BRILLIANT GAINS ON BLEAK RIGA BATTLE FRONT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14221, 12 February 1917, Page 3

BRILLIANT GAINS ON BLEAK RIGA BATTLE FRONT.

RUSSIAN FORCES SWEEP OVER. I FORTIFICATIONS. LQNDON, Jan. 15. On the bleak Riga, front, amid blinding snow and piercing cold of a Russian ] winter, fighting of the' most picturesque and violent character is going, on. So far the conflict has resulted m a brilliant success for the forces of the Czar. Despite long and furious handi-to-hand struggles and the murderous fine of hundreds of machine guns, the Russian troops have been able to break through the German lines, almost entirely dei straying three enemy regiments and routing another, ond h^ve finally overcome a series of fortifications constructed ) by fifteen months' hard labor. ' "Neither, the snowstorm nor the paralysing frosts, nor impassable -marshes could check their ardor." This is t(he. tribute paid bjr General Radko Dniitrieff to his heroic forces. The splendid bravery of the Russian soldier m the face of the: severest weather conditions, and over ground of the most difficult military character, is the key to the victory won by Dmitri eff in thia region in the last week. The toll of tho Russian captures is equally eloquentv It includes fifty machine guns, thirty cannon, and vast stores of supplies and equipment. An enormous consignment of brandy for the German troops^more than 10d,000 bottles—also fell into the hands of the attacking troops. The Teuton tactics to-day in the northern sector are the sarae aa those used by Hindenburg in the fall of 191*4, whe*i he stemmed the Russian advance. The massed formation is employed against the Russian forces, and attack after attack is hurled upon the front in the Riga-^litau section. The latest assa/ult of this character, which to made with great bravery and dash by the German battalions, broke down as'completelv afcits predecessors- in the face of a raking fire from the Russian batteries. Completing the work of the Kussiari guns, the infantry executed a sharp, swift counter-attack which effectually ended the German ons^aTi^ht.