Romanian theater of war (First World War)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Romania joined in late August 1916 during the Russian Brusilov offensive on the part of the Entente against the Central Powers in the First World War one. The war goal, the occupation of Transylvania , could be prevented by the Central Powers, on the other hand Wallachia with the capital Bucharest was lost by the end of 1916 and the Romanians were pushed back to the border of the Moldova by the end of the year . By the summer of 1917, the Romanian army was able to reorganize in the area east of Focşani and demonstrated great resilience in the association of the Russian Army Group Shcherbachev . In December 1917 Romania was forced to an armistice after the departure of the ally Russia and in May 1918 to peace. When the defeat of the German Reich became apparent on the other fronts, Romania entered the war again in November 1918. In the Peace of Trianon Romania was finally able to secure the desired areas in Transylvania.

background

Ferdinand of Romania

In the political and military leadership circles of the warring countries during the First World War , the prevailing opinion was that the entry of smaller states could also have a decisive influence on the fighting. The Entente had therefore been trying for some time to get the Romanian kingdom on their side. The nation-state, which had become independent in 1877, found itself in an ethnic conflict with Austria-Hungary , as the areas of Transylvania , Bukovina and the Banat , which belonged to the Danube Monarchy , were predominantly Romanian settled. Romania's relationship with the Russian Empire was also not free of tension, as Bessarabia , which borders Romania and was predominantly populated by Romanians, was under Russian rule. When the World War broke out in the summer of 1914, the Romanian King Carol I had voted in the Romanian Privy Council for his country to join the war on the side of the Central Powers, but was overruled by the other members of the Privy Council. Decisive for the king was, among other things, the dynastic connection to the German emperor (the Romanian royal family came from a side line of the House of Hohenzollern ), but above all Romania's accession to the Triple Alliance, which took place in 1883, but remained vague and without consequences . In a sharp dispute with the pro-German conservatives, Prime Minister Brătianu enforced Romania's neutrality in 1914. After the death of Carol I in 1914, his nephew Ferdinand I ascended the Romanian royal throne and those in favor of entering the war on the side of the Allies finally gained the upper hand. To the war aims Romania attracting most of Transylvania, the Banat and Bukovina belonged. By August 1916 Brătianu succeeded in entering the war on the side of the Allies. In the Treaty of Bucharest with the Allies, Romania had these areas assured and declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 27, 1916. This decision was largely due to the success of the Russian Brusilov offensive , as the government in Bucharest saw it as a sign of an imminent collapse of the Austro- Hungarian army . A major political actor in the involvement of Romania was France . Above all, its commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre had campaigned for Romania to join the alliance.

The deputies of the Russian Duma took the same line . In military circles, however, the effort to win a new ally met with a divided response. The head of the headquarters , Alexeyev , vehemently opposed the regional power to enter the war. He considered the kingdom's army to be incompetent and therefore more of a burden than a support. In addition, the neutrality of the state had created a buffer between southern Russia and the troops of the Central Powers. Should these win a victory in the new theater of war, they could threaten further Russian territory.

Deployment of the Romanian army

Romanian invasion of Transylvania

The positive attitude of many military and politicians regarding entry into the war could not be maintained in view of the condition of Ferdinand I's army. In terms of numbers, the Romanian army was sufficiently strong for the attack against Transylvania, which had already been decided on August 3. The field army had 564,000 soldiers with 366 battalions , 106 squadrons and 325 batteries , but this number did not give any accurate information about their true combat value. Romania was the Entente by 23 infantry - and 3 Cavalry - divisions intensify, but the army, especially the top leadership lacked any military experience. The army had a mere 1,300 guns , of which only 700 met the requirements of the time. The army's logistics were disastrous, there were hardly any rail connections and the supply system failed at the beginning of the deployment after just a few kilometers on enemy territory. The army's equipment was also out of date. The training level of the troops, which consisted largely of illiterate people , was poor.

The geographical position of Romania also made the strategic situation worse . The Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and the mountains of Transylvania in the west offered a sufficient natural obstacle for defense, but were rather disadvantageous for an attack. Likewise, the economically richest province, Wallachia , was right on the border with the Danube Monarchy in the north and Bulgaria in the south. It was thus predestined for an advance by the Central Powers from two sides. The Danube offered the desired protection against an incursion by enemy forces from the south, but it was not adequately secured.

Only the southern border of the Dobruja was almost open to the enemy, but the forces of the widely dispersed Romanian 3rd Army remained poorly concentrated there. The Romanians remained in defensive line-up until the arrival of promised Russian reinforcements. They believed that after the appearance of the Russian forces the Bulgarians would not dare to attack, and thus left the initiative to the enemy.

For the Central Powers the balance of power on the day of the declaration of war was very unfavorable: In Transylvania there were initially only 34,000 men of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces compared to around 420,000 Romanians, the formation of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army was only just beginning. On the Danube Front and in the Dobruja, around 70,000 German-Bulgarian soldiers faced 142,000 Romanians and 40,000 Russians.

Course of the fighting

Fight in Transylvania

General Constantin Presan

The Romanian army made an advance into Hungarian Transylvania at the end of August , which the French chief of staff Joffre hoped would turn the war around . The 1st and 2nd Army under Generals Ioan Culcer and Grigore Crăiniceanu from the south and the 4th Army under General Constantin Prezan from the east advanced up to 80 kilometers into the predominantly Romanian-inhabited border province of Hungary. With their 420,000 men, they were able to put a tenfold superiority into the field against the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army under Arthur Arz von Straussenburg, which was in the process of being formed . However, this advantage was not used. The supply routes across the mountain passes and through the enemy territory were inadequate and the Romanians' poor logistics proved to be a major problem in the offensive. However, the attackers managed to capture some important border towns. The first larger city of Sibiu already showed the weaknesses of the Romanian army. Sibiu was not defended by Austro-Hungarian troops, but the Romanian army did not try to capture it because of the supply problems. In view of renewed supply problems, increasing exhaustion of the troops and a German intervention, the two commanders then stopped any further offensive action. Thus the Romanian attacking leaders waited as early as the beginning of September 1916 in the periphery of a less important Hungarian province and left the initiative to the Central Powers . In the middle of September the hesitant Romanians stood with the 4th Army 50 kilometers west of the eastern Carpathian passes, with the 2nd Army on both sides of the mountains northeast of Fogaras and with the 1st Army just south of Sibiu and west of Petroseni .

Counter-attack by the Central Powers under Erich von Falkenhayn

The inaction of the Romanian army enabled the reaction of the Central Powers to develop fully. The First Quartermaster General of the German Supreme Army Command , Erich Ludendorff , transferred the supreme command of the newly established German 9th Army , which hurried to aid the Austrians, to the recalled predecessor of Hindenburg, General of the Infantry Erich von Falkenhayn . The Austrian VI. Corps was initially reinforced by the German I. Reserve Corps . The 9th Army led its victorious counterattack in the Battle of Sibiu with the XXXIX between September 26th and 29th . Reserve Corps covered by the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (Arz) and the Schmettow Cavalry Corps on the left, and the Krafft Group on the right . Coming over the ridge, General Krafft's troops brought the necessary relief to the German 187th Division , which was in the frontal attack, on September 26th . Advancing in the rear of the enemy, the Romanians were blocked from retreating through the Red Tower Pass . The Falkenhayn Army then turned against the flank of the Romanian 2nd Army to the east, standing in front of the Austrian front. On October 5th, the already receding rearguards of the Romanians in the Geisterwald were attacked and forced to retreat from October 7th to 9th in the battle of Kronstadt in a tough house-to-house fight. On the extreme left wing of the 9th Army, the Austro-Hungarian 71st Infantry Division under Major General Goldbach had pushed the evading enemy back to the Oituz Pass , and to the south of it the Morgen group (I. Reserve Corps) was deployed against the Berecker Mountains. Between October 8th and 10th there was heavy fighting over the Törzburger Pass and Predeal . On 13 October, the Austrian heir to the throne took Archduke Charles nominally the supreme command of the army group in Transylvania, you were between Dorna Watra to the Red Tower Pass from north to south-west, the Austro-Hungarian 7th Army (Kövess), the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (Arz ) and the German 9th Army (Falkenhayn) subordinated. In mid-October 1916, the worsening supply situation and bad weather prevented the energetic continuation of the offensive.

Fight in Dobruja

Mackensens Danube crossing near Sistova
General Alexandru Averescu, Commander in Chief of the Romanian 3rd Army at the beginning of the war
Location in Dobruja at the end of September 1916

On September 1, Bulgaria declared war on Romania, and the next day Bulgarian troops crossed the border to Dobruja. At the beginning of September the Russian army command under Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Alexejew had sent support forces (Russian XLVII (47th) army corps) to the threatened Dobruja . The aid of the Western Allies consisted of senior officers only in military missions throughout the campaign .

On August 28, the German general August von Mackensen had the supreme command of the Bulgarian 3rd Army , German and Austrian units and the Ottoman VI. Corps took over existing Army Group Mackensen , whose campaign began on the night of September 2. While the General Command 52 ( Robert Kosch ) with the 217th Division ( Gallwitz-Dreyling ) and the combined cavalry division von der Goltz gathered in the Sistova area on the Danube for the main attack, the attack by the Bulgarian 3rd Army (General Stefan Toschew ) in Dobruja.

On September 6th, Bulgarian-German forces succeeded in conquering the Tutrakan fortress after five days of fighting . The Bulgarian 4th Division under Major General Kiselow threw back the Romanian 17th Division under General Teodorescu victoriously. The Romanian 9th Division and the group of General Besarabescu had to give up the Silistra fortress on September 10th . After the fighting at Bazardjik (September 5th - 7th), the Romanian 19th division fell in front of the Bulgarian 6th division between Kochmar and Karapelit and had to give up Dobrich . The Romanian Dobrogea Group had to after the Battle of Cobadin (September 17 to 19) on Topraisar withdraw simultaneously landed Russian reinforcements at the port of Constanza .

The completely surprised Romanian leadership tried to respond immediately with a counter-offensive. Meanwhile , the Russian-Romanian Dobruja Army (about 8 divisions) under General Sajontschkowski tried to start a counteroffensive against the Bulgarians, at the same time about 5 divisions of the Romanian 3rd Army were supposed to break into the Bulgarian hinterland south of the capital near Flamanda across the Danube. The Flămânda offensive (29 September - 3 October), poorly organized by General Alexandru Averescu , turned out to be a failure: although the Romanians managed to cross the Danube between Rustschuk and Tutrakan and two Romanian divisions were able to build a southern bridgehead at Orjachowo , they had to Company canceled after the bridge was interrupted by the Austro-Hungarian Danube monitors . The Bulgarians were able to quickly push in the bridgehead and remove it completely by October 5th. The Russian-Romanian forces in the Dobruja (Armata Dobrogea) were reinforced via the Black Sea ports, but were thrown back more than 100 kilometers by the Bulgarian 3rd Army by mid-October. The cities of Constanza and Cernavodă were lost and Bucharest was now threatened on its left flank.

The Russian Danube Army, under General Sakharov , which marched up on October 20, immediately tried to restore the situation. After the union with the troops of Sajontschkovskis, the army numbered only about 40,000 men, but was continuously strengthened. Sakharov complained several times to Alexeyev that he had insufficient strength to carry out his task. In the meantime, German and Austrian troops had adequately secured the gates of entry to Transylvania and were preparing their own advance towards the enemy capital from the north.

Rough overview of the advance of the 9th Army and Army Group Mackensen in 1916

Counteroffensive by the Central Powers in Wallachia

At the end of October, Falkenhayn had already commissioned the Kneussl group (Bavarian 11th and 12th divisions ) to break through the volcanic mountains to the south, and at the end of October the newly introduced General Command 54 - the Kühne group - with new units took over the lead. The opposite Romanian Corps Group Coandă of the 1st Army, which had been commanded by General Ioan Dragalina since October 11, was able to withstand enemy pressure until mid-November.

After the arrival of the 41st , 109th and 301st Divisions , the Falkenhayn Army could withdraw from the Transylvanian mountain ridge . The Kühne group on the right wing at the Szurduk Pass, in cooperation with the newly formed Schmettow Cavalry Corps (now 6th and 7th Cavalry Divisions ) achieved the breakthrough over the mountains and after the victory in the Battle of Targu Jiu (15th to November 17th) entry into the Plain of Little Wallachia . The Krafft group , now deployed on the other wing of the 9th Army, was able to exit the mountains towards Curtea de Argeş . After the Schmettow cavalry was able to occupy Craiova on November 21 , they secured a crossing over the Alt section three days later . At the end of November all units of the Central Powers were scheduled to pursue Bucharest, where the defeated Romanian forces also withdrew.

Before the German 9th Army was to advance further from the north, a mixed unit of German, Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian troops under General Field Marshal von Mackensen had to cross the Danube and proceed from there against the capital Bucharest . This strategic push was intended to initiate the operations against Bucharest and was accompanied by a diversionary attack by the 3rd Bulgarian Army under General Stefan Toshev along the coast of the Black Sea into Dobruja .

Stefan Toschew, Commander in Chief of the Bulgarian 3rd Army

On October 23, Mackensen began his central offensive and crossed the Danube in the Swishtov area with German-Bulgarian units ( General Command 52 ) . The difficult undertaking was covered by the artillery of the Austrian Danube monitors and solved under the leadership of the Austro-Hungarian pioneer troops under General Gaugl. After the erection of a bridgehead at Zimnicea, Mackensen's Army Group had free access to the opposing capital, since the Romanians were completely stressed against the two other attacks by the Central Powers .

General Constantin Prezan handed over the Northern Army to Army General Cristescu at the end of October and took over the command of the defense of the now immediately threatened capital. On November 29th, the attack of the German-Bulgarian Danube Army on Bucharest began, between December 1st and 3rd the opponents fought in the Battle of the Argesch . The last episode of the battle for Bucharest was a flank attack initiated by the head of the French military delegation, General Henri Mathias Berthelot , which for a time put the German 217th division in dire straits. In the Battle of the Marne in 1914, a similar maneuver had saved Paris. The success of the company, thwarted by the unexpected intervention of the Kühne group from the west, used up the remaining reserves of the Romanian army. The soldiers of Army Group Mackensen penetrated the Romanian capital on December 6, 1916. When the Romanian troops withdrew, they burned the oil and grain fields near Ploiesti . The German XXXIX. Reserve Corps under General Hermann von Staabs secured the oil fields that were important for the war economy, while the I. Reserve Corps under General von Morgen was able to occupy Târgovişte at the same time .

Conquest of Romania by the Central Powers

Theater of war on the Moldovan border

The remaining Romanian troops withdrew to the Moldavian border on December 28 after another defeat at Rimnicul-Sarat . In the retreat, eight of their 22 remaining divisions were lost. In view of this catastrophe, the Russian Chief of Staff Alexejew sent further troops to prevent Army Group Mackensen from advancing into southern Russia. After the Battle of Putna , the front stabilized at the beginning of January 1917 on the Eastern Carpathian- Focsani - Galatz line . The Krafft group was set up in the direction of Putna, in the center of the 9th Army was now the I. Reserve Corps with the 89th , Bavarian 12th and 76th Reserve Divisions pushed in and moving towards Odobeşti - Pățeşti , the 216th and 301st Divisions were assigned to Focsani. The Kühne group attacked with the 41st and 109th Divisions from the Mărtineşti area against the Sereth. The right wing with the Schmettow Cavalry Corps advanced north of the Buzau to the Sereth with the 6th and 7th Cavalry Divisions . The troops under General Kosch were able to occupy Braila on January 5th and reached the lower Sereth. In the north, the Kühne group succeeded in occupying Focsani and moving the front to Odobeşti on January 8th . On the southern wing of the German 9th Army, the so-called Danube Army (General Command 52) under General Kosch maintained contact with the Bulgarian 3rd Army on the opposite bank of the Danube, whose command passed to General Stefan Neresow on November 25th . To strengthen the section on the lower Sereth was also Bulgarian units and the Ottoman VI. Corps under General Mustafa Hilmi Pascha . After the start of the trench war, the Kühne group and the Schmettow corps were transferred to the western front and the 9th Army went on the defensive.

In February 1917 the winter was so cold that no major fighting took place either in the north or in the south. By spring 1917, the Romanian army was also able to reorganize under the leadership of General Averescu in the area east of Focşani . From Western Europe 150,000 rifles, 2,000 machine guns, 355 artillery pieces and 1.3 million shells were delivered by the Entente to replace the lost war goods. The French military mission under General Berthelot supervised the regrouping of the Romanian army based on the French model. Averescu's army again numbered 400,000 men and was reorganized into five corps with 15 infantry and two cavalry divisions. The Russian 4th and 6th Armies (with 32 new infantry and 8 cavalry divisions) were pushed in to provide support on both wings of the Romanian Army and a separate Moldova Army Group was set up under General Dmitri Shcherbachev .

In support of the Kerensky offensive , the Romanians attacked between Măraşti– Nămoloasa . The battle at the Oituz Pass began on July 26, 1917 with the attack against the Austro-Hungarian VIII Corps stationed there. On the left wing, the Russian 15th Division of the 4th Army (General Ragosa ) intervened helpfully in the fighting. The Romanian 3rd Infantry Division under Major General Margineanu was able to break into the positions of the 218th Division at the Gerok group . On July 30th, the Romanian 2nd Army counterattacked in the Forest Carpathians and even snatched parts of their positions at the Oituz Pass from the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army (under General Rohr von Denta since early March ) until August 10th.

Fierce fighting broke out throughout August and the beginning of September, and the Alpine Corps, which had already been relocated to the western front , was brought back to the Putna and attacked the Susita, and Muncelul was able to take it by August 28 . The German 9th Army (from June 10th under General von Eben ) tried in vain to break through the opposing front in the battle of Mărăşeşti (August 6 to September 3). The XVIII. Reserve Corps with the 217th , in the middle the 89th and 76th Reserve Divisions, on the right wing the 216th Division , behind it the 212th Division was available as intervention reserve. The attack did not get through and had to be stopped. Behind the Romanian 2nd Army (IV. And II. Corps) the entire 1st Army under General Eremia Grigorescu (VI., V. and III. Corps) was ready for defense. On the lower Sereth and on the Danube near Galatz in the Bulgarian section, it remained calm towards the Russian 6th Army (General Zurikow ) until the armistice of Focşani on December 9, 1917.

consequences

Romania's entry into the war did not turn the tide for the Entente , but rather weakened its Russian allies. Since the Romanian army was almost completely wiped out in the campaigns of 1916 and, because of the loss of territory, it could only fall back on 250,000 men of draft reserves, it was de facto eliminated from the war. However, the front had to be held in the Moldova , otherwise the enemy would invade southern Russia. A third of the Russian army had to be made available for this task . This nullified the actual numerical superiority of the Russians on the Eastern Front since 1916.

For the Central Powers, the campaign turned out to be a godsend. Not only was the Russian military weakened in its entirety, the Central Powers also made great economic gains from the occupied territories. The occupation regime, led by the Germans, was able to move large amounts of food and timber from the country into the German Empire , and it also benefited from Romanian oil fields near Ploieşti .

The commitment of the young Romanian nation-state initially ended in a military catastrophe and the occupation of the country. After the loss of Bucharest, King Ferdinand I and his government withdrew to Iași in December 1916 , and General Coandă was entrusted with coordinating the remaining Romanian army with the tsarist army.

As a result of Russia leaving the war, Romania also had to settle for a compromise and to conclude an armistice on December 9, 1917. It was forced to agree a provisional peace treaty with the Central Powers on March 5, 1918 in Buftea , in which southern Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria. This provisional peace treaty was confirmed two months later on May 7, 1918 by the Treaty of Bucharest . When the German defeat in France became apparent, Prime Minister Alexandru Marghiloman , who advocated neutrality, was forced to resign. From October 24 to November 29, 1918 Coandă was the new Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. He declared the peace treaty with the Central Powers invalid, initiated a general mobilization and the re-entry of Romania into the war on the side of the Entente. The main goal of his government was the conquest of Transylvania to establish Greater Romania. As a result of the First World War and the Hungarian-Romanian War of 1919, Romania finally gained large territorial gains, which were confirmed in the Treaty of Trianon .

photos

  • British propaganda poster for Romania's entry into the war

  • Romanian infantry during training

  • Red Tower Pass: German Alpine Corps 26. – 29. September 1916

  • Romanian troops at Mărăşeşti in 1917

  • Entry into Bucharest on December 6, 1916

  • Romanian prisoners of war in front of an Austrian 30.5 cm mortar gun

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anton Wagner: The First World War. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1981, p. 209.
  2. ^ Anton Wagner: The First World War. Vienna 1981, p. 208.
  3. ^ Anton Wagner: The First World War. Vienna 1981, pp. 211 and 212
  4. ^ Anton Wagner: The First World War - Vienna 1981, pp. 214–216.