Germans take Focșani

On 8 January 1917 troops of the German 9th Army of General Erich von Falkenhayn entered Focșani, a town on the border of Wallachia and Moldavia (PL), at the mouth of the narrowest passage between the Carpathians and the lower Siret. The Russians had abandoned the town the previous night, after two days of fighting for the fortifications on the river Milcov. This is how the course of events is presented by the Austrian official history (“Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg”) and the British historian of the war John Buchan. The British chronology of the war gives the capture of Focșani under 3 January, but on that day the German I Reserve Corps of General Curt von Morgen, as the Romanian historian Constantin Kirițescu writes, had only just come up before the town’s bridgehead. Kirițescu, in turn, states that Morgen entered Focșani as early as 7 January. In Romania, which reckoned time by the Julian calendar, 8 January was 26 December 1916.

The last stage of the pursuit

After the fall of Bucharest the armies of the Central Powers pursued the Romanians and Russians to the north-east. On 27 December the 9th Army took Râmnicu Sărat after a battle lasting several days. Falkenhayn then asked the German Supreme Army Command how much further he was to go. From Pless he was told that he should aim to take Focșani but not cross the Siret. On 31 December the Supreme Army Command issued guidelines for ending operations in Romania: the 9th Army was to press on towards Focșani, and the Danube Army was to reach the Siret and settle in there for the winter. It was also announced that a considerable part of the troops would be withdrawn from Romania.

The Russo-Romanian command no longer accepted battle on the Râmnic. On the night of 31 December to 1 January the troops moved further north. The Romanian group of General Arthur Văitoianu from the 2nd Army, after 36 hours of marching in a blizzard, took up positions on the northern bank of the river Milcov. According to Kirițescu its five divisions then numbered just over 33,000 soldiers. The defence of the bridgeheads at Focșani, at Nănești and at Brăila fell to the Russians, while in the mountains, in the Soveja basin, the Russian 12th Cavalry Division of General Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, later marshal and president of Finland, fought the Germans.

The battle on the Milcov

Focșani had long been part of the fortified Focșani–Nămoloasa–Galați line, which Romania had built at the end of the 19th century in case of war with Russia, facing north. Now the attack was coming from the opposite direction, and the guns of the forts had been removed before the war for the field artillery. Since October, however, the Russians had managed to build new positions in front of the town. Morgen’s corps came up before them on 3 January and, according to the Austrian official history, in view of the very strong fortifications, set the attack for 6 January. The key to them was Măgura Odobeștilor, a wooded massif 1,001 metres high dominating the whole area. On 6 January, after heavy fighting, it was taken by the German Alpine Corps of General Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen’s group. According to Kirițescu, the summit was defended by a battalion of the Romanian 4th Infantry Regiment, which fought hand to hand for an hour and a half until its wounded commander, Major Bălan, was taken prisoner. On the same day the Russians attacked on a 25-kilometre front at Nămoloasa (PL), east of Focșani. According to the Austrian official history, they briefly took several batteries from the Germans but were then halted.

On 7 January Morgen’s divisions broke through the position on the Milcov and the second line behind it, and in the evening cut the road from Focșani to Găgești. Alongside them the Austro-Hungarian division of General Goiginger took Odobești by storm. Threatened with encirclement, the defenders abandoned Focșani during the night and withdrew behind the river Putna.

The front on the Siret

By 8 January the troops of the Central Powers already stood on the Putna and the Siret from the foot of the mountains to the area of Nănești. The Russians held this bridgehead until the end of January. Beyond the rivers the Romanian 2nd Army and the Russian 4th and 6th Armies occupied positions prepared earlier, which, as the Austrian official history puts it, were the last barrier covering Moldavia. Falkenhayn considered the capture of these positions impossible and on 10 January ordered a switch to static defence. In the middle of the month severe frosts and gales from the east set in, making further fighting impossible. Buchan regarded 15 January as the end of the Romanian retreat.

Romania emerged from the campaign, which had begun in August 1916, reduced to Moldavia, with its government in Iași. The front between the Carpathians and the mouth of the Siret was largely taken over by the Russians. The line on the Putna and the Siret survived almost unchanged until the summer of 1917, when at Mărășești, about 20 kilometres north of Focșani, the Romanians halted another offensive by Field Marshal August von Mackensen. It was at Focșani, in December 1917, that Romania signed an armistice with the Central Powers.