Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-12-14

while the third body squeezed itself
through between the Rumanians at
Hermannstadt and the central range.
September 81 passed without the
frontal attack occurring. 1t was
| learned, however, that the Rumanians
were taking their artillery through the
defile. On the following day the
thanking bodies began TO be pressed
by the Rumanians. Reinforcements
could not be brought into the noun
! tains at short notice, so that the pros
poets seemed not the brightest.
On September % strong artillery
fire in the north announced that the
frontal attack was being made. Inc
alpine troops advanced TO positions
directly overlooking the road in the
defile. Already the road was filled
with the van of the retreating Ruman-
ians. II was caught in the machine
gun and rifle fire of the Germans at
two points, one south, the other I'M
mediately north of the village OF Veres
.Torony. The slaughter was terrific,
as the Associated Press correspondent
Is able to testify from visit to the
spot. In a few minutes the narrow
road was filled with dead men and
animals.
From Boicza the Rumanian retreat
was pressing those on the road, who
on their right had unscalable preci-
pices upon which perched the enemy.
and on their left another precipice
and deep river Men, animals and
wagons plunged through the roads
guard rail into the surging torrent be-
low, never to come to the surface
again. Their bodies were still resting
on the rock lodges and sand banks
when the correspondent went over the
ground.
At Veres Torony there is a stone
bridge across a mountain stream
emptying into the Alt from the west
A German machine gun platoon reach
ed height nearby and took the bridge
under fire. Soon the space between
the ramparts was filled with dead
and wounded men and animals. Death
reaped its fullest harvest here. Those
who were not cut down by the hail of
bullets plunged over the bridge into
the water, where wounded men and
animals formed a. writing mass.
Army Becomes Fleeing Mob
The cry came, "Sauve qui peut."
An entire army, or that part of it
which had been driven into the gorge,
melted of sudden into panicky,
fleeing mob Again the river claimed
hundreds Of victims, and those lucky
enough to reach the other side fell
under the machine gun fire of the
Germans.
The pressure forcing the Rumanians
into Red Tower Pass was exerted by
the frontal attack which Falkenhayn
engineered from the north. Had 1t
been possible to close the Alt Val
ley east OF Hermannstadt, the entire
First Rumanian army would have been
annihilated AS it was, this route
was in part open, though to close it
had been intended and had been the
cause of the delay of the frontal at
tack
With every stick abandoned, the re-
mainder of the First army dispersed
in the foothills Of the Fogaras noun.
tains and later reached Kronstadt.
At Boicza the remnants of the Ru-
manian train were seen by the Asso-
ciated Press correspondent. The Inn
perials had taken away whatever had
value. Over a square mile of meadow
land and fields the wreckage of the
train spread. Imperial artillery had
wrought havoc with the column. The
fragments of thousands of army We
hicles, farm wagons and carts told an
awful tale of the surprise Falkenhayn
had worked on the Rumanians. Out
of the wreckage doomed high the
kitchen wagon Of the commander of
, the 18th Rumanian Division. On the
ground lay tons of Rumanian general
! staff maps, showing Hungary as far
as Budapest and Silesia. Bundles Of
Rumanian flags, intended to proclaim
Rumanian sovereignty in the invaded
districts were also in evidence, as
was the stationery which Bucharest
had prepared In advance for the civil
administration of the annexed terri
tory. No dream was ever more rudely
shattered
With the Red Tower Pass taken,
the imperial troops advanced east
through the Alt Valley and set out to
clear the Ghost forest of the Second
Rumanian army, which was thrown
upon Kronstadt. Fogarus was taken.
The Rumanians were forced beyond
Riul Vatului, or better, the reinforce
ments brought into the pass from the
south were halted there by the Ger.
mans Today the Rumanians hold in
the Red Tower Pass q line of posi-
tons having the Pleasa mountain as
its main point of support.