The Morgan County press. (Wartburg, Tenn.) 1916-1926, 1916-12-14
BUCHAREST IS TAKEN
PLoEcHTI, IMPORTANT RAILWAY
CENTER, ALSO CAPTURED BY
TEUToNlc FORCES.
5000 PRISONERS ARE TAKEN
Fall of Roumanian Capital Marks the
elimination of One of the Most Bril-
IiantIy Conceived Campaigns In His
tory-king's Army In Peril.

Iiantly Conceived Campaigns IN IT'S
tory-kine's Army in Peril.
Berlin, Dec. 8-Bucharest, capitai
of Roumania, has been captured, IL
was announced officially here on
Wednesday.
Ploechti, the important railway
junction town, SO miles northwest OF
Bucharest, also has been taken.
Field Marshal Won Mackensens
troops, advancing VIGOROUSLY, ap-
preached the railway line running
northward from Bucharest to Ploech-
ii, causing the Roumanians to evacu-
ate their positions north OF Slnala' the
war office announced.
South of Bucharest the Teutonlc
troops have occupied other towns
along the River Alt. More than o,ooo
Roumanians were captured.
The capture of Ploechti, on the rail-
way running north from Bucharest
cuts the main line of retreat for the
Roumanian armies operating in the
Bucharest region. The official state
ment does not indicate whether the
entry of the Teutonic forces into bu-
charest and Ploechti was simultane-
GUS. The capture of Ploechu pe1ore
that of the capital would be far more
serious for the Roumanians.
The taking of Bucharest virtually
completes the conquest by the leu
tonic forces of the southern section OF
the Roumanian kingdom, embracing
territory of more than $4,000 square
miles.
The capture of Bucharest marks the
elimination of an operation accounleu
by military commentators one OF the
most soundly conceived and brllnantiy
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, effectlng
junction shortly afterward with Gen.
Won Falkenhayn's armies, driving
through Wallachia from the West'
there seemed little doubt of the ultl-
mate fate of the Romanian capital.
Continuously outtianked 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 to yield even that.
The beginning OF the Teutonic cam
paign against Roumania dates PACK
to the Roumanian entrance into the
war on August 27. 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 hron-
stadt, Hermannstadt and a wide
sweep Of Hungarian country, the Aus
tro-German military authorities were
awake to the opportunities In DuDrud-
ia on the Roumanian southeast front.
Within few days the Bulgarians
were found to be winning signal sue
cesses along the Danube, capturing
Turtukai on September and Silistria
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 at Tchena-
voda.
Driving southwark, Won Falkenhayn
quickly captured Craieva, 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 crossing OF
the Danube at 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
cessively compelled to give up their
capitals to the Teutonic invaders.
Bucharest before the present war
relegated old-fashioned Notifications
to the scrap heap. was considered ex-
tremeIy well defended by IS fortiflca-
lions of the frs class and many re-
doubts and batteries. Aside from Paris
IT was accounted probably the largest
--srs.---- ,av,r In fba World ranahla