Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-08-24
German Fleet Attacks Riga
and Is Repulsed After
Bloody Fighting
SUBMARINE SINKS
BIG DREADNAUGHT
Credit for Destroying One
of Kaiser's Best Ships
Given to Britons

Given to Britons
Berlin, Aug. 23.-0erman troops
have occupied the fortress Of Os-
sowetz, which was evacuated by
the Russians, German army head
quarters announced today.
Petrograd. Aug. %. The recent
naval battle in the gulf Of Riga Is
described as follows in statement
from navy headquarters:
THE German fleet on August l6 re-
newed with large forces its attacks on
our positions at the entrance to the
gulf of Riga. Our ships during the
sixteenth and seventeenth repulsed the
attacks of the enemy, whose secret
preparations for entering the gulf had
been favored singularly by misty
weather.
Taking advantage of thick fog,
hostile forces of considerable size en-
tered the gulf on the eighteenth and
our vessels retired at the same time,
continuing to resist the enemy with
out losing touch with him.
ION the nineteenth and twentieth
the enemy 'reconnoitered in different
directions, at the same time keeping
up fight with our ships, in which
their torpedo boat fotilla suffered ma
terial losses. On our side, we lost the
gunboat Sivutch, which perished glo-
riously in an unequal fight with an
enemy cruiser which was escorting tor
pedo craft and came up to distance OF
400 yards from her. The Sivutch, en-
veloped in flames, continued to reply
shot for shot until she sank, having
previously sunk enemy torpedo boats.
Invaders Retreat.
in view of the losses suffered and
the futility Of his efforts, the enemy ap-
pears to have evacuated the gulf OF
Riga on the twenty-frst.
Between the sixteenth and twenty
first two enemy cruisers and no fewer
than eight torpedo boats were either
sunk or placed hors de combat. Stimuli
taneously our gallant allies succeeded
in torpedoing in the Baltic one of the
most powerful dreadnoughts of the
German feet"
The foregoing contains no reference
to the loss of the Russian gunboat
Koreets, which was said in an official
German statement of Saturday to have
been sunk, as we'll as the Sivutch.
As London Hears 1t.
London, Aug. %. An official Rus
sian communication descriptive Of the
naval battle in the gulf of Riga was
forwarded from Petrograd today by
the correspondent of the Central News.
It gives the German losses as one
dreadnought, two cruisers ind eight
torpedo boats. The statement fol-
lows:
'In the gulf of Riga, between August
16 and 10, the Russian fleet sank or
damaged no fewer than two German
cruisers and eight torpedo boats. At
the same time a British submarine
sank one of the best German dread
noughts.
THE Russian gunboat Sivutch was
sunk in a brilliant fight in the course
Of which she sank German torpedo
boat while she herself was in flames
and sinking"
The foregoing statement tallies with
previous advices, except that the Ger
man losses were given as three cruis-
ers and seven torpedo boats.
Allies Are JubiIant.
London, Aug. 23 The capitals of
the entente allies are jubilant today
over the unexpected victory which the
Russians, according to their accounts,
have won in the gulf Of Riga. England
had more than a sympathetic interest
in the battle, as British submarine
accounted for the German battle cruis-
er Moltke, the loss of which, added to
the destruction of two cruisers, eight [
torpedo boats and four transports, con-
stitutes the greatest naval disaster
suffered by Germany during the war.
For the last week both Petrograd
and Berlin have been sending meager
reports of naval operations in the gulf
of Riga, which were interpreted to
mean that Germany was attempting to
land forces for the purpose of support
ing the left flank of Field Marshal Won /
Hindenburg in his efforts to overrun
the whole of Courland and thereby
establish his armies along the coast !
route to the Russian capital.
The official Russian report, claiming !
a decisive victory for the allies. to-
gether with the expulsion of the sur
viving units Of the German naval
forces from the gulf, contains few de-
tails in addition to an enumeration of
German losses. 1t is assumed that, in
asmuch as Petrograd announced sew
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