Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-10-26
GERMAN BOATS
ARE DAMAGED
In Gulf of Riga Russians Show
Strong Resistance to .Ad-
vance of Kiser's Fleet.

Petrograd, Monday, Oct 22.-Two
German dreadnaughts, one cruiser,
twelve torpedo boats and one trans
port were put out of action by the
Russians in the fighting around the
islands in the Gulf of Riga last week,
but their ultimate fate is unknown,
says an official statement issued to-
night by the Russian admiralty. 1t
has been established that at least six
German torpedo boats were sunk in
the fighting. The Russians lost the
battleship Slava and n large torpedo
boat.
The admiralty staff in its review of
the fighting says the Russian units
fought excellently against the super
iority of the Germans. The statement
reads:
During October 81, important en-
emy naval forces. together with trans
ports, were sighted by our outposts
in the Gulf of Riga. In Moon Sound
the enemy seems to be clearing the
water of instructions which we laid
down. There was no naval action
during the day, but enemy subma-
rines were discovered in the Gulf of
Finland.
"As the naval operations in the
Baltic isles have now ended, it is pos
sible to review them. The task of
our fleet in this region was, with the
organized position of Moon sound as
q base, to prevent any attempts to
seize the Gulf of Riga and Moon
sound. So long as the German fleet
only employed in such an operation
elements of minor Importance as in
1915, namely, two dreadnaughts, our
naval forces could cope with them.
"In 1915, although our position in
Moon sound was organized incom-
pletely, we repulscd successfully all
attacks and the enemy during three
days possession of the Gulf of Riga
suffered losses SO grave that he was
obliged to depart. A similar attempt
in 1916 with unimportant forces fail
ed completely.
I'm the recent operations the en-
emy employed the major part of his
fleet and his overwhelming superior
ity enabled him to cary out debarka-
tion rapidly and successfully. Our
fleet was able only to do its best to
hinder these efforts and to inflict
maximum losses. With this object we
delivered series of attacks, using
all the naval resources in our pos
session.
"As result of these operations the
enemy lost through mines, submarine
attacks and artillery fire two dread
naughts, one cruiser, twelve torpedo
boats, one transport and numerous
mine sweepers, all of which were put
out of action. Their ultimate fate is
unknown. We have established the
actual loss of only six enemy torpedo
boats, two of which were of the small
type and were sunk by gun fire from
our positions on Moon Island, the
other torpedo boats were sunk in
combats or blown up by mines. The
wreck of the torpedo boat T-69 is Wis
lble on a sandbank in Kassar Bay.
Further, our coast battries. sank
four enemy torpedo boats,
"Our losses are the ship of the line
Slava and large torpedo boat de-
stroyer of the Grom type. the eff
cheney of our other ships will be
maintained completely.
German torpedo boats of the T-69
class were built in 1891, displaced
145 tons and had a complacement of
sixteen men. They are 154 feet in
lenght. The Russian battleship Slava,
whose loss has been reported pre-
viously, displaced 1856 tons. She
had complement of 825 men and
was $40 feet in length. The Russian
destroyers of the Grom type were
built in 1914 and displaced LILO tons.
They had a complement of 993 men
and length of 321 feet.