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Show fill!!! END RETREAT AT OLD wm ill Driven Back Fifty Miles by Mackensen, They Stand at Earthworks Erected by Trajan. REINFORCED LINE IS HOLDING BACK FOES Bulgaro-Teuton Drive Is Directed Di-rected Toward Important Railway Line Terminating Terminat-ing at Constanza. (Special Cable by Arrangement with London Daily Telegraph and International News Service.) LONDON, Sept. 18. Held Marshal von Maekensen has put up a wall of steel and iron across the southern Dobrudja, Dob-rudja, from the Danube town of Rasova to the little Black sea port of Tuzla, a stretch of about forty miles. The wall consists of his right wing operating against Rumania, composed of Germans. Bulgars and Turks, aided by an array of the Krupps'' mightiest "busy Berthas.'' To establish this barrier to Eusso-Ru Eusso-Ru maniac invasion of Bulgaria, the combined com-bined armies of the czar and King Ferdinand Fer-dinand had to be driven out of the whole1 of the southern Dobrudja, along a front of fifty miles to a depth of the same extent. This achievement, for the first time made clear by today's official reports from Sofia and Berlin, is what the kaiser referred to when, in a message to the empress a few days ago, he announced a "decisive victory," -won by Mackensen over the Russians and Rumanians. Russ Take Advance Post, The Bulgar-Teuton-Turk tide swept back the Russo-Rumanian forces immediately imme-diately after the fall of the Danube fortress fort-ress of Silistria, which put Mackensen 's center in a position to turn eastward in a flanking movement. Today's official Bulgarian report says "our advance in the Dobrudja continues." con-tinues." It admits the occupation by the Russo-Rumanian forces of a fortified advance ad-vance position near Kobadin, to which run the lines of Mackensen 's right, and adds: ' "Our troops are in immediate contact with the enemy." Bulgarian cavalry has occupied the railway station of Adjenlar. Strike at Railway. The important railway line running from Czernawoda, on tlie Danube, to Rumania's chief seaport, Constanza, is believed to be the immediate objective of Mackensen 's drive in the Dobrudja. This line is defended, however, by one of the most formidable defense's ! known to military history: Trajan's .wall, dating from A. D. 377, constructed by the emperor Trajan to check the advance ad-vance of the Visigoths. It was before this wall that the Russians were twice heavily defeated in their invasion of the Dobrudja in 1854. The rampart, which is expected shortly to witness one of the most decisive battles of the present war, consistsof a double, and in some places i a triple, line of ramparts of earth l from eight to eleven feet in height, at places attaiuiug an altitude of nearly twenty feet. Fighting Continues. The Danube city , Rasova is still in the hands of the Ruaso-Rumanian forces, serving as the support blade of their right. Engagements already have been fought at this point, the Bulgars, according to Sofia, capturing five guns. Rasova lies thirty-seven and one-half miles northeast of Silistria. Dobritch, the fortress which was taken bv Mackensen Mack-ensen 'a troops in the initial onrush, but was later lost to the Russo-Rumanian army, lies forty-aeve-n miles south of Rasova. Da rapture has never been announced by Berlin or Sofia. The Berlin war office this afternoon stated that the allied forces in eastern Rumania have received reinforcements. The. line of Rasova-Kobadin-Tuzla. now held by Mackensen 's army, is about twelve miles from the Czerna Woda-Constanza Woda-Constanza railway line. Between these two lines the next few days are expected ex-pected to develop the supreme test in the Rumanian campaign. The following official communication communica-tion was issued at Bucharest today: On the north and northwestern fronts there' were no important engagements. en-gagements. South of Sibia (Her-mannstadt) (Her-mannstadt) we took forty prisoners prison-ers and two machine guns. On the Danube our artillery sank barges carrying enemy soldiers. In Dobrudja there were artillery duels. South of Kobadin a battery bat-tery of Russian mortars silenced tho enemy 's heavy artillery. An aeroplane has dropped" bombs on Turnu-Severin, ou the Danube, near the Iron Gate. |