Germans cross the Romanian border

The British chronology of the war states that on 14 October 1916 German troops crossed the border between Romania and Transylvania. That day the Austro-Hungarian 71st Division, fighting as part of General Erich von Falkenhayn’s German 9th Army, crossed the border at the Oituz Pass, and the Austrian official history states that by 14 October the Central Powers had driven the Romanians out of almost the whole of Transylvania. Only narrow strips of land near Orsova on the Danube and at two passes in the Eastern Carpathians remained in Romanian hands. The first units of the 9th Army had entered Romanian territory a few days earlier. In Romania, which reckoned time by the Julian calendar, the date was 1 October.

Pursuit through the passes

After taking Brașov on 9 October Falkenhayn decided to pursue the Romanian 2nd Army through all the passes south of the Burzenland and to cross the mountains on the heels of the retreating enemy, towards Bucharest. The first to do so was Colonel Paul Rath’s Austro-Hungarian 8th Mountain Brigade, just transferred from the Isonzo. On 10 October it crossed the frontier ridge west of the Piatra Craiului massif and descended into the upper valley of the Dâmbovița. The German 76th Reserve Division, advancing along the road from Bran (PL), was held up on 11 October in front of Romanian fortifications on the border. Only on 12 October, when Rath’s brigade, having crossed forest-covered mountains, appeared on the flank and rear of the Romanian 22nd Division, did the Romanians give up the summit of the pass. On 13 October General Curt von Morgen’s corps set off in pursuit, and in the evening Rath’s brigade fought its way into the village of Rucăr. The Romanian 22nd Division, however, withdrew in time and took up a new position further south.

At the other passes things went harder. On the road and railway over the Predeal Pass the Hungarian 51st Honvéd Division and part of the German 187th Division climbed towards strongly fortified Romanian positions. By 13 October only one of the passes east of Predeal had been taken. The German 89th Division reached the border in the Buzău basin and also ran into well-built and strongly held entrenchments. Furthest east, General Anton Goldbach’s 71st Division made a forced march through the land of the Székelys and on 11 October reached the area of Târgu Secuiesc. On 12 October it took the summit of the Oituz Pass, defended by the Romanian 2nd Cavalry Division, on 13 October it approached the village of Poiana Sărată, and on 14 October, fighting an ever stronger enemy, it crossed the border.

In the north the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army followed General Constantin Prezan’s retreating Romanian Northern Army. According to Michael Barrett, Austro-Hungarian patrols crossed the Romanian border near the village of Palanca in the area of the Ghimeș Pass as early as 13 October. By 14 October the Austro-Hungarian divisions had reached the border almost without fighting, but there they ran into strong Romanian rearguards, and at the Békás and Tölgyes passes and further north Romanian resistance halted their advance.

Resistance on the border

The Romanians occupied fortifications they had prepared on the border before the war. The new commander of the 2nd Army, General Alexandru Averescu, ordered his troops to defend themselves not at the mouths of the passes, where German heavy artillery would destroy them, but deep inside the mountain valleys. The Romanian command brought divisions from the Danube and the Dobruja to the threatened sectors. To the Oituz Pass, through which the Central Powers wanted to break through towards Târgu Ocna and the valley of the Siret in order to cut the railways and roads running through Moldavia (PL) by which Russian reinforcements were arriving, the Romanians sent, among others, General Eremia Grigorescu’s 15th Division. Its resistance became a legend in Romania, and according to Romanian sources by 26 October the division had pushed the attackers back across the border along its whole sector.

The Austrian official history admits that in the face of this fierce resistance Falkenhayn had to accept that his plan of crossing the mountains south of Brașov on the heels of the retreating enemy would not succeed. The fighting for the passes went on for the rest of October. Predeal fell only on 23 October, but further down the Prahova valley the Romanians held their front. Only in November did Falkenhayn shift his main thrust westwards, break through the front in the Jiu valley and emerge onto the plain of Wallachia.