Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/976

920

indeed, complete success attended the attacks of the Kneusel group. The troops, forcing back the Rumanian nth Inf. Div., had worked their way to the foot of the mountains N. of Targu Jiu, and were to fight their way out to the plain on Oct. 27. At this point, however, a counter-attack by the' hurriedly sum- moned Rumanian 2ist and 22nd Inf. Bdes., and a regt. of the ist and 3rd Inf. Divs., struck the W. wing. After losing many in prisoners and guns the German detachments had again to withdraw to the frontier heights, whither the Rumanians pur- sued them only with skirmishing detachments. In spite of the defeat he had suffered Falkenhayn held fast to the idea of a break-through by way of Targu Jiu, and directed the newly arriving troops Uist and logth Inf. Divs. and 7th Cav. Div.) to Petroseny. After the experience just gained the most thorough preparations were to be made for this operation, which was to begin on Nov. n, Lt.-Gen. Kiihne of the LIV. Res. Corps being chosen for the command of this strengthened group.

Urged by the Rumanian Army Command, the Russians relieved the Rumanian troops facing the Austro-Hungarian I. Army, beginning from the N., and pushed the southern boundary of their IX. Army in the middle of Nov. to a point just N. of the Gyimes Pass. Simultaneously with the III. Cav. Corps and the XXXVI. Corps, they attacked in this new sector the Austro- Hungarian XXI. Corps on Nov. 6. In expectation of this Russian push forward the army front command had placed in reserve the Brudermann Cav. Corps (3rd and loth Cav. Div.) in the district Olah-Toplica-Gyergyo-Szt. Miklos, the loth Bavarian Inf. Div.. brought southwards from the VII. Army in the district around Csik-Szereda, and the bulk of the 8th Bava- rian Res. Div. at Kezvivasarhely. The Russian forward move- ment obtained small successes on both sides of the Tolgyes and Bekas Pass. After the bringing up of the loth Bavarian Inf. Div. and the 3rd Cav. Div. the situation was once more restored.

In the Ojtoz Pass also, where the 7ist Inf. Div. and the ist Cav. Div. were once more placed under the I. Army as from Oct. 29, and in the Trotus valley, the Rumanians, partly mixed with Russian units, attacked on Nov. 5 without obtaining noteworthy successes.

The Break-through at Targu Jiu. According to plan, the attack of the group of Lt.-Gen. Kiihne began on Nov. n S. of the Szurduk and Vulkan passes. They were to force their way into the Wallachian plain before the approach of winter made mountain operations impossible. Simultaneous attacks on all the other passes of the Transylvanian S. front and at Orsova were to distract the attention of the Rumanians and divert their reinforcements from the principal theatre of attack, an intention which was successfully accomplished.

Protected by the 4ist Inf. Div. on the W., with the ropth and 3Oist Inf. Divs. E. of the river Schyl, on the W. flank by sections of the 6th Cav. Div. and the gth Regt. of the Hungarian Landsturm, the troops [ought their way out of the mountains in an obstinate struggle lasting from Nov. n to 14, and on Nov. 15 reached Targu Jiu. The Rumanian nth Inf. Div., seriously weakened, retired to the heights S. of the town, where it again gave battle with rapidly brought up new forces of about the strength of two divisions. In the Kiihne group the Schmettow Cav. Corps (6th and 7th Cav. Divs.) was brought along the road over the pass and placed on the W. wing for the envelopment of the enemy; the nth Bavarian Inf. Div., hitherto in reserve, was placed on the front E. of Targu Jiu, while the 30ist Inf. Div. acted as covering troops on the east.

On Nov. 16 the Kiihne group attacked once more. On Nov. 17 the Rumanians, in spite of the most courageous defence, were decisively beaten. The road into Wallachia lay open. The pursuit was undertaken without delay. With the right wing (6th Cav. Div. and behind that the 4ist) in the Jiu valley through Craiova, the centre (lopth and nth Bav. Inf. Divs.) towards Slatina, and the left wing (3015! Inf. Div.) in the di- rection of Dragas.ani, the group swerved eastwards and made rap- idly for the Alt. On Nov. 21, Craiova, the capital of Wallachia, was reached. The rapidly attacking vanguard of the 6th Cav. Div. succeeded on the 23rd in seizing the bridge E. of Caracalu,

which had remained undamaged, over which the main body of this division on Nov. 24 and the 7th Cav. Div. on the 2sth crossed the Alt, in order to push on against the Vede sector.

The Rumanians, repulsed from Targu Jiu (nth and i7th Inf. Divs. and parts of other divs.) placed themselves after the destruction of the bridges on the E. bank of the Alt between Slatina and Dragas.ani, in order to bar at this point an advance by Lt.-Gen. Kiihne's troops. Farther N. too, opposite the group of Lt.-Gen. von Krafft, the Rumanians had evacuated the W. bank of the Alt, so that the German troops were able to occupy Rimnik Valcea on Nov. 25. The attempts of the 4ist and nth Bav. Inf. Divs. on Nov. 25 and 26 to cross the Alt at Slatina failed, in spite of the support of some squadrons of the 7th Cav. Div., which had already come into action from a S.E. direction. The zogth Inf. Div. was now sent in support of the Cav. Corps by way of Caracalu, and was soon followed by the nth Bav. Inf. Div. and the iisth Inf. Division.

In consequence of the rapid break-through at Targu Jiu the retreat of the Rumanian Orsova group, 3 regts. of the ist Inf. Div. with artillery, was cut off. Held in front by violent attacks on the part of the group of Col. Szivo, they were shut in on the rear by detachments of the Kuhne group. In a series of engage- ments in which at one time they threatened the rear communica- tions of the Kiihne group, this Rumanian group went down along the Danube, until, completely surrounded at the mouth of the Alt, they laid down their arms before their pursuers on Dec. 6. Ten thousand men and 40 guns fell into the hands of the much weaker Szivo group.

In front of the group of Lt.-Gen. von Krafft, reenforced by the newly arrived 21 6th Inf. Div., the Rumanians also could not hold their own on the E. bank of the Alt in spite of the participation of the 7th and parts of the 8th Inf. Divs.; they retreated as far as Curtea' d'Arges. and behind the Topolog sector, where they offered a temporary resistance.

The I. and XXXIX. Res. Corps (under which latter the 8gth Inf. Div. in the Bodza Pass had been placed) maintained undiminished pressure on the Rumanian groups opposed to them. With the aim of building up a further reserve of the army front, the i87th Inf. Div. was relieved by the approaching Austro- Hungarian 24th Inf. Div., and placed in readiness in the Haromszek. The Ojtoz group now under the command of Gen. von Gerok, of the XXIV. Res. Corps, was on Nov. 12 again placed under the IX. Army Command. On the E. front the Russians continued the relief of the Rumanians as far as the road over the Ojtoz Pass.

Crossing of the Danube Army at Sislova. On the side of the Central Powers the Army Command now thought the moment had arrived for the Danube Army in position at Sistova to cross the Danube and push forward towards Bucharest, in order, in conjunction with the approaching IX. Army, to effect the com- plete conquest of Wallachia. The Danube Army consisted of the 2i7th German Inf. Div., the ist and I2th Bulgarian Inf. Divs., the combined Cav. Div. of Maj.-Gen. Goltz, German and Bulgarian Landsturm troops, German and Austro-Hungarian heavy artillery, the 26th Turkish Inf. Div. and Austro-Hungarian pioneer formations. At 4 A.M. on Nov. 23, favoured by thick mist, and supported by the Austro-Hungarian Danube monitors and the German motor-boat flotilla, the transport across the river of the 2i7th Inf. Div., unnoticed by the enemy, was successfully accomplished without delays. Zimnica was occupied. Then the ist Bulgarian Inf. Div. and the Landsturm formations crossed; the resistance of Rumanian detachments brought up was rapidly conquered.

On Nov. 24 the bridge-head was widened, and the construction of a pontoon bridge by the Austro-Hungarian pioneer group of Maj.-Gen. Gaugl was begun, and finished in the afternoon of Nov. 25 at 6 o'clock. The remaining troops were now brought over the bridge in unbroken sequence, and the advance was begun; on the left wing the cav. div. towards Alecsandri, on its right the 2i7th Inf. Div., then the I2th and ist Bulgarian Inf. Divs. The Turkish 26th Inf. Div. followed as Army Reserve behind the left wing. Rapidly advancing, and quickly