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Show RUSSIANS W BE FORCED TO EVACUATE RICA Berlin Statement Claims Teutons Have Carried Fortified Bridgehead at Lennewada on Dvina. CONSIDERED MOST CRITICAL POSITION Grand Duke's Line Between Two Streams Will Be Jeopardized if Important Import-ant Seaport Falls. LONDON'. Sept. .1. 10 p. m. The Germans Ger-mans iu their official report today claim to have carried bv assault the fortified bridgehead at Lennewada, on the Dina river, between Kriedcrich stndt and l?:gn. This is considered for the Russians the most critical point on their whole front, for should the Germans Ger-mans succeed in erossinj the Dvina. the Russians would be compelled to evacuate evac-uate Riga, and their position between the Pvina and Vilna and even south west of the latter city, would he jeo pardized. However, the Germans do not yet claim to have crossed the nver, which is being defended bv a reinforced army commanded by General Ruzskv. who stopped the previous German advance ad-vance on the Brura river, in front ot Warsaw. Military critics believe that the Russians will make a stubborn de fense on the Dvina, the opinion leiny expressed that should they fail here, the German fleet would gain command of the Gulf of Riga and. by landing troops at Pernau would considerably shorten the protracted march to PetrogTad. which is understood to be the ultimate objective of the German higher com maud. Loses Some Interest. In view of the importance of the battle bat-tle raging along the lower Dvina. the fighting elsewhere loses some of its in terest. Grodno, which the Russians evacuated, apparently proved an empty shell to the Germans, as tbey captured only 400 prisoners after street fight iog. To the northwest of Vilna tho Russians aie on the offensive and. while the Germans say the Russian counterattacks counter-attacks hove been a complete failure, it is said in PetrogTad that the counter offensive seriously threatens tho Get-man Get-man left flank and communications with the army of Lieutenant General von Eichhorn. The Russian center is still retiring through the marshy districts. However, every day they are taking a toll of their pursuers. Tho Russians also are offering of-fering resistance to the Austro-Germnn offensive in Galicia, and southeastward of Lutsk they hold a front of some fifty miles, intersected by hills, woods and rivers, which afford a splendid defensive de-fensive cover. Still Some Doubt. There is still some doubt as to what the Austro-Gormans intend to do m the southeast, military experts being divided divid-ed in opinion as to whether they will advance on Kiev or attempt to project a wedge between the Russian armies and Rumania, which would make it a serious se-rious matter for the Rumanians to refuse re-fuse longer the German demands for a free passage of munitions over Rumanian Ruman-ian railways for the Turks, who arc reported re-ported to be very short of shells necessary' neces-sary' to prevent the allies conquering the GaUipoli peninsula. Concerning the operations at the Dardanelles, Dar-danelles, no official news has been received re-ceived since the report last Wednesday from General Sir Ian Hamilton, commander com-mander of the British forces on the peninsula. The continued successes of the Austro-Gormans in the east leads many writers to the conclusion that the sustained sus-tained bombanlntcnt of the Gorman lines in the west, means an earlv move by the entente allies. The critics point to this, the- thorough redistribution of the British and French armies and the shelling of Zeebrugge some days ago, as heralding something at leaBt preliminary prelim-inary to a general offensive. |