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WarChron - Romanian Operations - Black Sea Operations |
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The Year 1916
The German 9th Army made a frontal assault on both sides of the Olt Corps, which fell back in disarray into Oltenia. The Romanian 2nd Army was moved forward to assist the Olt Corps, and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy at Brashov.
On 21 September, on the Romanian Front, in Transylvania, the Romanian advance was held up near Vulkan Pass, south of Petroshani. There was heavy fighting in the Kaeleman and Gorgeny mountains.
On 22 September, the Tsar at Stavka wrote the Empress, “Our Friends' (Rasputin) opinions are sometimes very strange, as you know yourself – therefore one must be careful, especially with appointments to high offices.” The Tsar went on to say, “All these changes make my head go round, in my opinion they are too frequent. In any case, they are not good for the internal situation of the country, as each new man brings with him alterations in the administration.” He also told her that he was considering the dismissal of General Klimovich as Chief of the Moscow Police.
On 23 September, the Turks signed an additional military agreement with the Germans.
On 24 September, the Tsar called Foreign Minister Shturmer to Stavka. Shturmer was strongly supported by the Empress and pleaded his case very well. No action was taken against him. The Tsar then received a visit from Japanese Prince Kotohito Kan-in, cousin to the Mikado, Emperor of Japan.
On 25 September, on the Romanian Front, the Bulgarian right wing fell back to fortify their positions in the Dobrudja. German Army Airship LZ.101 carried out a bombing mission on Bucharest.
On 26 September, in the Baltic Sea, a German airship carried out a bombing raid on Russian installations at Tserel on Oesel Island.
On the Southwest Front, sixteen German aircraft trying to attack Lutsk were driven back by a newly formed Russian fighter group, led by military pilot, Shtabs Rotmister A.A. Kozakov, who would become Russia's leader in aerial victories during the course of the war.
On the Romanian Front, German 9th Army troops forced the Roter Turm Pass, retaking Hermannstadt.
On 26-28 September, in the Black Sea, Russian destroyers Zorkiy and Zavidnyi opened fire on the German occupied city of Mangalia on the Romanian coast near Tuzla and were driven off by German aircraft.
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Four Russian flying boats from the seaplane carrier Nikolai I carried out an attack on the Germans at Mangalia. Four days later they attacked the Germans at Gerejik. German floatplanes based at Varna carried out missions over Constanza almost daily. Russian gunboats on the Danube shelled ships of the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla.
On 27 September, in the Black Sea, German submarine UB.7 left the Bulgarian port of Varna for a patrol off the Crimea. She was soon reported lost, possibly sunk by Russian flying boats off the Kheronese Peninsula on 1 October.
On the Romanian Front, German Army airship LZ.81 carried out a raid on Bucharest and was badly damaged by Romanian ground fire. She was wrecked in a forced landing near Tirnova in Bulgaria, and had to be decommissioned.
In Transylvania, the Romanians forced the enemy back in the Jiu Valley, near the Vulkan Pass. German air reconnaissance reported that Romanian forces were concentrated west of Oltenita.
On 28 September, in the Baltic Sea, a German airship reconnoitered the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, while German submarines began mine laying operations at the entrance to the Gulf.
In Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Burian submitted his idea of a peace offer to Emperor Franz Josef, who authorized Burian to pursue it with German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg.
On 29 September, on the Romanian Front, Austro-German forces took the Jablonitsa Pass and forced the Romanians to begin their retreat from Transylvania.
At Petrograd, U.S. Ambassador Francis held meetings with Russian Finance Minister P.L. Bark on a proposed commercial treaty. Bark sidestepped the issue, and suggested that Francis take it up with the Foreign Ministry, where Shturmer told Francis that is was not time to open negotiations.
On 30 September, on the Northern Front, Russian flying boats from seaplane carrier Orlitsa carried out an abortive raid on the German naval air station at Lake Angern.
On the Southwest Front, heavy fighting commenced in Galicia near the Zlota Lipa River and Brzezany. The Russians were advancing in the Brody area.
On the Romanian Front, von Falkenhayn's forces continued their attacks at the Roter-Turm Pass in Transylvania, forcing the Romanians to retreat over the Fogaras mountains.
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At Stavka, the Tsar received a letter from the Empress in which she expressed a wish to hang Duma President Rodzianko, saying “he was an awful man and such an insolent fellow.”
During September, a series of peasant uprisings began in the Kirghiz region, in the Trans-Caspian region, which resulted in the loss of 3,500 Russian troops attempting to put them down in fighting that lasted until January 1917.
During September, the Russian economic situation had become much worse due to the increased cost of living, the closing of foreign markets, congestion on the railways, and confusion and corruption in the public services.
During September, two German armored trains were transferred from the Allied Western Front to the Romanian Front. They would be joined by another in Spring 1917.
On 1 October, the Tsar ordered A.A. Khvostov replaced as Minister of the Interior by A.D. Protopopov, Deputy President of the State Duma, and a confidant of Rasputin. Protopopov was neurotic and in ill health. He was believed to be syphilitic and was under the care of Mongolian herbologist Peter Badmaev, who had suggested him to Rasputin.
The Empress, heavily influenced by Rasputin, acted on her own to authorize the transfer of responsibility for organization of food supplies from the Ministry of Agriculture to Protopopov, the new Minister of the Interior.
On the Romanian Front, the Romanian 2nd Army succeeded in laying a pontoon bridge across the Danube near Rahovo, northeast of Rustchuk, in torrential rains and heavy winds. Some 15,000 troops crossed to attack von Mackensen's 11th German Army from the rear. German heavy bomber unit, KAGOHL I, bombed and strafed the Romanian troops at Rahovo.
On 2 October, on the Southwest Front, German FFl.Abt.62 (flying unit) pilot Vzfw. Windisch, based at Perespa in the Kovel sector, dropped off his observer Oblt. von Cossell in the early morning hours far behind Russian lines southeast of Rovno to use explosives to sabotage the railway line between Rovno and Dubno at several points. His charges blew up an unsuspecting locomotive and ten railway wagons, damaging the line. Windish flew back the next day to pick up von Cossell. Both men were decorated for their exploit.
On 3 October, on the Southwest Front, the Russians advanced west of Lutsk in Volhynia.
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© WARCHRON 2007
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