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WarChron - Treaty of Bucharest - Romania Enters the War |
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The Year 1916
The Tsar was informed by Aleksandr Volzhin, Procurator of the Holy Synod, that his frail health forced him to offer his resignation. On the 20th he was replaced by Rasputin's friend, N.P. Raev. The people saw these moves as only showing the moral rot within the Church.
On 15 August, General Gurko returned to head the Russian 5th Army from his temporary command of the Northern Front. General A.N. Kuropatkin took over command of the Northern Front from General P.A. Pleve, who had been removed on the 4th.
In the Baltic Sea, German seaplanes attacked the Russian naval air station at Papengolm on Oesel Island. Despite heavy anti-aircraft fire and a subsequent air battle all managed to return safely. In the Gulf of Riga, four Russian flying boats carried out a night attack on the German naval air station at Lake Angern, causing light damage.
In mid-August, in the Black Sea, four Russian battleships of the 2nd Brigade were sent from the eastern Anatolian coast for operations off the Romanian and Bulgarian coast. German submarines UB.42 and UB.45 arrived for operations in the Black Sea.
On 16 August, on the Northern Front, a German airship carried out a bombing raid on Russian positions near Kemmern, west of Riga.
On the Southwest Front in Galicia, Shcherbachev's Russians opened strong attacks west of the Sereth River. Their offensive lasted until the 20th.
On 17 August, Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy signed the Treaty of Bucharest with Romanian Prime Minister Ion Bratianu. The treaty committed Romania to declare war on Austria-Hungary. In return, Romania was told that she would receive massive military aid, and benefit by the eventual expansion of her territories in Transylvania and Bukowina.
The Allied plan was to have Romania's attack on Austria-Hungary timed to coincide with an Allied attack on the Macedonian Front, while Russia was to send two Infantry and one Cavalry Division to support the Romanians against the Bulgarians on the Dobrudja Front.
On 18 August, in Germany, there were growing numbers of reports of war weariness and apprehension, with increasing numbers of strikes in northern German cities.
On 19 August, on the Romanian Front, Romanian mobilization was completed. General Ioan Culcer's 1st Army, with five infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade, some 140,000 troops, held a front line from Oltenia and the mountain frontier up to the sources of the Argesh River.
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General Averescu's 2nd Army, with four divisions and one cavalry brigade, about 120,000 men, held the front from the Argesh to the Putna Valley. General Constantin Prezan's 4th "Northern" Army with three infantry and one cavalry division, a total of 108,000 troops, covered the eastern Carpathians to the Oituz River. General Mihail Aslen's 3rd Army, with six infantry and one cavalry division, about 142,000 troops, covered the Danube from the Iron Gate to Turtucaia, and then the boundary of the Dobrudja up to Balchik.
There was a strategic Romanian reserve of two divisions, some 50,000 men, to protect Bucharest on the north and south. Romanian aviation had four squadrons, with a total of 28 antiquated aircraft
In Central Asia, there was an uprising by Kirghiz tribesmen at Pishpek. Russian General Kuropatkin's troops carried out a savage repression that lasted several months.
On 20 August, on the Southwest Front, the Russian 9th Army was making little progress in their attempt to force the Carpathian Passes from Delatyn to Kimpolung.
In Upper Silesia, Hindenburg and Ludendorff arrived at Pless for talks with the Kaiser. The conference covered the situations on all battle fronts. German High Command HQ was moved to Pless to be closer to the Austro-Hungarian HQ at Teschen in Austrian Silesia.
On 21 August, in North Russia, British submarines C.32, C.35, C.26, and C.27 arrived at Arkhangelsk on the Barents Sea. They were hoisted onto river barges to be towed via Russian rivers and lakes to the harbor at Petrograd, for service in the Baltic Sea.
In the Baltic Sea, Russian destroyer Dobrovolets was lost in a minefield in the Gulf of Riga.
On the Northern Front, the Russian 12th Army demonstrated west of Riga.
On 22 August, on the Caucasian Front, the Russians made advances west of Lake Van.
In Germany, for the first time meat rationing cards were issued to the people.
On 23 August, the Tsar decided to remove General Bezobrasov as commander of the Guard Army, which had recently suffered a disastrous defeat northwest of Sokal.
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At Petrograd, American Ambassador Francis and Russian Foreign Minister Shturmer held a meeting, during which Francis received assurances that Russia still supported the Open Door policy towards China, and that the Russo-Japanese treaty did not impair American interests. They also discussed the objective of a new commercial treaty and the establishment of a direct telegraphic cable between the U.S. and Russia.
In North Persia, the Russians defeated the Turks at Rayal.
On 24 August, Russia gave Romania notice that 100,000 Russian troops would immediately enter her territory.
On the Caucasian Front, Russian forces recaptured Mush and Bitlis. Turkish troops retreated towards Mosul.
On 25 August, in the Black Sea, Russian seaplane carriers Almaz, Aleksandr I and Nikolai I, carrying nineteen flying boats, and screened by seven destroyers and the battle cruiser Imperatritsa Ekaterina II, carried out an air attack on German submarine bases at Varna. German seaplanes rose to bomb the seaplane carriers, but caused no damage, while the destroyer Pospeshnyi was hit and damaged.
On 26 August, on the Southwest Front, the Russian advance moved closer to Halicz.
On 27 August, von Hindenburg controlled the Eastern Front from Riga in the north and south to the Tarnopol – Lemberg railway. Austro-Hungarian Archduke Charles controlled the armies south of that line to the Romanian frontier.
The Tsar ordered General V.I. Romeiko-Gurko (known as Gurko), chief of the Russian 5th Army, to replace General V.M. Bezobrazov as commander of Guard Army. Gurko renamed the Guard Army as the "Special Army". On the 30th, Bezobrazov met with the Tsar at Stavka, then left for a Caucasian spa, and was later sent for duty at Stavka.
On the Southwest Front, the Russian 9th Army succeeded in breaking through enemy lines near Stanislau, taking 8,000 prisoners.
Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary and Germany. German army airship LZ.101, based at Temesvar, bombed military installations at Bucharest.
On the Romanian Front, Romanians prepared for an attack on Austria-Hungary. General Arz von Straussenberg organized the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army at Cluj (Kolozsvar) in Transylvania. The German 9th Army was concentrated east of Arad. They combined to confront the Romanian 1st Army in northwest Romania.
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© WARCHRON 2007
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