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WarChron - Austro-German Peace Feelers |
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The Year 1916
Even though she was intelligent, the Empress was a very poor judge of people and failed to realize she was being manipulated by those who fed her need to maintain at all costs the autocracy, and pass the throne to her beloved son Alexei.
On 11 December, on the Romanian front, enemy forces moved over the Jablonitza River, northeast of Bucharest.
On 12 December, on the Southwest Front, heavy fighting continued in Galicia, around Tarnopol and Stanislau, and in south Bukowina.
On the Romanian Front, with Russian 9th Army support, the Romanians rallied on the Jablonitza River and southwest of Buzeu.
In Berlin, German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg gave a speech in the Reichstag offering to open negotiations with the Entente in a neutral country. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians sent separate peace notes to the Entente, both of which were immediately rejected. Austria-Hungary also sent an appeal to the Pope urging support for a peace proposal. The Entente also made a peace offer to Germany, but nothing came from it.
In Paris, the French Government was reorganized under the Premiership of Aristide Briand. General Nivelle became the new French Commander in Chief. Joffre was promoted to Marshall of France and appointed technical advisor to the French War Cabinet.
On 13 December, on the Southwest Front, the Russians were making small gains in the Carpathians and along the Moldavian frontier.
On the Romanian Front, von Falkenhayn's German forces entered Buzeu.
In the Black Sea, Russian battleship Pamyat Merkuriya bombarded Balchik, a coastal mill city on the Bulgarian coast which supplied the Bulgarian Army with flour.
On 14 December, the Tsar appointed N.N. Pokrovskiy, former Comptroller-General, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. During December, at the insistence of the Tsar, Minister of Justice, N.A. Dobrovolskiy, dismissed the case against Manusevich-Manyulov, a close favorite of Sukhomlinov.
A Russian Congress of the United Nobility passed a resolution which expressed their concern about the current deplorable situation in the nation. The Tsar and Empress failed to hear their voice.
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On 15 December, on the Southwest Front, the Russians were forced back along the Tarnopol railroad, west of Lutsk.
On the Romanian Front, the Germans attacked the Russian Danube Army, withdrawing to Tulcea and Isak-Che in an effort to re-group on left bank of the Danube. The Russians and Romanians holding a line north of Buzeu were forced to fall back from Jablonitza. The Russians were making a strong defense on the Moldavian frontier.
On 16 December, at Tsarskoe Selo, Grand Duke Aleksandr Mikhailovich met with the Tsar. He had been delegated by a group of close relatives to present the autocrat with a final petition, begging him before it was too late to dismiss Shturmer and Protopopov, grant a constitution or even a cabinet responsible to the people. The Tsar responded by saying, “What you ask is impossible. On the day of my coronation I swore to preserve the autocracy. I must keep that oath intact for my son.”
On the Southwest Front, the Germans took some Russian positions between Kovel and Lutsk.
On the Romanian Front, the Russians were falling back in the north of the Dobrudja. The British Royal Naval Air Service Armored Car Squadron was withdrawn on the 17th to Reni, Some cars took part in operations in the Reni sector.
Other RNAS armored cars were moved to Tiraspol, northeast of Odessa, to be overhauled. The Squadron then rested and re-outfitted, and would later see service on the Southwest Front in Galicia during the ill-fated Kerenskiy offensive in July - August 1917.
In mid-December, on the Romanian Front, arrival of the French 10th Groupe d'auto-canons (armored car group). Further details of its service are unknown.
At Jasi, Bratianu formed a Romanian Coalition Government, with Take Ionescu as Vice President, and Major General Ballif as War Minister.
At Budapest, coronation of Hungarian King Charles IV and Queen Zita.
In the Black Sea, a Russian mine-laying operation laid 220 mines off Constanza to prevent its possible use as a submarine base.
On 17/18 December, in the Black Sea, Russian torpedo boats laid 72 mines off the Bosporus.
On 18 December, on the Southwest Front, the Russians managed to restore their positions between Lutsk and Kovel.
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On the Romanian Front, Russian and Romanian troops fell back towards line along the Sereth River. The enemy threatened Braila and Galatz.
On 19 December, the Tsar returned to Stavka after a lengthy visit with the Empress and their children at Tsarskoe Selo. This was the Festival Day (name day) of St. Nicholas.
On the Romanian Front, the enemy advance from the west was checked 48 km from Braila. Russian units holding a line from Ungheni to Ni Colina in the Dobrudja withdrew to Braila.
Two French Escadrilles, ESC.N.581 (fighter) and ESC.SOP.582 (reconnaissance), left France for Russia, along with a photographic section and a topographic section. They eventually reached Kiev in April 1917.
On 20 December, on the Northern Front, German Navy airships L.35 and L.38 were now operating from their base at Wainoden.
On the Southwest Front, there was bloody fighting west of Brody in Galicia.
On the Romanian Front, German and Bulgarian troops advanced on Braila.
U.S. President Wilson addressed a note to all belligerents inviting peace negotiations in some neutral country.
On 21 December, on the Western Front, heavy fighting erupted south of Dvinsk.
On the Southwest Front, there was stubborn fighting along rivers in south Galicia.
On the Romanian Front, the Russians drove the Bulgarians into Lake Ibolota at Badadagh in the northern Dobrudja.
In the Black Sea, Russian light cruiser Pamyat Merkuriya sank two Turkish motor gunboats off the Rumelian coast. Russian mine barriers in the Bosporus area prevented the Breslau and Goeben from venturing forth. The Germans and Turks lacked adequate minesweepers.
In Vienna, resignation of Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Burian. Two days later he was succeeded by Count Czernin.
On 22 December, on the Romanian Front, the enemy was concentrating forces at Rimnicu-Sarat, with hard fighting along the line. The Russian retreat to the Danube was completed.
Moscow police prohibited sessions of the Unions of Zemstvos and Towns.
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© WARCHRON 2007
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