HOW VILNA WAS CAPTURED

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 71, 22 September 1915, Page 7

HOW VILNA WAS CAPTURED

GERMANS' BOLD TACTICS (Times and Sydney Snn Services.) (Received September 22, 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, 2Ut September. Th« Times correspondent Bays : Apparently the Vilna army escaped, but is in a position of great difficulty. There are strong forces on its eastern flank. The Germans captured Vilna by bold tactics — massing great bodies of troops east of the Vilna-Dvirisk railway and hurling them against the Russian centre. Here the weight of the attack broke the Russian 'resistance, and the Germans then turned north and north-east against Dvinsk and ' south and south-east • against Vilna. (Press Association.) STRUGGLE ENTERING ON NEW PHASE. PETROGRAD, 21st September. Unofficial. — The Russians stripped Vilna of all metals, including the . church bells, and defended the city until the last possible moment. They are now fighting between the Vilia and the Vilnar-Lida railway. -<■ ' German cavalry has been repulsed from Molodechno, but seized the station at Vilezka. It is feared that if the German cavalry fail to cut off the Russians retreating at Vilna, they" will attempt a bigger enterprise against Minsk, threatening the communications of all the armies on the Russian western front. The movement of fifty thousand horsemen recalls the great cavalry • raids of the American Civil War. . ' , The struggle is entering on a new phase on the swampy land under autumn rains. General Ivanoff is prudently suspending hiß advance on the Sereth, owing to the enemy being reinforced from sections of General von.Mackensen's widelyscattered army. RUSSIA'S COURAGE IN GRAVE CIRCUMSTANCES. I PETROGRAD, 21st September. A communique states : We occupied our former trenches at Steidern, south-west of Ulutsk, seizing a quantity of rifles' and materials. We retired eastward of the Vilna region, after much fighting at the fords of the middle Vilia. Fighting continues for possession of the Vilia fords north-west of Molodechno. Our troops show high military- virtues, and maintain their coolness and assurance under circumstances of extreme gravity. Our cavalry p*rsued the retreating enemy in the Lutsk region, 6abring many men, and capturing a large supply column. FALL. OF VILNA DOES NOT AFFECT CAMPAIGN. (Times and Sydney Sun Services.) LONDON, 21st September. .Mr. Stanley Washburn, the American war correspondent, states that the fall"of >Vilna does not permanently affect the eastern campaign. The military authorities in Petrograd support this view. (Press Association.) STRONG ATTACKS EAST OF LUTSK. VIENNA, 21st September. A communique states : We repulsed a strong Russian attack east of Lutsk. ' There was hand-to-hand fighting at many points. Russian columns attacked Czernieviece ( ?) and reached the west bank of the Ikwa. Our reserves speedily repulsed them. RUSSIANS' GREAT HAUL OF PRISONERS. PETROGRAD, 21st SeptemberOfficial : The Russians took prisoner 70,000 on their front in south Poland during the last days of -the Russian retreat in August and the beginning of September. .