The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-09-09
Germans Carry
Important Point

London, Sept. 3.-The Germans il
their official report today claim tt
have carried by assault the fortified
bridge-head at Lennewada, on the
Dvina river between Friedrichstad,
and Riga. This is considered for the
Russians the most critical point on
the whole front for should the Ger
mans succeed in crossing the Dvina
the Russians would be compelled tc
evacuate Riga and their position be-
tween the Dvina and Wilma and even
southwest of the latter city would be
jeopardized,
However, the Germans do not yet
claim to have crossed the river which
is being defended by REINFORCED
army, commanded by Gen. Ruzsky
who stopped the previous German ad
vance on the Brura river in front OF
Warsaw. Military critics believe that
the Russians will make stubborn
defense on the Dvina, opinion being
expressed that should they fail here
the German fleet would gain com
mand of the Gulf of Riga and would
considerably shorten the protracted
march to Petrograd which is under
stood to be the ultimate objective OF
the Germans higher in command
In view of the importance of the
battle, raging along the lower Dvina
the fighting elsewhere loses some OF
it's interest. Grodno, which the Rus
slams evacuated, has apparently prov
ed an empty shell to the Germans as
they captured only 400 prisoners after
free fighting.
The Russian center is still retiring
to the marshy districts. However,
every day they are taking toll OF
their pursuers. The Russians also are
offering resistance to the Austro
German offensive in Galicia.
There is still some doubt as to what
the Austro-Germans intend to do in
the southeast, military experts being
divided in opinion as to whether there
will be an advance on Kiev or an at
tempt to project a wedge between the
Russian armies and Rumania which
would make a serious matter for the
Rumanians to refuse longer the Ger
man demands for free passage OF
munitions over Rumanian railways fol
the Turks who are reported to be very
short of shells.
Concerning the operation at the
Dardanelles there is nothing new. The
continued successes of the Austro
Germans in the East leads many writ
ers to the conclusion that the self
sustained bombardment of the Ger
man lines in the west means an early
movement by the entente allies.
Paris, Sept. "a dispatch to the
Havas agency from Bucharest, dated
Sept. l., says:
"Constantinople kilograms say thai
the committee on union and progress
is beginning to have doubt as to the
final victory of Germany and is con
sidering the consequences of her de
feat. 1t has given orders that Greek
and Bulgarian subjects be treated witt
full consideration. Other foreigners
including the belligerents, are closely
watched but are not being molested.
mo more German artillery officer:
are arriving and attempts are bein.
made to train Turkish officers to re
place them. These attempts are meet
ing with only little success.
'The great fear in Turkish officia
circles is that Bulgaria will refuse tn
agreement proposed and that German,
will fail in her negotiations with Ru
mania for the transit of munitions
The opinion in Constantinople gene1
ally is inclined toward pessimism