RUSSIANS' VICTORIES

Nelson Evening Mail, 26 September 1916, Page 7

RUSSIANS' VICTORIES

VON BOTHMER'S RETREAT. HALF THE ARMY SACRIFICED. OUTFLANKED, ON BOTH WINGS. The crushing- victory which the Russians woni early in; August against the German l general, vow Bothmer, commanding -what -was previously the Austrian centre in Galicia, was described by a London newspaper as the finest military triumph, which any army of the Allies* has yet achieved! ini open battles during the war. General von Bothmer's withdrawal was from, a deep salient curving from the region north-west of Tarnopol down to .the Dniester at a point -west of Buczacz. The chord! of thrs arc measured roughly 35 miles, and) the entire front, the eastern edge of which ran for a considerable distance along" the River Stry•pa, was about 60 miles long. Ever since the Russian offensive began—on June 4 —von Bothmer had' made am obstinate stand. His was, indeed, the only enemy ai-my in Galicra that did not yield ground. In .this obstinacy can be found his undoing, for the tide of battle swept ipfast on both his northern! andl southern wings, with the result that every day the .Russian advance saw him more and more dangerously outflanked. Then came the fall of Brody, on Bothiner's northern wing. The caipture of Stanislau, the strategic railway junction •on his southern flank, followed, and the (plight of the enemy centre changed from •bad to worse. The position then was that the German general had only one really useful means of escape from; his predicament. This was the TarnopoKLemiberg railway, but the gap through 'which it passed westward was ominously narrowing. It became necessary to withdiraw at >encc from the strongly fortiified winter ipositions boastfully described as "impregnable." A LONG-STAYED BLOW. General Stcherbacheff, whose policy during the past few weeks —apart from •the exercise of constant pressure agaiiiet his enemy—had been one of watching and "waiting, acted without hesitation. The force <yfi his long-stayed blow was tern'.nc. Many villages north-west and west of Tarnopol were seized, the whole of the Strypa line was occupied.., while the Russians, pursuing the routed ene■mv. advanced rapidly on the important Dniester bridgeheadl ait Halicz, and' further north, on the railhead, at Pc-ft-haice, whence a line runs to Leiruberg. That Bothmer's Germans and- Austrians suffered a debacle was evident from! the enormous haul of prisoners and guns. Bothmer's army prabablv numbered bet-ween 180,000 and 150,000 men, largely Germans, Over half of these were made prisoners. The Petrograd correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle gives the following account of the operations which led' to 'Bothmer's retreat: — When the Russians commenced the great advance at the beginning of June they dlrove rtwo wedges into the enemy's front—one west of Lutsk, the other inr Bukoviraa. The latter (southern) wedge was gradually driven in along the Carjpathians, andl the northern wedge allso allowed the area of the Russian attack to be extended—south-wards to Eastern. Galicia, the scene ofi hard fighting on l the river Sereth.

DRIVING A FRESH WEDGE, The Dniester floods caused) a tem/piorary stoppage of the active offensive operations in Scutihiefni 04111013. No sooner had! the floods subsided! Audi tire earth dried than General Letchitsk struck hard) up the Dniester Valley, while on the Sereth General' ,Sakharoff increased' the pressure and kept extendinio- the area of operations 'further soulth. "By the capture of Tysmienrica and Stanislau" General 'Lefcchitsky drove a, fresh wedge into 'the enemy's line, forcing the main! body to retreat north on Halicz, -while another section was driven* into the Carpathians. . This success on the R/ussian left,wintg led to the.captureof Nadvoma., which gave the Russians fidl. control of the railway line DelatynStanislau; and .thus 'both secured the Russian flank audi gave a .possibility of developing an attack wherever it might be considered! most suitable.

The Russians kept extending the front of their advance, and a fresh blow was struck north of the Dniester, on the | River Koropiec. This river formed the j Austrian line of defence from the Dnies- j ter to Monasterysk, where the enemy line slanted north-east to the Strypa. The [Russian blow on the Lower Koropiec! was completely successful, and Generals Letchitsky and Stcherbacheff now advanced along 'both banks of the Dniester towards Hal'icz. Thus 'Nadvorna was tak'en on the left, iStanislau in the centre, Monasterysk on the right. Advancing from 'Stanislau, General Letchitsky "crossed the two\ Bystritza Rivers, the last naitural obstacles oii the right bank of the Dniester, on the -way to EOalicz, from which ho was now divided by only 10 miles. NORTHERN. RIVERS ALSO TAKES. On the northern bank of the Dniester progress was equally rapidu After forcing the Koropie.', the Russians pushed west to the next left-bank tributary of the Dniester, the Zlota-Lipa, and crossed this near its confluence with the parent river. A further advance has brought them to the River .Horozanka, also a left-bank tributary of the .Dniester, and, like the Koropiec and Zlota-Lipa. running from north to south. This advance on the Koropiec involved t|he capture of Monasterysk, which was taken after heavy fighting by a combined attack from north and south. Thus the result of General Letchitsky's movement was a threat to Halicz and a- like threat to the flank of Bothmer's troops' to the north and north-east of Monasterysk; •Meanwhile, on Bothmer's other flank, south of Brody, General Sakharoff gained success after success, and', advancing on the west bank of the Sereth, captur- ! Ed over 13,000 prisoners in the course of I the weeW. The direction of his advance was south--vvest, and the enemy positions on the Gliadki-Vorobieyka-Zborof line were completely ouWlankedl. There was no course open to JBothmer save retreat. His natural lines of defence would have been the Zlota-Lipa, and then the line Pomorzhanyußrzezany-HaLiez, i.e., a. line from a point 30 miles west of Tarnopal, southward) to the Dniester. But the Russians had forced the ZlotaLipa near its confluence, and' were threatening Halicz, and were hard on the enemy's (flanks nortn of 'Monasterysk. This position left the probability that the enemy's new line ot defence would also prove untenable, and 1 that he must retreat still further in the direction of Lemberg.