Romania re-enters the war

On 10 November 1918, the day before the end of the war in the west, Romania re-entered it on the side of the Entente. That same day the first French units crossed the Danube from Bulgaria to the Romanian bank. Half a year earlier Alexandru Marghiloman’s government had signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers, but King Ferdinand I had never ratified it. Romania still used the Julian calendar at the time, so in Romanian documents the events of that day are dated 28 October.

The Army of the Danube

After the armistice with Bulgaria, the commander-in-chief of the Allied armies in the East, General Louis Franchet d’Espèrey, was preparing a major operation in Romania. Three or four divisions under General d’Anselme were formed into the French Army of the Danube, which was placed at the disposal of General Henri Berthelot. In 1916–1918 Berthelot had headed the French military mission in Romania and was very popular there. According to Cyril Falls’s British official history, the plan was ambitious: the army was to cross the Danube between Ruse and Nikopol, drive back the German garrison occupying Wallachia, spark a rising in Romania, and then, together with the rebuilt Romanian army, push on westwards as far as Bohemia. The concentration was not to be completed until the second half of November.

Events moved faster. By 10 November two French regiments stood on the Danube at Ruse, with two battalions each at Svishtov and Nikopol, all with artillery. According to Falls, early in the morning two French battalions crossed the river at Ruse, taking the enemy by surprise, and seized a bridgehead on the Romanian bank near Giurgiu. On 11 November the units at Svishtov and Nikopol crossed as well. Resistance was slight or non-existent. Between 8 and 12 November the British 79th Brigade of the 26th Division, which was to become part of the Army of the Danube, also arrived at Ruse. Berthelot issued an appeal to the Romanians calling on the peasants to rise and take up arms.

The King’s proclamation

In Iași, the country’s temporary capital, the government of General Constantin Coandă, appointed a few days earlier in place of Marghiloman’s cabinet, issued a mobilisation decree. The King issued a proclamation to the nation: “At the moment when the Allies are crossing the Danube, we cannot fail to stand at their side to drive out the enemy who for two years has trampled and plundered the land of our fathers.” He addressed a second proclamation to the army. General Constantin Prezan again became chief of the General Staff. According to the press of the time, the government also sent Field Marshal August von Mackensen, commanding the occupation forces, an ultimatum demanding that he leave the country. German officers and soldiers were arrested in Iași.

Not everyone believed this mobilisation was worth much. The former Prime Minister Marghiloman noted in his diary that he saw no enthusiasm in the streets, and that only a few age classes and junior officers had been called up. The army, demobilised under the peace treaty, lacked uniforms and greatcoats. He regarded the whole affair as a political demonstration demanded by the Entente. In occupied Bucharest the German withdrawal was chaotic. According to an account Marghiloman recorded a few weeks later, after the Romanian ultimatum there were clashes, shooting and looting there in which 21 people were killed.

The day before the armistice

The next day Germany signed the Armistice of Compiègne and fighting stopped on all fronts. Mackensen’s army, some ten divisions on paper, was already withdrawing through Transylvania and Hungary. There was practically no fighting with the Romanians. Returning to the war nevertheless had enormous political significance for Romania. The armistice with Germany finally annulled the Treaty of Bucharest, and Romania could demand to be treated at the peace conference as an ally and not as a country that had concluded a separate peace with the enemy. The great powers argued with it over this for a long time. In those same days Romanian troops were entering Bukovina, and in the following weeks Romanian aspirations extended to Transylvania and the Banat as well.