page_title: Second Battle of Oituz
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of Oituz / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Romanian Front in WWI - The first and second batle of Oituz, 1916 Română: Bătăliile de la Oituz, 1916
context_page_description: The Second Battle of Oituz was fought between November 10 and November 16, 1916. The Romanian forces, led by Brigadier-General Eremia Grigorescu, faced off against an Austro-Hungarian and German force led by Friedrich von Gerok. The battle resulted in the failure of the attempt by the Central Powers to force the Carpathian Mountains and enter the Siret valley in order to cut in two the strategic device of the Romanian forces.
context_section_description: The planned military action was part of the directive received from the German leadership, on September 25, which provided that, in addition to the effort "in the general direction of Bucharest", immediate action should be taken, with infantry and strong cavalry, through the Oituz pass to Târgu Ocna, in order to cut off the Romanians' communications with Moldavia, thus preventing the influx of Russian reinforcements to Muntenia.
  The Austro-Hungarian 7th Hussars (part of the 1st Cavalry Division), which had taken up positions on Lipse-tető (a peak with a summit at 1390 m) on the 9th, were pushed back by the Romanians on the 10th. On the same day, troops of the 19th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment attached to the 71st Infantry Division took the Gyalu Leszpedin (Dealu Lespedii) peak (998 m, situated three kilometers northwest of Sósmező (Poiana Sărată), and held it in the face of violent counterattacks. This sparked a very costly fight for both sides in the Oituz pass. Romanian general Constantin Prezan called on troops in the North Army to counter-attack on the 11th and push back the opposition from the border, although it is not clear whether this was in response to the advance by the XXI Austro-Hungarian Corps, which begun on the 8th.
  On the 11th, the Romanians attacked in three columns over an extended area. The reinforced 71st Division withstood this with ease, but the front of the 1st Cavalry Division was pushed back from their position eight kilometers east of the Oituz, which in turn threatened to cut off the supply line of the 71st Division. Generalmajor Goldbach left a battalion from the 82nd Székely (Hungarian) Infantry Regiment to defend the heights and put another from his sparse reserves behind the cavalry at Klárák. The Romanians, who had worked their way up to the Tömlő-Hordó peak (1364 m), withdrew. The attacks continued on the 12th, with the Bavarians having to push back eight successive assaults on the recently captured border heights, which were carried out impetuously, to the sound of music. An order from the Chief of the Austrian General Staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, placed four battalions and five batteries in reserve at Kézdivásárhely to reinforce the defenders of the pass.
  The 13th saw further action, the 71st Division bearing the brunt of an assault by the Romanian 15th Infantry Division. An assault on a ridge northwest of Sósmező was repulsed in the morning at heavy cost to the attackers, but troops on the Runcul Mare peak (1108 m) suffered a punishing artillery bombardment, and the 82nd Infantry Regiment, which had already been under flanking fire for several days, suffered considerably. In the afternoon, the Romanian attack struck home and took the ridge, threatening again the 71st Division. Counter-attacks attempted in the evening were unsuccessful. In the meantime, two battalions from the 19th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment were relieved and sent down into the Oituz valley, and although this was part of a plan for the whole regiment to be relieved from the front, Generalmajor Goldbach had to instruct the two battalions to attack again. The first of these set out eastwards along with a Székler battalion and managed to clear out a border post which had been taken by the Romanians, and then the second was tasked to recapture the summit of the Runcul Mare after some preparation was conducted.
  If the danger to Austro-Hungarian positions was thus averted to the east of the Oituz valley, the Gyalu Leszpedin, now held by the 5th (Bosnian) Infantry Regiment, was attacked three times during the day. Early on the 15th, the Bosnians were finally evicted from the mountain top, and a counter-attack on the 16th would yield no result. A more successful attempt was made at the Runcul Mare at dawn by the Bavarian battalion mentioned earlier, and thus pressure was relieved on the flanks of the 71st Division. General Gertok, commanding the Oituz area as a corps leader since the 15th, sent in the 36th German Landsturm Regiment on the pass road to the 71st Division, but further counter-attacks were hal
caption: A map of the front at the beginning of November. The positions of the Romanian North Army (rum. Nord Armee, in red) and its Austro-Hungarian and German counterparts are indicated near the site of the battle.[10]
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