Battle of Mărăşeşti

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Mărăşeşti
partof=Romanian Campaign (World War I)


caption=
date=August 6 to September 8, 1917
place=Vrancea, Eastern Romania
casus=
territory=
result=Allied victory
combatant1=flagicon|Romania|1867 Romania
flag|Russian Empire
combatant2=flag|German Empire
flag|Austria-Hungary
commander1=flagicon|Romania|1867 Alexandru Averescu
flagicon|Romania|1867 Eremia Grigorescu
commander2=flagicon|German Empire Field Marshall Mackensen
strength1=Unknown
strength2=Unknown
casualties1=27,000
casualties2=47,000
notes=

The Battle of Mărăşeşti, Vrancea County, eastern Romania (August 6 to September 8, 1917) was a battle fought during World War I between Germany and Romania.

Premise

The Romanians participated in a joint Russian-Romanian offensive on July 22 against the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army in the Mărăşti area and on the lower part of the Siret river (the Battle of Mărăşti). After some initial success (a 30 km-wide and 20 km-deep salient in the front of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army), the attack had to be stopped due to the successful Central Powers counter-offensive in Galicia (see the Kerensky Offensive).

German counter-attack

Before launching the attack, the battle was thought to be taken at Nămăloasa, both sides were counting at that moment about 1 million soldiers. Field Marshall Mackensen launched a counter-attack on August 6. Mackensen, displaying his usual skill, forced the Russians to retreat. It must be admitted that the Russian army was nearly useless by this point in the war. For the next month, the Germans, together with some Austrian units, fought a see-saw battle with the Romanian army. The fighting lasted until September 8, when both sides ran out of fresh units. The German attempt to crush the last Romanian army had failed, but the Romanians had not expanded their territory either [Cyril Falls, "The Great War", p. 285] .

Romania lost over 27,000 men, including 610 officers, while Germany lost over 47,000. The Romanian heroine Ecaterina Teodoroiu was killed at the end of this battle, on September 6, by machine-gun fire and the Romanian soldiers left us the famous expression "Pe aici nu se trece",(eng. "No trespassing").

Aftermath

This was the last major battle on the Romanian front. In May 1918, after the German advance in Ukraine and Russia signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Romania, surrounded by the Central Powers forces, had no other choice but to sue for peace (see Treaty of Bucharest, 1918).

References

External links

* Niţu, Victor. website: [http://www.worldwar2.ro/primulrazboi/?article=117 Worldwar2.ro: The battle of Mărăşeşti]