were allowed to/from the southwest. For some time every opportunity and gained the time necessary to bring the bodies out Into the open ground | operate independently of the eastern past we had had a squadron of bomb- Ing aeroplanes at our diwporal tn Fast (Mackensen afterward swept thru! Serbia in conjunction with the Bul wriays, Who found in the disaster to| nized on this occasion what a power | way @ ia the opportunity to enter the war on what they thought would be the winning side) The storming of Kovno was an tn-| heaviest howitzers In order to accom plish it troops had to be withdrawn | built the railways. nter and right wing of the which already b trepld stroke from the Tenth army, very long front. able to concentrate a comparatively | At any moment th strong force for the attack west of|rake its flank v ‘The commandertn-chief In the eant and Gen. 2 selves responsible for thin strain on| By the rest of of # self-confidence and daring. ichhorn was an officer of brilliant his troops in an éxemplary manner. | i nforoed Fortieth army corps, | commander, under Litamann, was to carry) On August @ the infantry tn the|Treachery among high officers left out extremely Guarda officers’ ¢ more difficult by no difficulties to Only thus were we | increased the m thelr artillery hhorn made them. | brigade, heir front. The general | railways were ready had often complained to me that the/a lack of ammunition for had he now set about his! serve. new task with nent Hell, were men of great|and the attack © " | No fortress has ever been attacked jwith such scanty material, but the| know the secrets of the czars time intellectual qualities, and had trained | troops entrusted with the work were | could tel! Ludendorff much, ‘ed by the gallant spirit of their | he says, he does not understand why remained inactive | field howitzers, 1 Ho and his chief | much trouble. Gen, von this officers’ corpa #to The attack on Iovno wan render allowed | th and wel|by a company which had joined the The right wing of |other troops the attacking troops was always very seriously threatened, and the menace|forte. On the 17th Gen. und we gaine | Itussians might | town and the eastern forts. y with} Th wing wan|the taking of covered to the north by a Landsturm | {it was not a case of storming a fort the beginning of August the | vented ‘There was now |in rear and was in touch with the heavy fo at last, on August 8 erything was ready og: | Gon. LAtumnann loth. Luckily the Tuussians proved to be incapable of wit! ing the fire of heavy artillery, A fresh attack don the 16th western line of Litzmann took the mucee in breaking thru th crowned the Niemen and booty wan not so great an at {ovo Georglevak, for ress which had been previously tn The garrison had a way out swinn forces on the east front. I re | have never been able to find out why after|/that army did not help them, or whether the speedy fall of the works | took it by surprise, (Russians and others who now if, as |the fortress was captured #0 castly The general was/assembly ponsttions had got up close | vital points thinly guarded, fortress impetuous and his tnflu-|in order to obtain better artillery ob- ence on the men was very great. He | servation. had laid the foundations of his mili tary fame in the course of the break thru at Breentiny on November 22 to ment began, On the 8th the bombard During the next few | did not fit the fortress guns, because days a number of strong positions | of German intrigue.) had to be stormed. The vigor of the| Ludendorft here shows how the| Prussia. The forts in which an em divided command resulted tn con-|°™Y corps or army staff had its fusion and seeks to make plain that | Warters were often bombed. Splen- | if he had been allowed to carry out| “d results had been reported; but | secrets were given to German arti) larista and much of the ammunition All the bridges, including the very % the line of forts until the | dontroyed, the latter, fortunately, not | completely. It was soon restored. We ere thus to a certain extent able to open a line of communications east of the Niemen in the direction of | Vilna, even before the railway bridge | was read Immediately after the taking of Kovyno, Gen, von Eichhorn sent Gen | Litzmann and his advance guard on |toward the Vilna railway, and him self took the troops next in line 25, 1914. Ie once wrote against the | attack appeared to be waning, but | important railway bridge, and alno | Betore they reached the railway they ntinued to work his| the tunnel on the east bank, had been | met with very strong resi which was too much for them at first. The Russians began to bring up reinforcements from East Northern Poland. The tactical results of the advance of the Tenth army across the Niemen in the direction of Grodno were small, owing to the vast region of fom est to the northeast of that fortress, But the dd become ner vous, They 4 Grodno with amazing speed when the right wing neroms the Niemen. At the same time|of the Tenth army, and more pare he directed the rest of the Tenth urmy to push on with Olita as their main objective, and lighter forces to advance thru Augustowo forest toward Grodno, These forces co-op erated very closely with the advan ing Fighth army, with which they were almost level | The center and right wing of the Tenth army advanced, but with | vy fighting. Under pressure of Jevents at Kovno, the Russdans had completely destroyed the railways 4 bridges over the Niemen, aban doned the left bank and withdrawn in \the direction of Orany. By August | 26th the Twenty-first army corps had taken Olita, By the end of August the Tenth army had crossed the Nie men and was slowly advancing |toward the Grodno-Vilna \tleularly the Eighth army, began their attack, On 8 mber 1, Gen. nm Seholtz, with the 75th reserve ision, took the southwest forts of town and the town itself was 6G cupled on the 2d, after violent street fighting. Gen. von Gallwitz reached the Svislonz (south of Grodno and slightly ast), fighting all the way. Prince Leopold of Bavaria's army group had traversed the Bialowlese wt, which, by the way, was mot an impassable swamp, but well pro» vided with roads. (This sharp jab ts directed at the princely commander who was @ome ducting operations independently of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, He was struggling in a vast forest betweem railway. | Brest-Litovsk and Bialystok.) FAG §S 1 - uot fiction Vv Wigs it further trouble came | his original plans the Russian army in the German high| would not have made good its es wing from Ludendorff | cape, as it finally did, with resulting itter comment. He had no| heavy losses to the Germana 1 £4 Bead Pound, ree, “MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS” By Gen. Eric Von Ludendorff Published by The Star thra special arrangement with the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. Copyrighted, 1919, by Harper and Brothera All rights reserved. ted in Great Dritain by Hutchinson & Company and the London Times; fm Spain by Messrs Selx and Bartel; in Italy by Fratell! Treves; in Canada and stralia. Ali rights reserved for France, Belgium, Holland, Russia and the Genndinavian countries, The capture of Novo Georgievak | middle of August the batteries were @0 miles northwest of Warsaw) did) able to open fire. Its effect did not not directly affect the progress Of appear satisfactory. The voices of the operations. It was an independ-| those wise after the event were now ent operation, taking place in the| raised to say that nothing could be fear of the armies pushing on east-|done with the curtailed attack ward. General von Beseler, the com | method; what had been right in one queror of Antwerp, aed Colonel von| case was wrong in the other. Sauberzweig, his excremely energetic! The vacillation was soon over. chief of staff, guaranteed that there| come. Under continuous fire the should be no question of a so-called) northeastern works were stormed siege with all its attendant complica |and taken. ‘Then followed the at tions. A mere investment of Novo) tack along the whole front to the Georgievsk would be enough to bring | north of the Vistula. Our troops, about its fall. The garrison of 80,|/which were mainly composed of 000 cotiid not hold out for long. | Landsturm and Landwehr forces, be- It is astonishing that the grand/ haved extremely well, and duke should have let it come to this, | ¢ jevek fell on August 19. whereas, later on, Brest-Litovsk and) Soon afterward his majesty the Grodno were evacuated. He ought to) kaiser inspected the fortress d have told himself that it was im-| thanked the troops. The field n possible to hold the fortress, and shal and I were commanded to be that the condition of the fortifica-| present. I was thus able to see for tions was not good enough to with-| myself the devastating effects of scand heavy high-angle fire. heavy artillery fire and the poor con General von Beseler decided to at-| struction of the works. tack the northeastern forts. The| ‘The troops released by this event Mlawa railway, which had been re-| were sent to the Tenth army, with stored some time previously, in-|the concurrence of general head dicated this side of the enciente. The| quarters, and this force thus re Novo | main object was to make the dis tance to be traversed by road as short as possible for the artillery and ammunition supplies being sent up by rail, so as to avoid the waste of time involved in making field and light railways. The strength of the front was of no importance, for a plentiful supply of heavy shell put the attack on equal terms. FORTRESS FALLS IN TEN DAYS On August 9th the investment was completed, and soon afterwards the artillery and ammunition supplies Were established in position. By the] ceived the reinforcements {t required | unfortunately very late in the day. |The heaviest batteries were to be | sent against Grodno, Kovno had al- ready fallen. (He refers to his great flanking | plan which was overruled. He had been forbidden, at the beginning of the drive in July to reinforce the Tenth arthy, outside Eastern Kast Prussia, with which he hoped to en- circle the main Russian forces by way of Kovno and Vilna and had had to givs up the idea. Now the kaiser tardily let him send reinforce- ments, but the Russians he bad | when I was able to have the damage | | tnepected it was impossible to verify } it. Im the interests of the troops I was glad of this, as they were able to use the forts as billets. It was only later that our bombs became effective when the airmen took more © eat in bombing work. | As the advance progressed It be | came evident that Mackensen's and Prince Leopold's army groups were pushing north, and thus forcing the Twelfth and Eighth armies to the | left. | (This trouble and confusion of the armies was caused by division of command after the beginning of the | battle due to the dispute between Lu- | |dendorff and Falkenhayn, Macken: | sen and Prince Leopold were made | independent of Hindenburg and Lu- | | dendorff and were evidently conduct ing thelr advance to suit themselves thus hampering the other armies) On August 18 Field Marshal von Mackensen had arrived before Brest Litovsk; Prince Leopold was ap proaching the Bialowlese forest, and the Twelfth army Bialystok, the for mer seat of the excellent Prussian administration of New East Prussia at the end of the 18th and the begin- | | ning of the 19th centuries. | The Eighth army preased forward | toward Grodno in the narrow space between Bialystok and the Narew, #0 | as to capture Osowtec from the south. | This fortress was invested on August | 22. We had intended, earlier in the war, taking It from the east and | north, yet we took it from the south. Such is war. In the latter days of August both armies continued the advance in a more northeasterty direction beyond the Bilalystok-Osowiec line, the Twelfth army marching north of Wolkowysk, and the Eighth army on | Grodno | Both these armies, therefore, were | gradually losing touch, tactically, with the two southern army groups, which, after the investment of Brest- | Litevsk on August 25-26 marched on | toward Pinsk and Baranvicl. By degrees they came within the sphere of the operations which were in preparation further north, At the beginning of September, the Eighth and Twelfth armies reached the region of Grodno, southeast thereof. In a fortnight’s time or so they were to be at Lida, north of the Niemen. About eight weeks would then have elapsed since the offensive | started, HE COULD HAVE | DONE BETTER During this operation the Twelfth army had had to make a wide detour south. How much better would it have been ff, instead of this move. ment, an attack on the Lomza Grodno line had been possible, That could not be done, But an operation to the north of Grodno, combined | with the taking of Kovno, would have | reached this point much more quickly |and easily, and have been far more | effective if it had been carried out in full strength, even as late as the first fortnight in August. | (fe thus undertakes to potmt out |how much better the Germans would have fared had they accepted his joriginal plan for the sweep thru Kovno.) For a time it looked as tho general |headquarters wished to suspend the | | advance in the east. They transferred | | large portions of Field Marshal von | | Mackensen's army, and later of the Twelfth and Eighth armies, too, to the west and South Hungary, But they allowed the operations which had been begun after the taking of Kovno and our advance in Lithuania and Courland to take their course, IF YOU OWNED A CLOTHING STORE on the ground floor—had to pay expensive rent—ar- range special window dis- plays and have a lot of people owing you money —what would you do? —You’d simply have to charge more on every Suit and Overcoat sold. We don’t have to worry about expensive rent—nor expensive window displays —nor credit losses. 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