extreme activity. The
lull which followed the retirement of the Rumanians from Tutrakan was
suddenly terminated on the 12th, when the Bulgarians and their allies
attacked Lipnitza, fifteen miles east of Silistria. Here the Rumanians
resisted furiously, and after an all-night fight they severely
repulsed Mackensen's troops, taking eight German guns. However, this
was only a temporary advantage. Some days later the German kaiser, in
a telegram to his wife, announced that Mackensen had gained a decisive
victory in Dobrudja. While this phraseology is perhaps a little too
strong as a description of the situation at that date, the fact was
that the Rumanians and the Russians were again forced to retire
northward. According to the German reports the retreat was a
disorderly flight, but the absence of any reports indicating a large
capture of prisoners or material would indicate that the Germans
exaggerated their success. At this moment a new loan was being
launched in Germany, and it was natural that the military situation
should be somewhat warmly colored.

On September 17, 1916, the Rumanian dispatches indicated that the
Russo-Rumanian forces in Dobrudja had fallen back to a line reaching
from Rasova, south of Cernavoda some ten miles to Tuzla, twelve miles
south of Constanza. Thus the situation was quite grave enough.
Meanwhile, some days before, General Averescu, who seemed to have been
doing so well on the Hungarian front, was sent to Dobrudja, in the
hope apparently that his superior abilities would save the situation.
He arrived on the 16th, together with considerable reenforcements
which had been drawn from the northwest, where the Russians were
supporting the Rumanians. Further Russian contingents had also
arrived, and on the following day, the 17th, Averescu turned suddenly
on Mackensen and gave him determined battle. This was the heaviest
fighting which had so far taken place in this section. Again and again
Mackensen hurled his Bulgarians and Turks against the Russo-Rumanian
lines, first battering them with his huge cannon. At Rasova, on the
Danube, his attacks were especially heavy. Had he taken this point he
would have been able to flank the Rumanians at Cernavoda, capture the
bridgehead there and so cut all communication between the Rumanians in
Dobrudja with Rumania itself. The battle raged until the 19th all
along the line, with no definite advantage to either side. But on that
day reenforcements came to Ave