Romanian front of the First World War. Romanian army on the fronts of the First World War

In 1914, the Russian representatives in Romania noted that the attitude towards them had changed. Previously unfriendly, it has become emphatically benevolent. Previously, Bucharest was guided by Austria-Hungary and Germany - since 1883 there was a union treaty with them. However, the Romanians began to declare that they did not consider themselves bound by him. In August, the war began - Berlin and Vienna demanded to act on their side, but Bucharest refused.

In Bucharest, by this time they decided that it was better to be in the anti-Austrian coalition. Victory as part of this coalition promised participation in the division of Austria-Hungary. Romania hoped to grab, among other things, Transylvania, where several million Romanians lived. This meant not only the national task of reuniting the Romanians. Transylvania was richer than Romania itself, there was something to put a paw on. In addition, the Romanians really wanted to appropriate the property of the German shareholders in their country.

The outbreak of a big war caused an ambivalent attitude in Bucharest - both fears and hopes. War offered a chance to gain territorial gains by joining the side that would win. But who will win? The Romanian elite was very afraid of miscalculating - to speak on the side who would lose. Bucharest is at a crossroads. If the Entente had won, then by joining it, it would have been possible to get Transylvania. But what if the Central Powers had won? Then it was possible to join them and take Bessarabia. But it was necessary to join someone.

Romanians for the most part wanted the Entente to be the winning side. The idea of speaking on the side of the Entente gathered large demonstrations, had a lot of activists and administrative support. There were also supporters of acting on the side of the Central Powers, but they were few and not influential. As an example, the Romanian king (by the name of Hohenzollern) is cited - who did not even influence his own anti-antantophile wife.

In the autumn of 1914, news came of the Entente's victories in the Battles of Marne and Galicia. The defeated Austro-Hungarian army retreated. Russian troops occupied Bukovina. This additionally aroused Bucharest, because he himself was counting on Bukovina, the southern part of which is predominantly populated by Romanians. Romanian newspapers sang: “Let's cross the Carpathians! The hour has struck! Let's free the brothers!

The Romanians began negotiations on their entry into the war on the side of the Entente. They sought to sell their performance at a higher price and bargained with gypsy passion. The Romanians wanted to get the whole of Bukovina, as well as Transylvania, even Hungary to the bend of the Tisza, the Serbian part of the Banat, and that's not all. And all this is not for entering the war on the side of the Entente, but for neutrality, simply for not opposing the Entente. However, the Entente countries responded irritably: Romania can only hope for territorial gains by going to war against the Central Powers.

Negotiations dragged on. Even receiving concession after concession, the Romanians did not go to specific agreements. At the same time, they continued to maintain contacts with the Austro-Germans. The Romanian representatives willingly listened to the promises - what would they get for speaking on the Austro-German side. Romania has provided its territory for the transit of military cargo to Turkey.

However, there were also objective reasons that restrained Bucharest from immediately coming out for the Entente, but directed it onto the path of double-dealing, bargaining and profiteering. Bulgaria was one of the reasons. In 1913, the Romanians stabbed the Bulgarians in the back, taking advantage of the fact that the Bulgarian army was pinned down by its opponents in the 2nd Balkan War. As a result of the attack, part of the Bulgarian territory was captured - southern Dobruja. After that, the Romanians were afraid that the Bulgarians would do the same to them - they would stab them in the back when the Romanians concentrated against Austria-Hungary.

The Romanians in the negotiations insistently demanded to secure their border with the Bulgarians. Specifically, this meant: if the Bulgarians oppose the Romanians, then Russia should stand up for the Romanians against Bulgaria. Of course, no one in Russia smiled at fighting for the Romanian conquests.

Another problem for Romania was the poor equipment of its army. Own military industry in the country was rudimentary. Plus, there is corruption - the budget allocated for the army did not reach it all.

Another "plug" for the Romanians was the problem of the Black Sea straits. Romanian trade mainly went by sea - through the straits. If Russia asserted itself in the straits, then the Romanian import and export was under Russian control. Therefore, the prospect of Russia's assertion in the straits alarmed Bucharest no less than London. But in the spring of 1915, Anglo-French operations began in the straits, and Bucharest calmed down a bit.

1914 passed into 1915. Negotiations continued. Meanwhile, the scales fluctuated. The Serbs pushed back the Austro-Hungarians with a counterattack. Information came from Italy that this "Latin sister of the Romanians" was also inclined to oppose Austria-Hungary. Romanian supporters of entry into the war for the Entente launched a noisy campaign. But the ruling group, headed by Prime Minister I. Brătianu, decided to wait a little longer. And on May 2, 1915, the Austro-German offensive began on the Eastern Front. The Russian army was forced to retreat. The Allied operation in the Dardanelles ended in defeat. Bulgaria entered the war on the Austro-German side; Serbia was destroyed. The Romanian pro-Enthusiast enthusiasts fell silent.

Bucharest decided to remain neutral for the time being. Instead of going through the Carpathians, the Romanians took up trade. The war pushed up the prices of grain and livestock, which, along with oil, were the main Romanian exports. The Austro-Germans bought everything. Romania has become a Denmark-type country - a neutral, profiting from trade with desperately needy warring nations. However, not quite Denmark profited from Danish deliveries to Germany. Specifically, a handful of so-called goulash barons enriched themselves, but the people from a foreign war received only difficulties. After all, food has jumped in price not only for German importers, but also within the country. In Romania, these contrasts were even stronger; only a handful of oligarchs profited from Austro-German imports.

The year 1916 came; in May-June, Russian troops made the Brusilovsky breakthrough. The defeat of Austria-Hungary was impressive. And then in Bucharest they were afraid to be late for the war. After all, Austria-Hungary (or even just Hungary) could conclude a separate peace with the Entente - and why would anyone need Romanians then?

Negotiations on the performance of Romania intensified. The Russian General Staff was against this - they considered it more beneficial to maintain the neutrality of Romania. But the Western allies, especially the French, insisted on getting the Romanians involved at all costs. Especially since they didn't have to pay. France's manpower was close to exhaustion, a new front in the Balkans was supposed to divert at least some enemy forces. The Romanians agreed to their terms of entry into the war. But then Brătianu began to extort more concessions, it took another two months to agree on them. Meanwhile, the Brusilovsky breakthrough ran out of steam, the Austro-Germans stabilized the front. On August 4, 1916, Romania finally joined the Entente. On August 14, Bucharest declared war on Austria-Hungary, hoping that this would be the end of it. But on August 19, Germany declared war on Romania, and then Bulgaria.

The Romanian command divided its forces: 370,000 men and 185 batteries to the north against Austria-Hungary; 140,000 men and 80 batteries to the south, against Bulgaria; 50,000 made up the reserve in the middle. In total, 1,200,000 people were mobilized during the war.

"The generals are preparing for the last war" (W. Churchill). The last war for the Romanian generals was the attack on Bulgaria in 1913. Then the Bulgarian army was tightly fettered on other fronts, there was no one to put up against the Romanians, and they practically did not meet resistance. In 1916, the Romanians were counting on something similar - not battles, but a victory walk, while the Austro-Hungarians were pinned down on other fronts. At first it was. But then complications quickly began to grow, turning into a catastrophe.

Bulgaria remembered 1913 well. The Bulgarian troops in general did not outnumber the Romanian ones opposing them. However, the Bulgarians concentrated against a few points - the attacks against them were successful. The Romanian headquarters panicked, the offensive in Transylvania was stopped. The Central Powers were given time to transfer reserves to the Romanian front. In October, their counteroffensive began.

The Romanians were taken in pincers from the north and from the south. In November, the forces of the central bloc launched an offensive against Bucharest. The Russian command recommended that the Romanians keep the army, which means retreat, giving Bucharest without a fight. The Romanian generals hesitated, but still gave battle and were again defeated. On December 6, 1916, the Germans entered Bucharest. The Romanian army collapsed, on December 17, 70 thousand people remained in divisions at the front.

The remnants of the Romanian army rolled back to the northeast, to Moldova. Millions of civilian refugees rushed there. The flight began in the autumn thaw, then the winter frosts hit. Most of the food supplies went to the advancing enemy, so famine began. After hunger and cold came an epidemic of typhus.

In general, the Romanians profited, gained, but still lost with the moment they entered the war. If they spoke in June 1916, they would have taken part in the consolidation of Brusilov's success. But they were too late; speaking in August - when the Brusilovsky breakthrough was already bogged down - the Romanians received quick revenge from the Central Powers.

Although Romania entered the war later than others, it suffered no less than others. Its population numbered more than 7 million people; casualties are not known exactly, the lowest estimate is that 220,000 military personnel died (120,000 killed in action and died of wounds, 30,000 from disease, 70,000 died in captivity), as well as 270,000 civilians (120,000 from military operations, 150,000 from famine and epidemics). According to other estimates, more than 300,000 military personnel and more than 400,000 civilians died - about one in ten.

Captured Romanians under Turkish escort.

By the beginning of 1917, there was a threat that, pursuing the fleeing Romanians, enemy troops would invade the southern regions of Russia. A huge number of Russian troops were transferred to the Romanian front, stopping the offensive of the Central Powers.

The defeat and occupation of most of the country was, of course, a terrible shock for the Romanians. The answer was the determination to continue the fight for their country. The Romanian army still did not disappear. About 200,000 soldiers withdrew to Moldavia, as well as 80,000 recruits, who were mobilized, but did not have time to arm. In the confusion of defeat, many could have deserted, but did not. Mobilization was carried out in the unoccupied territory. Having received a respite behind the back of the Russian army, the Romanians reorganized, trained and equipped their army with the help of the Entente. By the summer of 1917 there were 460 thousand people in it.

1917 brought new problems as well. In February, a revolution took place in Russia, after which progressive decomposition began in the Russian army. Thanks to him, the Austro-Germans won the battle on the Russian front in the summer of 1917, after which they decided that it was time to put an end to Romania. On August 6, their offensive began. But the Romanian troops resisted quite stubbornly. Finishing off Romania required, as it turned out, a considerable price - more than what the Central Powers were willing to pay on a secondary front for them. Their losses grew, and they were forced to stop the offensive. There was a lull on the Romanian front. The Germans began to transfer their troops to the Western Front.

But Romania was threatened not only by the onslaught of enemy armies from the west, but also by a social storm from the east. The Bolsheviks who won in Russia expected that the revolution would spread to other countries. Romania seemed to be the ideal link for the world revolution - exhausted by the war, with the already propagandized Russian army on its territory, and long suffering from poverty and social inequality.

Romanian statistics in 1903 recorded the following situation: 7,780 large landowners own 51% of the country's agricultural land, and more than 1,250,000 peasant families own the remaining 49%. The other 300,000 peasant families had no land at all. So the agrarian question in Romania was no less acute than in Russia. And also the soldier-peasant deafly hated gentlemen-officers.

The revolutionary committees of the Russian units stationed in Romania called on the Romanian soldiers to join the revolution. If the revolutionary ferment had spread to the Romanian army, then the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Romania would have been a foregone conclusion.

The Romanian elite showed will and solidarity in difficult times. There was no split, like the Russian one. The political system of Romania was different from the Russian one, with its tsar clinging to absolutism. Romania had a constitutional monarchy with an already established parliamentary form of government. In fact, of course, it was an ordinary oligarchy. But still there was the appearance of a legal opportunity to achieve change through elections, and not by destroying everything.

The king, government and parliament agreed on a decision: "Let's tell the peasant that fighting for Romania, he is also fighting for his political and economic liberation." On April 5, 1917, King Ferdinand addressed the soldiers, promising to carry out radical changes immediately after the end of the war: to introduce suffrage for everyone and to redistribute the landowners' lands in favor of the peasants (having kept silent about the conditions - redemption).

The Romanian rulers managed to save their army. There were a huge number of deserters, self-mutilators and defectors - but against the background of the collapse in the neighboring Russian army, the Romanian one nevertheless remained combat-ready and manageable. Either the Romanian soldier turned out to be more nationally conscious and steadfast than the Russian one, or (which, most likely) the Romanians still missed the first two years of the war. And the Romanian authorities were much tougher in repression. There was also such a factor: most of the Romanian peasant soldiers had houses and land behind the front - in the occupied territory. The Russian soldier had a house and land behind the front, his desire for peace, for his native village, for his family and household contributed to his susceptibility to propaganda and the collapse of the front. The Romanian soldier, in order to get home, had to be released. Hatred of the occupiers, the desire to liberate the homeland, prevented decay, since it required organization and discipline.

In early December 1917, the Romanians concluded a truce with the enemy - immediately after the truce between Russia and Germany. And then the Romanians turned their army in the other direction. In December 1917 they began to seize the warehouses of the Russian army; they also surrounded the Russian units, taking away those who resisted, they were immediately shot. The Russian units did not expect an attack, and due to the collapse, organized opposition was excluded. The Romanians disarmed the Russian army on the territory of Romania and captured its huge reserves. And in January 1918 the Romanian army invaded Bessarabia. She broke the resistance of scattered detachments and this region of the Russian Empire was occupied.

In January 1918, the Germans demanded the conclusion of peace (that is, the surrender of Romania and its separate exit from the Entente and the war). The Romanian government had to enter into negotiations on terms. In May, the so-called Bucharest peace was concluded. His text was sent to the king, but he was slow to sign.

The autumn of 1918 came. The position of the Central Powers was rapidly deteriorating. Entente troops launched a successful offensive in the Balkans. The Bulgarian army collapsed and capitulated. The Austro-Hungarian army was falling apart, its units left Bukovina. The Romanians hastily moved their troops to Bukovina, as the place of the Austro-Hungarians there began to be occupied by Ukrainian troops. Germany evacuated its troops from the occupied part of Romania. But still, Romania did not dare to re-enter the war for a long time, although this no longer threatened to clash with any enemy troops. On November 10, 1918, the Romanians announced their entry into the war - just the day before it ended.

Romania formally retained the status of an ally of the Entente at a peace conference in Paris. At first, this did not bring her any bonuses. The hosts of the conference - the French and the British - simply ignored the envoys from Bucharest. The Romanians found that the 1916 agreements with the Entente meant nothing. But then their shares rose against the backdrop of events in Eastern Europe - the revolution in Russia could not be suppressed, the revolution also took place in Hungary.

The Romanians were lucky with their rescue by the Russian army at the beginning of 1917. Then they themselves managed to maintain their army and state in difficult conditions. Thanks to this, at the end of the war, they were in a big win, increasing their territory. The "State Council" of occupied Bessarabia in March 1918 proclaimed unification with Romania. In occupied Bukovina, some kind of assembly was also organized, which voted in October for unification. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary and the dissolution of its army, the Romanian troops entered Transylvania - and already on December 1 they proclaimed an alliance with Romania. All annexations were recognized at Versailles, interpreting the proclamations as the right of peoples to self-determination.

Romanian troops in Transylvania.

The defeat of the Romanian army in Dobruja again led to disagreements among the allies. The French and British were still eager to shift the burden of helping Romania onto the Russians. The French demanded that Russia urgently transfer reinforcements to Romania. The Russian Headquarters initially hoped that by sending a corps under the command of General A. M. Zayonchkovsky, she would fulfill her allied duty. Alekseev, Chief of Staff of the Headquarters, generally believed that it was better to surrender most of Romania than to weaken other sectors of the front.

Zayonchkovsky understood this well and said directly: “It seems to me that the 47th corps and the gene. Zayonchkovsky is the bone that was thrown to Rumania so that she would join the side of Concord. They put an end to this bone, it was deleted from the composition of the Russian armed forces, and if in the future there is any plus from it, then this will be recorded in an unexpected arrival for Russia. Having got to know the allies better, the Russian general became even more depressed: “The impression is militarily disgusting: this is a complete misunderstanding of the conduct of modern warfare, terrible panic, the most terrible gossip of a threatening nature in official reports, always refuted by my air reconnaissance.”

Under pressure from the allies, the Russian Headquarters was forced to reinforce the expeditionary forces in Romania, and then, when the Romanian army was completely defeated, a new Russian front had to be created in general. Therefore, first, significant Russian forces were transferred to Romania to help the 47th Corps: two infantry divisions, and then the 4th Siberian Corps and one division from the Caucasian Front. The defeated 3rd Romanian army was subordinated to Zaionchkovsky. The defeat near Turtukai forced the Romanian government to transfer the operational-tactical command of the front in Dobruja to the Russian general Zaionchkovsky. The front in this area was stabilized.

Commander of the Russian Expeditionary Forces in Romania, General Andrey Medardovich Zaionchkovsky

It is also worth remembering that the Russians supported Romania by continuing the offensive against Austria-Hungary. On September 5-11, Russian troops continued offensive operations in the area of the city of Galich. After a series of attacks, they managed to cross to the other side of the Narayuvka River (a tributary of the Rotten Lipa River) and break through the Austrian defenses. This allowed the Russians to bring up heavy artillery and begin shelling Galich. This forced the German command to send all the troops near Galich that were intended to attack Romania. Thanks to this, the Romanian troops were able to stay in Transylvania for another month, no one beat them.

At the same time, Lechitsky's 9th Army fought heroic battles in the Wooded Carpathians. Russian miracle heroes fought without roads in the mountains, in deep snow. The battles at Dorna-Vatra, Yakoben and Kirlibaba are considered among the most difficult of the entire war. Unfortunately, this feat of the Russian army was not reflected in cinematography. Yes, and in general, the First World War is poorly covered in modern Russia. There are practically no big battle pictures worthy of our warriors.

The Russian Headquarters transferred the control of the 8th Army to the Carpathians. After the position of Romania worsened even more, and the Romanian command began to transfer troops from the Moldavian Carpathians (Northern Army) to the threatened Wallachia, their place was occupied by the troops of our 9th Army, which stretched its left flank more and more to the south. Excessive stretching of the front (up to 300 miles by mid-September), heavy losses in fierce battles, poor communications in the wild mountainous terrain, which made it necessary to allocate more ordinary people for messages, for evacuation teams, for bringing ammunition along snow-covered paths, all this made it difficult for the army to operate Lechitsky, who fought with two Austro-Hungarian armies.

General Lechitsky proposed attacking in the more advantageous Transylvanian direction, which led our troops out of the Maros valley, bypassing the enemy location, and proposed advancing on Chik-Sereda. But the Headquarters considered the Transylvanian direction "dangerous", did not want to get into Romania headlong, and ordered to attack Dorna Vatra and Kirlibaba, where the enemy had already managed to strengthen. The October heroic onslaught of our 9th Army chained the 7th Austro-Hungarian Army with numerous German reinforcements and half of the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army to the Moldavian Carpathians. This delayed the fall of Bucharest for a whole month. The price for this is the mountains near Kirlibaba filled with Russian blood.

At the end of October, when the German army of Falkenhayn, having received large reinforcements from the French front, delivered a decisive blow to Romania, the Russian 9th Army, straining its last forces, on November 15 again went on the offensive along the entire front. The right flank of the army hit Dorna Vatra, the left tried to break through to Chik Sereda. Unfortunately, again our command lost time. In August, when the Austro-Hungarian army was still recovering from a crushing defeat and did not have serious forces in the Transylvanian direction, it was possible to develop a decisive offensive. In November, the Austro-Hungarians received strong and large reinforcements and fortified themselves on excellent mountain positions, which, due to their natural position and engineering, snow and frost, became impregnable. Throughout November, there was a fierce battle at Kirlibaba. Russian soldiers in this battle showed unparalleled heroism, fighting against the enemy and nature, suffered huge losses, but could not break through. This battle ended the 1916 campaign on the Russian front (not counting Romania).

Austrian artillery in Transylvania

New defeats of Romania

Meanwhile, in September, the control of the 9th German army appeared on the Romanian front, led by Falkenhayn and 8.5 divisions (6.5 infantry and 2 cavalry), which were removed, mainly from the French front. At the same time, the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army under the command of Arthur Arts von Straussenburg was reinforced to 6 divisions, it was reinforced by the Germans. In addition, 3 cavalry divisions were introduced into its composition.

After the fall of Turtucay, the Romanian troops stopped the already sluggish movement in Transylvania and began to transfer troops to the south. The goal of the strike of the Bulgarian-German troops under the general command of August von Mackensen was achieved. Although at the beginning of this operation, the Bulgarians and Germans did not have enough strength to occupy Dobruja, if the Romanians skillfully resisted. From the 2nd Army in Transylvania, a third of the troops were immediately taken to the strategic reserve. The ex-commander of the 2nd Army, Averescu, was transferred to the 3rd Army. Averescu had a heavy impression of the troops of the 3rd Army. The units were diluted by more than half with reservists and had a weak combat capability.

Averescu in early October tried to organize an offensive operation and force the Danube (the so-called "landing near Ryakhovo"), but the offensive attempt ended in complete failure. The hastily erected pontoon bridge was destroyed by the artillery of the Austrian Danube flotilla, and the Romanian soldiers who managed to cross over ended up in the "boiler". The Romanians only lost about 3 thousand people killed. “What goals the Romanian command was pursuing by this performance remained incomprehensible,” the deputy chief of the German General Staff, von Ludendorff, wrote in those days. This failure was also reflected in the Russian troops, who had previously had some success in the counter-offensive in Dobruja.

General Alexandru Averescu. After Romania entered the First World War in 1916, he commanded the 2nd Army in the southern Carpathians. From September he commanded the 3rd Army, and then the Southern Army Group (3rd and Dobruja armies, as well as 4 divisions transferred from the 1st and 2nd armies)

Thus, the very first failures paralyzed the Romanian command. The strategic initiative was lost both in the north and in the south. The whole strategic offensive plan collapsed. Romanian troops passively waited for the enemy to launch his offensive. “Romania,” Hindenburg noted, “was pursued by evil fate; her army did not move, her leaders did not understand anything, and we managed to gather sufficient forces in Transylvania in time ... ". While the Romanians were inactive, the German and Austrian command formed a new 9th German army and strengthened the 1st Austro-Hungarian army, which was now able to conduct active hostilities.

On September 22, the German-Austrian troops under the command of the ex-Chief of the German General Staff Falkenhayn launched a counteroffensive in Transylvania, previously occupied by Romanian troops. By the end of September, Falkenhayn pushed back the 2nd Romanian army over the border line, freeing all of Hungarian Transylvania. The Germans and Austrians created an advantage in the attacked areas and deftly pressed the Romanian army. However, they failed to cut off the Romanians from the mountain passes and destroy them. At the same time, the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army von Artsz stopped the offensive of the Northern Romanian Army (4th Army).

British Minister of War D. Lloyd George noted: “We knew that the Romanian army did not have heavy artillery at all, that even the presence of field guns did not at all meet the requirements of a serious offensive or defense. ... As soon as the Germans decided to withdraw their troops from the front at Verdun [in France] and send a few reserve divisions to Romania, the Romanian guns and equipment were not enough to withstand such a concentrated attack.

On September 23, the French ambassador to Russia, Maurice Palaiologos, wrote in his diary: “The Hindenburg plan is being carried out along the entire line of the Romanian front. In Dobruja and along the Danube, in the district of Orsova and in the gorges of the Carpathians, German, Austrian, Bulgarian and Turkish forces exert a closing and continuous pressure, under which the Romanians always retreat.

However, after the first blow, there was some calm in Transylvania. Falkenhayn was building up strength for a decisive blow, which was delivered at the end of October. Russian troops (9th Army) fought with the Austro-Germans, diverting the arriving enemy reinforcements to themselves. In addition, the Romanians occupied strong mountain positions here, received reinforcements from the south, and actively fought back from Orsova to Bukovina and even counterattacked. So, the Alpine corps of General Kraft von Delmenzingen, reinforced by two Austrian mountain rifle brigades, could not break through the Red Tower Pass. The Romanians stubbornly fought back, counterattacked and suffered heavy losses. One of the participants in the battle, a German, described this battle as follows: “Thousands of machine-gun fire sowed death in their (i.e., Romanian) columns; but they gathered and attacked again, boldly, bravely. The German troops of the 9th Army also got stuck at the Vulkan and Predyal passes. Only by pulling up the troops and completing thorough preparations, the Austro-German troops were able to break the resistance of the Romanian troops.

Meanwhile, the Romanian command was now withdrawing troops from the south and transferring them to the north. This led to the fact that by the end of September the balance of forces on the Danube and in Dobruja leaned towards the side of the Bulgarian-German troops. Only in Dobruja, the Russian-Romanian troops, battered by previous failures, were weakened by sending 20 Romanian, 12 Russian battalions and 24 squadrons of Russian cavalry (about 35 thousand people in total) to the north. Mackensen, on the other hand, exposed the Macedonian direction and concentrated 14 divisions in Dobruja against 4 Russian and 4 Romanian. During three days of stubborn fighting, the front was broken through.

As a result, the enemy broke through the front of the group of General Zaionchkovsky near Kobadin, cut the Chernovodsk railway. October 9 (22) fell Constanta - a strategically important port on the Black Sea, which has large oil reserves. The next day, the Danube port of Chernovody was occupied by the enemy. Russian-Romanian troops were thrown back 100 km to the north to Tulcha and Babadag. Dobruja was lost. Alekseev telegraphed Zayonchkovsky: "Be kind to find all parts of your army, take them into your hands, resurrect control, delay the pressure of the enemy." But Zayonchkovsky did not have to solve this problem, he was dismissed.

The Russian Headquarters urgently began to transfer troops to Romania. The new Danubian Army was to be led by General Vladimir Sakharov (he previously commanded the 11th Army). Headquarters told the general: "To sort out the reigning chaos, take over the troops, work out a plan for further actions, indicate the areas for collecting suitable reserves, create engineering training for the theater." At the same time, the troops of the 9th Army in Transnistria and Bukovina were transferred to the control of the 8th Army, which was transferred to the Romanian direction.

The offensive of the Austro-German troops

The collapse of the Romanian defense

The German command completed the concentration of troops in the Transylvanian direction. The 9th German and 1st Austro-Hungarian armies, together with the 7th Austro-Hungarian army of Keves, were combined into a shock group under the command of the Austrian heir to the throne, Charles, who was destined to play the role of the conqueror of Romania.

On October 29, Falkenhayn dealt a crushing blow to Romania, defeating the 1st Romanian army in the Jiu river valley. At the same time, the 1st Austro-Hungarian army of von Artsz defeated the 2nd Romanian army at Kronstadt. The retreat of the Romanian troops in Transylvania under the onslaught of the German and Austrian divisions takes on an avalanche-like character. The greatest successes of the Austro-German troops were achieved in the southernmost section of the Carpathians. Developing the offensive, the Germans rapidly moved along the Olta valley to the Wallachian plain. On November 8 (21) the Germans captured Craiova, on November 10 (23) the enemy cavalry reached the Olt River and captured the crossing at Caracal to the central regions of the country, already almost 100 km from Bucharest. General Kraft made his way through the pass of the Red Tower and reached the plain at Rymnik.

In addition, Von Mackensen crossed the Danube from the south of Sistov to Zimnitsa. His new Danubian army, consisting of 5 divisions (1 German, 2 Turkish and 2 Bulgarian), crossed the Danube, occupied Zhurzha and moved to Bucharest. This strategic offensive by Mackensen was accompanied by diversionary actions of the 3rd Bulgarian Army of General Toshev along the Black Sea coast towards Dobruja.

Field Marshal August von Mackensen in Sofia

Commander of the German 9th Army Erich von Falkenhayn in Transylvania

In some areas, the Romanian troops fought desperately, but this no longer mattered for the outcome of the campaign. The Romanian troops, located in the west of the country, in Oltenia, hastily retreated, trying to get out of the bag, but did not have time, and they laid down at the mouth of the Olt River. The German General Ludendorff wrote: “Surrounded on all sides, they [Romanians] laid down their arms near the mouth of the Alta only in early December. The hope that the offensive of the units of the Romanian troops against the Danube army from the side of Bucharest would help them out did not materialize.

Thus, the Austrian, German and Bulgarian troops launched an offensive against the Romanian capital from three sides. It was a disaster. Now the remaining Romanian army was under the threat of encirclement in a huge "boiler" in the Bucharest region. On November 14 (27), the Romanian government and the main state institutions were evacuated from Bucharest to Iasi.

The Romanian command hastily collects all the remaining troops on the outskirts of Bucharest. Moldova was left not yet completed its concentration of the 9th army of Lechitsky, and Dobruja - the Danube army of General Sakharov. The Russian Headquarters also tried to save the ally. In November, the 4th Army Corps approached the Danube Army from the Northern Front, and at the request of the Romanian leadership, instead of Dobruja, they were sent to Wallachia, near Bucharest. The 4th Corps was composed of two divisions - the 2nd and 40th. The 30th Infantry Division was still in Dobruja and did not have time to connect with its corps. Following in Wallachia, they planned to send four army corps with the control of the 4th army of Ragosa. In the future, they planned to send three more corps from the Western and Southwestern fronts to Romania.

Thus, the Russian Headquarters had to pay for the game of giveaway with the allies, for the strategic mistakes of Bucharest and their own short-sightedness. General Alekseev did not want to immediately send a strike force of 5-6 corps to Romania in a timely manner, which could give the Romanian army the necessary offensive impetus. Now, as the military historian A. A. Kersnovsky wrote, “not only five, but ten corps were not enough.” Before the beginning of December, Russian troops could not concentrate. The Russian iron network worked poorly intermittently. The single-track Bessarabian roads were completely unsuitable for the emergency transfer of large masses of troops with weapons and supplies. The Romanian roads were in complete disarray, and the military catastrophe completely ruined them. To transport two corps, 250 echelons were needed, which required at least half a month, and the enemy did not stand still. From the Prut line, our troops had to go deep into Wallachia in marching order. As a result, our troops approached the front lines completely exhausted, and entered the battle in units, which sharply reduced their combat effectiveness.

It is not surprising that the commander of the Russian Southwestern Front, General Alexei Brusilov, described the situation in the Romanian theater in two words - "complete confusion." Moved to the aid of the Romanians, the 9th Army and the new Danube Army were subordinate to Brusilov. “And between them is the Romanian army, acting independently and undertaking an operation of its own invention ...”. Brusilov noted that in such conditions he could not control the troops.

At the Russian Headquarters, they were irritated by such allies. Bucharest demanded urgent help. On September 25, Prime Minister Bratianu telegraphed: “Our troops have been driven back to Brasov. The urgency of a powerful Russian intervention in Transylvania, unfortunately, is more obvious than ever. … 24 hours are of great importance in the present state of affairs.”

Requests for help came one after another. At the same time, they were accompanied by absolutely fantastic numbers of enemy forces. So, on September 26, the Romanian head of the government, Bratianu, referring to Swiss sources (!) that Germany plans to concentrate 500-600 thousand soldiers against Romania. At the end of September, Queen Mary turned to the Russian Tsar: "I am not at all ashamed to turn to you with this cry for help, I tried to save my country in every possible way ...".

The head of the Russian Headquarters, Alekseev, irritably reassured the allies. “600 thousand people are equal to 60 divisions. Where will the Germans get them from? They are unlikely to be able to scrape together twenty divisions, ”he wrote to the Romanian representative at Headquarters, General Coande. Indeed, according to German data, by the end of September, 19 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions were operating against Romania, not counting individual units and subunits.

Alekseev telegraphed to the Romanian General Iliescu: “In Transylvania and Dobruja, the Germans and their allies have 251 battalions and 70 squadrons; enemy forces, as you will see, are not at all so formidable as to speak of a critical or extremely difficult situation. We have 331 Romanian, 52 Russian battalions, 383 in total. In private conversations, Alekseev spoke out even more sharply: “The nervousness of the Romanians is incomprehensible to me. Having considerable forces at their disposal, they can only shout about the emergency. Alekseev suggested that the Romanian command hold on tightly to the Russian flanks in Moldova and Dobruja, shorten the front line, sacrifice Oltenia and, in extreme cases, Bucharest. "The main task is to preserve the army at all costs."

Representatives of the Entente countries at the Russian Headquarters had a similar opinion. The main problem was not that the Romanian soldiers were completely unprepared for modern warfare, but that the quality of command and control was completely unsatisfactory. An English agent in Romania reported: "The 1st and 2nd armies must be considered demoralized, but not because the troops were not fit, but because the management is bad ...". “The Romanian soldier is good; he has a good spirit, - said the French General Janin. “Young officers are very inexperienced, some of the chiefs are very timid - these are the reasons for recent failures ... Romanian chiefs are extremely nervous, they have already used up all their reserves.”

At the same time, the French and British were in no hurry to provide real assistance to the Romanians, shifting all responsibility for Romania to the Russians. It was not possible to activate the Thessaloniki Front, everything was limited to local skirmishes. Mostly they fought with the Bulgarians on the Serbian sector of the front. The Serbs were able to recapture the previously lost positions. On November 15, the commander of the German forces on the Thessaloniki front, General Otto von Belov, decided to leave the city of Monastery (Monastir), an important transport hub in Macedonia. The Bulgarians were against this decision, but were forced to yield. On November 19, Serbian, French and Russian troops entered the city. For the Serbs, it was the first hometown recaptured after the defeat and occupation of the country by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915. But in general, the allies were unable to solve the problem of defeating the Bulgarian army in order to significantly help Romania. The Bulgarian army retained its combat capability.

The French promised to transfer one and a half divisions to Thessaloniki, nothing could be achieved from the British. At the same time, the French, at the request of Bucharest, sent a large military mission there, headed by General Bertelo. She was in no hurry, on the way she stopped at Petrograd to again persuade the Russians to throw new troops to Bucharest and Dobruja. The Romanians wanted to appoint a French general as their chief of staff. But he prudently refused such an honor.

Bulgaria Bulgaria

Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Commanders

Side forces Media files at Wikimedia Commons

Romanian campaign- one of the campaigns of the First World War, in which the Romanian and Russian armies opposed the armies of the Central Powers.

In Western historiography, it was considered as an episode of the war in the Balkan theater of operations; in the Russian (Soviet) - as part of the Eastern Front of the First World War.

background

In the political and military circles of the belligerent countries, the opinion prevailed that the entry into the war of small states could significantly change the course of events. Therefore, the Entente for a long time tried to win over Romania to its side. Since the beginning of the World War, the country's government has taken the position of "armed waiting", although since 1883 Romania has been a member of the union of the Central Powers; at the same time, it started negotiations with the Entente. Romania, which gained independence in 1877, was in an ethnic conflict with Austria-Hungary. Entering the war, she counted on the annexation of Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat - the territories of Austria-Hungary, populated mainly by ethnic Romanians.

Romanian army

The optimistic mood of many political and military figures regarding the entry into the war of Romania against the background of the real state of the army of King Ferdinand I was not justified in any way. Although its number reached 650 thousand, this figure hardly reflected the real combat capability. The state of the infrastructure was extremely poor, and a third of the army was forced to serve in the rear in order to provide at least some supply to combat units. Thus, Romania was able to send only 23 divisions to the front. At the same time, there was practically no railway network in the country, and the supply system ceased to function already a few kilometers deep into enemy territory. The armament and equipment of the Romanian army was outdated, and the level of combat training was low. The army had only 1,300 artillery pieces, of which only half met the requirements of the time. The geographical position further exacerbated the strategic situation. Neither the Carpathians in the northwest nor the Danube in the south provided sufficient natural protection against a possible enemy invasion. And the country's richest province, Wallachia, directly bordered Austria-Hungary to the north and Bulgaria to the south, and was thus vulnerable to attack from the Central Powers from two directions.

Fighting in 1916

Romanian army exercises

Already in August, the Romanian army launched an offensive against Hungary, from which the French commander-in-chief Joffre expected to change the course of the war. The 2nd Army under the command of General Grigore Krainichanu and the 4th Army of General Prezan invaded Transylvania and advanced 80 km in places. The advancing 400,000th Romanian group had a tenfold numerical superiority over the 1st Austrian army of Arts von Straussenburg. This advantage, however, was never realized. The supply routes in the occupied territories were extremely poor, which became the main problem for the advancing troops. And although they managed to occupy some important border fortifications, the very first major city on their way, Sibiu, highlighted the weaknesses of the Romanian army. Even with the extremely small Austro-Hungarian garrison located in the city, the Romanians, due to problems with logistics, did not even try to capture it. Fearing new supply problems and the prospect of German intervention, both Romanian generals suspended all offensive operations. Thus, already at the beginning of September 1916, the Romanian army was stuck almost at its starting positions, being on the periphery of a relatively insignificant Hungarian province, waiting for further events and giving the initiative to the armies of the Central Powers.

Austrian and German counteroffensive

Meanwhile, the headquarters of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander of the Russian Army sent a 50,000-strong group under the command of General A. M. Zaionchkovsky to help the Romanians. Zayonchkovsky repeatedly complained to General Alekseev, Chief of Staff of the Headquarters, that the forces allocated to him were not enough to complete the task. However, Alekseev believed that it was better to surrender most of Romania than to weaken other sectors of the front. As for the Western Allies, their assistance throughout the campaign consisted in sending military missions to Romania, consisting of several senior officers.

The inaction of the Romanian army and its allies led to a crushing defeat for Romania. Straussenburg's 1st Austrian Army and Falkenhayn's 9th German Army easily pushed the Romanians out of Transylvania, while the combined German-Bulgarian-Austrian forces under Mackensen launched an attack on Bucharest from the south. This strategic offensive was accompanied by diversionary actions by General Toshev's 3rd Bulgarian Army along the Black Sea coast towards Dobruja.

Front after the end of the Romanian campaign

The Romanian command expected that the Russian troops would repel the Bulgarian invasion of Dobruja and go on the counteroffensive, and 15 Romanian divisions under the command of Averescu were allocated to defend Bucharest. However, the Romanian-Russian counter-offensive, which began on September 15, ended in failure. The Bulgarian army proved to be very motivated, fighting in the territory inhabited by the Bulgarians. Despite the fact that the Romanians managed to cross the Danube and thus enter Bulgaria, the operation was stopped due to an unsuccessful offensive on the front in Dobruja. The Russian forces were few in number and, with the exception of the Serbian battalion, insufficiently motivated. As a result, the diversionary actions of the Bulgarian troops turned into an unforeseen strategic success. Russian-Romanian troops were thrown back 100 km to the north, and by the end of October, the Bulgarians managed to capture Constanta and Chernavoda, thus isolating Bucharest from the left flank. At the same time, the Austrian troops completely regained Transylvania and were preparing to attack the Romanian capital. On October 23, August von Mackensen struck the main blow, crossing the Danube. The Romanians, forced to defend themselves in three directions at once, could not offer any significant resistance. On November 29, the attack on Bucharest began.

During the defense of the capital of the country, the French General Berthelot, sent by the commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre, tried to organize a counterattack from the flank, similar to the one that saved Paris during the Battle of the Marne in 1914. The energetic ally used up the last reserves of the Romanian army, failing to put up any serious resistance to the Central Powers. On December 6, 1916, Mackensen entered Bucharest. The remnants of the Romanian troops retreated to the province of Moldova, while losing eight more of the 22 surviving divisions. In the face of disaster, General Alekseev sent reinforcements to thwart Mackensen's advance into southwestern Russia.

Fighting in 1917

The Russian troops who came to the aid of the Romanian army stopped in December 1916 - January 1917 the Austro-German troops on the river. Siret. The Bulgarian armies remained in the south closer to their homeland and to the former Romanian territories inhabited by Bulgarians who moved to Romania in 1913. Romania's entry into the war did not improve the situation for the Entente. The Romanian Front of the Russian Army was created, which included the Danube Army, the 6th Army from Petrograd, the 4th Army from the Western Front and the 9th Army from the Southwestern Front, as well as the remnants of the Romanian troops. Having lost almost all of its territory and 250 thousand people in the hostilities of 1916. killed, wounded and captured, Romania practically dropped out of the war.

To boost the morale of the soldiers, mostly former peasants, legislative activity was resumed after the completion of the agrarian and electoral reforms. The relevant constitutional amendments were adopted by Parliament, and King Ferdinand I personally promised the peasant soldiers land and the right to vote after the end of the war. And by the summer of 1917, the Romanian army was already much better trained and equipped than in 1916, to which was added the determination in the troops not to miss the “last chance” to preserve the Romanian statehood. Active hostilities were resumed in July as part of the June Offensive planned by the Russian Provisional Government. In the Battle of Maresti (started on July 22), the Romanian army under the command of General A. Averescu managed to liberate about 500 km² of territory. The retaliatory counter-offensive of the Austro-German troops under the command of Mackensen was stopped at the Battle of Mărasheshti. It is believed that the heroism of the Romanian soldiers shown there actually saved Romania from being withdrawn from the war, especially since the Russian units in these hostilities were rather passive due to the ever-increasing decomposition of the Russian army. By September 8, the front finally stabilized, and these were the last active hostilities on the Eastern Front in 1917.

Effects

Notes

Comments

Literature

Liddell Hart B. 1914. The truth about the First World War. - M.: Eksmo, 2009. - 480 s. - (A turning point in history). - 4300 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-36036-9.
John Keegan: Der Erste Weltkrieg - Eine europäische Tragödie. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuchverlag 2001. ISBN 3-499-61194-5
Manfried Rauchensteiner: Der Tod des Doppeladlers: Österreich-Ungarn und der Erste Weltkrieg. Graz, Wien, Koln: Styria 1993. - ISBN 3-222-12116-8
Norman Stone: The Eastern Front 1914-1917. London: Hodder and Stoughton 1985. ISBN 0-340-36035-6
Christian Zentner: Der Erste Weltkrieg. Rastatt: Moewig-Verlag 2000. ISBN 3-8118-1652-7
Ioan-Aurel Pop, Ioan Bolovan:"History Romaniei." Cluj-Napoca: Institutul Cultural Român 2004 ISBN 5-7777-0260-0


	Bodies of military control Imperial Headquarters Headquarters of the Supreme Commander in Chief Military Ministry of the Russian Empire Persian Army 11 (Blockade) Dobrudzhanskaya Danube Caucasian Special (since 08.1916) Corps 1st Guards 2nd Guards Grenadier Gendarme Courier Expeditionary Army:

Bulgaria Bulgaria

Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire

Commanders

Erich von Falkenhayn
August von Mackensen
Conrad von Gotzendorf
Nikola Zhekov

Side forces Audio, photo, video at Wikimedia Commons

Romanian campaign- one of the campaigns of the First World War, in which the Romanian and Russian armies opposed the armies of the Central Powers.

In Western historiography, it was considered as an episode of the war in the Balkan theater of operations; in the Russian (Soviet) - as part of the Eastern Front of the First World War.

background [ | ]

Romanian army [ | ]

Fighting in 1916[ | ]

Romanian army exercises

Austrian and German counteroffensive

Front after the end of the Romanian campaign

Fighting in 1917[ | ]

Effects [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

Comments [ | ]

Literature [ | ]


	Bodies of military control Imperial Headquarters Headquarters of the Supreme Commander in Chief Military Ministry of the Russian Empire Persian Army 11 (Blockade) Danube Caucasian Special (since 08.1916) Corps 1st Guards 2nd Guards Grenadier Gendarme Courier Expeditionary Army:

For the first two years of the World War, Romania remained neutral, waiting for the most opportune moment to go over to the side of one coalition or another. All this, however, did not prevent her from supplying England with wheat, supplying Russia with old rifles, letting disguised German soldiers and officers through to Turkey, selling butter and meat to Germany, and sending greeting telegrams to Emperor Wilhelm.

The landing of the allies in Thessaloniki, the capture of Erzurum and the victory of the Russian Southwestern Front put an end to Romania's hesitation, and on August 14, 1916, she declared war on Austria-Hungary.

The Russian command did not believe in real help to the front from the Romanian army and advised it to send its forces against the Bulgarians.

However, the Romanians, striving to realize their idea of national unification as soon as possible, rushed to Transylvania. As a result of four months of hostilities, the Romanian troops were defeated and a significant part of the country fell into the hands of the Germans.

To prevent the complete collapse of the Romanian army, which had only 70 thousand soldiers left, and to stop the German offensive directed to the south of Russia, the command of the Southwestern Front had to carry out an auxiliary operation. She demanded the lengthening of the front of the Russian armies by 500 kilometers and the transfer of 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions here.

Russian troops took up positions along the Danube and Seret rivers, as well as in the Carpathians. The only combat-ready 2nd Romanian army wedged itself between the 4th and 9th Russian armies. Other parts of the Romanian army were reorganized, their new formation began to be carried out by the French and Russian artillery instructors. About 15 Romanian divisions were created.

On November 10, 1916, Major General Mannerheim received a secret telegram from the front commander in his name with an order to immediately march on horseback to the Romanian theater of operations, transferring his positions to an infantry division.

The transfer of positions and preparations for a long, almost 20-day journey took about five days. On the eve of departure, a telegram from the army headquarters arrived on the road - to hand over all the logs of military operations of the division. Headquarters and regimental officers worked day and night, remembering endless battles, advances and retreats, majestic summer nights in Volhynia, painful forest roads, smelly and dirty parking lots.

And then came the last day of the division's stay in Pochaev. On a short flight, the chief of staff of the division, Lieutenant Colonel Georgievich, spoke about the route of the regiments along the route Kremenets - Ternopil - Volochisk - Kamenetz-Podolsky - Brichany - Balti - Iasi - Roman - Bakeu - Ajud - Odobeshti. Places of parking and overnight stays were named, and catering was reported. Officers who spoke French were entrusted with the functions of translators when the division entered Romanian territory. A short prayer service before the march was served by Bishop Dionysius of Kremenets.

Finally, the division set off under a heavy, not at all autumn rain, along dirty and broken roads past bare fields and small villages ...

The first large camp in the city of Kamenetz-Podolsky, where the regiments entered late at night. Officers of the military commandant's office and lodgers quickly placed the soldiers and officers in their homes and apartments. Dinner was organized. Mannerheim and the brigade commanders were rented rooms in a fairly decent hotel near the central square of the city. It was almost impossible to sleep, I had to consider the reports of the regimental commanders about the lost things. Mannerheim was outraged by the blatant lie of the commander of the Starodub dragoons, whose number of missing overcoats was one and a half times the number of killed and wounded soldiers.

Gustav, brought up in a spirit of economy and frugality, when the rule “keep a vigilant eye on every mark, spend it carefully, with unceasing vigilance”, was always surprised that the Russian army had no idea about economic discipline, sifting, as through a sieve, endless material resources. Be that as it may, the incident with the overcoats greatly spoiled the general's mood.

However, in the morning, having pampered the faithful and reliable Desi with sugar, who greeted the general with a quiet neigh, and easily, quite youthfully taking off into the saddle, Mannerheim felt a surge of strength and vigor. Recalling this transition, one of the officers of the Akhtyrsky regiment said: “In any difficult moments of our movement to the Romanian border, General Mannerheim was a secular, always reserved, resourceful and self-confident officer, with an attentive look of cold eyes.”

The regiments of the division quickly passed Briceni, stopping only for three hours to feed the men and horses. After a one-day rest in Balti, the division reached the Russian-Romanian border.

Five hours later, the head regiment of the division entered the city of Yassy, packed with refugees and rear army institutions. The trot riders passed the main street, passing the mansion where the Romanian king lived, at the gates of which there was a guard in a uniform resembling cavalry guards. At the place of temporary parking of the regiments of the division, they were met by enthusiastic crowds of Russians. These were members of the eunuchs sect, who left Russia almost 40 years ago to settle permanently abroad. Members of this terrible sect, natives of the Oryol and Novgorod provinces, in which men, after the birth of their first son, castrate themselves, forever depriving offspring, received the full confidence of the Romanians thanks to their honesty and sobriety. In addition, in Romania they did not promote their teachings. The eunuchs were great lovers of horses. Romanian officers said that after the requisition of horses from eunuchs, they went to the barracks and explained to the soldiers what character their former horses had and how they should be treated.

Major-General Mannerheim and the chief of staff paid a short visit to the Russian commandant of the city, General Kazakevich, a former Preobrazhensky whom the baron had known back in St. Petersburg. Here Mannerheim met with General Krymov, the future unfortunate commander of a strange campaign against Petrograd ordered by Kerensky in 1917. Krymov was very happy to learn that his Ussuri division would occupy the front next to Mannerheim's regiments. The conversation turned to the fatal mistakes of the sovereign and the "bloodless revolution", of which Krymov was an ardent supporter. The baron, listening to Krymov's rantings, skillfully turned the conversation from political to military.

When the head detachment of the division entered the city of Roman, an excited lieutenant rushed to the equestrian group of headquarters officers with whom Mannerheim was riding, reporting to the general that the commander of the 9th Army, General Lechitsky, was waiting for him on the main square of the city near the magistrate's building.

The baron, together with the adjutant and chief of staff, overtook the regiments at a gallop and entered the city first. Indeed, the commander of the army stood at the magistrate with officers and a platoon of guards.

Small, dry Lechitsky nimbly dismounted from his horse and headed towards Mannerheim. The general did the same and, putting his hand to the visor of his cap, began the report. The commander, waving his hand, stopped him:

No conventions needed, baron. I am well aware of your brilliant passage, in which you did not lose a single horse. You are a fine officer, let me hug and kiss you. I know that here in Romania you will have hard days ahead. Her army, according to my information, has already been defeated by the Germans, but we are officers and we have no right to discuss the orders of the Supreme. I ordered your soldiers and officers to be well accommodated and fed, and to give them here in Roman, to my regret, only one day's rest. Romanians cry for help every day, we need to help them.

On December 6, the regiments of the division went on their way and the next day at noon they arrived at the village of Odobeshti, which struck Mannerheim with its crooked houses, dusty streets, along which oxen sullenly wandered. When all the regiments of the division, artillery, sappers, signalmen and convoys were drawn into the village, they were built on a wide corn field. General Mannerheim and Colonel Georgievich, with a group of Romanian officers who met the division, drove along the line of regiments. Then the general addressed them with a welcoming speech. He thanked the soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers for the successful multi-kilometer transition that they made, comparing them with the Suvorov eagles. At the end of his speech, Mannerheim noted that he believes that the division will again cover itself with glory in the battles for the liberation of fraternal Romania from an insidious enemy. He quickly translated from French into Russian a short greeting from the Romanian colonel.

Having instructed the chief of staff and brigade commanders, together with the Romanian lodgers, to place soldiers and officers, the general went to the city of Focsani in the car that was sent for him. We drove slowly along a terrible highway, broken by the incessant movement of convoys and muddy roads. The whole area on the sides was covered with crowds of refugees and carts stretching north. After about an hour and a half, we drove into Focsany, the center of Putna County. The city was buried in gardens. Small two-story houses with wide balconies hid among the bare branches. There were many Romanian soldiers on the streets, among which Moldavian peasants stood out as colored spots.

The headquarters of the 2nd Romanian army was located in a large beautiful house, near which there were several cars and some strange carriage drawn by six horses. A mustachioed soldier slept on the goats.

The army commander, General Averesco, met Mannerheim at the entrance. He was a tall, swarthy, elegant officer with blue-black mustaches and the same black, cunning eyes.

Averesco invited Mannerheim to his office, which was simply cluttered with antique carved furniture. And it was completely out of place here were pictures with half-naked Parisian divas. The table was quickly laid with an abundance of fruits and expensive vintage wines. The commander began the conversation in perfect French, which in Romania was "the language of the upper 10,000." We talked about the long transition of the division, remembered St. Petersburg, where Averesko studied, and even found mutual friends.

My general, - the commander turned to Mannerheim, - place your regiments in Odobesti and rest, breathe our beautiful mountain air. I have already given the necessary orders. Everything will be great, I swear on my honor.

However, the rest was short. Two days later, an officer for special assignments from the commander of the Romanian army arrived at Mannerheim. Bowing, he said:

My general, the commander, apologizes to you for interrupting your rest, and sends you the following order: “Immediately go to the area of the village of Koza and take the 7th Romanian brigade of Colonel Prince Sturdza into your division. By agreement with Generals Lechitsky and Shcherbachev, your formation received the code name "Vrancea". In addition, my general, the commander, gives you our operational maps and asks you to get acquainted with them. I have been instructed to give you a brief description of your combat area. Here, look at the map, my general. We are now in the most accessible part of the Transylvanian Alps, since their main ridge is lowered here and acquires a purely alpine character, forming mountain-wooded bands 25–35 kilometers wide. You see, there are many good roads here, with mountains and passes accessible. There are large oak and maple groves in the valley of the Putna River, and vineyards on the sunny slopes. True, there are many large hills with very steep slopes. Take a look, there are two big rivers here - the Seret, which starts in the Bukovina Carpathians, and the Putna with the Milkovo tributary. In its lower course, from the village of Bakeu, the Seret River became a serious obstacle to our common enemy. Here and there are the positions of your Russians and our Romanian troops.

General Mannerheim, thanking the Romanian major for the detailed information, summoned Colonel Shumov and ordered him to go with two squadrons of lancers to the area of the village of Koza and establish contact with the 7th Romanian brigade.

Having studied in detail the Romanian operational maps, the baron ordered General Zhukov with the Akhtyr hussars and four guns of the Don battery to occupy the village of Gurastrada. Colonel Smirnov with two hundred Orenburg Cossacks to take the village of Paltinul and establish contact with the 3rd Romanian division. The remaining parts of the division were placed in reserve in the area of the village of Poyana-Neruzha. The division headquarters was located in the village of Vidra.

In the evening, with a large convoy, the commander of the 7th Romanian brigade, the richest landowner in Romania, Colonel Prince Sturdza, arrived at Mannerheim's headquarters. Military operations were going on in the area where he owned seven thousand hectares of fertile land, with thousands of farm laborers. His luxurious mansion in Iasi could compete only with the building of the Russian mission and was incomparable with the modest dwelling of the king of Romania.

In front of Mannerheim stood a man of medium height, well-built, swarthy, with a large, well-groomed mustache and a beautiful mop of hair. The colonel was accompanied by three officers who literally looked into his mouth, ready to fulfill his every whim.

Demonstrating an excellent knowledge of the French language, the prince began the conversation with the remark:

My general, why are you placed in such a bad house? Not far from here, only eight kilometers away, are two of my hunting lodges. There, General, you will be like in a fairy tale. And what kind of maids do I have there! Captain Chandriu, go immediately and prepare everything for the reception of guests.

My colonel, - Mannerheim answered, - thank you for your concern, but I did not come here with my soldiers to rest in your beautiful places. Your situation and mine are quite serious, and we have no time for hunting lodges. Please come to the map. Let's think about our joint actions. You see, on this 55-kilometer front, next to your brigade, I placed the regiments of my division. On the left flank we have the first Nerchinsk Cossack Regiment of the Heir to the Tsarevich. I look forward to meeting with its commander, Colonel Baron Pyotr Wrangel.

Yesterday, colonel, my lancers felt your "news" in their own skin. With your retreat, you broke all the decisions of my headquarters, leaving the enemy such important positions for the two of us. Now we are deprived of good horse attacks, we will have to crawl over your mountains. You, colonel, forced me to urgently attack the enemy near the villages of Koza and Gerastrau.

My general, the main body of my brigade has now taken up positions on the Makredeu mountain range, where my two artillery batteries are stationed.

On December 13, in order to stabilize the front line, General Mannerheim ordered the Orenburg Cossacks of Colonel Ivan Smirnov to occupy the village of Nereyul, sending one hundred to the height of 1372. The Romanians rifle regiment, which additionally entered the Vrancea group, was ordered by the general to advance to the village of Barzeshti. The Starodub Dragoons were placed in a "hot reserve".

Lieutenant Colonel Georgievich handed over an urgent telegram from the commander of the 2nd Romanian Army, which read: “To General Mannerheim. By any means and means I order to occupy the Putno station. If you need my support, please let me know. Averesko.

Having gathered the brigade commanders and discussed the difficult situation of the 12th Cavalry Division, in which the Romanians put it, Mannerheim decided to create a military group, offering to lead it to Colonel Alexander Bagaldin. The group included two squadrons from dragoons and lancers, three infantry battalions of Romanians, reinforced by two scooter companies and six guns.

On the evening of December 13, a military group attacked the Putno railway station from three sides. The enemy met the attackers with hurricane fire. The furious rattle of rifles with the imperious accompaniment of machine guns resounded in the mountains with a menacing thunderous echo. In a rare chain, losing their dead and wounded, lancers, dragoons and infantrymen relentlessly approached the German positions.

Shooting and adding speed, the chains began to close. The soldiers run out of breath - it's hot, some throw off their overcoats. The enemy is close. Bayonets came into play. In a fearful crowd, throwing down their weapons, the Germans began to gradually leave their trenches. Putno station and a small village near it are in Russian hands. Prisoners are taken away under escort. Everyone was saddened by the sad news: during the attack, an unparalleled brave officer, Colonel Bagaldin, whom Mannerheim greatly appreciated, was killed by a stray bullet. Colonel Nikolai Shumov took command of Bagaldin's military group. In the joy of victory, he forgot to order the unit commanders to re-equip the German positions, reorienting them towards the enemy.

The next day, at dawn, when the victors were peacefully resting, having emptied several barrels of captured wine and forgetting about the outposts, the Germans, approaching imperceptibly from the south, attacked the station.

Suffering heavy losses, the Russians and Romanians hastily retreated in complete disarray.

Upon learning of this, Mannerheim, an extremely restrained and correct person, could not stand it and, in the heat of anger, "overlaid" Shumov with all the Russian curses known to him, ordering, under pain of an officer's court of honor, to immediately liberate the Putno station from the enemy. The general additionally included a squadron of Belgorod lancers and two battalions of Romanians in Shumov's group, ordering Colonel Sturdz's brigade to cover the Russian flanks.

During the attack on the Putno station, when the enemy began to retreat, the 7th Romanian brigade, for some unknown reason, began to retreat, exposing the flanks of Shumov's military group.

Seeing that the Russians and Romanians were about to be surrounded by the enemy, General Mannerheim ordered them to retreat to reserve positions in the mountains, northwest of the village of Koza.

Communication with the regiments of Prince Sturdz was cut off, as he unexpectedly moved towards the village of Sovezh.

Having assessed the situation and his combat capabilities, Mannerheim decided that on the right flank of the Vrancea group, only Colonel Alexei Odintsev could stop the German offensive.

A new military group is being urgently formed, which includes a brigade of the 12th cavalry division, four regiments of Romanians and four guns. An attempt to establish contact with the brigade of Prince Sturdza again failed.

No sooner had Colonel Odintsev’s units taken their established positions than a message was received that the first Nerchinsk Cossack regiment of the Ussuri Cavalry Division was moving to the rear, exposing the left flank of the Vrancea group.

The general immediately telephoned the commander of the Ussuri division, General Krymov, and asked him to meet. Krymov avoided the meeting, sending Colonel Wrangel instead.

"Heron", as Gustav jokingly called the baron, could not say anything specific, and in general it was not clear why he had come.

The further fate of this man is interesting. After Krymov left for a new position - corps commander - Wrangel became the commander of the Ussuri cavalry division, then the 7th division. Since August 1918, he was a baron in the Volunteer Army in various command positions, and in April 1920 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia. In exile, Wrangel founded and headed the Russian Combined Arms Union. He died in 1928 in Brussels and was buried in Belgrade.

The departure from the positions of the Ussuri division forced Mannerheim to transfer the Orenburg Cossacks to this area, who were later replaced by the brigade of Prince Sturdza.

On the afternoon of December 16, the Germans launched a stubborn offensive against the front of units of the 12th Cavalry Division. The village of Gara-Tulchin changed hands many times, but the Russians steadfastly held their mountain positions. The right-flank neighbors of the division - the regiments of Prince Sturdza retained their position. For several days Mannerheim's headquarters had been housed in shacks roughly “glued together” of unhewn stones, without stoves. Here I had to try a local brew of cornmeal with garlic and onions, which looks like black dough.

On the morning of December 17, the Germans, having broken through the front of the Romanian units on the Negreleshti River, entered the rear of the military group of Colonel Odintsev, who, despite the help of the uhlans, had to retreat. Sturdza's brigade miraculously retained its positions and even captured a company of Germans.

On December 18, the front of the international group "Vrancea" stabilized. At 4 p.m., the Caucasian native division approached the positions of the 12th Cavalry Division. The division commander, Prince Dmitry Bagration, announced that his regiments were being transferred to Mannerheim, who, quickly assessing the situation, handed over all the Romanian units subordinate to him to Colonel Prince Sturdze.

In the evening, for the first time in two weeks, a large mail arrived from the city of Iasi. Opening the Stock Exchange Sheets, Mannerheim was surprised to read the following message, circled in black:

DEATH OF GRIGORY RASPUTIN

Today at six in the morning, in one of the aristocratic mansions of the capital, after a party, Grigory Rasputin-Novykh suddenly ended his life.

The newspaper did not give any more information on this topic.

Mannerheim met Rasputin several times at palace receptions in St. Petersburg, but was not personally introduced to him. In conversations with friends and ladies-in-waiting of the Empress, especially Vyrubova, he heard many, often opposite, opinions about the "old man". The rumor about the death of Rasputin quickly spread throughout all the regiments. The officers discussed this death in different ways, seeing it as a pledge of great changes in Russian politics. The comments of the soldiers were interesting. They said: “The tsar received Egory (St. George's cross), and the queen lost her Gregory. Now it will become easier for us, maybe the war will end, because Grishka will no longer muddy the waters in Russia.

During December 19, the position of the Vrancea group remained unchanged. The 7th Romanian brigade with units attached to it occupied a position on the southern bank of the Valeya Sushitsa river up to the heights near the town of Sovezha. Next were the positions of the Caucasian native division to the village of Topeshti. Next to them were the regiments of the 12th Cavalry Division to the village of Naruzh. In reserve were two infantry regiments and one squadron of lancers.

Around eight o'clock in the evening on December 20, the Germans with a surprise attack knocked down the right-flank units of the Romanians from their positions.

Anticipating the possibility of breaking through the front of his units, General Mannerheim put forward his reserve to help the Romanians, which made it possible to restore the situation to some extent.

The next day, at noon, the enemy attacked the center of the Vrancea group - the Caucasian native division, but was repulsed.

Having regrouped their units, the Germans began to advance on the left flank of the Vrancea group in order to bypass it. This blow was taken by the units of General Zhukov, to support which the baron sent two hundred Orenburg Cossacks.

On the night of December 20-21, the situation on the Russian front line suddenly changed dramatically. All regiments of the Ussuri division of General Krymov went to the rear, exposing the front line between the units of General Zhukov and the 3rd Romanian Corps. The section of the front in the region of the mountain range with peak 1001, which dominated the entire area, turned out to be open to the enemy.

This "Crimean maneuver" put the Vrancea group in a difficult position. If the Germans had taken the positions of the regiments of the Ussuri division, then the escape route would have been cut off for the Vrancea group, and the enemy would have calmly gone to the rear of the 3rd Romanian corps and the entire 4th Russian army.

Mannerheim reported to the front commander about this arbitrariness of General Krymov, but he did not receive an intelligible answer other than “act according to the situation”. Emigrant and partly Soviet military historians interpret this act of Krymov in different ways. Some refer to his words: "... I lost all confidence in my Romanian neighbors and withdrew, considering myself entitled not to expose my parts to be cut off." True, for some reason he forgot that, in addition to the Romanians, he had other neighbors - Mannerheim's regiments. Others explain Krymov's behavior by the order of the front commander, which Mannerheim did not receive, on the concentration of a large mass of cavalry in the Galati region under the general command of General Count Keller. This formation was supposed to be thrown behind German lines.

Military ethics, observance of it in relations with neighboring units and colleagues in the service, Major General Mannerheim, as his friends recalled, never violated. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about many Russian generals.

Waging stubborn bloody battles with the Germans on a many-kilometer front, the Vrancea group did not have free reserve units that could fill the gap left by Krymov's regiments. Having calculated his capabilities, the baron sends three cavalry patrols (60 people) here, ordering them to imitate Russian units.

On the evening of December 21, the enemy launched an attack on the town of Sovezha - the center of the front of the Vrancea group - and began a massive artillery shelling of the positions of the 7th Romanian brigade and units attached to it. Unable to withstand the blow of the enemy, the Romanians withdrew, leaving the village of Barzeshti.

The next day, three regiments of the 1st Romanian division and a regiment of Romanian volunteers came to the town of Vidru to help Mannerheim's units. All of them were sent to the area of the front break.

Under the onslaught of significant enemy forces, supported by powerful artillery and machine-gun fire, the front line of the Vrancea group was violated. The regiments of the 12th Cavalry Division began to withdraw along the valley of the Putna River. The patrols that filled the gap in the front line also had to withdraw, since the Romanian units that were supposed to replace them arrived at this site very late.

The 3rd and 13th Romanian divisions, under pressure from the enemy, began to retreat, despite the order of the corps commander to restore their position. The Romanians, by their retreat, put the Ufa-Samara Cossack regiment under attack by the enemy. Given the current situation, General Mannerheim sends his last reserve to the aid of the Cossacks - a Romanian regiment and one squadron of Akhtyr hussars. As a result, the Vrancea group was left without reserves and without communication with the 3rd Romanian Corps.

The Germans, with the support of heavy artillery, launched an attack on the front of the Vrancea group from three sides. Unable to withstand the onslaught of the enemy, the 12th Cavalry and Native Divisions began to retreat. Mannerheim orders to restore the position of his units. But only the 12th Cavalry Division manages to accomplish this, and then only with heavy losses.

The next two days turned into a "stream" retreat of all Romanian units. As a result of this, the 12th Cavalry Division had to withdraw its left flank for three kilometers, while the right flank itself, without orders, began to retreat to the east.

By nightfall, fearing a possible catastrophe on his left flank, General Mannerheim orders all units of the Vrancea group, without losing contact with the 15th Romanian division, to retreat north, closer to the units of the 7th Romanian brigade, in order to prevent the retreat of the entire 4th th army.

By evening, when the fighting near the mountain range had calmed down a little, the staff officers, knowing that on this day, like all Western Christians, their commander was celebrating Christmas, prepared a modest Christmas table with a bottle of French champagne and a small gift - a set of captured German lighters.

Having learned about the loss of the main mountain range with a height of 1001, the commander of the 2nd Romanian army ordered all units subordinate to him to attack him. Stubborn battles began.

On the afternoon of December 26, when the 12th Cavalry Division was replaced by units of the Romanian 3rd Corps, Mannerheim immediately transferred them to his reserve.

The rest of the Vrancea group was ordered to defend the front from the village of Rakoaza to Serbeshti. On the same day, in the rear of the Vrancea group, three divisions of the 3rd Cavalry Corps of General Count Keller completed their concentration.

On the site, which was defended by the brigade of Colonel Prince Strudza, stubborn battles were going on all the time, which gradually covered the right flank of the Native Division.

On December 28, General Mannerheim decided to replace the units of the Native Division, badly battered in the last, successful battles for it, with units subordinate to Prince Sturdza. However, the prince declared that his regiments were completely exhausted and he could no longer hold on. Mannerheim ordered the 12th Cavalry Division to relieve the natives, and General Zhukov, who was temporarily acting division commander, to take overall command of the combat area.

On December 29–31, the position of the Vrancea group did not change; it fought moderate battles. At 4 p.m. on the last day of the year, Major General Mannerheim transferred the division headquarters, which served as the headquarters of the Vrancea group, to the village of Varnitsa, where a New Year's Eve was organized, to which nurses were invited for the first time.

Around 23:00 they sat down at the tables. Although there was enough wine and food, there was no festive mood among the team of officers. The weariness accumulated during the years of the war and the uncertainty that 1917 promised everyone had an effect. General Mannerheim's first toast was very short:

Lord, I pray to God that happiness, health and military success do not leave us in the New Year!

The last was the laconic toast of the chief of staff of the division, Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Georgievich: “For our Russia, gentlemen!”

Portal for the student. Self-training

Romanian front of the First World War. Romanian army on the fronts of the First World War

background

Romanian army

Fighting in 1916

Fighting in 1917

Effects

see also

Notes

Comments

Literature

background [ | ]

Romanian army [ | ]

Fighting in 1916[ | ]

Fighting in 1917[ | ]

Effects [ | ]

see also [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

Comments [ | ]

Literature [ | ]

Portal for the student. Self-training

background

Romanian army

Fighting in 1916

Fighting in 1917

Effects

see also

Notes

Comments

Literature

background [ | ]

Romanian army [ | ]

Fighting in 1916[ | ]

Fighting in 1917[ | ]

Effects [ | ]

see also [ | ]

Notes [ | ]

Comments [ | ]

Literature [ | ]

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