RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8209, 5 August 1915, Page 5

RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN.

HEAVY ENGAGEMENTS. HUGE LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES. GERMAN ADVANCE HELD UP. : (Reoeived August 4, 9.30 a.m.) PETROGRAD, August 4. Official.—The •.':enemy,- after i thrco days of enormous efforts, dislodged its sector at Nareff, stretching from Ostrolenka to Lodz, on the PissaSkina, front, to throw ...it against ns.; The whole army took awhole- week to. drive back our rearguard from orio village. • '

The fight for the passages of. the Nareff, near Npvogorod, has. not yet begun. .' ''

Near the mouth of tho Skina the enemy reached our side of the river, but we prevented the artillery crossing, and, with the bayonet, annihilated some of the elements which were deprived of tho artillery's protection.

Some /of the enemy's force has boon withdrawn to help General Rosen's army, which has also been strengthened by reinforcements from the left bank of the Vistula.

Nevertheless, all his efforts to progress towards the east were broken by the river Oje. The enemy then changed the direction of his attack, and is now on a front between the Nareff and the Oje, and making great efforts to advance north-easterly, behind Ostrolenka.

For three days he repeatedly hurled masses of infantry at our trenches, suffering heavy losses, and only advanced two or three versts.

On August 2, during a desperate Gorman attack, German cavalry were assailed by our infantry, arid their losses were very great. In the southern sector, near Bokshivnitz, the enemy endeavoured to pass large masses across the Oje Valley, but our .artillery smothered and dispersed them. Our losses were very heavy, but the troops are valiantly resisting the plan to deal a severe blow from the Nareff line on the rear, of the Russian armies, which are impeding General Mackensen's offensive in ,the Wieprz Valley.