A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern

Author:Paul G. Halpern [Halpern, Paul G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612511726
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

THE ROMANIAN CAMPAIGN

The Austrian navy, joined by the German motorboats, was now faced with the problem of defending traffic on the Danube and the Bulgarian frontier with Romania. The Danube formed the border between Romania and Bulgaria from the Serbian border to about 10 miles west of Tutrakan on the right bank, where the border ran southeastward to the Black Sea. This region between the right bank of the Danube and the Black Sea was known as the Dobrudja and had been lost by the Bulgarians after the Second Balkan War in 1913. The Austrians and Germans patrolled the Danube with a variety of river craft, but Romania, courted by the Entente, could not be trusted and controlled the entire left or north bank of the Danube—more than 300 miles—along the Austrian line of communications. It was, to say the least, a potentially awkward situation.

The Austrians found a way out of the difficulty by establishing a base in the Belene Canal. This arm of the Danube, a few miles upstream from the Bulgarian town of Svistov, was separated from the main part of the Danube by the large island of Persina and provided the Donauflottille with an anchorage sheltered from artillery fire from the Romanian shore. The Bulgarian shore for much of the Danube was higher than the Romanian side, where the shore was frequently swampy, full of lagoons and lakes, and where high ground began some distance from the river. The Austrians improved communications with the Belene base by building a light horse-drawn railway to connect with the nearest Bulgarian railway station. They also ran new telephone and telegraph lines. In time of war the entrance to the Belene arm could be protected by booms and mines as well as artillery batteries on the Bulgarian shore.

The Romanians bargained long and hard with the Entente over their entry into the war, and probably missed the opportune moment when the Austrians had been badly battered by the Brusilov offensive on the eastern front in June of 1916.39 This was the last great success of the old Imperial Russian army, but by the time the Romanians concluded a treaty with the British and French on 17 August and declared war on the 27th, it had bogged down and the Central Powers had recovered their equilibrium. Furthermore, it gave Germany and Austria-Hungary time in which to make preparations. On 29 July the Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians reached an agreement, later adhered to by the Turks, on the conduct of the campaign. Field Marshal Mackensen was given command of the southern frontier, that is, the region of the Dobrudja and Danube. AOK decided to retain the majority of the Danube Flotilla in the lower Danube rather than ordering it to make the long trip upstream from Rustschuk. After hostilities began, the flotilla, including the monitors at Rustschuk and the armed steamers spread along the Danube, proceeded to Belene; only the armed steamer Almos and patrol boats Lachs and Stör were upstream at Kladovo, and there were a few German motorboats at Orsova.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.