THE GERMANS ARRIVE
The center of interest in the campaign now became the Hungarian front.
As has already been stated, by the middle of the month the arrival of
German reenforcements had checked the advance of the Rumanians, and
now the situation along this front assumed an aspect not quite so
encouraging to the Rumanians. Some little progress was still made in
this direction in the third week of the month; after a few slight
engagements the Rumanians occupied Homorod Almas and Fogaras, the
latter a town of some importance halfway between Brasso and
Hermannstadt. During these operations nearly a thousand prisoners were
taken. Finally, on the 16th, they reached Barot, dominating the
railroad between Brasso and Foeldvar, some thirty miles beyond the
frontier.
Meanwhile German troops had reenforced the Austrians at Hatszeg, in
the valley of the Streiu. Here on the 14th a pitched battle was begun
in a mountain defile, which lasted two days and resulted in the defeat
of a force of Magyars. On the 18th General von Staabs, commanding a
large force of German troops, attacked the Rumanians in the Hatszeg
sector, and after a very hot fight thrust them back. And at about the
same time German forces began attacking the Rumanians in the Gyergyoi
Havosok and Kalemen Hegyseg ranges of the Carpathians.
On the 21st a Berlin dispatch announced that the Teutonic forces had
carried the Vulkan Pass and cleared it of the enemy. On the following
day, however, the Rumanians were still fighting at this point and
three days later forced the Teutons back and reconquered the lost
territory, as well as the neighboring Szurduk Pass. By the 28th they
had recovered ten miles of lost ground within the Hungarian frontier,
driving the Austrians and the Germans before them.
[Illustration: Teutonic Invasion of Rumania.]
A month had now passed since the outbreak of hostilities and the
Rumanians were still holding a large conquered territory, nearly a
third of Transylvania, or about 7,000 square miles of country. They
were in complete occupation of four out of fifteen administrative
departments and a portion of five others. Up to this time 7,000
prisoners had been captured. Meanwhile large forces of Germans
continued arriving and reenforcing the enemy's lines, and now the
determination of the Germans to devote their best energies to the
punishment of Rumania was indicated by the fact that this northern
army was under the command of General von Falkenhayn, formerly chief
of the German General Staff.
On September 26, 1916, the Germans began their first really serious
advance, the point of attack falling on the Rumanians near
Hermannstadt, about fifty miles northeast of Vulkan Pass. For three
days the Rumanians made a heroic resistance against a great
superiority in men and heavy cannon on the part of the enemy. On the
third day the Rumanians found themselves entirely surrounded, their
retreat through the Red Tower Pass being cut off by a column of
Bavarian Alpine troops who had scaled the mountain heights and
occupied the pass in the rear. Rendered desperate by this situation,
the Rumanians now fought fiercely to escape through the ring that
encircled them, but only a comparatively few succeeded in reaching
Fogaras, from which town another Rumanian force had been trying to
make a diversion in their favor. In this action, according to German
accounts, the Rumanians lost 3,000 men, thirteen guns, ten
locomotives, and a quantity of other material. This battle, called by
the Germans the Battle of Hermannstadt, enabled them to occupy again
the Red Tower Pass. On October 1, 1916, they had continued beyond this
pass and were attacking a Rumanian force south of it, near Caineni, on
Rumanian territory. Thus, with the first of the new month the
Rumanians were on the defensive in this region.