Impression
drawing of Volga soldier and baby - by Jamie Mann
Amid strange
stories of the Carpathian
Mountains,
included fight of an infantry
Outpost, during a
storm of heavy snow.
The six-hour
fight continued, as swirls
Of the white
stuff rushed about them.
Austrians faced
the Russians, with only
A small distance
of fifty yards between.
In opposite union
of a mutual charge, both
Sides found
selves subjected to a sudden
Avalanche, to
become stuck and half buried.
With snow up to the
waist, unable to move,
The soldiers, like
rooted trees, still fought.
Men continued to
shoot at each other -
One by one
shooting each other down.
Then the heavy
snow came in another fall.
Russians were
thrown against Austrians;
Tumbling and
losing go of their weapons -
Almost in
suffocation, arm against arm,
The determined
armies reduced to fight
Weaponless in snowdrifts, man against man.
Elsewhere, further
down the valley, fighting
Became reduced to
pacifism - without ability
To fight in such
conditions, the Russians
Moved forward and
assisted the Austrians,
To rescue their
comrades from snowdrifts.
By this method
Austrians, to number forty,
Were taken
prisoner - many of the soldiers
Suffering with
frostbite - during when twelve
Of their men
succumbed and froze to death,
In a mountain
ascent of Hungarian edge.
Even further down in the low-lying country,
The operation of
the foothills, saw the third
Army about
Dunajetz in an easier fight -
A drier country
under bright sun, where an
Awaiting third
army marched on Carcow.
The situation of
the third army sat upon
The River
Dunajetz to face the Austrians;
Eager to move on
Cracow - the enemy
Defence of the
city was said to be strong -
Large corps with
large amounts of artillery.
Daily Austrian
shelling across nine miles was
Aimed at
Tarnow - with support of German
Divisions - the
Austrians made many attacks,
With nighttime rifle fusillades - two Austrian
Parties turn
their target on a Russian section.
This turned into a night attack, as Austrians
Converged from
two directions - not knowing
That the Russians
had actually withdrawn -
With much
confusion in the darkness, they
Lost directions
to attack each other in flight.
In another place
with the lines of each side
On the lower
Dunajetz area, were trenches
Barely twenty
yards apart - with use of slings,
Force of grenades
being thrown at each other,
With frequent
truces to exchange foodstuffs.
This contrasted
with fierce hateful battling -
On one certain
occasion, when Austrians
Failed to honour
truce conditions, Russians
Took their vengeance
- by damming a small
Waterfall,
to let mass of cold water onto foes.
About Zaklieyn,
on the Cracow front, came
One strange story
to involve a Tchuvash
Soldier - a large
fearsome man of the Volga.
During the fight
was found a baby, whose
Missing parents
led to army making adoption.
Named Papasha Nikolai, after the Grand Duke,
The baby was
nursed by the bulky Tchuvash -
Who claimed
nurse experience, having resided
In USA - for baby’s
milk needs, he learned how
Milk was at hand
in the enemy Tchuvash camp.
The Volga man took
a midnight sortie to gain
Some milk - only to be shot in the leg and made
A prisoner - the
detainees learned of his nurse
Reasons in making
the raid, fixed him with milk
And sent him
back to his side, to feed the baby.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Battles
in Snow Mountains - Strange Episodes. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 3 Apr. P.9. Col.3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11509880/Daily-Telegraph-April-3-1915.html [Accessed: 3 April 2015].
Source.,1915.
Baby With Russian Army. Bendigonian (Bendigo, Vic. : 1914 - 1918)
From Trove, digitised Newspapers and more. [online] Available at: http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/90785786 [Accessed: 3 April 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 3 April 2015).
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