Romanian Campaign of 1916,The Campaign in Dobrogea

[Sgt_Hazell_Great_Grandson]

Thanks.

[razu]

Hazell,

Thank You.

Andrei

[purley]

Andrei

Andrei

Many thanks for posting this. I am at the moment researching the occupation of Dubrugia by 26 Div/ in 1918/19 to facilitate the handover from Bulgaria to Roumania. Any info you have on the period would be welcomed. I am also on the look out for copies of the Roumanian maps SILISTRA and CONSTANZA 1:20000 which were used by the British in 1919. - Any ideas?

regards

John

[razu]

Andrei

Many thanks for posting this. I am at the moment researching the occupation of Dubrugia by 26 Div/ in 1918/19 to facilitate the handover from Bulgaria to Roumania. Any info you have on the period would be welcomed. I am also on the look out for copies of the Roumanian maps SILISTRA and CONSTANZA 1:20000 which were used by the British in 1919. - Any ideas?

regards

John

John,

You have to go on any internet search engine(yahoo.com, for instance) and look for 1.Treaty of Bucharest 1913;2.Treaty of Neuilly.I have no ideea about the maps.In any case it is/was the same map of 1913 Bucharest Treaty, as no concessions were made to Bulgaria by Entente.

Thank you.

Andrei

p.s It is Constanta.

[razu]

The bloody day of 5th of September

The quiet day of Monday,4th of September,was used by Bulgarians to occupy the attack positions and set the heavy artillery in the best firing position.The concentration of the enemy around the bridgehead Turtucaia was now fulfiled:Hammerstein Detachment at the left,the 4th Preslav Division at the center and the 1st Brigade Sofia at the right side.The other two brigades of Sofia Division,together with one cavalry brigade ,were placed towards South-East,as observation posts facing Silistra.They had to obstacle,either the flow of the Romanian troops from Turtucaia towards Silistra,or ,especially,an eventual trial of the Romanian garrison in Silistra to come in the aid of Turtucaia.Very judicious measures ,as it has been proven later.

The day of Tuesday,5th of September,had to be the day of the great attack for forcing the principal line of defense of the bridgehead ;the fortified belt.It has been a tremendously bloody day.

At 6,30 in the morning ,the enemy artillery started the bombarding of the Romanian positions.At 7 all Bulgarian batteires were in action.The intention of the enemy was evident,for an atent observer.The mass of the Bulgarian artilley was concentrated against the middle sector ,Daidir.Centrals 6-9 were being bombed by 21 batteries with 84 mouths of fire,from which 40 cannons and heavy howitzers.A captive baloon ,dragged by an automobile ,floated over Covangilar Village,South of Daidir,conducting the firing range.The Central number 8 is,especially tremendously bombarded,as the anexe in its right side,between Centrals 7 and 8.The response of the Romanian cannons ,within the attacked sector was greatly inferior.It was an enormous artillery disproportion .The attacked sector -the weakest of the three Sectors,-had only three cannons of 105 mm and seven howitzers of 120 mm;there were four turrets of 53 mm.The bombardment of the enemy artillery,concentrated over this small space ,is frightening.The air vibrates under the effect of the powerful explosions.From the fortified line ,from the center and the trenches ,are rising spins of ground and thick clouds of smoke.The Centrals on the line of Satu Vechi,are perfectly visible by the enemy and they can be striked in full.

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At 8,10.the Bulgarian Commandment considers the artillery prepare as sufficient.The heavy artillery elongated its firing range ,striking the back line of the Romanian Centrals ,and the enemy infantry begin to attack .In reality,the action of the Bulgarian artillery,with all its violence ,has not been destroing alltogether.It has been to short as duration ;the diggings made by it ,in the fortified line ,were not big;the Centrals had not suffered so much.The defence against the enemy infantry attack could have been made with eficacity;it reclamed,firstly,the strenghtening of the fighting line of the attacked sector.The Romanian Commander had not ,though,realised the situation.Although the enemy had unmask its intentions ,the Romanian Commander sends the arrived reinforcements also in the I-st Sector.The attacked sector has been left to its own strenghts.And they were infime next to the overwhwlming power of the attack.

The Bulgarians give a principal attack with four regiments-16 battalions -of the Preslav Division,against Centrals 6,7 ,8 which are occupied by troops of the 78th Slobozia Regiment,and a secondary attack with two regiments-eight battalions-of the 1st Sofia Brigade,against Central 11,defended by two companies of the 76th Romanian Regiment .Wave after wave ,throws the Bulgarian infantry over to the Romanian lines ;the field cannons follow the waves in their advance.The imense corn fields ,uncut in the face of Romanian lines,favour the advance of Bulgarians.

The Bulgarian bombardment has taken out of the fight some of the cannons of the Romanian batteries of the sector;the other have harnassed and retreated.A Romanian divizion of howitzers of 105 mm,arrived in the eve ,is send by the commander in Daidir sector.Arrived in the midst of the fight ,he has started imediately a thundering bombardment over the waves of Bulgarians attackers.They are the only Romanian cannons firing in the attacked sector,but their precise and quick firing range makes ravages in the rows of the enemy.The Bulgarian Supreme Commander describes the fight in this way:"The Romanian heavy field artillery throws hurricanes of fires,as our batteries cover the space with a stonerain of shrapnels.Our men fall by the dozens.The field is full of dead bodies.The wounded fell without a moan,pursuing the enemy with threats.The officers dissapear one after the other,dead or wounded;sub-officers the same".But the disproportion of forces is crushing.The Central No.8 and its anexes from the right and left,to the 9th Central,are attacked by Bulgarian Regiments 7th Preslav and 31st Varna.The Central 7 is attacked by 19th Sumla Regiment;the 6th Central is attacked by 48th Regiment(Bulgarian) Infantry.In thhe General Rezerve at Denizler is kept Regiment 47th(Bulgarian).

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The Romanian Centrals are defended by a single company,each,and the intermediary spaces ,between centrals also by one company.

The fight is furious in front of 8th Central,where the Bulgarians give the principal attack.The fires of infantry and machineguns of the defenders in the center and of the howitzers in the back,keep to respect the attackers.Wave after wave falls into the field of woolf-holes in the ground ,in front of the barb wire nets;other waves follow after the destroyed ones .But the Romanian Howitzers Divizion,which sustains the fight,has finished the munition provissions.The service of replenishment has not been organized;the cannon servants have to harness the horses and retreat from the battle.The Central remains to resist without support of artillery against the troops of two entire regiments ,which attack with fury,without carring about losses.The 6th Company of the 79th Regiment,which defends the Central,decimated by bombardment have remained with only one officer,reservist,the teacher Lixeanu Nedelcu*.Completely isolated by the fire barrier of the enemy,without any communication with the neighbouring centrals or with the back,overwhelmed by the crushing superiority of the enemy,Lixeanu conducts heroicaly the fight,manhoods the troops and dies,hit by a bullet,on the Central's edge-wall.Only now ,going over his body the enemy mass enters inside the Central,between the ruins were there were left only 25 fighters ,alive.The anexes in the right and left ,as Centrals 7 and 6 attacked in front and menaced from flank ,had to be evacuated and the defenders retreated towards the recolecting lines,behind.An attempt of counterattack,starting from the recollection lines towards Central 8th ,with the reserves of 79th Regiment ,does not succeeds.Lieut-Colonel Popescu,which conducts the counterattack ,falls dead,hit by a bullet,and the Romanian troops retreat through the woods.

At 12,the line of the Centrals ,has been broken in its middle .The enemy payed dearly the victory:in front of 8th Central ,dead and wounded were laying dozens.Between them was the Commander of Varna Regiment and all his Commanders of Battalions.The Command of the Bulgarian Regiment is taken by a captain.

The secondary attack is given by Bulgarians with the whole Brigade of Sofia-eight battalions-against Central 11 in front of Antimova Village.The masses of Bulgarian infantry sustained by the artillery which followed them,sneak by right and left of the Central 11 .The 11th central resist heroic for five hours ,the soul of the resistance is the Commander of the Central ,the reservist Lieutenant Titus Axente.At 1,30 in the afternoon ,hit deadly,Axente falls.the enemy invades the central and falls in the fires of the 80th Romanian Battalion,which was coming from behind in aid.

The intermediary Centrals 9th and 10th ,threatened in flank and by the back by enemy columns ,which eneterd through the seized Centrals ,are evacuated by defenders.In the anexes in the left of the 9th central ,Sub-Lieutenants Rotaru Ion and Vasilescu Cristodor,although surrounded ,continue to fight until the powerful enemy gets into the trenches and kills them with bayonet.

At 2,30 in the afternoon ,an enormous breach has been made in the fortified belt of Turtucaia.The whole central part of the fortified position ,from centrals 5-11 ,is in the hand of the enemy.The remains of the defending troops were retreating disorganized ,through the forest in the back;the entire fix and semimobile artillery went in to the hand of the enemy.This one,exhausted, by the losses suffered,with disorganized units,could not advance further;the units of 4th Preslav Division had to stop in the South edge of the forest where they remained all day.

At this hour ,the tactical situation of the bridgehead was,without a doubt,grave,not disperate,though.The enemy was itself in a very risky situation.between the right wing of the Division of Preslav(Centrals 8-9) and the left wing of the Sofia Brigade(Central 11) was a big gap,where there were no Bulgarian troops.The enemy Commander had no reserves with which to fill the gap,and the troops of Preslav Division ,diorganized ,were imobilized at the forest edge.The Romanian Commander has,on the contrary, five battalions ,freshly arrived from over the Danube River ,unengaged in the fight.A powerful counterattack ,made with big force in the right wing of Preslav Division,coud have radicaly changed the situation,and the Commanders of sectors ,by the inertia or their bad moves ,have contributed more to the agravation of the situation.

In this way ,Leut-Colonel Marinescu Al.,the Commander of the East sector Antimova,impressed by the fall of Central 11,apreciates that "the situation is lost" and gives the order to the troops to occupy the rest of the line of Centrals 12-15,until the Danube River and which have not at all been engaged into the fight,to leave the position and to retreat on III-rd line of defence.The retreat is made in disorder and degenerates into panic.Men throw their weapons .The crowd of runaways changes direction of retreat and goes to Cuzgunlac Valley towards the Danube,towards the embarking pontoons.Some cross the river on the other shore ;others are brought with difficulty into the fighting zone,or gather on the plateau of barracks of Turtucaia.Antimova sector of the fortified belt has remained without any defence ,whatsoever;the enemy-the troops of Sofia Brigade -advance here,not stopped by anybody. and close in to the III-rd line ,the only barrier wich separates the enemy by Turtucaia.A battalion of 84th Romanian Regiment runs to reconstitue the line of the front .

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While the Southern sector ,Daidir-defended by 79th Regiment-sucombs under the principal effort of the enemy,executed by the entire Division of Preslav,while the Eastern sector,Antimova,runthrough at Central 11 under the central attack of the Sofia Brigade ,was then left by the disbanded troops of the 76th Regiment,The Western sector,Satu Vechi,where the Commander of the bridge head massed the most important forces of infantry and artillery,has not been attacked.The strong firing range of artillery kept to respect ,at distance the Hammerstein column,destined by the enmy Commander to attack this sector;the Romanian cannons have even contributed,by their oblique firing,to make big losses to the enemy ,which has attacked the neighbour sector.For ease the situation of Daidir sector, the troops of sector Satu Vechi have started a counterattack between Centrals 4 and 6,with South direction,to hit in flank the enemy columns which were going from Siahlar towards Daidir,going through the front of Centrals 5,6,7.The operation was very badly conducted.the attack troops -two battalions and two companies of machineguns of Regiments 36th and 75th -have started in disband ,in groups without connection,without having the precise knowledge of the goal of the action and of their objectives and some,without having ahead of them,their Commanders.the trial had no result and was rejected.

The troops of the Germano-Bulgarian column Hammerstein have started in the afternoon the attack of Central 3,prepared with heavy artillery and of field,from direction Satu Vechi.the attack is weak,counterstriked with efficacity by Romanian artillery and repulsed.But the troops which defend I-st sector are threatened from left ,by where the enemy had broken the fortified belt.By the order of the Romanian Commander,they evacuate line of Centrals 4,3 and 2 and retreat towards the III-rd line.Has remained occupid only Central 1,to which the artillery on the shores of Danube ,islets and fleet,ensured an effective defence.The Centrals have been occupied much later by the enemy;a Romanian Company has reoccupied by evening Central 2;two platoons have remained over the night inside of it,even.

Encouraged by the easy success obtained in the attack against Antimova sector ,the enemy troops of the Sofia Brigade have started the advance against the III-rd Romanian line.The advance is made possible,more ,by the imense corn fields from the South-East part of Turtucaia.With what could be gathered from the Romanian troops retreated on from the front of the sector and with the fresh ones,arrived in the morning of the day,the Romanian Commander organizes the defence of the III-rd line and in the afternoon of the day,he prepares to give counterstrikes in the periled directions ,to dam the advance of the enemyand try the reconquer of the Centrals.the Romanian counterattack was made in two directions .One with South direction ,along driveway Turtucaia-Daidir ,with the troops of 74th Regiment and with 75th Regiment;the second one towards South -East ,along driveway Turtucaia-Silistra ,with troops of Regiments 34th,80th and 84th.The counterattacks have been given weak.the detachments,without an unitary Command ,had rared and lost contact.Send into the fire,imediately as they arrived on the disembarking dock,sometimes without Commanders,without precise indication of the line they had to occupy,neither the objective they had to attack ,without the knowledge of the terrain ,without support connections ,the troops advanced in blind ,falling in the midst of grenades storms and of shrapnels ,received from the front or from flank ,mixing with other troops demoralised and taken by panic.In vain were the heroism acts of some officers which,with cold blood and rest,advanced on horses in front of the troops or standingin the line of shooters,to rise the moral of the fighters;in vain was the action of some detachments ,isolated,which advanced in regulated formation ,under the fires of enemy artillery.The heroism of some ,the elan of others had only as result multiplying the martyr,unuseful of these such badly lead fights.*

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At the extreme right wing the Commander of the Village Satu Vechi,gives a counterattack with trops from the Central 1 towards the abandoned positions from Satu Vechi pond;the offensive ,unprepared ,crazy,it is received in a lively fire of machineguns and rejected with big losses.At the extreme left wing,North of Silistra Driveway,enemy troops of the 9th Regiment Tirnovo,advancing fast over Cuzngunlac valley,close in to the III-rd line.A battalion of Graniceri ,freshly arrived from over the Danube ,is send in haste there.With an extraordinary elan,in running pace,superb,agitating the rifle in one hand and the hat(capela) in the other,have jumped like a storm the Granicerii(frontier troops) against the line of Bulgarian shooters ,which were advancing through the cornfield.Bundels of bullets of rifle and machinegun receive them and cut them ,but Granicerii attack with bayonet and with the rifle bed.The enemy lines are broken and pushed back .The Bulgarians have big losses especially in officers;terrified by this frightening attack ,they run and hide in Cuzgunlac Forest.Aids from the neighbour Sofia Regiment arrive in running;a divizion of artillery takes position and opens a violent fire .Unsupported by nobody,remained isolated in the fight with the superior enemy,exposed to the concentric fire,the heroic Graniceri are forced to retreat towards the entrenches of the III-rd line,seeding the ground with numerous dead and wounded their triumphal way.The Romanian counterattack had given no result.But also the situation of the enemy,which has suffered enormous losses and disorganized with the units ,alltogether,it is a very dangerous one.A great forcing may change the face of things now.But who is to take the initiative,organize it and lead it?The Romanian Commander is dishoriented and depressed.the Commander thinks to give a new counterattack by evening,sending into the fire also the new units arrived into the afternoon of the day.It is reported to him that it would be hard to gather the men,spread through cornfields and forest,and the Commanders of the troops are not to be found.The attack is postponed for the next day.

The army of Turtucaia has been gravely touched in her moral.The Commander has lost faith in itself and in the troop,and the troop has lost the faith in victory and her Gommander.All the orders,preparations and moves are made without tidiness,precipitated,under the impression of the moment.Lack of tidiness brings bewilderment and crowding.By nothing ,panic births and panic is the presign of defeat.Without visible motives,smaller or larger units leave the positions ,hide or run away,dragging in their spin other officers or troops in their way.The untidiness and panic are alimented and propagated by numerous Bulgarian locals,or soldiers in some fighting regiments,recruited in Dobrogea.At the attacks given by their units,the Bulgarian trumpeteers sound the retreat, in the moment of collision with the enemy.Liaison agents,real or improvised ,from the same hood,communicated the orders upsidedown and all,as they saw Bulgarian heads ,twrow the weapons and run to surrender,cursing us.At the attack of 74th Regiment,on Daidir driveway,liaison of this kind has asked in big mouth,that the artillery to elongate its range,when on the contrary,it has to be shortened;such that the Romanian projectiles fall behind the Bulgarian lines ,without obstacling their advance.An officer,who was Commanding a platoon of Bulgarians from Dobrogea,has been left by his soldiers and,wanting to bring them to listen,firing with the revolver,has been shot by his own men,wounded and made prisoner.The semimobile artillery could not be saved,after leaving the Centrals,because the local Bulgarians and Turks have dissappeared with the oxes harnesses ,alltogether,which they were driving.The wagoons with munition and provisions,drove by Bulgarians from Dobrogea,have been turned upside down into the road and abandoned.Groups of soldier were taking run into the city,lamentating in big mouth and demoralizing the new troops ,arriving,by their exagerated stories.A very well organized espionaje ,was reeling the Bulgarians about the movement of the Romanain troops.

The evening came to stop the fight ;both adversaries ,exhausted by fights,needed rest and time to tidy up their troops.the tomorrow had to bring the decissive fight.

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*At counterattack was also send one of the three battalions of Militieni(Policemen) of the bridgehead.The soldierly value of these troops -old men ,badly equiped ,armed with old weapons and weak assigned -was absolut zero.There are storied many pathetic episodes of the fights in which they took part these miserables.In this way,in the face of the advancing enemy,they were crossing themselves(making the sign of the cross) through shelters,praying to God with the words:"Stop them God!".In one place they have been foun out by Captain D. of 74th Regiment in a entrenche,hidden at the bottom of the ditch and firing from time to time in the air;being asked what are they doing there ,they answere:"Heh ,we fire to scare them ,God blast 'em!"

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Trials of aid from outside

In the general Headquarter of the III-rd Romanian Army,the Commander receives in the course of the day alarming reports.At 11,30,Teodorescu reports that the situation is very critical,centrals 7,8,9 lost;part of the troops fight badly.At 12,50 he comes back,communicating that the "situation is disperate".The Commander of the Army communicates this situation to the Great Headqarter.Because the arriving of help was in course,at Turtucaia ,where five battalions had arrived and by evening it was supposed to arrive the rest of 11,the Great Headquarter communicates to the Commander of the bridgehead:"Turtucaia must not fall:the garrison has to resist until the last man.Fresh reinforcements will come in aid".In the same time ,the Commander of the III-rd Army wants to intervene in other way,too.Until now,General Aslan,Commander of the III-rd Romanian Army,has done nothing else but to throw battalions ,inside the invested(conquered) fortress, of the 15th Division.It seems now that the General realizes that an invested fortress cannot be saved but only by an exterior manoeuvre.Only in the day of 5th of September ,when the situation is compromised and the possibilities of success greatly diminished,he thinks to execute a great offensive to unblock Turtucaia,with all the Romanian and Russian forces of the III-rd Army,which were in the South of Dobrogea.Especially at Silistra ,at a distance of only 38 Miles ,was the 9th Romanian Division,a good division,made out of active troops ,which was staying in an inexplicable unactivity,by the strategical insuficiency of the Commander of the III-rd Army,but also by the lack of initiative of Commander of Division,General Basarabescu.the Division ,had only edged herself, to retreat its forces in the inside of the fortress,letting to be invested.the orders of the great offensive move have been transmitted to the troops of the III-rd Army,Tuesday ,at 12.General Basarabescu had to execute imediately ,whith the Division,a vigorous offensive ,advancing in forced marching towards Turtucaia.In the same time,general Zaioncikovski,which Commanded the East group,had to support with the Russian Corps ,the action of General Basarabescu,sending the Russian Cvalry Division to cover the left flank of the 9th Romanian Division,in her move towards Turtucaia,and with the other two divisions of infantry to pronounce an offensive move in direction Cartbunar Acadinlar.The Commander of the III-rd Army hoped that this attack of flank will influence the operations at Turtucaia,forcing the threatened enemy to unlock the fortress.It seemed though as a fatality planed over our armies at Danube River.

Either by bad will,or by tecnical impossibilities to execute the order,by neglecting the factors "time " and "space" or from other reasons ,the intervention did not succeed.general Zaioncikovski did not attack in the direction prescribed,but has started in opposite direction,towards Bazargic.And general basarabescu has executed the prescribed move with delay and lack of energy.his intervention takes place only the next day,Wednesday 6th; it is obstacled by Bulgarian resistance at Sarsinlar ,at 9 Miles East of Turtucaia.After a short fight ,badly engaged,General Basarabescu returns to Silistra as he left.His action not only was of no help for Turtucaia,but has brought a new shame ,unexcuseable by anything,for our army.

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The day of 6th of September.

Turtucaia fall

The night has been used by Romanians to reconstitute their disorganized troops .The operation was difficult,and it succeeded not entirely.The men were spread through the forest and through cornfields,the units were very mixed up,many officers were missing ,lost from the troop,or left over the Danube.With the rests ,that could be gathered and group into units,together with the all the battalions arrived in the evening and of night-some without their Commanders-it was occupied and put in a state of defence the third line around Turtucaia.It was as we know ,a weak line ,made by elements of trenches,forseen only in some of the sectors with barbed wire fence,without any cannon on position.All the position artillery has been lost ,as the principal line of resistance was lost;it has been saved only a baterry of 150 mm and one of 105 mm.Further,only mobile artillery.Some of the cannons did not have ammunition.

The Bulgarians occupy the entire fortified belt,without Central 1 which ,under the protection of batteries of coast and of the fleet,is kept still by Romanians.They have regrouped their units for attacking the III-rd line and they have closed in the artillery towards South and West.The troops of the 4th Division Preslav and of Detachment Hammerstein are finding on the Southern edge of the forest Turtucaia.Towards South-East the troops of Sofia Brigade are more advanced;they are in front of the III-rd Romanian line.

The Romanian Commander of the bridgehead sees the situation with optimism.He has now numerical superiority in infantry.Considers the Bulgarians repulsed ,in the wake of the vigorous counterattacks from the eve,and on the other hand ,he waits,from one moment to another,the apparition on the fighting theatre of the troops of 9th Romanian Division from Silistra,to fall behind the attacker.Based on these illusions,he takes fighting dispozition .The troops occupying the III-rd line ,divided into four sectors ,will push straight forward in the pursiut of the enemy and will reoccupy the line of the centrals.In the same time it will be constituted ,in the Eastern part,a manoeuvre group,made out of mixed troops from Regiments 34th,80th ,84th and Graniceri,which would attack in the direction of driveway Silistra,to shake hands with the aid troops supposed to arrive from Silistra.Unfortunately,not one of the intentions and foresaw things,of the Commander could not be realized.The 9th Division from Silistra did not arrive through were it shold have been;she did not got but,only to Sarsinlar,to far as her effect to be felt in the back of the enemy.The manoeuvre group could not constitute;the elements which shoud made it were untidy and could not be gathered .And the advance of the troops from the III-rd line ,which was supposed to be made in the empty space left by the enemy in retreat,has stumbled on troops full of elan and well organized for attack.

The most violent fights have been in the South,along the Driveway Daidir and at East,along Silistra driveway.Few units of Regiments 34th and 74th gathered by Lieut-Colonel Petrescu,start the advance in the eve of the day,at 4,30 am ,on the left side of Daidir driveway.Hidden in an imense cornfield ,the Bulgarians receive them with salves of fires of rifles or machinegun.the Romanian attack is accelerates.A battalion of Graniceri(frontier troops) enters the fight,as well.Bulgarians are getting backwards and the Romanians follow them through the cornfield ,on a depth of almost 1 Mile.Romanians fall,though,over a strong enemy line,which opens a crushing fire;the Bulgarian artillery enters ,at its turn,into action and its precise firing range makes ravages.The rows of fighters are thinned and spread.Pieces of troops retreat,under a violent barrier fire.A braveman,Lieutenant Popescu Nita,which was finding himself with a company of 80th Regiment at the right,in the neighbour sector,unattacked ,runs from own initiative in the direction from where he sounds the noise of fight and throws himself into the turmoil on the driveway Daidir.The company is spread by the storm of fires ;the Commander gathers her again for the second time against the enemy.This time the company is wipe out,Commander killed ,but her heroic intervention gives chances to the bits and pieces of troops of Graniceri to retreat ,behind the III-rd line.

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The same thing happened to the left ,along the driveway Turtucaia-Antimova-Silistra.The troops of Sofia Brigade have started the attack on the whole stretch of front of the two Bulgarian regiments .Around 6,30 the Romanians started the counterattack with the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Graniceri Regiment and with some units of the 34th Regiment.Although,without artillery support,the Romanians attack strong and advance in the rain of bullets which flows from the cornfields.In violent body fights,the right wing of 6th Tirnovo Regiment is turned by the Graniceri and the second company of the regiment is runthrough bayonet together with its Commander.A retreat move is announced on the Bulgarian Front .But the units if Sofia neighbour Regiment run ,the Bulgarian batteries over the hills in the back and machineguns hidden in the cornfields throws fires over the attackers ,which are not sustained by nowhere.Disorganized and dizzied,the Romanian troops have begun a precipitated retreat;some have occupyed the trenches of the III-rd line ,others have continued the retreat..Small groups of fighters,reconstituted by the run aways gathered and brought back to the fight,meet the troops in retreat and form a resistance line behind a small valley which descend the driveway towards pontoon 2.At 9 in the morning ,the Romanian attack given in the sector between the driveways Daidir and Silistra ,was completely repulsed.The fight cease for a moment.Bulgarians,which have suffered heavy losses ,as well,do not pursue with infantry.They only intensify the artillery fire,elongating the firing range with which they follow now the Romanian batteries artillery,forcing them to retreat towards Turtucaia;the enemy bombardment aims ,as well,the works around Turtucaia,the city itself and Danube River.

In the same time ,as in the South East sector are taking place these violent fights ,in the South-West sector and West was relatively calm.The Bulgarian troops of Preslav Division and of Hammerstein Detachment ,entangled at the edge of the forest ,do not dear to advance ,and the order of attack of the Romanian Commander did not reach the Romanian troops of this sector.

The investment of the fortress is complete;the Bulgarians know that about a strong resistance it cannot be the word now.They dispose the troops all around for a methodical progression ,perpendicular to the forest and close in their artillery.

At around hours 9,30,the Romanian Commander receives two good news.Two Romanian airplanes,arrived in the eve of evening and sent to reconnoitre in the surroundings of Turtucaia ,reports that on the South -East driveways can be seen columns of troops marching towards the city.Obssesed by the thought of the aid he waits from Silistra and taking his wishes as reality,the Commander thinks that it cannot be something else but the long awaited 9th Division ,from Silistra,or Russian troops which come to unblock him.Based on this hypothesis ,the Commander builds imediately a new attack plan.He orders a general attack in the Western sector;this attack ,in the intention of the Commander ,was supposed to bring towards West a great part of the enemy troops from between driveways Daidir and Silistra and with this face to open up the the Eastern Front,making possible the junction of defence troops with aid troops coming from Silistra.In the same time ,the monitors on Danube receive the order to cease the fight in that part ,and the troops on the Eastern Front are notified to strenghten their resistance ,because the salvation troops are closing in and will yield in short time.

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The Romanian attack ,started in the Western sector from within the III-rd line and from within Central 1,is given without cohezion:the units are lossing touch one with the other and go through the forest in disband ,harrasing with the enemy in local skirmishes.The artillery of the sector sustains with energy the attack; some batteries are discovered by the enemy and bombarded with violence.The attack does not succeed and the Romanian troops have to return into start position ,fewed and disbanded.Gravely go things in the Eastern sector .As the Romanian troops ,wait full of joy the apparition of the liberating brothers in the back of the enemy,they see themselves all of a sudden with Bulgarians going out of the corn and beginning a furious attack.The Commander was wrong ;the troops observed by the aviators were not friendly troops,but ememy's.The desillusion of the defenders ,misslead in their assumptions puts a head to the depressing state of mind,of exhausted and discouraged minds.A crazy panic overwhelms the troops in the trenches .Groups of fighters throw their weapons and munitions and start to run away to the Danube.The panic spreads over the neighbour sector,of South.The front starts to disorganize there as well.The men feeling isolated ,make connections to the right and to the left ,not seeing their leaders anymore,start to descend the valley,crowded,filling the roads and streets of the city,with the only thought to get as fast as possible to the shore of the Danube,to find the saving boat or pntoon,to get them across.In running ,they meet troops which have not enterd the fight,they give to them their fears and disgust for fight and drag them as well in the general turmoil.The panic is ampplified by the aparition of an armoured car of the enemy which,coming from Daidir driveway,roves through the Romanian lines,filthing the troops with their machine guns and disbanding the troops which tried to keep a position and organize resistance.From within the houses of the city ,shots begin to unload in the ,here and there ,groups of runaway soldiers and the tired faces of Bulgarian inhabitants start to grimace in smiles of joy.At around 12 ,the Bulgarians,after they cleaned the forest and the terrain in front of the III-rd line,have begun the attack of the line itself by the Southern sector.The line was hard to defend,because very weak organized,being between cornfields and ,receiving macinegun fires fron front and flanks.The biggest part of defenders have left it before .The rest of the troops,which have remained in place ,have left it ,in their turn,without any resistance ,retreating gradualy towards Turtucaia.the Bulgarians advance with precaution through the cornfield on the track of Romanians Small groups,thin lines of shooters with machineguns,acompany in short advances the firing range of the field artillery,which elongates step by step.No attack in great masses does not produce,anymore;only short collisions of patrols or rare groups.The Bulgarians are aware of the ruining of the Romanian front,they wait to gather the goods,without exposing themselves to great losses.

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At noon the Romanian desaster is announced in all its cruel reality.In the Western sector and in some parts of the Southern sector,groups of Romanian soldiers continue the fight with disperation.The Central 1 resists vigorous and the enemy attacks are rejected ,one by one.The cannons of the ships on the Danube are beating the ridges of the hills and the cornfields;they manage to obstacle the positioning of enemy cannons and machineguns ,in the zones within their firing range.Further than that ,there isna't an organized army anymore,lead by the will of a Chief,fighting for a realisable goal.There are-mostly-groups of runaways who have given up any pride,ambition and ideal and which,taken over by the contageousness of dicourage and of fear,they have only the thought of escaping with life.And Chief, the army has no more.The Chief has disappeared from its post.Not taken down by bullet,in the spin of fght,but runthrough fear, of death, and of responsibility of those he had to take to victory,but instead has taken them to defeat and captivity.At twelve a big automobile passes in speed through the rows of runaways,aiming for the shore of Danube.It is the Commander of the Fortress of Turtucaia,General Teodorescu,which is abandoning his Army and Fortress.A Navy Lieutenant embarks him onboard the vedette no 7,"Lt.Calinescu".A roar of curses rises threatening from the flock of runaway soldiers ,crowded onto the shore.A rattle of machinegun responds from the deck of the Vedette.And the boat starts in great speed towards the other shore of Danube.the Commander has saved his body;he can now look from the Romanian shore the tragic ending of the Fortress and Army,abandoned to the will of faith,without leader.

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Fighter Romanian Army plane ,"Nieuport BB-17"and reconnoitring and bombardment plane "Farman"

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Monitor "Mihail Kogilniceanu" from the Romanian Danube Division

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Tragedy

The shore of the Danube(Turtucaia Shore) is filled more and more by the crowds of soldiers which have left their positions and seek here escape.There are scenes of a shearing dramatism.

A sea of heads is stretching on the shore,as far as the eye can see.One thought is souling evryone:run.The other side is the Romanian shore:there is the escape .But the wide river is in between.There is no bridge over the Danube,and the few pontoons or rafts ,which serve for the transport of reserves,have croosed to the other shore,filled with wounded and the firsts who have been on this shore.Dizzied,the men are watching the shine of the water surface,and are fermenting their brains of how to cross on to the other side.Some,more curageously,jump in to the water ,with clothes or without clothes.The flags of Regiments 36th and 74th are saved by two devoted platooneers,in this way.A savage fight is given around the few boats ,many broken or holed,until the boat ,badly patched ,starts heavily,filled with men and water.The Danube shows an unusual panorama ,full of boats of all kinds and of men fighting hard with the waves ,alone or supported by a wood,by a box,or a door.Taken over by the current of the water ,turned over ,hit by the shrapnels which explode over the water ,how many can make it to the saving shore in front!A multitude of barges and pntoons were at this other shore but the lack of dragging boats ,made impossible to use those.The Commander of the III-rd Army have send 16 battalions in the aid of a fortress which situation seemed disperate to him,and dose not think of organizing means of retreat ,in case of failure.The army was in a mouse trap!Still,the navy vessels have done everything they could to escape from death and bring on to the other shore many soldiers ;the fleet has paied a great tribute of blood,loosing many officers and inferior grades.

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On the shore,the impossibility of saving,stunned the crowd.A deep derail,hoplessness without boundaries is following after the before surrescitation.A new thought puts master over the souls and the scream of resignation,of cowerdness,was getting out now from everyone's chest."We surrender!","throw your weapons"."we surrender"-can be heared from everywhere.Pieces of white cloth,handkachiefs are agitated everywhere ,over the mass of heads.In awaiting of the conquerer,begins the plunder of the wagoons ,carriages with provissions and munitions.

The Bulgarians and Turks within the city ,begin to descend ,with looks and moves of hyenes,at the unexpected fed in the valley.Fights in small groups continue,especially on the western front ,untill 4,30p.m.At this hour ,the officer corps of the garrison gathered at the military circle ,decided to surrender to the enemy the Fortress and the City.Colonel Marasescu the Commander of this sector which,after the run away of General Teodorescu,has taken the command of theTurtucaia Fortress,executes the sad decission of capitulation.

Enemy patrols are roving now the streets of the city,firing shots or taking down with rifle's beds or bayonets Romanian soldiers and officers on their way.The Bulgarian population accomplices with these soldiers,to give themselves to bestial crimes unshameful plunderings.The Romanian officers and soldiers were mugged to the skin,undressed ,boots taken,machinegunned or killed at the smallest veleity of revolt.Major Dervescu Ioan,Commander of a battalion of the 36th Regiment ,is summoned by a Bulgarian platooneer to give his watch,which Ioan was carrying;the Major refuses,pointing out that on the back of the cap of it has the picture of his children and imediately falls runthrough bayonet,and with his head smashed by a rifle's bed.

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The Commander of the 84th Infantry Regiment,Lieut-Colonel Popovici Gheorghe,has gathered and taken under his command a certain number of fighters with which he started towards East,ner the shore of Danube,to force the passing towards Silistra.On horse and with his Regiment's flag unfolded,he has found his death ahead of his soldiers he Commanded.A vedette of the fleet,No.6,"Nicolae Ioan" sneaks through ,near the head of Cusui Islet and opens fire with cannon and machinegun over the enemy's nest of machineguns which, near the shore , was cutting the retreat road.The vedette concentrates over her the enemy fires,both officers and half of the sailors fall,but the enemy is set on the run.Part of the Romanian column flows towards Silistra,and the vedette ,pierced by projectiles,can retreat down stream.

Some artillery officers have refused to surrender their batteries ,and gathered their cannons ,escaped from the occupied positions by the Bulgarians,in the West edge of the city.Here,Colonel Grigorescu Atanasie the Commander of 5th Howitzers Regiment,has organized the last resistance,under the form of a redoubt,supported on the right side by Sermer Barracks,and in the left,by Danube ,facing South and East.Sustained also by some weak units of infantry,especially the remains of 80th Infantry Battalion,the last defenders of Turtucaia have fired until they finished all the munition.Colonel Grigorescu,badly wounded ,has fallen prisoner into the hands of Bulgarians and died in a hospital in Sofia.Captain Feraru,the Commander of a heavy battery,fires the cannons until the emey storms in to the battery,fires then with his revolver, and the last bullet he unloads in his temple,falling dead on one of his cannons.Other Officers,Lieutenants Ioachimescu,Curtovici ,do the same thing.Lieutenant Constantinescu Toma,the son of the General ,with the same name,sustains the defence of Central No.1,with his battery,until,framed and violently bombarded by enemy heavy artillery,which destroyed two of his cannons ,he remained thus ,only with the other two.These ones he escapes from the fire spin,with difficulty and brings them into redoubt(reduit).Helped by a plutoneer and by some soldiers with a machine gun,Constantinescu fires ,untill the Bulgarians close in few meters to the cannons.Summoned to surrender,he refuse,fires from the mouth of his cannon into the enemy stormers and,finally,falls masacred by byonets.

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A national catastrophe

The Battle of Turtucaia was over.A real military catastrophe mand the Kingdom bleed,one week after our enter in the War.The fortified city Turtucaia has fallen into the hands of the enemy after five days of fight.480 officers and 28 000 soldiers were made prisoners;100 canons ,62 machineguns and an imense prey,were the trophies of the enemy.From the entire Garrison ,escaped some 2000 men,over the Danube,swimming or on boats and another 3500 in scattered groups,towards Silistra.From the armament ,escaped only the cannons of the batteries in the islets and shores,which have been evacuated by the bravery of their sailor personel.It is true,that also the losses of the enemy were grave.The official figures given by them are :199 officers and 7 773 soldiers,Bulgarian,dead or wounded.The great majority of losses was in Daidir sector.In this way,the losses of the enemy rose up to almost 25% of his effectives.The bloody losses of Romanians have been of 1600 officers and 6000 soldiers,dead or wounded.

Like after all catastrophes,the spirit tries to find the causes which may expalain the producing of the desastre .Professional rivalries or political ones,personal matters come to complicate and make difficult the objective search for the cruel truth.The first cause would have been the primitive conception of closing a numerous troop in an isolated fortress,having behind a wide river which separates it from the base,without even a bridge,or a service of transports ,well organized ,to ensure the retreat.The reality is this one:renauncing,for the time being ,by the operational plan ,at the role of offensive "bridgehead",the role of Turtucaia was nothing other than the one of an advanced position which,supported by Danube,to defend the right flank of Dobrogean frontier and cover the concentration of Romanian-Russian troops on this frontier.From the moment when it has been obvious that the enemy is attacking with superior forces ,which cannot be resisted ,the garrison would had to leave the position and get over the bulk -retreating towards Silistra to make possible this concentration on aline,backwards-and not to remain on place,making thus possible the acomplish of enemy plan,of isolating our forces scattered ,and away them ,one by one.The instructions for defending the bridgehead Turtucaia forseen that ,in the case in which the resistance on a second line cannot be kept longer,under any circumstance ,the troops of the bridghead had "to execute an outing towards East and retreat methodicaly towards the bridgehead Silistra " wher together with the troops of the 9th Division to prolongue the resistance.unfortunately these wise prescriptions have remained dead letter.None of the Commandments of different ierarchies ,which had word to say in the defence of Turtucaia ,did not remind of them and did not put them nto practice.With the hallucination of the romantic formulae of "resistance until the last men",or with the tire of concentration of Romanian-Russian forces ,which had to operate on Dobrogea frontier ,in offensive purpose,at the shelter of just the resistance of Turtucaia ,it has been persisted in defending with stuborness a dangerous position and with no decissive importance ,for the ulterior unfolding of the action .Not even in the last moment,when keeping the fortress was not possible anymore,it has not been taken by anyone the initiative of a retreat towards SIlistra which,realized with decessiveness and big effectives ,it could,thanks to the exhaustion of the enemy,have saved a great deal of men and material.Keeping the contact with Silistra ,by supervising the excelent road of communication which passed under the Danube River shore ,was one of the chieftain duties of the Romanian Commndment.He neglect it entirely.

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It was,ofcourse ,a mistake sending up a whole division in the interior of the fortress ,package by package ,in the middle of some demoralised troops ,instead of sending it outside the fortress ,to enterprise ,in colabaration with the division at Silistra ,an action for unblocking , in the rib of the enemy.None of these mistakes canoot,however,justifie the fastness and proportion of the catastrophe.The enemy,itself,shows surprise for such good fortune,on its part and so much weakness on our part.*"With the means of defence he had-writes with cruelty the Bulgarian Commander-even women culd have sustained the attack for some good days"

The principal cause of the catastrophe-the sure cause,which is beyond any discussion -,is the extraordinar weakness,uncomprehensive,of defence.The Commanding Generals throws from one to the other the responsibility of the defeat.What is very clear,is that not the Commander of the III-rd Romanian Army,nor the Commander of Turtucaia Fortress have not been up to the expectations.The first one,dived into a fragile optimism,did not move from Bucharest,as to realise the gravity of the situation,and contempted himself to take measures from distance ,badly conceived or uneffective.The second one,the Commander of the fortress ,prooved himself totaly missed by the indispensable qualities, of a commander in difficult circumstances.Lacking initiative,shy,without the faculty of understanding clearly of the situations and of that of promptidude of resolutions,he did not know how ,even to distribute his troops,which he Commanded directly.From the beginning of the enemy attack,until the last moment,he kept himself in passivity,receiving the blows of the enemy,without to react by energic counteroffensives.Even when he begun to have superior forces ,his offensive initiatives have been weak and tardive.Even to the last moment,he did not understood the dispozitive of the enemy attack and did not know to see and exploit the critical situations ,in which this one has put itself into.The obssesion of the principal attack from West has made him to mass the principal forces of artillery in this sector,attacked only demonstartive ,neglecting the Southern sector and the Sout-West one ,where the decissive attacks were taking place.

"The defence has been entirely unconnected :the connection from high to bottom ,between the Commanders of sectors and the Commander of defence zero;the connection between the sectors Commanders ,which,in the absence of the first one,could have ensured some sort of connection on action,did not exist.The action of the Commander over the action and operations did not manifes at all.Measures of precaution have not been taken and,which makes the tip of it all,when tha fatal end was closing, no measure have been taken to ,either to try an exit towards the Eastern sector of Silistra Fortress,or to regulate the faith of so many thousands of fighters ,which were falling in to the hands of the victorious.The Commander of the defence,leaving the field of battle ,when the battle was not finished ,without at least passing the Command to someoneelse ,have left the defence troops to make it,each on its own,forgetting that duty forced him to take the same faith as the ones he Commanded ,but which,unfortunatelly,and in a big part from his fault,could not lead them to victory.Why ,in that moment,he did not reminded himselfr of the heroic conduct of General Lemanthe defender of Liege Fortress?,or of the Austrian General Kusmanek,the defender of Przemysl Fortress?[15].

At this weakness of Commandment,coresponded as it has been expected ,a weakness of the troops.Turtucaia presented a curious case of collective psychosis.Weakly commanded ,a great part by officers which neither at previous trainings ,nor during the fight ,did not know to have close contact with the troops,to rise the moral and to communicate them an elan by which just themselves were missed ,the units have demoralised from the first collisions.While,in some points of the front ,officers and troop,fighting together ,were making acts of the highest heroism,between others,they gave themselves at acts of cowerdness.There,where the officer was ahead ,or in the middle of the troops,the soldier has fought bravely and died heroicly;there, where the officer had hide from duty,the troops have weak and disband.And ,as the contageousness of weakness is stronger than that of virtue,the demoralisation propagated quickly,paralising the commandment and the troops.the weakness of Commanders of different ierarchies and the one of the troops has brought us to the shame of seeing us,at less than 10 days of our voluntary enter into the War,captured intirely like a flock without defence.

The admirable Romanian soldier which latter gave us the victories of Jiu ,Marasti,Marasesti,the one who stood uninched like a rock under the storm at Cimpulung,at Predeal and Oituz,the one which showed himself great and heroic in the glorious defeats of Sinpetru ,of Topraisar and in the retreat at Cerna deserves ofcourse another faith than the one of being lead to masacre and shame of Turtucaia.The fall of Turtucaia had made an enormous impression ,in material loss,as by its moral effect.It made us of the mock of the enemy and compromised us in front of our friends.For us,it came,in the first days of War,to show us with brutality the numerous missgivings of our military prepare,in its material part and also in the moral part.Unfortunately in history ,mistakes are never overlooked;they revenge considerable.And the shame of Turtucaia not only that slaped us,and bleed or hearts ,but has deeply influenced the ulterior unfolding of the War.It is the initial cause of the desasters and missfortunes that followed .

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*The Austrian Staff Major N.Frantz,liaison officer with General Makckensen Army visiting,from the order of the Great Austrian Headquarter,the fortification works from Turtucaia,one week after her fall,finds that the works are very well conceived and executed and resums:"It is almost unbelievable that this strong position ,defended by two Romanian Divisions (the 15th and 17th of reserve) was badly occupied ;one part of the infantry of the first lines of defence ran away imediately after the biginning of effective firing range;the reserves were too far behind....

From the above description results that if better defended,the bridgehead Turtucaia would have influenced in a decissive manner over the speed of the operations of he III-rd Bulgarian Army and that taking with assault represents a remarkable deed of arms.It permits us,howerver ,to draw a joyful conclusion over the weak resistance of the Romanian Army against the energic attacks sustained sustained by artillery"(Inedite Documents from Kriegsarchiw,Viena)

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3.Silistra and Bzargic

Attacking Southern Dobrogea

In the same time with the attack against Turtucaia ,Mackensen throws also the other troops of the III-rd Bulgarian Army over the frontier,in SIlistra direction and of Bazargic.The isolation in which were finding the three cities of Southern Dobrogea has been exploited with success by the abile German strategist.Powerful columns have been send in the intermediary spaces ,to separate the three cities and obstacle the respectives garrisons to aid eachother.The fortresses had to be attacked one by one and taken before the Russian troops ,which arrived with difficulty,to have reached the fighting zone ,to be able to work with the Romanian Army.With this,the road to the heart of Dobrogea opened up in front of the stormers and the line Cernavoda-Constanta,was falling into its hands.The strategical consequences of this blow would have been incalculable ;it was the entire Romanian Front turned and the warrior intervention of Romanians blocked before it could begun.

Executed with speed and vigor,Mackensen plan ,seemed in the beginning to succeed.The success has been edge ,though,only at the first blows .It will,then,need huge forcings and heavy casualties ,as to occuping Dobrogea to become fact.

The first battle dispozitive of the III-rd Bulgarian-German Army was the following:the extreme left of the army ,made out by the 4th Preslav Division with the 1st Sofia Brigade and the mixt Detachment Hammerstein,constituted the attack army against Turtucaia.The "Left" was made out of :3rd Brigade of the 1st Sofia Division,made out of six battalions and three batteries ,having to intercept the communication between Turtucaia and Silistra ;its role was to make impossible a flank attack,which the troops in Silistra would have trialed over the army investing(seizing) Turtucaia.Another brigade (the second of the same division) made out of 8 battalions with 3 batteries ,taken the Silistra direction ,along the driveway Acadinlar-Alfatar.Between the two brigades of infantry it was intercalated a brigade of cavalry,which made them connection and had the mission to supervise Silistra from West.

The "Center" of the III-rd Bulgarian Army was made out of the Cavalry Division Kolev-20 escadrons -strenghtened with artillery,cyclists and numerous companies of machineguns mounted also by foot.The mission of this divission ,to which also has been attached two companies of infantry,was to defend the left flank of Bulgarian Army,which operated on the Front Turtucaia-Silistra and,separating the Romanian forces which occupied these two localities ,from those of Bazargic ,to prepare ,by occupying Curbunarului,operations against Bazargic and Eastern Dobrogea.

The "Right" of the III-rd Army,was made of the so called "mobile reserve" of strenghtened point Varna-of the power of a strenghtened brigade -under the Command of General Kantargiev,military writter with reputation,author of propaganda puplications agains Romania.The mission of this group was defensive -offensive;to oppose to a disembarkation attempt at Varna and,by operation made in Bazargic region ,to obstacle the trials of Romanians and Russians to advance in direction of Balcic and Bazargic.

Behind the Cavalry Division-at Sumla -it was a brigade of the 6th Bulgarian Division de Vidin,as general reserve at the disposition of Feldmarshal Mackensen ,following to move,as needed to be associated either to the center ,or right Bulgarian.The Turk Corps was few days of marching away;its first elements could join the fight in four days.

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Bulgarian offensive along Dobrogean frontier

Before even,the Bulgarians have officially declared war to Romania,General Kantarciev has attacked with small detachments the Romanian frontier posts and advanced on Romanian territory,occupying some of the villages.In this way,at 29th of August,Bulgarians have attacked the posts in the vecinity of driveway Balcic-Varna ,occupying Villages Vinatori and Ecrene.At 30th of August ,a company of frontiermen and two companies of Bulgarian cyclists have occupyed the bridge of railway from Novo-Botevo,frontier station on the line Varna-Bazargic,and at 31st ,have stretched the attack along the frontier up until Vladimirovo.The aim of these attacks was that,by surprise,Bulgarians to create a base of operations ,favorable,against Bazargic;the attacks were made possible by the fact that,Romanians in the thought of avoiding premature collisions ,kept the guard posts far from the frontier.

Alarmed by these attacks the civilian authorities of Bazargic have left ,without order the city,throwing panic in to the Romanian population from within,which have run towards Caraomer.The Bulgarians in the city have profited by this panic and devastated the train station and the barracks.The authors of the plunders ,caught in fragrant by the Romanian Army have been trialed on spot and executed.This just punishment have given the Bulgarians motives of complaints and accusations of cruelties at the address of Romanians.The 19th Romanian Division ha reestablished the situation in the city and at the frontier ,and the authorities came back in the city.

At 1st of September ,the day of war declaration by Bulgarians ,it could be found as covering troops in Bazargic sector ,the 19th Romanian Division,having in the city and on the frontier the 17th Brigade -9th Hunters Regiment and 40th Infantry Regiment;the 5th Mixt Brigade was at Ghelengic ,North of Bazargic,and the 6th Mixt Brigade South of Caraomer.The 19th Romanian Division has a pretty much mixed composition;without the 9th Hunters Regimnt and 39th and 40th of Infantry;was constituted by the fourth battalion takenfrom 10 diverse regiments,in total 18 battalions.The artillery of the Division was weak ,six batteries of old cannons of 87mm and only one of 75mm.Commander was General Arghirescu.A brigade -the 5th-of Calarasi(horsemen)made out of seven escadrons ,was attached next to the Division and dislocated on to the frontier.

At Silistra was the 9th Romanian Division-Commander General Basarabescu-made out of five infantry regiments and one of hunters ,grouped in three brigades ,with a total of 16 battalions and 13 batteries.Silistra,being fortified as a "bridgehead",disposed of some fix artillery,made out of three batteries of 105,120 and 150 mm,and of some turrets of 53 mm.The Divisions had four battalions dislocated at Alfatar,Acadinlar ,Beibunar and Curtbunar,covering Silistra from South.

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Behind the Romanian line,was very slowly arriving and constituting at Medgidia Russian Corps,under the Command of General Zaioncikovski,formed up by the 61st Russian Division,Serb-Croat Division and the 3rd Cavalry Division.The Russian Corps was far behind the Romanian divisions which,in their turn were,separated between them by distances of 38-57 Miles.So in the day of declaring War ,as the Bulgarians had all their troops in hand ,ready to start to fulfil their precise mission ,Romanian-Russians were separated into three groups,placed at big distances and with isolated detachments ,spread all over the frontier.There was ,also ,no unity in Commandment:the 9th Romanian Division depended directly of the Commandement of the III-rd Romanian Army,which was at Bucharest,and the Russian General worked independently.

At the quick and clever manoeuvre of the enemy Commandment ,the three Commanders Romanian-Russian will respound with slow moves ,lacking by initiative and coordination,which will compromise from the beginning the whole campaign.In the night of 1st-2nd of September,the Bulgarians cross the frontier on the whole line.The 2nd Brigade of Sofia attacked Acadinlar,which was occupied by a Romanian battalion,the Bulgarian Cavalry Division has attacked Curtbunar,occupied as well by a Romanian battalion ,and the troops ov Varna Group have attacked Balagea ,on the driveway Varna-BazargicIn the sector of the 9th Division the Romanian battalions ,attacked at Acadinlar and Curtbunar by forces considerable superior,have left the localities and retreated towards Silistra General Basarabescu has retreated also the other two battalions from Alfatar and Beibunar ,isolated himself by the neighbour sectors and closed himself inside Silistra Fortress,without enterprising any action with the powerful unit at his disposal ,neither to South or South -East where,by occupying Curtbunar by Bulgarians ,he was cut from Bazargic,nor to South -West ,where he has been cut of Turtucaia Fortress.Especially towards the latter one,he was obliged,not only by comrading duties and the understanding of the strategical situation ,but the precise foreseeings of the directives of operations of the III-rd Romanian Army.Only at 5th of September ,in the wake of the order received in the eve ,from the Commandement of the III-rd Army,to enterprise"local actions" at small distances ,to gain the necessary air around the "bridgehead" and open up the driveway Turtucaia -Silistra,General Basarabescu executes and sends two detachments ,of two,three battalions ,with artillery,in two directions.The two detachments threw themselves in sterile fights with weak Bulgarian detachments ,have thus lost pretious time and lost also the contact with the Division.

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