of the 3rd Cav. Div. were later on stationed between the Torz- burg and the Tomos passes as the Transylvania Cavalry Brigade.
At the Roter Turm Pass the Rumanians the remainder of the I3th and 23rd Inf. Divs. and the 2nd mixed Brigade of the i8th Div. had discontinued their attacks against the Alpine Corps, reenforced by the loth Mountain Bde. At Petroseny the nth Rumanian Inf. Div. had again been pressed back to the frontier, whereupon the 2nd Mountain Bde. was shifted to the Roter Turm Pass. This was subsequently merged with the loth Moun- tain Bde. in the 73rd Inf. Division.
In the Austro-Hungarian army the VI. Corps, with the 39th Honvedlnf. Div., reached the frontier in the Uz valley and with the 6ist Inf. Div. and the ist Landsturm Hussar Bde., in the Trotus valley advanced far over the frontier and, after fighting with varying success against the Rumanian -jtii Inf. Div., occupied positions on the height of Sulta. On the N. wing the XXI. Corps with the 72nd Inf. Div. reached the Bekas Pass, and with the 37th Honved Inf. Div. the Tolgyes Pass. Thus Transyl- vania, six weeks after the invasion of the Rumanians, was again freed from the invader.
Plans for the Continuation of Operations. New plans had now to be agreed upon, in order to beat the Rumanians in their own country. Naturally the centre of gravity of the operations against Rumania lay in the first instance in Falkenhayn's IX. Army. His attempt to push forward on the shortest line to Bucharest with the troops he had in hand in the pursuit over the passes S. of Kronstadt had not succeeded. The Rumanians now defended themselves much more obstinately, and the German and Austro-Hungarian troops, wearied with their rapid opera- tions, and with their war establishments weakened, had suffered temporarily in buoyancy from this victorious career. Events moved slowly also on the Roter Turm Pass, from which, after crossing the mountains, the main push directed towards Bucha- rest ought to have been supported by an advance of the reen- forced Alpine Corps through Pites.ti. The pursuit on all the many passes radiating from the Kronstadt basin had dissipated strength, and made the assembly of a strong main force impossi- ble. New forces had to be brought up. These rolled up in Transylvania in the middle of Oct. the 8th Bavarian Res. Div., the nth and I2th Bavarian Inf. Divs. and the 6th German Cav. Div. ; towards the end of Oct. two further German inf. divs. (the 4ist and logth) and the 7th Cav. Div. were to follow. Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Higher Command intended to transfer the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and loth Cav. Divs. to Transylvania, but these would first have to be equipped and organized for employment in the intended offensive.
The 8th Bavarian Res. Div. was sent to the Transylvanian E. front to reenforce the I. Army. The I2th Bavarian Inf. Div. was placed by Falkenhayn under the I. Res. Corps on the Torz- burg Pass, the nth Bavarian Inf. Div. was to attack over the Szurduk Pass with the I44th Inf. Bde., and the group of Lt.-Gen. von Krafft at the Roter Turm Pass was strengthened by 2 Bavarian inf. regts. and 2 German Landsturm regts. At the Tomos, Torzburg, Roter Turm and Szurduk passes the attacks were to be continued, and wherever a gap was first effected Falkenhayn intended to bring up the mass of cav. and the two later arriving inf. divs. to open up the remaining passes south- ward and in conjunction with Field-Marshal Mackensen's troops, to push forward towards Bucharest.
Both the Supreme Army Commands agreed to this plan. But the Higher Command at Teschen maintained in this connexion that it was desirable for the main pressure to be directed on the line Kronstadt-Bucharest. There the strongest opposing Ruma- nian and Russian opposing forces were to be expected; moreover, here they had to reckon with a threat of a Russian relieving offensive, urgently asked for by the Rumanians, coming from Moldavia in the general direction of Csik-Szereda. Falkenhayn therefore rather favoured a push through the Szurduk Pass, where, owing to the smaller width of the mountain chain, the Wallachian Plain would be most quickly reached.
On the E. front, meanwhile, the headquarters of the Army Front Commander, Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, in the
arrangement of the commands, was moved from East Galicia to Grosswardein, as from Oct. 13, and the German IX. and Aus- tro-Hungarian I., VII. and III. Armies were placed under him.
The Conquest of the Dobruja and of Wallachia. After the battle of Kronstadt the Rumanians were entirely reduced to the defensive. On the Transylvanian front they limited their activities to attempts to win back the lost frontier heights commanding important roads of invasion. The Rumanian Army Command also tried to induce the Russians to relieve the Rumanian troops in the Dobruja and on the Transylvanian E. front in order thus to set free forces for the defence of Wallachia.
On the Danube front the Rumanians on Oct. i had crossed the river at Rahova (S. of Bucharest) with a div., and had temporarily gained a firm footing. German and Bulgarian troops, rapidly assembled, compelled the Rumanians to return to the N. bank, the latter suffering severe losses, as the Austro- Hungarian Danube monitors had shot to pieces the Rumanian pontoon bridge. Rumanian forward pushes against the Bulga- rian III. Army brought no success. On Oct. 19 an attack by Gen. Toshev's Army (Bulgarian ist, 4th, 6th Divs., and sections of the 1 2th Inf. Div., ist Cav. Div., Turkish VI. Corps, with the 15th and 25th Inf. Divs., German 2i7th Inf. Div.), broke through the Russo-Rumanian front on their E. wing, and drove the opposing army far over the Cernavoda-Constantsa railway, Rumania thereby losing her only rail connexion with the sea.
While the bulk of the Bulgarian III. Army followed only as far as the line Lake Tasaul-Bazanliia-heights of Kualnik-Dan- ube S. of Topal, and settled themselves for the defence on this shortest line between the Danube and the sea, the reenforced cav. div. pursued the retiring Rumanians and Russians as far as the line Sariuri-Sarighol-Docuzaci. Gradually the Russians again slowly pushed forward southward against the new position of the Bulgarian III. Army. The Rumanian troops were with- drawn in Nov. from the Dobruja into Wallachia. Of the Rus- sians there were in the Dobruja the VI. Cav. Corps, the XL VII. and IV. Siberian Corps, with 6 inf. divs. and i cav. div. in all, which were placed under the command of the newly formed Russian Danube Army (Gen. Sakharov).
In the new defensive position of the Bulgarian III. Army, which was by this time under the command of Gen. Neresov, there remained the 4th and the combined 6th Inf. Divs., then the ist Cav. Div. The Turkish VI. Corps stood for the time being at Medzidie in reserve. The other troops in the Dobruja and northern Bulgaria, together with the expected Turkish 26th Div., were collected in the district around Sistova, and were placed in readiness for crossing the Danube as the new Danube Army under the command of Gen. Kosch.
On the Transylvanian S. front the obstinate struggle for the passes was continued. The I. Res. Corps succeeded in reaching a point just N. of Carnpolung after the arrival of the I2th Bavarian Inf. Div. and with the assistance of the enveloping movement in the mountains of the 8th Mountain Bde. on the W. wing. At that point irruption into the basin of Carnpolung was barred by a new strongly constructed position in which the newly brought- up Rumanian i2th Inf. Div., in addition to the 22nd Inf. Div., offered the most obstinate resistance.
At the Roter Turm Pass Lt.-Gen. von Krafft intended to force an exit from the mountains by enveloping on two sides, with the 2nd Mountain Bde. eastwards with the loth Mountain Bde. westwards, and the Alpine Corps in the centre. The attack began on Oct. 16. After easy initial successes the weather broke on Oct. 18, and this circumstance, together with hastily executed Rumanian counter-attacks, prevented complete success.
South of Petroseny the group of Lt.-Gen. Kneusel, with the nth Bavarian Inf. Div., the I44th Inf. Bde., and the 6th Cav. Div., began the attack in numerous columns through the Szurduk and Vulkan passes and over the heights to the west. In spite of the fall of snow the advance began on Oct. 23.
News had been received that, under pressure of the preceding attack by Krafft's group and the I. Res. Corps, the Rumanians had deflected against these reinforcements which had been sent up, and that it would therefore be easier to break through. At first,
