With the approach of spring in 1916, new activities began on the Eastern front, and the Russians threatened a vigorous attack on the German lines in the north "after the thaw." By the middle of the summer the Russians expected, according to semi-official reports, to have twelve million men armed, drilled, and equipped for battle.
On April 1 the Berlin government declared that in the Russian offensive on the Eastern front, against Field Marshal von Hindenburg, which lasted from March 18 to March 30, the losses to the Russians were 140,000 out of the 500,000 men engaged. This campaign was carried on mostly in the frozen terrain of the Dvinsk marshes, and along the Dvina River, and the German losses were also heavy, although the Russian attacks were as a rule repulsed.
FALL OF TREBIZOND.
In Asia Minor, however, Russian successes of the winter were crowned in the early spring by the fall of the Baltic seaport of Trebizond, which was occupied on April 18. This city, the most important Turkish port on the Black Sea, was captured by the Russian army advancing from Erzerum. Aided by the Russian Black Sea fleet, the invaders pushed past the last series of natural obstacles along the Anatolian coast when, on Sunday, April 16, they occupied a strongly fortified Turkish position on the left bank of the Kara Dere River, twelve miles outside the fortified town. The official Russian report said:
"Our valiant troops, after a sanguinary battle on the Kara Dere River, pressed the Turks without respite, and surmounted incredible obstacles, everywhere breaking the fierce resistance of the enemy. The well-combined action of the fleet permitted the execution of most hazardous landing operations, and lent the support of its artillery to the troops operating in the coastal region.
"Credit for this fresh victory also is partly due the assistance given our Caucasian army by the troops operating in other directions in Asia Minor. By their desperate fighting and heroic exploits, they did everything in their power to facilitate the task of the detachments on the coast."
GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES.
The long-continued controversy between the United States and Germany over the methods and results of German submarine warfare came to a climax with the torpedoing of the British channel steamer Sussex, on March 24, 1916, in pursuance of the new German policy of attacking merchant vessels without warning. There was no pretense that the Sussex was an "armed merchantman," and no warning was given the passengers and crew, the former including a number of Americans on their way from Folkestone to the French port of Dieppe. The ship, though badly damaged, made port with assistance, but the loss of life from the explosion and drowning amounted to fifty, and several American passengers were injured. Germany disclaimed responsibility for the disaster, but the weight of evidence pointed to a German submarine as the cause, and in view of the repeated violations of German promises to the United States to give due warning to passenger vessels and insure safety to their occupants, President Wilson and his advisers, in April, seriously considered the advisability of breaking off diplomatic relations with the German Empire, by way of a protest in the name of humanity. On April 18 the President decided to lay the whole matter before Congress.
The record of German submarine attacks involving death or injury to American citizens up to this time included the sinking or damaging of the following vessels: British steamer Falaba, 160 lives lost, including one American; American steamer Gulflight, three Americans lost; British steamship Lusitania, 1,134 lives lost, including 115 Americans; American steamer Leelanaw, sunk; liner Arabic sunk, two Americans killed; liner Hesperian sunk mysteriously, three days after Germany had promised to sink no more liners; Italian liner Ancona sunk (by Austrian submarine), with loss of American lives; Japanese liner Yanaka Maru sunk in Mediterranean; British liner Persia sunk, United States Consul McNeely killed; steamer Sussex attacked, several Americans seriously injured; British steamers Manchester Engineer, Eagle Point and Berwyn Dale attacked, endangering American members of crews.
A FINAL NOTE TO GERMANY.