ng up east of southern Rumania to the head
of the Black Sea and the Russian frontier, along which Mackensen might
advance and get in behind the rear of the main Russian lines. But this
country in large part constitutes the Danube delta and is swampy, and
is certainly not fitted for operations involving heavy artillery.
Moreover, Mackensen was now at the narrowest part of Dobrudja, whose
shape somewhat resembles an hourglass, and a farther advance would
mean an extension of his lines. Aside from this, by advancing farther
north, he laid his rear open to a possible raid from across the river,
such as the Rumanians had attempted on October 2, 1916,
unsuccessfully, to be sure, but sufficiently to show that the whole
bank of the river must be guarded. The farther Mackensen advanced
northward the more men he would require to guard his rear along the
river. For the time being, at least, the river created a deadlock,
with the advantage to whichever side should be on the defensive. The
Rumanians might very well now have left a minimum force guarding the
river bank while they turned their main forces northward to stem the
tide of Teuton invasion through the passes.

For over a week this seemed exactly what the Rumanians were doing. On
November 4, 1916, the situation along the Rumanian front in the
mountains looked extremely well for King Ferdinand's armies. At no
point had the Teutons made any appreciable headway, while in two
regions, in the Jiul Valley and southeast of Kronstadt, Bucharest
reported substantial gains. Berlin and Vienna both admitted that the
Rumanians had recaptured Rosca, a frontier height east of the Predeal
Pass.

CHAPTER XXIX

MACKENSEN PRESSED BACK

On November 6, 1916, came the news from Bucharest that the Rumanian
and Russian forces in northern Dobrudja had again assumed the
offensive and that Mackensen's line was giving way; and that in
retiring his troops had burned the villages of Daeni, Gariot, Rosman,
and Gaidar. Full details of these operations were never issued, but as
day after day passed it became obvious that the Russo-Rumanian armies
were indeed making a determined effort to regain the ground lost in
Dobrudja.

On November 9, 1916, it was announced through London that the Russian
General Sakharov had been transferred from Galicia and was now in
command of the allied forces in Dobrudja; that he had succeeded in
pushing Mackensen's lines back from Hirsova on the Danube, where a
gu