Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1915-11-05
.SERBIANS MAKE
HEROIC DEFENSE
Are infIIcting Heavy Losses on
AuStrO-GermanS. 7
ASKS FOR REIAFORCEMENTS

Ftc'-! Marshal Won Mackensen Is
Leaving the More Serious Work Of
Invading the Eastern and Southern
(! Part of Serbia to the 5uIsarians,
Who Have Had More Experience in
Mountain Warfare.
London, Nov. From all sides
the Germans, Austrians and Bulga-
rians are slowly closing in on the Ser
bian armies, the position of which
grows graver daily. They are fight
ing fiercely, however, to save their
country and have inflicted such losses
on Field Marshal Won Mackensen's
forces that he has been compelled to
send for reinforcements and leave the
more serious work of invading the
eastern and southern part Of the
country to the Bulgarians, who have
had more experience in mountain war
fare such as the Serbians are waging.
From the junction of the Danube
and Timok rivers, in the northeast, to
Uskup, in the south, the Bulgarians
are moving westward, driving the Ser
bans out of the towns and into the
mountains, but from Uskup south
ward they have been checked, as the
Serbians in that territory have been
reinforced by the French and British
with modern guns and with gunners
who gained valuable experience in
France and Gallipoli
BEYOND the forces landed at Saloni-
XII, which German estimates place at >
10000 men, there is no news Of fur
Their assistance being sent by the al
lies to Serbia.
Roumanians Are Restless.
Russian transports have been. re-
ported off Varna, but the report lacks
confirmation. There is. however, evil
dence in dispatches from Bucharest
that the people of Roumania at least
desire Intervention and that pressure
is being brought on the king and cab
met to induce them to join the allies
and permit Russian force to pass
through Roumanian territory to at
tack Bulgaria from the east. Greece
continues her friendly neutrality.
The Germans, having failed in two
months of almost incessant attacks to
reach Riga and Dvinsk by various
routes, are now trying along the rail-
way which skirts the shores of the
Gulf of Riga from Tukum and have,
according to their reports, reached =
point west of Schlok. This is very
slight advance and much low ground
over which it is difficult to move lies
between them and their objective.
Russians on the Offensive.
In the Dvinsk sector, both to the
west and southwest of the city, the
Russians have begun an offensive,
aptly in anticipation of renewed at
tacks by the Germans, and they are
also on the move in the lake district
east of the Dvinsk-Vilna railway and
in Volhynia and Galicia. The result
of these various battles has not been
if, indeed, they are conclud.
ed. Those at the southern end of the
line are doubtless designed to prevent
the Germans and Austrians from send
ing reinforcements to Serbia.
In France the battle for the Butte
de Tahure, which the Germans recap.
tured from the French, is still in prog
ress without changing the positions OF
the two armies. There has been some
fighting at other points in the west.
What the attacks on this front have
cost is shown by a report issued by
Field Marshal Sir John French He
says that the published lists Of the
German casualty discloses that seven
German battalions which took part in
the Loos fighting-presumabl a Ger
man counter attack-lost 80 per cent
of their strength.