Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-11-28
RUSS VICTORY
HELD DECISIVE
Conflicting Reports Make
Real Outcome of Great
Battle a Mystery.
GERMANS FAIL TO
ADMIT ANY DEFEAT
Operations in the West are
Comparatively Quie t;
Warship Destroyed.

A w dl 0lllp DCotI OyCu.
London, Nov. 2.-The. British
admiralty this evening announced
that the collier khartoum had
been blown up today by mine off
Grimsby. The crew Of the khar-
touna was landed at Grimsby.
Grimsby is on the south bank Of
the Humber, fifteen miles south
east of Hull.
London, Nov 27.-While the belief
grows hourly that the Russians in
northern Poland have won the great
est battle Of the war, actual details of
the operations in this locality still are
withheld, and the whole incident is be-
ginning to take on the aspects of a
mystery.
From Petrograd comes report that
the patience of the Russian people,
awaiting official confirmation of the
reported victory, is approaching the
breaking point, and the same thing
may be said of the public here. Ger
man reports, without entering into
any such details as dates, describe
successful operations in the region Of
this great battle, but admit that the
German army has not succeeded in
bringing the struggle to close.
1t is evident that the comparative
failure of the Austro-Germa opera
tions along the Czenstochowa front
gave the Russians an opportunity to
envelop General Won Hindenburg after
that brilliant German leader had
thrown wedge into his antagonists
center. The Russians to the south,
safe on their own front, were able to
strike northward thus breaking the
enemy who had passed east beyond
their right flank.
Military critics at Petrograd profess
to be astonished at the German assault
on Lodz, maintaining that such move
Inevitable. The critics declare that
unless the German advance toward
kutno and Lodz was part of larger
movement, the operation was too haz-
ardous to be credible A third German
army in the vicinity of Wielun has
Initiated an advance which is believ-
ed in London to have been started too
late to be of any use
Along the Franco-Belgian line moth
Ing has transpired to indicate that
the Germans have started the expect
ed resumption of their effort to break
through the allied lines on their way
10 the coast
Thirty miles to the east of the Suez
canal British forces are in touch with
Turkish invaders but there is no sign
of general action in this vicinity,
and it is expected that the invasion
of Egypt probably will be postponed
because the Turks would appear to be
hard pressed in Armenia and around
the Persian gulf
Additional details concerning the
loss off Sheerness yesterday of the
sattleship BulWark and her entire
srew, with the exception of fourteen
men, make the admiralty theory that
she was blown up by an internal ex-
plosion more and more plausible An
official inquiry, which is being held in
private, was opened in Sheerness to-
day,
Germans Still! Confident.
Berlin, Nov. 27.-Military observers
sere express the opinion that the sue
cess of General Mackenzen's army
near Lodz, in Russian Poland, apart
from the enormous number of Russian
prisoners taken, has served to further
Improve the German and Austrian sit
uat ton in the east.
The most important event of the
fighting, army officers point out, was
the destruction by the Germans OF 100
cannon, which the Russians will be
unable to replace without the greatest
difficulty. While the approach of new
Russian reinforcements has delayed a
decision, the fact that those reinforce
ments will not be able to arrive stimuli
taneousIy with reinforcements from
Warsaw will give the Germans
chance. military men assert, to attack
the on-coming forces before they can
combine.
The continual calling forth of new
and large reinforcements shows, 1t is
said, that the Russians are aware OF
the seriousness of their situation. Lo-
cal military critics believe that de-
cision is very near. They warn the
public, however, to remember the
enormous number of soldiers engaged
and the great length of the battle
front which, although the situation is
favorable for the Teuton allies, may
delay decision for a long time.