Romanian Campaign 1916 ,Over Carpathian Mountains

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Strange Russian conceptions.

The advices of General Alekseev

In the wake of evacuation of Ardeal,we were pushed on to the frontier line.It was not about liberating now the enslaved provinces ;it was about defending with the last of energies ,the Carpathians barrier,to escape the rest of the territory by enemy invasion,by war horrors,plunders ,violence and humiliation.Tragic turning of things!

Energic and fast measures were thus imposed.The first thought was to the allies help.In our imediate vecinity was the powerful Russian ally,with his neverending resources of men and material.The inaction of the Russians was not to be understood,in the first epoch of the war,when suspicion did not started to grow in our souls,yet.It could not be comprehended the slowlyness with which the Russians were working for a cause which identified with theirs.As in Dobrogea and at the Danube River,the involvement of the Russian Army was so weak,as we were forced to send there one third of our army,imobilising her on a secondary front,as importance,on the Norther Front ,the Russian army did not haste at all to profit by the crated situation of our entering in the war.Instead of sending important forces through the Moldavian Northern Passes ,opened up by Romanians,to turn the right Austrian flank,the Russian stubborned to give to this army frontal attacks ,moistured and sterile.From this cause,the right of the Romanian Army of North,was as even obstacled in her advance ,and forced to hang on to the left flank of the Russian Army,in Calimani Mountains.

The Government and the Romanian Commandment have addressed then,to the Big Russian Headquarter,asking for a more vigorous participation of the Russian Army at the action on our fronts.It would have wheeled a concentration of the Romanian Army with the aim,firstly ,of a better defence and then of an offensive.General Alekseev,the Chief of the Great Russian Staff ,answers by a long telegram which brings to the light, over the sentiments and intentions of the Russians politicians and military chiefs,towards us.

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In his telegram,4th of October,General Alekseev propose the abandoning of Oltenia and Western Muntenia and retreat on a defensive line, which would go from Dorna through Miercurea Ciuc and Brasov towards Bucuresti and so forth,along Danube River towards Constanta.This sacrifice of territory of the Kingdom,with the voluntary abandoning of the two objectives purued by the enemy-the Wheat Area(also known as the Wheat of Europe) of Muntenia(Wallachia) and Danube River Harbours-when the battles of Sinca and Brasov ,have not yet taken place,when the situation did not appear so grave,as to straighting up of the situation to not be bossible in other way,must have been acompanied by the necessary destroys.Alekseev consiliates strongly as to how the grouping of the Romanian Army to be made,for defending of this line :the strongest mass(200 battalions) must be concentrated in the region between Miercura Ciuc and Brasov,to obstacle the runthrough of the enemy at Ghimes-Oituz in the Kingdom and turning of the left Russian flank;a second mass,concentrated in Northern Dobrogea,would have to obstacle the runthrough(entering) of the enemy on direction Galati-Reni.About this grouping,Alekseev takes upon himself the task of strenghtening the left wing of the Russian Army in region Toplita-Praid,with two army corpses,to give strikes to the enemy towards Bistrita and Sasi Reghin(Reghinu Sasesc) and to tempt there ,its forces.

These Russian troops would replace the Northern Romanian Army,which could withdraw to occupy positions to the South.

Alekseev telegram is revealing:it makes the test of the strange conception the Russians were making about the colaboration of the two armies.Romania and the Romanian Army did not exist and it does not add to the count,only when they were necessary for the protection of the Russian Army.If this goal,when it was the single preocupation of the Russian Commander,was obtained easily with the sacrificeing and ruin of Romania,this didi not emotion at all the Russian Government and Commandment.Maybe ,on the contrary,as the ulterior unfolding of the events will show.The retreating line proposed by Alekseev represented,still,a concesion made by the Russian Commandment to the puplic Romanian feelings,which could not bear to be proposed to abandon the capital of Romania(Bucharest or Bucuresti),because the ideal Russian defence line was Moldavian Carpathians line,in elongation with valleys of Trotus River,Siret River and Danube River,to the Black Sea.This has been the fixed ideea which obsessed the Russians during the whole 1916* campaign;any patch of territory beyond this line ,which alone answered the needs of defence of the Russian Front,was an occasion of entanglement ,of weakness and wasting of their forces.Not even the promissed aid in the region of Suceava Mountains and of Neamt was not given,although it served the strategical situation of the Russians,as much as,as little,the Romanian one.That is why,few days later,General Prezan,unsustained by Russians,has to retreat on the line of frontier,leaving without fight the whole conquered territory at the left Russian wing.

The Romanian Commandment thought that it could follow the advices well intended of the Russian General.The Kingdom terrain could not be considered as manoeuvre terrain and left as prey to the destroing plough of the enemy armies and its ally.All that have become available ,in the wake of giving up the offensive in the South,have been send to the perilled points of the Carpathians barrier at Bran,at Predeal and at Oituz,to strenghten or replace the weakened divisions,by weeks of hevy fightsA Romanian comunique released at1/14 October,showed the final calculus of the operatons at the end of the Ardeal Campaign.The total of taken prisoners,by the Romanian troops on all fronts,and interned in the camps in the Kingdom,was of 103 officers and almost 15 000 men of troops[24].

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[1]Landstrum-militia,reserve of territorial army

[2]Battle on the Oriental Theatre of the Great War,in Oriental Prusia,at which Germa troops took part and Russians(26th-30th of August 1914).The Zar's Army suffered a great defeat.It is the first big victory of the War obtained by by Feldmarshal Paul von Hindemburg

[3]On France War Theatre.Mountaineous region in Eastern France,at the frontier with Germany,where on the course of the Great War have been given heavy battles.

[4]Kossuth Lajos(1802-1894),Maghiar(Hungarian) politician,the leader of the 1848 Maghiar Revolution.

[5]Stefan The Saint,King of Hungary(997-1083), Arpadian Dinasty.

[6]On Isonzo,on the Italian Theater of Operations,where between Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies ,have been give a long stream of battles,in 1915-1918.At 13th of March 1916 it started the fifth Battle of Isonzo,as a result of general offensive of the Italian troops.

[7]Battle of Selimbar,18/28 October 1599

[8]On the Oriental Theatre of War,on the Russian-Austro-Hungarian Front.Referring to the Austro-Hungarian desaster provoked by Brusilov Offensive.

[9]Lecitzky-talentated General from Zar's Army,which acted on the South-West Russian Front.

[10]Helmuth von Moltke(1848-1916) the nephew of the brilliant Prusian General Helmuth von Moltke from the epoch of wars for uniting of Germania,German General,Chief of the Great Staff,General of Wilhelmian Reich(1906-1914)

[11]About replacing of E. von Falkenhayn with P.von Hindemburg-seconded by Ludendorff

[12]Battle of Canae between Romans and Cartaginers(216B.C.),model of military art which aims and realizes the surrounding and crushing of the adversary

[13] Sedan Battle(1-2 September 1870) between French and Prusian -German armies;French Army lead by King Napoleon the IIIrd has been forced to capitulate.The Prusian-German Army was Commanded by Prusian General Helmuth von Moltke

[14]Helmut von Moltke(1800-1891),Feldmarshal,briliant Prusian Strategist

[15]Alfred von Schlieffen(1833-1914) German Feldmarshal,the author of German stretegic plan,applyed in 1914

[16]Fort Souville constituted a base element of the French system of fortifications at Verdun.At 11th of July 1916 took place the last German action at Verdun ,especially in Souville sector ,ended in a bloody failure.

[17]At 24th of October,the Italian Front has been broken at Caporetto by Austro-Germans.The attack spear was the Bavarian Alpine Corps,which had a brilliant success.The Italian Army had known a desaster of big proportions,beeing forced to retreat in disband.Still,although Italy was wagged,almost to collapse,she has found the resources to come back,block the Austro-Hungarian Offensive on Piave and continued the war.

[18]On the Italian Front;in May 1917 in this sector as in Gorizia,have been heavy fights(at some of the operations there were also French troops,taking part)

[19]Light Cavalry,in French Language

[20]At 19th of August/1st of September had taken place Turtucaia Battle-South of Danube River-which the Romanians have lost in front of the Bulgaro-Germans armies

[21]On French War Theatre.At 3rd of September 1916 have taken place a general attack of the French-British allies on the Somme Front,from Ancre to Chilly

[22]On the Russian-Austro-German Front.

[23]Andrei the II-nd of Hungary of Arpadian Dinasty

[24]Pretaining to the Romanian Army campaign in Transilvania etc.

Also,

[151]C.M.Karoly(1875-1955),Hungarian politician

[152] Hindenburg und Beckendorff,Paul von-(1847-1934),German feldmarshal(1914) Chief of the High Commandment of the army starting in August 1916,President of the Republic between wars.At the beginning of the War he Commanded German armies on Oriental Front,against Russia,obtaining tactical resounding victories."The Brain" ,strategical and tactical of the German Army of East,and from 1916,on whole fronts was ,though,Erich Ludendorff.In the high political circles and military ones of Germany,the old Feldmarshal Hindenburg was ,most of the times,considered "a respected zero"

[153]Erich Ludendorff(1865-1937),German General and politician,author of works-including memoirs-pertaining WW1,in which he played a proeminent role...etc

[154]Charles M. Mangin(1866-1925),French General,the initiator of military reforms in France antebelic

[155]Douaumont-Fort of the system of fortifications at Verdun.It has been reconquered by the French at 24th of October 1916