Show geri 1 ANS NERING RUSSIAN CAPITAL RUSSIANS PUTTING UP STUBBORN DEFENSE BUT ARE BEING RAPIDLY DRIVEN BAC goodno evacuated by the czars azars r armlet armies taken by the germans I 1 who capture only four hundred I 1 men after street fighting london londom the germans in their boffl t mal report claim to have carried by I 1 I 1 pLa saulL sault tho the fortified bridgehead at t k lenneea da on the avina river be tweda friedrichstadt Friedrich stadt and riga this ts ks considered for the russians the most crimial point on their whole front for should the germans succeed in crossing the avina the rus lans would be comp compelled belled to evacuate ariga and their position between the r adrina and dilria and even southwest vt of the latter city would be jeopardized however the germans do not yet claim to have crossed the river which Is being defended by a reinforced iced army commanded by general aho who vho stopped the pr previous erious german advance on the bzura river in front ot of warsaw military Illi tary colties believe that athe t the russians ins will alip make a stubborn defense on the avina the opinion being expressed that should they tail fall chere here th eGerman fleet would gain command of the gulf of riga and by landing troops at pernau would considerably elder sider ably shorten the protracted march to Petro petrograd grad which is under to be the ultimate objective of the german higher command in view of the importance of the battle raging along the bowex avina f the fighting elsewhere loses some som i e ai of interest goodno chien trie the rus beans evacuated apparently proved an empty shell to the germans as they captured only prisoners after estreet fighting to the northwest of velna the russians are on the offensive sive and while the germans say the russian counterattacks counter attacks have been a complete failure it is said in petro jerad erad that chat the counteroffensive seriously threatens the german left flank a atud e n communications with the arm army of lieutenant general von El eichhorn chhorn the russian center is still retiring f t 4 districts however every day they are taking a toll 0 of their pursuers the russians also tire exe offering resistance to the austro german offensive in galicia Gali cla and southeastward of lutsk they hold a front of some fifty miles intersected intersect etl by aby hills woods and rivers which afford a splendid defensive cover concerning the operations at the dardanelles Darda nelles no official news has been received since the report last wed from general sir lan ian hamil ton on commander ot of the british forces I 1 on the peninsula 17 the continued successes of the aus etro tro germans in the east leads many f writers to the conclusion that the stis 1 bombardment bombardiA ent of the german lines in tle the west means an early move i by the entente allies the critics point to this the thorough r tion of the british and trench french armies and the shelling of zeebrugge Zee brugge some borne days ago as heralding something at beast least preliminary to a general v 9 |