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WarChron - Russian Operations Caucasus - North Persia |
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The Year 1916
During June, inflation in Russia continued to rise dramatically. Meat prices were up by 332%, butter up 220%, flour up 265%. Industrial wages have risen 142% from pre-war levels. The gold ruble has fallen to 69.8% of its value. Average monthly wages in the metals industry were up 78.6%, but relative buying power was only 38.7 rubles. The rents in Petrograd had risen by 200-300%.
During the summer of 1916, in North Russia, the port at Arkhangelsk received over 600 Allied vessels transporting one million tons of coal, and 1.5 million tons of munitions, food stuffs and other supplies to Russia.
During June, in the Baltic Sea, German submarine U.10 was reported lost to mines.
During June, Polkovnik Maltsev, an aide-de-camp of the Tsar, was put in charge of the air defense of the royal residence at Tsarskoe Selo. Some believed that the Empress used him to carry messages to Rasputin.
At Petrograd, during the early summer, the Foreign Section of the Russian Ministry of Finance granted a loan of 800,000 rubles to M.A. Suvorin, one of the owners of the conservative Novoe Vremya newspaper. The object of the loan was to "subject the paper to government influence, while at the same time preserving its appearance of independence."
During the summer months, Grand Duke Aleksandr Mikhailovich visited the Tsar at Stavka at least five times. Each time he described the situation in the rear, but the Tsar was pale and lethargic, not interested in problems and did not listen to the Grand Duke's good advice. Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich told Aleksandr to keep trying to get the Tsar to listen and pray to God that revolution will not happen this year. Sergei also told him that the Germans would pay any price to provoke a revolution within the year, and that if the Tsar stayed in his current condition it was bound to happen.
During the summer, the Turkish Marinefliegerschule (naval air school) was formed at San Stefano, near Constantinople. The newly formed Turkish Fl.Abt.10 (a land based two-seater flying section) arrived at Diyabekr (Dyarbakir). They carried out operations from an airfield at Elazig in July, and stayed there until the end of hostilities.
On 1 July, since the beginning of the year deposits in Russian government savings banks had increased from 1.835 billion to 3.040 billion rubles.
On the Southwest Front, Austro-German forces made progress northwest of Tarnopol.
The Russians on the Pruth River advanced northwest of Kolomea. Brusilov's forces had taken 217,000 prisoners since 4 June.
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On the Caucasian Front, a Turkish counter-attack took Mush and Bitlis in Armenia. In North Persia, the Turks pursued the Russians to Kermanshah.
On the Allied Western Front, the British and French opened the Battle of the Somme, which lasted until 19 November. Heavy air losses prevented Russian aircraft orders from being filled on schedule.
On 2 July, in the Gulf of Riga, there was an air battle off the coast between three Russian flying boats from the Orlitsa and three German Fokker single-seat fighters, during which two Germans were forced down. One Russian flying boat was damaged and fell in the water, with the crew being drowned. From the 2nd to the 4th, Russian warships bombarded German coastal positions in the Riga sector, with the purpose of probing German defenses.
On the Western Front, the Russian 4th Army attacked at Gorodishche, 24 km north of Baranovichi, briefly penetrating von Woyrsch's German lines. Heavy fighting lasted until the 14th.
On the Southwest Front, the Germans moved forward on the Lutsk salient. The Germans regained Tlumacz, south of the Dniester River. The French joined a Russian effort to convince Romania to join the Allies.
In the Black Sea, German submarine U.38 scored a success on a Russian transport off Sochi.
In North Persia, the Turks captured Kermanshah, as the Russians retreated east on the road to Hamadan.
The Tsar ordered the Russian Railroad Department to increase the number of railway wagons transporting material on the Arkhangelsk line from 300 to 450 per day.
On 3 July, on the Western Front, there was heavy fighting in the Baranovichi sector.
In the Baltic Sea, Russian warships bombarded the Germans near Riga.
In the Black Sea, the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau bombarded Russian ports.
On the Caucasian Front, the Russians resumed an offensive at Baiburt, 96 km northwest of Erzerum, routing the Turkish 3rd Army, with the Turks losing 34,000 men.
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In Petrograd, Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov and Japanese Ambassador Motano signed a convention, stating that neither signatory would enter any agreement directed against the other and that they would join together for mutual cooperation and defense if either one's interests in the Far East were threatened by a third party.
On 3 July, at Petrograd, the State Duma closed its summer session. Duma representatives returned to the capital from a conference with the Allies in Paris.
On 4 July, on the Western Front, an attempted offensive by the Russian 4th Army had already begun to stall, The 4th Army would eventually lose over 80,000 men. Their IX Corps would lose over half its strength. General Lesh's Russian 3rd Army opened an advance in the direction of Kovel, managing to establish footholds across the Stokhod River in heavy fighting against von Linsingen's German Südarmee. The offensive lasted until the 7th.
On the Southwest Front, the Russians cut the Carpathian railroad at Mikolichin. Fifteen German and eight Austro-Hungarian divisions were brought in to halt the offensive in Galicia.
In the Black Sea, German cruiser Goeben bombarded the harbor at Tuapse, destroying two ships. The cruiser Breslau sank two other Russian vessels off Sochi.
Romanian Prime Minister Ioan Bratianu indicated to the French Minister in Bucharest that they were prepared to intervene as soon as a formal treaty with the Entente had been signed.
On 5 July, heavy fighting continued in the Riga and Baranovichi sectors. On the Southwest Front, the Russians continued their attacks south of the Dniester River in Galicia.
On the Caucasian Front, a Russian attack continued 48 km north of Erzincan.
On 6 July, on the Western Front, the Russian 3rd Army threatened Kovel. The Germans fell back in the Chartorysk salient.
On Southwest Front, Shcherbachev's Russian 7th Army made slight progress against Bothmer's Südarmee. The left wing of the Russian 9th Army defeated the enemy west of Kimpolung.
In North Persia, the Russians beat the Turks back north of the Upper Euphrates, while the Turks forced the Russians back east of Kermanshah.
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© WARCHRON 2007
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