GERMANS FIGHTING TO OCCUPY OESEL ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16671, 16 October 1917, Page 5

GERMANS FIGHTING TO OCCUPY OESEL ISLAND.

STRONG FLEET CO-OPERATES WITH LAUDING FORCE r FOUR TORPEDO-BOATS SUNK BY SHORE BATTERIES. Admiralty per Wireless ' LONDON, Oct. 14. » A Russian official message says: We repulsed an attempt to capture a pier on Moon Island, in the Gulf of Riga, between Oe6«! Island and the mainland. Fighting on Oesel Island continues, the enemy pressing us back in a south-easterly direction. The Germans continued their disembarkation on Saturday under the protection of very large naval forces. Simultaneously several ships engaged the shore batteries on Dago Island. Our batteries sank four torpedoboats, and an enemy cruiser grounded. German gunfire destroyed the battery, enabling a small detachment to land, but they were unable to maintain the position and returned to the ships., Since yesterday morning our ships have prevented the enemy entering Siele Sound, between Dago and Oesgl Islands. Our torpedo-boats in the Baltio destroyed eleven schooners. A German official message says: We are now advancing south-west on Oesel Island. The towns of Zerel and Arensburg are on fire. Eeutjr. PETROGRAD. Oct. 14. The Ministry for Marine learns that eight Dreadnoughts, a dozen light cruisers, 40 torpedo-boats, and 30 mine-sweepers participated in the landing on Oesel Island. Experts recognise the seriousness ol 1 the move, but do not consider Potrograd immediately menaced. The; naval general staff reports that the enemy is in possession of the northern and eastern parts of Oesel Island, and has arrived near Arensberg, on the eastern coast of the island. They only carried out a demonstration against Dago Island. M. Kerensky sent a message to the Baltic fleet imploring it to do its duty. The importance of the Dago Island region is f>:iained by the fact that it is barricaded by ice for only -a short period. Tne Baltic Sea in winter in some parte is entirely frozen, and in some partly frozen. The first area to be icebound is the Gulf of •' Bothnia, as early as November; then 'the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland in the beginning of December, the whole gulf becoming frozen by the end of the month. In December also the Gulf of Rigs is frozen. The Dago Island area and the eastern coast of Estland are icebound only at the end 'of January and beginning of February. Roughly speaking, this is the whole coastline from the Gulf of Riga to the Gulf of Finland. Libau is closed for traffic for 40 days in the year; Windau, though much further north, is frozen for three days only. Riga is closed by ice for as lor;* as 1111 days. North of the Gulf of Riga the islands of Dago are inaccessible ;for 'tS- days only, although they are much more northerly than Riga, and in theif neighbourhood the so-called Baltic Port at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland is closed for 33 days, while Kronstadt and Petrograd for as much .<\s 143 days in the year. . Except Windau, which is in the occupation of the Germans,vthe islands of Dago and: their neighbourhood are the only Russian coast places which can be used with 'but little interruption almost all the year round.. . The earliest date of interruption in navigation at the Dago Islands is January 16, and it does not last longer than till March 2. The conditions of the chief Russian military port, Reval, are much less favourable. Communication with the unfrozen sea can be kept open all the year round by breaking the ice with special vessels of the Yermak type. Battleships can then force their way out— enemy ships could not possibly venture in." All these figures are approximate and vary according to the severity of the winter. Those places, at the possession of which Germany is aiming, are free from ice for six winters in fifteen, while the neighbourhood of Reval is free from ice only one winter in eight. Windau and Libau excepted, all the other parts of the Russian Baltic seaboard have a climate which stops navigation every winter almost without exception. .