On Monday, Bucharest fell to German forces, Romanian forces are retreating in utter confusion. The chief focus of the Teutonic advance seemed however not to have been Bucharest, but Ploechti, an important railway junction town 36 miles northwest of Bucharest. The goal of the Germans was to seize this town before the Romanian armies could affect a retreat over the railway line running through it from Bucharest.

This encircling movement spelled the greatest apparent threat to King Ferdinand’s forces as the railroad through Ploechti afforded the only railway avenue of escape for the Romanian army towards the northeast, where their armies and the Russians so far have held Moldavia fairly safe from the Germans.

The main point of interest in what remains of the campaign is the fate of the Romanian armies. Apparently there has been no wholesale bagging of prisoners as yet, at least, by Field Marshal von Mackensen’s troops, although Berlin reports the capture of more than 9,000 men.

Petrograd’s statement announcing the evacuation of Bucharest and the retirement of the Romanians who were holding off the German Danube army South of the capital probably indicates that an attempt was made to move virtually the entire Romanian army Northeast towards Moldavia, before the entrance of the German troops into the capital.

The capture of Ploechti in the center of the Romanian oil region, was affected on Tuesday. With the fall of Ploechti there appears no probability of saving the oil fields, which is considered the worst feature of the situation as Germany is in desperate need of oil if she is to continue her war effort.

Military experts believe that the Romanians have decided to abandon all of Wallachia, the main portion of the Romanian Kingdom, and retire to Moldavia, their northeastern province, where their front would be materially shortened and where they would be in close touch with the Russians. According to the Germans, over 100,000 Romanians soldiers have been captured by the forces of the Central Powers since the beginning of the war.