RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1915, Page 8

RUSSIAN NAVAL VICTORY.

PWnOCIiAI) AND KV.vrATIMX. NK\~SATh IXAL (DIT .1). (Sydney Sun Special Representative). London, August 2(i, The smile is on the face of the tiger. After four months of depressing bulletins, after -100 miles' continuous retirement of their armies, after the loss of the greatest fortresses, the Russians have been lifted from despondency to exaltation by a stirring naval victory in the Gulf of Riga. The fortunes of war may temporarily go against the Allies on land but always when there is any "liveliness" upon the sea their warships win. Apart from the moral impossibility of might prevailing over right, there is the assurance that however German armies may eycel on land, the Kaiser's wild dreams can never be fulfilled while the Allies hold control of the Seven Seas.

It will be impossible for the German Censor long to conceal from the German people that their fleet is steadily vanishing, and this knowledge must have a chilling effect on popular enthusiasm even after tlie capture of Kovno and Novo Georgievsk. For if the German public do not know, the Kaiser and von Tirpitz and the war lords know that whatever victories are won on land they cannot triumph while we dictate on sea.

This supremacy increases day by day. It is probable that Germany is now losing submarines faster than she is building them or can train crews for them; and meanwhile the British fleet is growing rapidly, while the German fleet is going to the bottom. Wherever it lias fought it has been defeated.

It seems to have fairly swanked into the Gulf of IJiga. As you know, the Russian fleet is far Inferior numerically to the German fleet. Very wisely the Russians decided to keep tlieir great battleships and big cruisers in the Gulf of Finland. They would not grapple with the super-Dreadnought squadron lying in the Kiel Canal. That would be to court disaster and leave Petrograd open to sea assault. Valour alone 'will not win sea fights. If it would the Russians would long since have challenged von Tirpitz. Their Admiralty has been metamorphosed since the crazy fleet went wheezing to its doom in Japanese waters, The Russian Navy has young, vigorous blood in its veins, and the Grand Duke Nicholas has had to hold it sternly in leash. After steadying down to an active defensive policy, destroyers, submarines, and a couple of obsolescent cruisers were detailed to occupy the Gulf of Riga. The approaches were mined, the shore forts were modernised, an aviation park was established in their neighbourhood.

PIERCING A MINEFIELD. With their intelligence system, their Zeppelins, and the Albatrosses, the Germans must have been conversant with Russian defences in the Gulf of Riga. But the Germans have a habit of overestimating their own powers and underestimating their opponent's resistance. They sent a strong fleet to break into the gulf and enable transports to throw a new army on land. The precise constitution of this fleet is not known. It must have included super-battleships, several fast and I'me cruisers, and a swarm of destroyers, together with submarines. Though it mav sound comical, the giant battleship needs the protection of submarines when entering a naval battle. Otherwise it may fall prey to an enemy submarine. In addition to fighting ships and troopships, the Germans had a myriad of trawlers to find and destroy the mines sown by the Russians.

In a thick fug at early dawn lhi> trawlers dashed into the gulf and started searching feverishly for hidden peril. Thanks to the atmospheric conditions, they must have had two days clear for this work before their presence was suspected by the Russians. Labouring like ants, the trawlers cleaned a path through the mine belt for the German warships, and they advanced to annihilate the tiny Russian squadron. The Russians, however, were not overawed, and attacked the invaders with such fierceness that after five days' constant fighting the Moltke, two cruisers, and light destroyers sunk or damaged, while four troopships crammed with troops were sent to the bottom. The official story is severely elliptical, but mention of the transports being shelled from the shore, and of the battle-cruiser throwing shells into the forts from twelve miles away shows that the German went very close to effecting a landing. The crisis of the engagement came at night. This prevented the Russians ascertaining beyond doubt how they had knocked the German about. They appear to have been very uncertain. At first their naval bulletins pnjy claimed that the Moltke was tprpcijoed by a. British submarine. Then three cruisers and six destroyers were added to the casualty list. Later this was amended to two cruisers and eight destroyers. The four transports remained sunk throughout the communiques, but to-day there is n li'nt that the l&ig-boats from these vessels, and not tiis ships themselves, were destroyed. So long as t)ie warship list stands it does not much matter what happened to the troopships. The clinching fact is that the Germans have evacuated the Gulf of Riga. Xhey went upon a dangerous adventure. The mouth of the gulf is over 50 miles wide, but it is closed by a number of Inlands leaving a passage 16 miles wide 011 the west and tortuous passages between the large and small islands 011 the north. The whole coast line all the way from the German littoral to Reval has shoals running two to three miles out and only here and there a f,c-w small rivers cut channels through the san 4 4f nes - The entrance to the gulf for any large ?l)ips is therefore very narrow, and tjje Russians Kad mined it very thoroughly. Qply tfje thick loeal fog allowed the fiefingjis' to

fill 11 j) miik ls . A'nl with all their -■an' I!i cy m-jocd many of liiem, because tin' two cruisers aiwi some of the destroyers which wt'iv put out of action were blown tip by mini'-;. The Russians of necessity did not come through seathIcts. They Inst an old battleship and a destroyer. That much is admitted. It is probable that they sull'ered even more, but Admiralties can keep their own secrets, and it is very vital that von Tirpitz should not know how the Russian navy stands, just as it is his mission to deceive the Allies regarding German losses. Berlin has been significantly silent about the Riga reverse.

I'KTRGGRAD AND EVACUATION. It went very close to bringing off a very sensational coup. The capitals of enemy country appear to possess an irresistible attraction for the Germans. They smashed their way to Brussels. They goose-stepped to Paris, and were foiled just when they thought they would saunter along the boulevards. Undeterred by their failure in France, they have recently developed plans for the capture of Petrograd. They cannot understand why the Russians do not acknowledge that they are beaten. They fully thought that after the occupation of Warsaw the Grand Duke would be glad to cry "Quits." W hen the Russian armies commenced the most wonderful retirement in military annals the Germans expected to pound them into demoralisation by storming their most cherished fortresses. They have encircled these and razed them to the ground; but the Russian armies are stil intact. The destruction of fortresses and the seizing of groat cities has not dimmed Rusia's faith in the futufe. At almost any price the Germans know they must settle with her before . the winter sets in. They dare willingly give Russia six months of stagnation to recuperate and overcome her technical disabilities. In sheer desperation and with Teutonic megalomania, they decided to push forward to Petrograd. Their armies are steadily blasting their way eastward with high explosives, but their speed was not fast enough to take them to the Czar's capital before the snows begin to fall; A successful landing of a new army at Riga would have given them the opportunity of turning the northernmost flank of the Grand Duke's serrated line. Riga is approximately 350 miles from Petrograd. Rovno and Vilna are a hundred miles further away. Besides, the command of the gulf would give the Germans a base at Riga for operations against the main Russian fleet round the corner in the Gulf of Finland, not to mention a short, compact line of communications. On land the Russians, fighting with .magnificent gallantry against an overwhelming technical superiority, were not able to arrest Hie progress of the German army. A week ago it looked as if they would reach Petrograd. In the Russian capital the people began to talk openly.about the evacuation of their splendid city. There were no dissenters when it was semi-officially suggested that in the interests' of the Empire the Royal Family, the Ministers of State, and the public archives should be shifted to Moscow, just as the French President and his Cabinet moved to Bordeaux. There was no faint-hearted "All-is-lost" spirit behind this suggestion. It was a rational solution of a most serious and imminent peril. The people of Petrograd flinched from leaving their homes. Only dire necessity would have induced them to do this, but they were ready to make the sacrifice rather than let the Germans enjoy an , amazing conquest. The defeat and the ejection of the German warships from the Gulf of Riga completely changed the situation.

If the Germans had got their army ashore, Petrograd might have fallen. Baffled In this audacious plan, the Russian army may slowly bring the invaders to a halt,

The Russian victory has therefore served a two-fold purpose, It has removed the anxieties to which the people of Petrograd were prey, and it has disclosed the full purport of the strategy which the Geripan War Lords have been developing. J met a naval officer yesterday who told me that he plucked wild flowers pn tl)e top pf Achi Baba affer the Allied fleets bashed the \ furjiisb forts in February. Tliree months later Achi Baba was a frowning fortress. Mr. Churchill's impulsiv.e move had given the Turks a priceless warning. The Riga fight has afforded the Russians tion pf incalculable value. They know now What tp pjfpect, and they can take measures to cheokmape the enemy, Tienches are to be dug similar to those of the Western theatre, In these the Russians will hang out the winter, then will come their offensive.