The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1916-12-16
BUCHAREST IS TAKEN
PLoEcHTl, IMPORTANT RAILWAY
CENTER, ALSO CAPTURED BY
TEuToNIc FORCES.
5000 PRISONERS ARE TAKEN
Fall Of RoumanIan Capital Marks the
elimination Of One of the Most Bril-
iIantIy Conceived Campaigns In His
tory-kino's Army In Peril.

iIantIy Conceived Campaigns In His
tory-kino's Army In Peril.
Berlin, Dec. 8.-Bucharest, capital
OF Roumania, Las been captured, 1t
was announced officially here on
Wednesday.
Ploechti, the important railway
junction town, 80 miles northwest Of
Bucharest, also has been taken.
Field Marshal Won Mackensen's
troops, advancing VIGOROUSLY, mp
preached the railway line running
northward from Bucharest to Ploech-
Il, causing the Roumanians to evacu-
ate their positions north of Sinaia, the
war office announced.
South of Bucharest the Teutonic
troops have occupied other towns
along the River Alt. More than 600
Roumanians were captured.
The capture Of Ploechti. on the rail-
way running north from Bucharest,
cuts the main line of ret<eat for the
Roumanian armies operating In the
Bucharest region. The official state
ment does not indicate whether the
entry Of the Teutonic forces into Blu
charest and Ploechu was simultane-
Gus. The capture of Ploechti before
that Of the capital would be far more
serious for the Roumanians.
The taking Of Bucharest virtually
completes the conquest by the Teu-
Of of
the Roumanian kingdom, embracing
territory Of more than $4,000 square
miles.
The capture Of Bucharest marks the
elimination of an operation accounted
by military commentators one Of the
most soundly conceived and brilliantly
executed strategical feats Of the great
war.
From the hour when Field Marshal
Won Mackensen forced crossing of
the Danube on November "a and set
foot on Roumanian soil, effecting a
junction shortly afterward with Gen.
Won Falkenhayn's armies, driving
through Wallachia from the west,
there seemed little doubt Of the ulti-
mate fate of the Romanian capital.
Continuously outflanked on the
south by Won Mackensen's advance
and on the north by further Austro-
German irruptions through the noun
tain passes, the Roumanians had no
choice but to fall back upon the line
Of their capital, and now have been
forced tn Weld even that
The beginning Of the Teutonic cam
paign against Roumania dates back
to the Roumanian entrance into the
war on August q. Perhaps taken by
surprise by the speed with which the
Roumanians threw their troops across
the Pennsylvania Alps into Hun
gary and took possession of Kron-
stadt. Hermannstadt and wide
sweep Of Hungarian country, the Aus
tro-German military authorities were
awake to the opportunities in Dubrud-
ia on the Roumanian southeast front.
Within a few days the Bulgarians
were found to be- winning signal sue
cesses along the Danube, capturing
Turtukai on September Z and Sillstria
on September 10.
There remained then the operation
of clearing Dobrudja up to the impor-
tant railway line running into interior
Roumania over the bridge ut Tchena-
voda.
Driving southwark, Won Falkenhayn
quickly captured Craiova, cutting Off
the Roumanian forces in the OrsOva
region, In extreme western Roumania,
and by November % had virtually COM
pleted the conquest of Little Wallachia.
The Roumanian retreat eastward
was in full swing by this time, when
suddenly came the news that Won
Mackensen had effected a crossing Of
the Danube ut several points, one Of
them at Zimnitza.
From then on events moved rapidly.
Won Mackensen pressed up to the rail-
road line, thence toward Bucharest.
while the armies from the west and
north fought their way to the capital.
In entering Bucharest the armies Of
the central powers have taken their
Fourth entente capital. Early in the
war King Albert and the Belgian gov
eminent were forced out of Brussels,
and last year King Peter Of Serbia and
King Nicholas Of Montenegro were sue
cesslvely compelled to give up their
capitals to the Teutonic invaders.
Bucharest before the present war
relegated old-fashiened Notifications
to the scrap heap, was considered OK
tremely well defended by Is fortifica-
tons of the frs class and many re-
doubts and batteries. Aside from Paris
II was accounted probably the largest
military camp In the world, capable
of accommodating 100000 men. The
city is gay capital In peace times,
with a population Of nearly 100000.