OCR Text |
Show GERMANS NEAR1NG RUSSIANCAPITAL RUSSIANS PUTTING UP STUBBORN 'DEFENSE, BUT ARE BEING RAPIDLY DRIVEN BACK. Grodno, Evacuated by the Czar's Armies, Taken by the Germans, Who Capture Only Four Hundred Men After Street Fighting. London. The Germans in their official offi-cial report claim to have carried by assault the fortified bridgehead at Lennewada, on the Dvina river between. be-tween. Fried richstadt and Riga. This Is considered for the Russians the most crltial point on their whole front, for should the Germans succeed suc-ceed in crossing the Dvina, the Russian! Rus-sian! would be compelled to evacuate Riga and their position between the Dvina and Vilna and even southwest of the latter city would be jeopardized. jeopar-dized. However, the Germans do not yet claim to have crossed the river, which is being defended by a reinforced army commanded by General Ruzsky, who stopped the previous German advance ad-vance on the Bzura river In front of Warsaw. Military critics believe that the Russians will make a stubborn defense on the Dvina, the opinion being be-ing 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 con-siderably shorten the protracted march to Petrograd, which is understood under-stood to be the ultimate objective of the German higher command. In view of the importance of the battle raging along the lower Dvina, the fighting elsewhere loses some of its interest. Grodno, whlcn the Russians Rus-sians evacuated, apparently proved an empty shell to the Germans, as they captured only 40u prisoners after street fighting. To the northwest of Vilna the Russians are on the offensive, offen-sive, and while the Germans say the Russian counterattacks have been a complete failure, it is said in Petrograd Petro-grad that the counteroffensive seriously seri-ously threatens the German left flank and communications with the army of Lieutenant General von Eichhorn. The Russian center is still retiring through the marshy districts. However, How-ever, every day they are taking a toll of their pursuers. The Russians also are offering resistance to the Austro-German Austro-German offensive in Galicia, and southeastward of Lutsk they hold a front of some fifty miles, intersected by hills, woods nd rivers which afford af-ford a splendid defensive cover. Concerning the operations at the Dardanelles, no official news has been received since the report last Wednesday Wed-nesday from General Sir Ian Hamilton, Hamil-ton, commander of the British forces on the peninsula. The continued successes of the Aus-tro-Germans in the east leads many writers to the conclusion that the sustained sus-tained bombardment of the German lines in the west means an early move by the entente allies. The critics point to this, the thorough redistribution redistribu-tion of the British and French armies and the shelling of Zeebrugge some days ago, as heralding something at least preliminary to a general offensive. |