GERMANS CLAIM EXTENSION OF OFFENSIVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16600, 25 July 1917, Page 7

GERMANS CLAIM EXTENSION OF OFFENSIVE.

ADVANCE COMMENCED ASTRIDE THE DNIESTER.

ENEMY FORECASTS BATTLES IN ROUMANIA Australian and N.Z. Cable. OUceir* 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, Jul, .3 fierd raa Y°T U ° iqUe StAtCS: ° Ur c °™ter-attack south of the Sereth.has developed. The RUSSianS are retreating into the Carpathians. V e occupied heights immediately west of Tarnopol and crossed the Rohatyn-Tarnopol railway. We have begun a forward movement astride the Dniester. The Russians showed strong resistance to the south of the railway. Russian activity has increased along the ridge of the Carpathians as far as the Putna. Lively fixe on the Lower Sereth indicates pending battles.

A Russian communique states: The enemy continues' his offensive between the Sereth, the Strypa, and the Zlota Lipa, and has occupied four villages. There is intense enemy artillery fire south of Cerezoveca and Velka.

The Rohatyn-Tarnopol railway, which the Germans claim to have crossed approaches Tarnopol from the south-west. If their claim is correct it means an advance southward towards the Dniester between the parallel tributaries, the Zlota Lipa and the Strypa.

The Lower Sereth is in Roumania, and is the line on which the Roumanian and Russian armies are resting. There are two Sereths. Tarnopol stands on the one which enters the Dniester. The other rises in Bukovina, flows through Roumania, and enters the Danube near Galatz.