s we have seen, were making a noteworthy success of
their part of this program, the British had not been so fortunate. Their
plan was to take possession of Mesopotamia, the valley of the
Tigris-Euphrates, and occupy its capital, the famous city of Bagdad.
General Townshend with an insufficient force had begun his march up the
Tigris River the year before and in March, 1915, had occupied the
stronghold of Kut-el-Ama'ra, about 100 miles below Bagdad. Here later he
was besieged by a Turkish army. A Russian army on the way from Erzerum
and an English relief force from the south failed to reach the place in
time, and April 29, 1916, General Townshend was forced by starvation to
surrender.

RUSSIAN SUCCESSES IN AUSTRIA.--During the summer months the Russians
under the command of one of their greatest leaders, General Bru'silov,
renewed their offensive against the border lands of Austria-Hungary. It
looked for a while as if the disasters of 1915 in this region were about
to be redeemed. On a wide front extending from the Prip'et marshes in
eastern Poland all the way to Bukowina (boo-ko-vee'nah), the Austrian
province southeast of Galicia, the Russian armies advanced. They invaded
Galicia and took hundreds of thousands of Austrian prisoners. Austria
was compelled to transfer troops from her Italian front. The year 1916
closed with the Russians in a decidedly more favorable military position
than they had occupied a year before.

ROUMANIA IN THE WAR.--Roumania had long looked forward to an extension
of her boundaries to include all the Roumanians of southeastern Europe.
Across the border, in southeastern Hungary, were more than two million
Roumanians living in the large region known as Transylvania. The
annexation of Transylvania was one of the greatest ambitions of
Roumanian leaders. In August, 1916, encouraged by the promises of
Russia, her powerful neighbor and protector, Roumania entered the war on
the side of the Allies.

On her western front Roumania could easily defend herself from invasion
because of strong mountain barriers. Her point of danger was the
Bulgarian boundary between the Danube and the Black Sea. Here she should
have concentrated her strength for defense against the Bulgarian forces
or even for an offensive into Bulgaria. Instead she sent most of her
armies west into Transylvania. Presently a strong force of Germans and
Bulgarians crossed the border into southeastern Roumania (the Dobrudja)
and marched no