d from Petrograd that the entire Rumanian
front was being held by Russian soldiers, the Rumanians having retired
to their rear beyond the Sereth River at Jassy and in Bessarabia,
where they were being reorganized for future operations. After the
Bucharest-Ploechti line had been lost, according to one unofficial
report, the Russians had sent some strong cavalry divisions to support
the Rumanian retreat. The Russians offered strong resistance in the
region of Buzeu so as to permit their engineers to construct a
defensive front between Rimnik Sarat and the marshes at the mouth of
the Danube. On that same date Berlin announced an advance of the
Teutonic forces in northern Dobrudja. It was in this latter section
that the Teutons now centered their activities. The Russo-Rumanians
still remained in Dobrudja, on the south side of the Danube. So long
as they had a footing here they remained a potential threat to the
Teutons, which might awaken into active danger at the first favorable
opportunity. To be ousted from this northern tip of Dobrudja would be
even more serious to the Russo-Rumanians than the loss of Wallachia.
From this point they might, at some future day, initiate an offensive
against Bulgaria which might become extremely dangerous. Once across
the river, however, it would be difficult for them to recross, for
reasons that have already been discussed: no line of fortifications,
no intrenched positions they might throw up, would be so effective a
defense to the Teutons as the mouth of the Danube.

In Rumania, west of the river, continuous and at times heavy fighting
continued, sometimes assuming almost the proportions of pitched
battles. During the last week of the month Mackensen apparently
realized the hopelessness, for the present at least, of driving the
enemy out of Dobrudja, and shifted some of his forces over to the west
bank of the river. The Russians had retired behind the Rimnik River, a
small stream which is about twenty-five miles north of the Buzeu and
parallel to it. On January 1, 1917, the Germans announced that the
Russians had been forced back against the bridgehead at Braila and
that in the Dobrudja they had advanced beyond Matchin. On the 5th,
Braila, the most important city left to the Rumanians, fell into the
hands of Mackensen, and at the same time the last of the Russians
retired from the northern tip of Dobrudja. This was the heaviest blow
that had fallen since the capture of Bucharest, and fr