tions, and brought about a great German defeat. But the Russians did not move.

Fighting in the Dobrudja had meanwhile become very severe, with successes on both sides. The Rumanians had blown up the great bridge over the Danube, and it seemed impossible for von Mackensen to cross. At this point the Danube is very wide. The Rumanians hoped to prevent a crossing, but the German strategy soon dashed their hopes. Von Falkenhayn, who had broken through the mountain passes in western Rumania, made a rapid advance southward across the east and west leg of that country, reached the north shore of the Danube, drove the Rumanian forces eastward, and effected a junction with the armies of von Mackensen on the other side of the river.

From this point on the Rumanian case was hopeless. The two powerful Teutonic armies swept eastward and on the sixth of December entered Bucharest, the Rumanian capital. The remainder of the Rumanian armies retreated into the northeastern part of the country, the capital was moved to Jassy, near the Russian frontier, and the German advance was stopped along the line of the river Sereth. In the few months that Rumania had been in the war she had lost two thirds of her territory, including her capital, two hundred thousand prisoners, and a great number of killed and wounded. What was most important of all, she had provided the Teutonic allies with vast new

territories from which to draw supplies of wheat, oil, and many other commodities sorely needed in Germany, and also given them absolute control of navigation on the river Danube. Rumania's fate was tragic.

CHAPTER XVIII

OTHER EVENTS DURING 1916

N January, 1916, as a result of the great Aus

tro-German drive through Serbia, another of the Balkan states succumbed to the power of Germany. This was Montenegro, which in spite of a brave but hopeless fight was soon overrun by Austrian forces. Her king fled to Italy. Thus, at the beginning of this year, the only foothold which the Allies still retained in the Balkans was the small area of territory around Saloniki, and the sympathy of a part of the people of Greece. Only the presence of Allied war-ships before Athens, and the threat of cutting off the importation of food, kept King Constantine and his German wife from throwing Greece into the war on the German side.

In the same month England abandoned the volunteer system of recruiting and adopted compulsory service. This action was not taken because the English had failed to support their country. Five million men had volunteered, but a portion had held back, and so great was the need for more men that it was determined to "round up" the slackers.

A little later Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, head of the Pan-German party, was forced to resign, owing to the failure of his submarine campaign to starve England into submission. The British Navy had been fairly successful in combating the under-sea boats. Small craft of every description swarmed in the waters about the British Isles. Huge nets were sunk, extending for many miles across the routes usually traveled by the German U-boats. Floats on the surface showed when a submarine had become entangled in these nets, whereupon the destroyers on watch dropped depth-bombs, so constructed as to explode when they reached a certain depth. In this and other ways many submarines were destroyed. Figures at the close of the war showed that out of three hundred and sixty submarines, Germany lost over two hundred as a result of the activities of the Allied navies. Von Tirpitz's place was taken by Admiral von Capelle, and almost at once, in the month of April, a cross-channel passenger boat, the Sussex, was torpedoed, with considerable loss. of life. There were Americans aboard, some of whom were injured.

The attack upon the Sussex resulted in immediate diplomatic protests by the United States Government. Germany, as usual, attempted to quibble. First she said that the vessel had struck a mine. When fragments of a torpedo were found aboard, she asserted that the submarine com

mander had mistaken the vessel for a war-ship, a claim absurd on its face. Finally, when informed by the United States that if another passenger or freight vessel were sunk without warning the government would at once break off diplomatic relations, Germany admitted that she had broken her previous promises, but once more promised to carry on her submarine warfare in a humane and civilized manner. She reserved, however, the right to break this promise when it suited her purposes to do so. Meanwhile, the construction of a great fleet of large ocean-going submarines was being pushed by Admiral von Capelle. Germany was merely playing with the United States in order to gain time to complete these ships.

During the early part of this year, Russia, in spite of her long-drawn battle-front at home, began a campaign in a new area. A glance at the map will show that the Russian frontier between the Black and Caspian seas crosses a narrow neck of land close to the Caucasus Mountains. To the west of these mountains, along the southern shores of the Black Sea, lies Armenia, the scene of the terrible massacres of which we have already spoken. A large Russian force, under the command of the Grand-Duke Nicholas, who had been deprived of his command of the Russian armies after the retreat from Warsaw in 1915, advanced through the Caucasus Mountains in February, 1916, and moved westward along the Black Sea