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Show TEUTONS CAUGHT IN RUSSIAN TRAP CORDON STEADILY GROWING TIGHTER AND INVADERS ONLY HOPE TO EREAK THROUGH. Russians Claim Great Victory Over Germans, While Von Hilderberg Says Germans Have Brought Russian Offensive to Standstill. London. "We have succeeded In making progress at certain points," is all that Grand Duke Nicholas, Russian Rus-sian commander in chief, permits himself him-self to say of the battle of Lodz in which, according to information from unofficial but usually credible sources, the Russians have gained a great victory vic-tory over the German armies which made the third attempt since the commencement of the war to advance to Warsaw. This brief reference to the battle, added to hat was said In the previous report from Russian headquarters, Is taken here to mean ' that if the Germans have not been defeated already, the Russians have drawn a cordon around them from which they will have great difficulty in escaping. iSome correspondents in Petrograd, who quote the highest military sources for their information, repeat that this cordon is steadily tightening and that the Russian guns are spreading death among the German armies caught in its grip. They declare the only hope for the Germans, who are said to number num-ber 150,000, is that the two army corps sent to their relief may be able to break through the Russian line which they are attacking at Lenezyca, northwest of Lodz. That the Germans have not given up hope is shown by the Berlin official offi-cial account of the operations, which says the Germans have recommenced their attacks and that the fighting continues. General von Hindenberg, who has just been made a field marshal by Emmperor William, in recognition of the protection he and his troops have given the East Prussian frontier, In an army order issued at Thorn, says the Germans have brought the Russian Rus-sian offensive to a standstill and inflicted in-flicted heavy losses. |