“Pe aici nu se trece”: Mărășești, 1917

Chapter

24 July – 1 August

Duration

9 days

Commander

General Averescu

Result

Romanian–Russian victory

On 24 July New Style, General Alexandru Averescu's 2nd Army, shoulder to shoulder with Russian troops, attacks at Mărăști to encircle and destroy the German 9th Army. It is the first Romanian offensive after the winter of rebuilding, and the man leading it answers to the chief of the Marele Cartier General, Constantin Prezan.

By 1 August the offensive has reached its tactical goal and stops: Mărăști remains the summer's only offensive, because the parallel operation at Nămoloasa is abandoned in the meantime. The Russian army, shaken by revolution, can no longer be counted a reliable partner.

Mărăști gives the Romanians something besides kilometres: proof that the army rebuilt over the winter of 1916–1917, with General Berthelot's French Mission, can beat the Central Powers. Within days the same army will have to prove it can also hold.

Eu am contrasemnat decretul pentru înaintarea dumneavoastră la gradul de general… (I countersigned the decree promoting you to general…)

Constantin Prezan to Alexandru Averescu, staff chief to 2nd Army commander (RO Wikipedia).

Meanwhile: days earlier the Kerensky offensive (1–19 July), Russia's last offensive of the war, had died out: its collapse buried the Nămoloasa plan too.

Chapter

6 August – 3 September

Duration

29 days

Romanian losses

27,410

Enemy losses

60,000–65,000

On 6 August, Field Marshal Mackensen strikes at Mărășești, meaning to break the front, push up the Siret valley toward Adjud and join the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army coming from Oituz. In his way stands General Eremia Grigorescu's Romanian 1st Army, with Russian troops beside it.

There follow 29 days of attack and counterattack between the Siret and the Putna, on the Muncelu–Mărășești line. The Romanians lose 27,410 men: 5,125 killed, 9,818 missing, 12,467 wounded; the Russians, on the same tables, 25,650. The enemy leaves between 60,000 and 65,000 men on the field.

On 3 September Mackensen halts the attack to move troops to the Italian Front. The offensive had failed, and the local front stabilises until the end of the war. The greatest battle of the Romanian front ends without miracles: with trenches, with artillery, and with Russian divisions that had stayed in the line.

Mărășeștii au fost mormântul iluziilor germane. (Mărășești was the grave of German illusions.)

General Grigorescu's order of the day, as quoted in secondary sources (Boghean, Bacău CCD).

Meanwhile: in Flanders the Allies were locked in the Third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele (July–November 1917): the summer of 1917 bled on every front.

Chapter

8–22 August

Duration

15 days

Opening

about 200 guns

Result

defensive victory

On the morning of 8 August, about 200 guns, 30 of them heavy, open on the Romanian IV Corps in the Oituz valley. The Central Powers' plan is plain: the Trotuș valley to Onești, then to Adjud, where the Oituz troops must join hands with those at Mărășești.

For 15 days the Romanians, backed by Russian troops, hold the Slănic, Oituz and Cașin valleys. The enemy gains a few kilometres here and there, but the junction never happens: the strategic success stays with the defence.

On 22 August the Third Battle of Oituz ends in a Romanian defensive victory. The Gerok Group, the same unit beaten at Mărăști, and the Austro-Hungarian 8th Corps stay stuck in the mountains, and the Adjud pincers never close.

Pătrunderea în valea Trotușului spre Onești și apoi spre Adjud, pentru joncțiunea cu armatele de la Mărășești. (The push up the Trotuș valley to Onești and then Adjud, for the junction with the Mărășești armies.)

The Central Powers' strategic aim at Oituz, after RO Wikipedia.

Meanwhile: a few dozen kilometres to the south-east, the Mărășești cauldron was deciding the same junction: the two battles overlap day by day from 8 to 22 August.

Chapter

22 August / 4 September

Unit

43/59th Regiment, 7th Company

Mission

junction of companies 5–6

Attack hour

around 21:15

On 20 August Old Style, the 43/59th Infantry Regiment climbs toward Dealul Secului, west of Fitionești, to relieve the 35th in the front line. The march runs through torrential rain, and Sublocotenent Teodoroiu carries her own rifle, pack, 160-cartridge pouch and five grenades.

The 7th Company spends two days in reserve. On 22 August her platoon is ordered to hold the junction of the 5th and 6th companies. Around 21:15 the German artillery preparation begins; the attack is repelled, the Romanians counterattack, and the platoon, advancing faster than the neighbouring company, is left with its left flank exposed, exactly where the enemy concentrates its fire.

Ecaterina Teodoroiu falls to machine-gun fire while urging her soldiers on. The date of her death is 22 August Old Style, 4 September New Style: one day after the official end of the Battle of Mărășești, in its last fighting. She is buried at “Poienele”, beside Captain Dumitru Morojan, fallen a day earlier; her remains reach Târgu Jiu in June 1921.

Înainte, băieți, nu vă lăsați, sunteți cu mine! (Forward, boys, hold on, you are with me!)

Words attributed to Ecaterina Teodoroiu at the moment of death, said to have “entered collective memory” (RO Wikipedia).

Meanwhile: a day earlier, Mackensen had halted the Mărășești attack to move troops to the Italian Front: the Moldavian front had stabilised.