First Battle of Orsova | |||||||
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Part of the Romanian Campaign of World War I | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Romania | Austria-Hungary Germany | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ioan Culcer Ion Dragalina | Arthur Arz von Straussenburg Alexander Ritter Szívó de Bunya | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
| Austria-Hungary:
Germany:
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The First Battle of Orsova was a World War I military engagement between Austro-Hungarian and German forces on one side and Romanian forces on the other side. The Central Powers failed to advance, the battle thus resulting in a Romanian victory.
Between 28 August and 4 September 1916, during the Battle of Orsova, the 1st Romanian Division (General Ion Dragalina) of the 1st Romanian Army (General Ioan Culcer) conquered the town of Orsova along with the west bank of the Cserna River from its Austro-Hungarian defenders: the 145th Brigade (Colonel Rudolf von Fiebich-Ripke) of the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army (General Arthur Arz von Straußenburg). [1] [2] On 5 September, the first German unit to arrive in nearby Transylvania - the 187th Regiment of the 187th Division - promptly rushed its III Battalion to Herkulesfürdő (Băile Herculane/Herkulesbad), one of the settlements taken by the Romanians on 1 September (another such settlement was Mehádia). The aim of the Central Powers was to secure the Iron Gates. [3] The battle took place between 6 and 10 September. [4] However, only on 6 September - the first day of the battle - did the Central Powers gain any ground. Their forces managed to secure Herkulesfürdő as well as Mehádia, but fell short of reaching Orsova. [5] As early as 8 September, two days before the end of the battle, Vienna admitted that the Romanians had taken Orsova, five days after the town was seized. [6] In October, the Central Powers forces at Orsova were under the command of Colonel Alexander Ritter Szívó de Bunya. [7]
The battle took place between 1 and 4 October 1916. [8] It resulted in a Romanian victory, given that, by mid-October, Szívó's Orsova force was the only Central Powers unit that failed to advance. [9]
A mixed Austro-Hungarian and German force under the Hungarian Colonel Szívó had moved along the Cserna River in mid-November, during a general Central Powers offensive against Romania which started on 11 November, and captured parts of Orsova during fighting on 11–13 November. [10] [11]
The Battle of Prunaru was a military engagement between German and Romanian forces during the Romanian Campaign of World War I. It resulted in a tactical German victory, but following the heavy Romanian resistance the Germans halted after taking Prunaru. General Constantin Prezan's maneuver group checked the German forces in the region within two days, exposing the left flank of Field Marshal August von Mackensen's Danube Army.
The Battle of Transylvania was the first major operation of Romania during World War I, beginning on 27 August 1916. It started as an attempt by the Romanian Army to seize Transylvania, and potentially knock Austria-Hungary out of the war. Although initially successful, the offensive was brought to a halt after Bulgaria's attack on Dobruja. Coupled with a successful German and Austro-Hungarian counterattack which started in mid-September, the Romanian Army was eventually forced to retreat back to the Carpathians by mid-October. The Romanian armies however managed to escape the Central Powers' attempts to completely destroy them. The Battle of Transylvania also caused the replacement of the Chief of Staff of the German Army and the shifting of German attention to the region, causing German offensive operations at Verdun to cease.
Ioan Culcer was a Wallachian-born Romanian military leader and politician. Culcer served as a lieutenant during the Romanian War of Independence (1877–1878) and as a general during the Second Balkan War and World War I. In early 1918, he served as Minister for Public Works in the First Averescu cabinet.
The Orsova Offensive was a military engagement fought between the armies of Romania and Austria-Hungary at the start of the Romanian Campaign in August–September 1916. It ended in a Romanian victory which led to the Romanian occupation of the west bank of the Cserna (Cerna) River for over two months.
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