Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1916-06-20
.SLAVS PUSHING
ON To LEMBERG
Austrian Armies Cut Off
and Scattered in Their
Retreat
MAY LOSE $4,000 MEN
Armies of Francis Joseph Must Fight
or Force General Retirement Be-
fore Cars Troops

+ Petrograd, JuNe 20. = Eighty
thousand Austrian troops, retreat
ing from the region of Czernowitz,
have been cornered in Bukowina by
the lightning drive of the Russian
left wing.
The Russians are pressing the pur-
suit with the utmost vigor. A large
part of the Austrian force in all prob
ability will be surrounded. The 9TH
ers face the alternative of retreat
ing through the Carpathian passes,
abandoning their guns, or crossing
into Roumania.
General Pflanzer, commanding the
Austrians around CZernowitZ, is re-
treating southwark in the direction
of the Sereth river with his beaten
forces. How many Austrians escap-
ed westward in the direction of kuty,
planning later to join Bothmer's
army, Is not yet hio"H.
Petrograd, June 20-With an ave-
rage Austrian retirement of 25 miles
over the entire Volhynian and Cali
clan front, except in the immediate
region of Tarnopol, with the Russian
seizure of Czernowitz and the flight
of the southern Austrian0Army to-
ward the Carpathians and with the
Russians closing in upon Lemberg
from two directions, the operations
on the southwestern front have reach
ed the crucial point, where it is be-
lieved here the Austrian armies must
either make final stand or by their
further retreat automatically compel
a general retirement Of the German
Army positions which they have held
against the Russians for nearly a
year.
Such stand, in the unanimous OPP
inion of military officials here, will
be an impossibility, as the separated
Austrian armies arc unable to com
municate with each other and all avail
liable troops and reserves having been
called up, quick rehabilitation of the
crippled armies of the Austrians is
manifestly unlikely
The prevailing confidence in the
speedy consummation of Russian
triumph over Austria is reflected in
all the comments of the newspapers.
The Petrograd Gazette says: "The
thought we have all lived with since
the beginning of the war, Il final vic
tory over Austria, now is at hand.
Soon the last notes of the swan song
of the dual monarchy will be heard "
The Austrians are concentrating
their forces in an attempt to ward off
Russian advance on Lemberg, but
according to the latest dispatches the
Russian troops pressing along the
Dubno- Lemberg Railway with Radi-
ziviloff we'll in their rear, are close
upon the Galician frontier town of
Brody, which is nearly halfway of
Lemhcrg.
The other Russian advance on Lem
berg is being directed from a point
north of Buczacz toward Halicz, from
which latter town the road to Lem
berg is an easy ,one and almost un-
fortified. The effect of the advance Of
these two lines is to place the Aus
trian centre near the Tarnopol ex-
tended position in great danger, and
an Austrian collapse here is consi-
dercd inevitable by the military OBJ
servers.
The occupation Of Czernowitz by
the Russians has completely severed
connections between the northern and
southern armies. 1t also has enabled
the Russians to establish direct con-
nections from the frontier to Sniatyn
bv the. shortest and most convenient
route, which will greatly facilitate the
Russian progress toward Kolomea,
and. by obviating further the neces-
sitv of turning movement, allow the
Russian southern forces to advance
solidly from the Czernowitz region
westward.
According to Colonel Shumsky, the
military critic of. the Bourse Gazette
the taking of Czernowitz means the