Bisbee daily review., 1917-01-20
R0UT OF RUMANlANS
 MOST INTERESTING
 BATTLE OF THE WAR

hEhMANNOl ALI, lidHSylNdnld
 Oct 9.-(Correspondenc of The Associated Press)-One of the battles
 of the present war which future gen,
 erations will study is the one which
 led to the complete rout and disorgani.
 zation of the First Rumanian army
 southeast of this city. For several
 reasons the battle in question is by far
 the most interesting of the European
 war. It caused the retreat of the Ru- manian forces which had invaded
 Pennsylvania, and called for a flank manoeuvre whose success was possible only with an enemy who took too much for granted.
 Whe nGeneral Falkenhayn's forces reached the country north of Her mannstadt, the general military situa- ton was not favorable for the Central Powers troops. The invading Ru- manian troops had occupied good posi- tions and had the advantage of numer- ical superiority Kronstadt and the country north of that city had been oc- cupied. The entire valley of the Alt was in the hands of the Rumanians, and the Germans andAustro-H -Hungar- ian troops depended for transportation upon a few single-tracked railroads of little trategic value.
 Gradually rontact was established with the enemy by advancing the Central forces right wing. The Vul- can pass wastaken. This done the Teutonic army pressed slowly forward along the Transylvanian Alps, driving the Rumanians before them. The in tention of the Rumanian general staff to push as far west as the Theiss river was wrecked.
 Hermannstadt had not been occupied by the Rumanians. a failure due to lack of initiative The city could have been taken without much fighting, but already the Rumanians had been given several good examples of Falken- hayn's strategy. The Rumanians lay south of the city in half circle, re- trained from offensive manoeuvres. and so gave Falkenhayn the very op- portunity he needed to set his great drive in motion. Slowly the Imperial troops were advanced towards the hills north of the Alt, while against the Ghost Forest in the east Central cavalry was thrown to protect the left flank.
 This was the situation on September 2S.
 The Rumanians had the Red Tower Pass in their rear. and frontal at tack might do no more than throw them upon this. It was necessary to close the pass. This could be done only by sending troops through the west of the pass, very difficult manoeuvre since the moun- tains have no roads of any sort. Ar tillery and supply train were out of the question.
 General Falkenhayn decided to at tempt the flank movement with some German alpine troops, of which Bava- rian mountaineers were but a small many of the alpine" sol diers being in reality natives Of Mecklenberg; men who, in all their lives. had never climbed mountain. |
 Three battalions set out. The men carried food for four days and their l regular issue of ammunition. Reserve were carried on a hastily or ganized pack train. Through the | foothills of the mountains a road | could be used, then paths were fol | lowed, and finally the crests near the border had to be gained | through dense forests and across boulder fields.
 An odd feature of the manouevre | was that the contact established with | the Rumanian border guards did not | result in the commander of the First | army taking some precau- ! .iOnary measure for the protection of 4 his flank. The German fiankers had | laily skirmishes with the Rumanian !