THE RUMANIANS PRESSED BACK
Meanwhile hard fighting had been going on on the Transylvanian front,
one day favoring one side and on the next day favoring the other. On
November 5, 1916, the Germans regained Rosca heights, which the
Rumanians had taken on the 3d. On the 7th the Russians were pressing
the Germans hard below Dorna Vatra, while southeast of Red Tower Pass
and near the Vulkan Pass the Rumanians suffered reverses, losing a
thousand men as prisoners, according to the Vienna and Berlin
dispatches. But before another week had passed it became evident that
the Teutons were gaining, whether because of superior artillery, or
because the Rumanians had weakened this front for the sake of the
Dobrudja offensive. For each step the Teutons fell back they advanced
two. Not unlike a skillful boxer Falkenhayn feinted at one point, then
struck hard at another unexpectedly. Without doubt skill and superior
knowledge, as well as superior organization, were on the side of the
invaders. By the middle of the month the Rumanians were being forced
back, both in the Alt and the Jiul valleys, facts which could not be
hidden by the dispatches from Bucharest announcing the capture of a
machine gun at one point or a few dozen prisoners at another. A few
days later the London papers were commenting on the extremely
dangerous situation in Rumania.
The Teutons had been pushing especially hard against the extreme left
of the Rumanian line in western Wallachia. On the 15th, after a week
of continuous hammering, the Austro-Germans forced their way down from
the summits after battering down the permanent frontier fortifications
with their heavy mortars. Pushed down into the foothills, the
Rumanians, who were now being reenforced by Russian forces, decided to
make a stand on the range of hills running east and west and lying
south of Turgujiulij, the first important town south of the mountains.
Foggy weather favored the Russo-Rumanians and enabled them to take up
a strong position at this point before being observed by the Germans.
The latter began launching a series of assaults. For three days these
frontal attacks were continued. Finally numbers told; the Rumanian
center was broken. Then the German cavalry, which had been held in
reserve, hurled itself through the breach and raced down through the
valley toward the railroad, thirty miles distant, preventing the
fleeing Russians and Rumanians from making any further stands. On the
following day, the 19th, the cavalry had reached the Orsova-Craiova
railroad and occupied it from Filliash, an important junction, to
Strehaia station, a distance of twelve miles.
Two days later came the announcement that Craiova itself had been
taken by the Teuton forces. This town is the center of an important
grain district on the edge of the Wallachian Plain. From a military
point of view the importance of its capture was in that it was a
railroad junction and that the Germans now held the line of
communication between the Orsova region, constituting the extreme
western portion of Wallachia, and the rest of Rumania. As a matter of
fact, as was to develop a few days later, the Teutons had broken
through the main Rumanian lines, and in doing so had clipped off the
tip of the Rumanian left wing. Some days later the capture of this
force was announced, though it numbered much less than had at first
been supposed--some seven thousand men.
But now a new danger suggested itself. The Teutonic invasion was
heading toward the Danube. Should it reach the banks of that river
there would be nothing to prevent a juncture between the forces of
Falkenhayn and those under Mackensen, thereby forming a net which
would be stretched clear across Rumania and swept eastward toward
Bucharest. Falkenhayn had only to clear the northern bank of the
Danube, and nothing could prevent Mackensen's crossing; as was
presently to develop, this fear was not without foundation. On the
24th came the announcement from Berlin that Falkenhayn had captured
Turnu-Severin on the Danube and that Mackensen's troops had crossed in
several places and effected a juncture with Falkenhayn's men. Farther
north the Rumanians were reported to be falling back to positions
along the Alt River, a swift, deep stream in its upper reaches which
broadens out into many arms down on the plain and forms a difficult
obstacle to an advancing army. At Slatina the bridge is over four
hundred yards in length. This, apparently, was to be the new line of
defense, running north and south. Still farther north, in the
Carpathians, in Moldavia, the Austro-Germans were developing another
strong offensive, and here, near Tulghes Pass, where the Russians held
the line, a pitched battle of unusual fury developed, bringing the
Austro-Germans to a standstill for the time being, at least. Again
there came reports from Petrograd of activity along the front in
Dobrudja, but this appears to have been at the most nothing but a
demonstration to distract Mackensen from effecting any crossing
farther up the Danube at a point where he might flank the Rumanian
lines along the Alt. Throughout the countries of the Allies it was now
generally recognized that Rumania was doomed, unless the Russians
could send enough forces to rescue her.
On the 26th official dispatches from both Berlin and Bucharest stated
that Mackensen had crossed the Danube at Zimnitza and was advancing
toward Bucharest. The German statement had him in the outskirts of
Alexandria, only forty-seven miles from the capital, and reported that
the Rumanians were retreating eastward from the lower Alt. On the
following day Berlin announced that the entire length of the Alt had
been abandoned by the Rumanians, which was confirmed by a dispatch
from Bucharest. This retreat had been forced by the crossing effected
by Mackensen's troops to the rear of the line, threatening its flank
and rear. That the danger to Bucharest was now being felt was obvious
from the fact that on the following day the Rumanian Government and
diplomatic authorities removed from Bucharest to Jassy, about two
hundred miles northeastward, near the Russian frontier. On this date,
too, it was reported that Mackensen had captured Giurgiu, which showed
that he had advanced thirty miles during the past twenty-four hours.
From Giurgiu there is direct rail connection with Bucharest: this line
Mackensen could use for transport service, thus increasing the danger
to the Rumanian main army that it might have its retreat cut off.
Having abandoned the Alt line, the next logical line that the
retreating Rumanians should have attempted to hold was the Vedea,
another river running parallel to the Alt and emptying into the
Danube. Here, too, there was a railroad running along the river bank,
or close to it, which would have served as a supply line. But it was
just this railroad which Mackensen had captured at Giurgiu. Once more
he threatened the Rumanian flank, and so a stand at the Vedea became
also impossible. Certainly the Teutons were now moving with
extraordinary rapidity, and there was undoubtedly some truth in the
Berlin statement that the Rumanians were fleeing eastward in a
panic-stricken mass. Great quantities of war material were abandoned
and captured by the advancing Teutons. It is significant, however,
that neither Berlin nor Vienna were able to report the capture of any
great amount of prisoners.
By the first of the month the Teutons had almost reached the Arges
River, the last large stream that ran between them and the outer
fortifications of Bucharest. Behind this river the Rumanians finally
came to a stand, and now Berlin, instead of describing the precipitate
flight of the enemy, spoke only of the hard fighting which was going
on. At this time the German War Office also announced the capture of
Campulung, which opened the road through the Torzburg Pass.
That Russia was now making strong efforts to relieve the pressure on
the Rumanians before Bucharest became obvious on December 1, 1916,
when it was reported from Petrograd that a Russian offensive had been
begun on the Bukowina border and was spreading down along the Rumanian
frontier south of Kirlibaba, along a front over two hundred miles in
length. Here, according to the report, the Rumanians, in cooperation
with the Russians, captured a whole range of heights in the Buzeu
Valley southeast of Kronstadt, while the Russians themselves reported
similar progress. At the same time Berlin, while also touching on the
severity of the fighting in the north, reported that the Russians were
hurling themselves against Mackensen's entire front in Dobrudja. The
German reports admitted that here and there the Russian attacks
effected slight local gains at tremendous cost. Whatever the actual
facts, this offensive movement came too late to have any material
results; Bucharest, at any rate, was doomed.