exactly the same as those with which, as our own officers and men have described in letters home, Sir John French's battalions in every case so effectively shattered the German efforts at breaking through the British during the retreat after Mons. The Russians, it is stated, invariably allowed the Germans to come in to well within point-blank range, remaining silent, holding their fire and not showing a light meanwhile. Then, as the enemy got within point-blank range, searchlights were suddenly switched on and a ceaseless fusillade of Maxim and rifle-fire from the Russians literally mowed the Germans down by hundreds, breaking up their masses and paralysing the attack. Our illustration shows one of the combats just at the critical moment.—[Drawn by Frédèric de Haenen.]
THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914—[PART 21]—37
RUSSIAN INFANTRY SMASHING A GERMAN NIGHT-ATTACK IN MASSED COLUMNS, IN A BATTLE ON THE VISTULA.
Determined night-onslaughts by infantry have been, according to a letter from Petrograd, a notable feature of the German tactics in the battles on the Vistula, particularly in the fighting that has been taking place between Lowicz and the river. By day, the Germans, we are told, were persistently aggressive, continuously launching attacks against various points of the Russian lines, while the Russians remained on the defensive. With the coming of darkness, however, regularly, night after night, the Germans redoubled their efforts everywhere, taking advantage of the obscurity to fling forward dense swarms and columns of men in massed formation, to storm the entrenched Russian position, apparently at any cost. They failed every time, it would appear, beaten back after literally a massacre. The Russian tactics, it is interesting to recall, were exactly the same as those with which, as our own officers and men have described in letters home, Sir John French's battalions in every case so effectively shattered the German efforts at breaking through the British during the retreat after Mons. The Russians, it is stated, invariably allowed the Germans to come in to well within point-blank range, remaining silent, holding their fire and not showing a light meanwhile. Then, as the enemy got within point-blank range, searchlights were suddenly switched on and a ceaseless fusillade of Maxim and rifle-fire from the Russians literally mowed the Germans down by hundreds, breaking up their masses and paralysing the attack. Our illustration shows one of the combats just at the critical moment.—[Drawn by Frédèric de Haenen.]
38—THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914—[PART 21].
SHIPS THE BRITISH NAVY MIGHT HAVE HAD! FREAKS OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE THAT HAVE NOT BEEN OFFICIALLY ADOPTED.
We illustrate here and on the page opposite some curious designs for war-ships by various inventors. No. 1 is McDougal's Armoured Whale-back, with conning-towers, a design of 1892 for converting whalebacks into war-vessels. No. 2 is an American design of 1892, Commodore Folger's Dynamite Ram, cigar-shaped, with two guns throwing masses of dynamite or aerial torpedoes. No. 3 is a design by the Earl of Mayo in 1894 and called "Aries the Ram," built round an immense beam of steel terminating in a sharp point, No. 4 is Gathmann's boat for a heavy gun forward, designed in 1900. She was to be of great speed, and the forward gun was to throw 600 lb. of gun-cotton at the rate of 2000 feet per second. A formidable Armada this, had it been practicable.
THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, DEC. 30, 1914—[PART 21]—39