t the
number of Rumanian prisoners taken during the entire campaign to date
now numbered 200,000. Describing the situation of the Rumanian army at
that time, the dispatch continued:

"The rest of the Rumanian army, part of which fought well, is
reorganizing in Moldavia and Bessarabia. The few Rumanian divisions
which still are engaged at the front are very much reduced in numbers.
According to the assertions of Rumanian prisoners, one division was
composed of only 2,800 men, while another numbered but 2,400. The
Rumanians suffered their heaviest losses from artillery fire. The
large number of dead in proportion to the wounded is remarkable. On
one square kilometer (about three-fifths of a square mile) of the
battle field of Campulung 6,000 Rumanian dead were counted. Some of
the Rumanian infantry regiments were composed of only four companies
of 150 men each. Because of the lack of sanitary organization, an
extraordinary large percentage of the wounded died in the hospitals,
which, however, afforded room only for the officers, while large
numbers of wounded soldiers were lodged in damp cellars, peasants'
huts, and barns, where they died miserably."

On January 20, 1917, the military critic of the Overseas News Agency
summed up the situation as follows:

"The Russo-Rumanian efforts to delay the advance of the Teutons
against the Sereth Plain are taking the form of fierce counterattacks,
launched to avert the danger that their position on the Putna and the
Sereth be outflanked. During the last few days especially violent
attacks have been directed against the position situated on the
Carpathian slopes north of the Suchitza. These developed no success
and cost the enemy heavy losses in casualties and prisoners.... On the
Carpathian front, in the Oituz district, the Teutonic forces have
pressed forward until they are in a position whence they can take the
circular valley of Ocna under their fire. As has been confirmed by the
Russian headquarters report, Bogdaneshti and Ocna were shelled. Ocna
is an important railroad station and a point of support for the
Russian defense in the upper Trotus Valley, while Bogdaneshti bars the
outlet to the great valley of the Trotus and Oituz. All the determined
attempts made by the Russians and Rumanians to extend the narrow
limits of their hold on the southern bank of the Sereth have been more
or less unsuccessful. The German troops, however, with their capture
of the village of Nanest