RUSSIANS ADVANCING RAPIDLY THROUGH PRUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15701, 31 August 1914, Page 5

RUSSIANS ADVANCING RAPIDLY THROUGH PRUSSIA.

GERMAN TROOPS BEING WITHDRAWN PROM BELGIUM CAPITAL OF EAST PRUSSIA COMPLETELY INVESTED, ANOTHER ZEPPELIN WRECKED BY THE RUSSIANS. By Telegraph— Association— Copyrish* » (Received Augiuf. 30, 3.20 p.m.) London, August 28. It is officially reported from Amsterdam that 160 trains, carrying German troops, have passed through Belgium northwards on their way to strengthen the forces opposing the advancing Russians. One army corps of 41,000 men, with full equipment, was withdrawn from the Mouse and sent to Prussia, and the German troops around Brussels have been reduced to the safest minimum. The German Army from Alsace, under the Grand Duke Frederick of Baden, is reinforcing the Germans in East Prussia. A St. Petersburg message says that the Russians are approaching Konigsberg, the capital of Eastern Prussia, and have dislodged the garrison outposts. A later message from Paris says that Konigsberg is completely invested. The Russians have occupied Allenstcin, a railway junction in the southern part of East Prussia. The Russians shot at' and brought down a German Zeppelin which was bombarding a railway station at Calava, on the Polish frontier. It contained eight soldiers and two quick-firing guns, with explosives. When the Russian Army occupied Tilsit, in the north of East Prussia, it captured many spoils of war. The garrison and the inhabitants of the town fled. The Russians are now marching upon Danzig, an important seaport on Danzig Bay, beyond the mouth of the Vistula.

Allenstein is a German garrison town in East Prussia, 30 miles from tho Russian frontier. It, i. in the sphere of the Russian operations which am proceeding in the southwest of East Prussia, and is about 23 miles northwest

of Ortelsburg, which was recently reported to have been occupied by the \ Russians. Various industries are carried on in the town, which also has an extensive trade in cereals and timber. Its population in 1904 was 24,000. Konigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, is a 220,000 inhabitants, and a first-class fortress. It is situated on rising ground on both sides of the River Pregel, four and a-half miles from its mouth. The* fortifications of Konigsberg were begun in 1843, and were only completed in 1905. The works consist of an inner wall, brought into connection with an outlying system of works, and of twelve detached forts, of which six are on tho right and six on the left bank of the Pregel. Tho protected position of its harbour has made Konigtherg one of the most important commercial cities of Germany.