 Around Christmas, the battalion was sent to the front in Austrian Bukovina, remaining there until March 1918.In May, the troops were dispatched to the turbulent province of Bessarabia, occupying a stretch along the Dniester river, in the Rezina-Rîbnița area.In the summer of 1918, Mihail was called to Botoșani, where he was placed in command of a students' battalion from the local officers' school.