THE RUSSIANS AND HALICZ

Nelson Evening Mail, 22 September 1916, Page 4

THE RUSSIANS AND HALICZ

THE cables report that a- fierce 'battle is raging near Halicz. The Russian forces form a semi-circle round its defences, and they have set it on fire. They are in possession of the two railways which run to the town from south and north, so thati t-s only remaining line of communication is that which leads back west and north-west to Lemberg. Along that line and. perhaps for part of the way along the Dniester, all the defenders' munitions must come. The fall of Halicz, says one authority, will bring the Russians a good step nearer to Lemberg, because it will proba'bly mean not merely the fall of a town, but a breach in a line of defence. Rohatyn, northwest along the Gnila L-ipa, should be the next town to fall, and by then we mayhear of a further advance along the Brody railway. For it will (be remembered that two separate lines of advance upon Lemberg are being developed ; one north-west, roughly along the Dniester, and the other south-west along the Brody-Lemberg railway. The Russian front hereabouts, which, owing to the progress made with the advance in the north towards Vladimir Volhynsk and in the south along the foot of the Carpathians was bent originally in a great semi-circle round Lemberg, was very considerably straightened in July and August.. Between August 10 and: 14 the Russians took Monasteryska, Stanislav, and Marya-mpol, an-d just lately Brzezany has been taken. Halicz can hardly hold out much longer.