By a sudden drive through the Russian front north of the Pinsk marshes on November 10, the Germans succeeded in cutting the Russian first line, taking nearly 4,000 prisoners and twenty-seven machine guns.  The Russian lines were believed to have been weakened by the transfer of troops to Roumanian positions in the south.  Following this there was terrific fighting in the Narayuvka, where the Russian trenches were carried by the Germans after they had been practically destroyed by high explosives; but the ground lost, located near Slaventin, was gallantly regained by the Russian troops on November 15.

The Russian dreadnought Imperatritsa Maria was sunk by a mine near Sulina, at the mouth of the Danube, November 11.  It was launched in and had a displacement of 22,500 tons.  On November 18 Russian troops near Sarny, southeast of Pinsk, brought down a Zeppelin airship, capturing the crew of sixteen and 600 pounds of bombs.

German casualties from the beginning of the war, as compiled in London from German official lists, were set November 10 at 3,755,693.  Of this total 910,234 were killed.  The total German casualties for the month of October, 1916, reached 199,675 officers and men, of whom 34,231 were killed.

GREAT CAMPAIGNS IN THE BALKANS.

For some time after Roumania entered the war her fighting forces were divided between two campaigns—­in the Dobrudja and in Transylvania, the Austrian territory invaded by Roumania as soon as she declared war.  On September 15 the Roumanians began a retreat in the Dobrudja, before advancing forces of Germans and Bulgarains led by General von Macksensen.  The Russo-Roumanian center was driven back thirty miles, while the German and Bulgarian troops occupied several of the Roumanian Black Sea ports.

Then came a great six-day battle in the Dobrudja, with fighting along a forty-five mile line from ten miles south of Constanza to Cernavoda, on the Danube, and in this battle the Russo-Roumanians were successful, compelling the Teutonic forces to retreat southward toward the border.  For a while Von Mackesen was on the defensive, but in a counter-attack on September 23 he gained a marked victory over the Roumanians.  Gradually the latter were forced to retire, and although they made a desperate resistance to the forces under Von Mackensen the latter reached the coast by October 21, advancing on Constanza, Roumania’s chief port on the Black Sea, which was captured October 23.  Cernavoda fell on the 25th.

Meanwhile in Transylvania events of a similar character had been happening.  At first successful in their invasion of Austrian territory, the Roumanians were unable to hold their advantage, and while the tide of battle was for several weeks in doubt, the German and Austrian troops under General von Falkenhayn at length drove the invaders back across the mountains.  By October 8 a Teutonic invasion of Roumania from the northwest was imminent, and two days later the Roumanians were pursued through the passes by Austrian troops.  By the 17th Teuton forces were five miles inside the frontier.