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Show oo . RUSSIANS GAIN I A BIG DRIVE London, Jan. 9. The Austrians have failed in a desperate attempt to halt the Russian advance on Czernowitz. An official statement received tonight from Petrograd says that heavy losses loss-es were Inflicted upon the troops who, by violent counier attacks, attempted attempt-ed to turn the czar's great offensive. On the short front northeast of Czernowitz alono the Austrians lost twenty officers and 1175 men in prisoners pris-oners in a single day. They have een driven entirely from the eastern bank of the Stripa river. All their attempts to recapture recap-ture Czartorysk, the Important town captured by the Russians in ther advance ad-vance on Kovel, have failed. The czar's drive continues upon the entire en-tire 300-mile front from the Prlpet to Rumania. Czernowitz, the capital of Bukowlna, and Kovel, the railway junction key to Volhynia, and the fortresses fort-resses of Dubno and Loustsk, are menaced. Official Report. The Russian official report says: Between Riga and the Prlpet the situation sit-uation Is unchanged. South of the Prlpet two attempts by the enemy to recapture Czartorysk- In eastern Galicia the enemy has been driven from the eastern bank of tjroke down with considerable losses, the middle Stripa. Northeast of Czernowitz the enemy was repulsed In attempting to arrest our advance. Full reports show that in the fighting In this region on Friday Fri-day we captured twenty officers, 1175 men and three machine guns. As the situation now stands in the Czernowitz district, the 'Russians are holding strong lines in Bukowjna, from which they drove the Austrians, according to dispatches from Bucharest. Enter Bukowlna. After the failure of their attacks on the Austrian .positions the Russians succeeded In forcing an entrance into Bukowlna, capturing two strong lines of Austrian trenches. They now occupy occu-py the villages of Toporo,utz and Ra-kanze Ra-kanze and have approached the town of Sadagora. Military critics in Bucharest, the dispatches state, regard the Russian occupation of Czernowitz as imminent, although the town is strongly fortified. forti-fied. On the Stripa front, Petrograd dispatches dis-patches state, the conditions' under which; the Austrian General Pilanzer's forces are fighting are described as terrible. Trenches Flooded. In the neighborhood of Buczacz a sudden thaw has flooded the trenches trench-es almost to the top, and only the splendid qualities of the soldiers saved the situation for tho Austrians. The town of Sadagora, which the Russians are aproaching, plays an important im-portant part in the campaign northeast north-east of Czernowitz. It is a junction point of five railroads. Arthur Ransome, the novilist and war correspondent, wires from Petrograd: Petro-grad: "In the last ten days, In the face of violent opositlon, the Russians have gained many times tho amount of ground won upon tho western front since the battle of the Marne. "Their task is to break the fortified Teuton line before It is made impregnable." |