Second Romanian campaign of World War I | |||||||
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Part of Eastern Front of World War I | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Austria-Hungary | Romania | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
August von Mackensen | Ferdinand I | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 10 divisions 2 warships | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
77 assorted German vessels were captured | None |
The second Romanian campaign of World War I was one of the shortest military operations of the war, taking place during the last two days of the war, 10 and 11 November 1918. With no significant battles, it yielded important territorial as well as material gains for the Romanians, and was a prelude to the Hungarian–Romanian War, which would start two days later, on 13 November.
The First Romanian Campaign ended in victory for the Central Powers, forcing Romania to sign the Treaty of Bucharest and drop out of the war in May 1918. This treaty was deeply resented by the Romanians.
But after Bulgaria had capitulated on 29 September 1918, the French-led Army of the Danube under of Henri Mathias Berthelot, traveled unopposed under armistice terms through Bulgaria by rail towards Romania. By the end of October, they had reached Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo and Ruse on the Bulgarian-Romanian border. There was still a large German-Austrian-Hungarian occupation force present in Romania under command of August von Mackensen. By early November however, it was clear the war was lost and the occupation force marched home towards Hungary, and the French crossed the Danube at Svishtov and Nikopol. [1] These events motivated Romania to re-declare war on the Central Powers on 10 November 1918. [2]
On the northern front, Romanian troops occupied Austrian Bukovina, entering the capital Czernowitz on 11 November. [3]
In the morning of 11 November, three hours before the Allied Armistice with Germany was signed, the Romanian monitor Mihail Kogălniceanu , together with the 30-ton river torpedo boat Trotușul , recovered the port of Brăila after the Germans retreated from the city. The two Romanian warships captured 77 assorted German vessels abandoned in the city's port (barges, tankers, tugs, floating cranes, and motorboats). [4]
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires, were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria; this was also known as the Quadruple Alliance.
Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany, Italy and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far Eastern Advisory Commission to make recommendations for the post-war period. Accordingly, they managed their control of the defeated countries through Allied Commissions, often referred to as Allied Control Commissions (ACC), consisting of representatives of the major Allies.
The Treaty of Bucharest (1918) was a peace treaty between Romania and the opposing Central Powers following the stalemate reached after the campaign of 1917. This left Romania isolated after Russia's unilateral exit from World War I.
The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 /17 August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.
The Balkans theatre or Balkan campaign was a theatre of World War I fought between the Central Powers and the Allies.
World War I or the First World War, also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare and the use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas). World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated 9 million military dead and 23 million wounded, plus up to 8 million civilian deaths from causes including genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed millions.
The Kingdom of Romania was neutral for the first two years of World War I, entering on the side of the Allied powers from 27 August 1916 until Central Power occupation led to the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918, before reentering the war on 10 November 1918. It had the most significant oil fields in Europe, and Germany eagerly bought its petroleum, as well as food exports.
The Flămânda Offensive, which took place during World War I between 29 September and 5 October 1916, was an offensive across the Danube mounted by the Romanian 3rd Army supported by Romanian coastal artillery. Named after the hamlet of Flămânda, the battle represented a consistent effort by the Romanian Army to stop the Central Powers' southern offensive led by August von Mackensen. The battle ended as a tactical victory for the Central Powers.
The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front, was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and with insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece. Eventually, a stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River, pitting a multinational Allied force against the Bulgarian army, which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the other Central Powers. The Macedonian front remained stable, despite local actions, until the Allied offensive in September 1918 resulted in Bulgaria capitulating and the liberation of Serbia.
The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1918 by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day, celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romania that celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and celebrates the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of Bessarabia and Bukovina and parts of Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Romanian Kingdom. Bessarabia and Bukovina had joined with the Kingdom of Romania earlier in 1918.
The Armistice of Salonica was the armistice signed at 10:50 p.m. on 29 September 1918 between Bulgaria and the Allied Powers at the General Headquarters of the Allied Army of the Orient in Thessaloniki. The armistice came into force at noon on 30 September 1918. The armistice would remain in effect until the conclusion of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the final general peace treaty, in November 1919.
The Kingdom of Bulgaria participated in World War I on the side of the Central Powers from 14 October 1915, when the country declared war on Serbia, until 30 September 1918, when the Armistice of Salonica came into effect.
The Commissions of the Danube River were authorized by the Treaty of Paris (1856) after the close of the Crimean War. One of these international commissions, the most successful, was the European Commission of the Danube, or, in French, Commission Européenne du Danube, the CED, which had authority over the three mouths of the river — the Chilia in the north, the Sulina in the middle, and the St. George in the south and which was originally designed to last for only two years. Instead, it lasted eighty-two years. A separate commission, the International Danube Commission, or IDC, was authorized to control commerce and improvements upriver beyond the Danube Delta and was supposed to be permanent, but it was not formally organized until after 1918.
The Armistice of Focșani was an agreement that ended the hostilities between Romania and the Central Powers in World War I. It was signed on 9 December 1917 in Focșani in Romania.
The Liberation of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro was a military action in the Balkans in the final weeks of World War I. Between 29 September and 11 November 1918, the Allied Army of the Orient liberated these three countries from occupation by the Central Powers.
NMS Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Brătianu-class river monitor of the Romanian Navy. She saw service in both world wars, being the most successful vessel in her class of four ships. Like her three sisters, she was initially built as a river monitor, but in early 1918, she was converted to a sea-going monitor. During the Second Balkan War, she supported the Romanian crossing of the Danube into Bulgaria. During World War I, she carried out numerous bombardments against the Central Powers forces advancing along the shore of the Danube and carried out the last action of the Romanian Navy before the 11 November 1918 armistice. She later fought successfully against Bolshevik naval forces during the early months of the Russian Civil War, helping secure the Budjak region.
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.
The Treaty of Buftea was a preliminary peace treaty between the Kingdom of Romania on one side and the Central Powers on the other.
The territorial evolution of Romania includes all the changes in the country's borders from its formation to the present day. The precedents of Romania as an independent state can be traced back to the 14th century, when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were founded. Wallachia during its history lost several portions of its territory, either to the Ottomans or the Habsburgs. However, this land would be later essentially recovered in its entirety. Moldavia, on the other hand, suffered great territorial losses. In 1774, the Habsburgs invaded Bukovina and annexed it one year later, and in 1812, the Russian Empire took control of Bessarabia. Both territories were later exposed to powerful colonization policies. The principalities declared unification in 1859 as the Principality of Romania. This new state sought independence from the Ottoman Empire's vassalage, and in 1878, it fought a war against it alongside Russia. However, the latter would annex Southern Bessarabia, which was recovered decades before. Romania received Northern Dobruja as compensation, and would wage a war for the southern part against Bulgaria in 1913.
The armistice of Belgrade was an agreement on the termination of World War I hostilities between the Triple Entente and the Kingdom of Hungary concluded in Belgrade on 13 November 1918. It was largely negotiated by General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, as the commanding officer of the Allied Army of the Orient, and Hungarian Prime Minister Mihály Károlyi, on 7 November. It was signed by General Paul Prosper Henrys and vojvoda Živojin Mišić, as representatives of the Allies, and by the former Hungarian Minister of War, Béla Linder.