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On March 23, 1917, Russian reconnoitering detachments, advancing after artillery preparation near Smorgon and Baranovitchy and on the Stokhod, were driven away by the Germans; however, severe fire by artillery and mine throwers preceded attacks, in which Austro-German troops south of the Trotus Valley in the Carpathians near the Rumanian frontier took by storm and in hand-to-hand fighting Russian positions on the frontier ridge between the Sueta and Csobonyos valleys and brought in 500 prisoners.
On the 14th Rumanian troops replaced the Russians in front of Okna in the Trotus valley and counterattacked with vigour. But the decisive battle was fought farther south, where Mackensen, advancing from Focsani, was seeking to cross the Sereth in the direction of Marasesti and Tecuciu. It was the most heroic of Rumania's struggles.
Ocna is an important railroad station and a point of support for the Russian defense in the upper Trotus Valley, while Bogdaneshti bars the outlet to the great valley of the Trotus and Oituz. All the determined attempts made by the Russians and Rumanians to extend the narrow limits of their hold on the southern bank of the Sereth have been more or less unsuccessful.
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