The Romanian campaign was one of the major campaigns of the First World War, in which the Romanian and Russian armies confronted the armies of the Central Powers. The entry of the Kingdom of Romania into the war on the side of the Entente in August 1916 did not strengthen the alliance. On the contrary, it weakened the anti-German coalition. The Romanian army showed itself as an extremely weak ally, which forced Russia to send considerable forces to her aid. Austro-Hungarian and German troops succeeded, in occupying most of the Romanian territory and seized the country’s capital, Bucharest, by the end of 1916.
The Entente for a long time tried to win Romania over to its side. Since the beginning of the war, the Romanian government had taken the position of “armed waiting”. Romania was in an ethnic conflict with Austria-Hungary. By entering the war, she counted on the annexation of Transylvania, Bukovina, and Banat – territories belonging to Austria-Hungary, inhabited mainly by ethnic Romanians.
Observing the success of the Brusilov breakthrough, which was perceived in Bucharest as a sign of the rapid collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army, Romania decided to enter the war, having bargained for guarantees from the allies. On August 14, 1916, the government declared war on Austria-Hungary. In military circles, Romania as a new ally in the war was received with mixed reactions.
The Romanian Army
The strength the Romanian army reached 650,000. This figure hardly reflected real fighting efficiency. The state of the infrastructure was extremely poor, and a third of the army was forced to serve in the rear. Romania was able to send only 23 divisions to the front. At the same time, there was practically no railway network in the country, and the supply system ceased to function several kilometers into enemy territory. The armament and equipment of the Romanian army were obsolete, and combat training was almost non-existent. Neither the Carpathians in the northwest nor the Danube in the south provided sufficient natural protection against a possible enemy invasion. The richest province in the country, Wallachia, bordered directly with Austria-Hungary in the north and Bulgaria in the south and, thus, was vulnerable to attack by the Central Powers from two sides.
War Operations
Already, in August of 1916, the Romanian army launched an offensive against Hungary. The 400,000-strong Romanian army had a tenfold numerical superiority over the 1st Austrian army. This advantage, however, did not result in victory. The supply routes in the occupied territories were extremely bad, which became the main problem for the advancing troops. And although they managed to occupy some important border fortifications, already the first major city on their way displayed the weakness of the Romanian army. Fearing new supply problems and prospects for German intervention, Romanian generals halted all offensive actions. Thus, at the beginning of September 1916, the Romanian army got stuck almost at the original starting positions, on the periphery of a relatively insignificant Hungarian province, waiting for further developments and giving the initiative to the armies of the Central Powers.
Russian Army sent a 50,000-strong army to the aid of the Romanians. The Russian command believed that it is better to surrender much of Romania than to weaken other sectors of the front. As for the Western allies, their assistance throughout the campaign was only to send military missions to Romania consisting of several high-ranking officers.
The inaction of the Romanian army and its allies led to its’ crushing defeat. The 1st Austrian army of Straussenburg and the 9th German army of Falkenheim pushed out the Romanians from Transylvania with ease, while the combined German-Bulgarian-Austrian forces under the command of Mackensen launched an offensive on Bucharest from the south.
The Romanian command expected that the Russian troops would repel the Bulgarian invasion of Dobrudja and go on the counterattack, and 15 Romanian divisions were assigned to the defense of Bucharest. However, the Romanian-Russian counteroffensive, which began on September 15, ended in failure. The Bulgarian army was very motivated, fighting in territory inhabited by Bulgarians. Despite the fact that the Romanians managed to cross the Danube and attack Bulgaria, the operation was stopped. Russian forces were few and, with the exception of the Serbian battalion, not sufficiently motivated. As a result, the actions of the Bulgarian troops resulted in an unforeseen strategic success. Russian-Romanian troops were pushed back 100 km to the north, and by the end of October, the Bulgarians managed to capture Constance and Chernavoda, thus isolating Bucharest from the left flank. At the same time, Austrian troops retook Transylvania and were preparing an attack on the Romanian capital. August von Mackensen struck the main blow, crossing the Danube. The Romanians, compelled to defend themselves on three fronts at once, could not mount significant resistance. On December 6, 1916, Mackensen entered Bucharest. The remnants of the Romanian troops retreated to the province of Moldova.
The Russian Army formed the Romanian front, which included the remnants of the Romanian troops. Having lost almost all of its territory in 1916, Romania almost dropped out of the war. To raise the morale of soldiers, agrarian and electoral reforms were conducted. Parliament adopted appropriate constitutional amendments, and King Ferdinand I personally promised the soldiers-peasants’ land and the right to vote after the war. By the summer of 1917, the Romanian army was already much better trained and equipped than in 1916. Active hostilities were resumed in July in the Battle of Marasti and the Romanians managed to liberate about 500 km² of territory. The counteroffensive of the Austro-German troops under the command of Mackensen was stopped. By September 8, the front had finally stabilized.
Effects
After the October Revolution, Russia withdrew from the war, and Romania was surrounded by troops of the Central Powers. Therefore, at the end of the year, the Romanian government went to negotiate an armistice in Focsani on December 9, 1917. And, after the Brest Peace, Russia finally withdrew from the war, the military situation for Romania became hopeless. It was forced to conclude a separate peace on May 7, 1918, called the Treaty of Bucharest. However, after the defeat of the Central Powers at the end of 1918, Romania was on the side of the victorious Entente, immediately demanding the cancellation of the Bucharest Treaty. As a result, all the territories lost by Romania under this agreement were returned. In addition, Romania took over Transylvania and Bessarabia.