Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1914 — TURKEY AT WAR; SHELL RUSS TOWNS; VERDUN FORTS FALL [ARTICLE]

TURKEY AT WAR; SHELL RUSS TOWNS; VERDUN FORTS FALL

Cruiser Breslau Bombards Crimea Port. ELEVENTH NATION TO FIGHT Teutons Win Battle West of Lille—• British Officer* and 300 Men Taken —Allies Mass in Effort to Halt Invaders.

London, Oct. 30. —Two Russian cities were bombarded by ships under the Turkish flag. The Breslau, late of the German navy, shelled Theodosia, in the Crlinea, an unfortified port. The Hamidieh of the Turkish navy bombarded Novotosysk, further east than Theodosia, east of the entrance to the Sea of Azov.

The Russian embassy at Tokyo announces that Turkey has opened war on Russia.

The Breslau steamed up before this city without any warning. Promptly at 9:80 o’clock the guns of the cruiser oi>ened fire. Then steadily for an hour it peppered various parts of the city. No one was killed and only one soldier was wounded. There was considerable damage to property, however. The cathedral, the Greek church, a pier, and some sheds were hit by fragments of shells and damaged. A branch of the Russian Bank of Foreign Commerce caught fire. At thei conclusion of the bombardment the Breslau left in a southwesterly direction. This makes the eleventh nation in the war.

Germany has been rushing munitions of war to Turkey ever since the war started, and when the cruiser Breslau entered the Dardanelles and was sold to Turkey it was charged that she retained her German officers and crew. Germans Take Fort* at Verdun. London, Oct. 30. —The main French positions southeast of Verdun have been captured by the Germans, according to a dispatch received by wireless from Berlin. The news comes from the semi-official Wolff agency in the German capital. Another German victory is reported by Wolff to the west of Lille, where, it is asserted, several of the allies' fortified positions have been captured. A number of English officers and 300 privates are declared to have been taken prisoners.

The invaders have gained ground south of Nieuport against the Belgians, who have been unable to com tinuß holding the Germans back on the line of the Yser. Allies Mass for Battle.

London, Oct. 30. — Heavy re-enforce-ments of French and British troops are being massed by General Joffre along the allies’ lines from Dlxmude to Nieuport. Air scouts attached to the French left wing have discerned the advancing Bavarian regiments and the garrisons drawn from Belgian coast towns, and the commander of the army of defense is strengthening his forces against the approach of the new masses of invaders.

The Teuton march lies apparently along the Ypres-Hazebrouck-St Omer road —between that and the River Yser.

The continuing rains have rendered the advance of the Germans difficult, and the attack, which was expected to open during the day with renewed vigor, apparently will have to wait until the field artillery of the Germans can be brought through the Flemish bogs. The German alm apparently is to drive through to Boulogne, keeping some distance from the seacoast.

To the south of Arras the allies advanced their position considerably and still hold them, according to the French war office report. Dispatches from the front claimed still further gains la the vicinity of Ypres, while between the Aisne and the Argonne region several of the Invaders’ trenches were occupied by the British and French, the halt-hearted attacks directed by the Germans subsequently being repulsed with ease.

in the forest of Apremont, where various detachments of Germans had located in small temporary positions, the French troops drove them out, capturing large bodies of prisoners and accounting for hundreds in the list of casualties.'

Farther, east, in the Argonne region, and on the frontier Severe fighting continues incessantly, as the result of which the French troops are reported to have made constant progress.

London Oct. 30.—The startling bit of news from the battlefields wae the declaration In official circles that a German attempt to penetrate the lines of

the allies in the vicThTty 6T uue failed. This repulse is considered of the greatest importance to the cause of the allied forces. If the movement had been successful It would have compelled the allies, who are holding the front through Ypres to the coast, to fall back toward Dunkirk.