Postcard of a September 4, 1916 German air raid on Constanta, Romania's principal port on the Black Sea. Romania had entered the war a week before, invading Transylvania in Austria-Hungary on August 27.
Deutscher Fleigeranfriff auf Constanza am 4. September 1916.Аеропланно нападние на Ккюстенджа 4. Септември 1916.German air raid on Constanza on 4 September 1916.
"Mackensen's object, which was to occupy Dubrudja and thus block the Russians from their shortest road to Constantinople, was accomplished in a comparatively short time. One smashing blow after another was delivered against the allied Russians and Rumanians. The bridgehead at Tutrakan on the Danube was attacked on September 4th, and captured on the 6th, at a cost to the enemy of 22,000 men. On the day that Tutrakan fell, a Rumanian division hurrying to the rescue was routed at Sarsinlar by the west wing of Mackensen's army, which subsequently took 30,000 prisoners and much war material."
Excerpt from a German statement on the 1916 war in Romania by General Wollman. German General August von Mackensen commanded the Central Powers Danube Army of German, Bulgarian, and Turkish units that struck in Dubrudja. Shaped by the Danube River to the west and north, and the Black Sea to the east, Romania's region of Dubrudja had no natural protection to the south and Bulgaria. Tutrakan was a Danube fortress that Romania had seized from Bulgaria in 1913 in the Second Balkan War. Russia had designs on Constantinople. Although most of Romania including the region of Walachia with the capital of Bucharest fell in 1916, part of the Romanian army continued to fight on in Moldavia in 1917,forming a line with the Russians.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 350–351, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1916-09-04, 1916, Mackensen, von Mackensen, Dubrudja, Romania, Danube, Moldavia, War in Romania, Rumania
