Romanian campaign (1916)

Romanian campaign (1916)
Part of the Romanian campaign of World War I

Falkenhayn's cavalry entering Bucharest on 6 December 1916
Date27 August 1916 – 10 January 1917
Location
Result Central Powers victory
Territorial
changes
Central Powers' occupation of Wallachia (including the capital Bucharest) and Dobruja
Belligerents
 Romania
Russian Empire
 Germany
 Austria-Hungary
 Bulgaria
 Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of Romania Ioan Culcer
Kingdom of Romania Alexandru Averescu
Kingdom of Romania Mihail Aslan
Kingdom of Romania Constantin Prezan
Kingdom of Romania Grigore Crăiniceanu
Andrei Zayonchkovski
German Empire Erich von Falkenhayn
German Empire August von Mackensen
Austria-Hungary A. A. von Straussenburg
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) Stefan Toshev
Ottoman Empire Mustafa Hilmi Pasha
Strength
1916:[1]: p. 254 
Romania 658,088[2]
50,000
1917:[3]
Romania 400,000
1,000,000
Germany 750,000[1]: p. 254 
Bulgaria 143,049 (1916)[4]: p. 792 
Ottoman Empire 20,000 (1916)[4]: p. 283 
Casualties and losses
Romania 535,706+ all casualties[5]
Unknown
German Empire 47,000+ casualties
Austria-Hungary Unknown
Tsardom of Bulgaria (1908–1946) Unknown

After a series of quick tactical victories on the numerically overpowered Austro-Hungarian forces in Transylvania, in the autumn of 1916, the Romanian Army suffered a series of devastating defeats, which forced the Romanian military and administration to withdraw to Western Moldavia, allowing the Central Powers to occupy two thirds of the national territory, including the state capital, Bucharest.

The main causes of the Romanian Army’s defeat by the numerically inferior German and Austro-Hungarian forces in the campaign of 1916 were the major political interferences in the act of military supervision, the incompetence, the imposture and the cowardice of a significant part of the military echelon of conduct, as well as the lack of an adequate training and troops’ equipment for that specific type of war.

  1. ^ a b William C. King, King's Complete History of the World War: 1914-1918, History Associates, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1922
  2. ^ (in Romanian) România în războiul mondial 1916-1919, Documente, Anexe, Volumul 1, Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului, București, 1934, p. 58 Cifrele efectivelor militare mobilizate de România prezintă mici deosebiri în diferitele lucrări de referință.
  3. ^ The Romanian Front - 1917, access date 12 August 2014
  4. ^ a b (in Bulgarian) Министерство на войната, Щаб на войската, Българската армия в Световната война 1915 - 1918, Vol. VIII, Държавна печатница, Sofia, 1939
  5. ^ WWI Casualty and Death Tables Archived 2012-10-29 at the Wayback Machine, access date 12 August 2014