page_title: Second Battle of the Jiu Valley
section_title: Retaking lost ground (7 - 14 November)
hierarchical_section_title: Second Battle of the Jiu Valley / Battle / Retaking lost ground (7 - 14 November)
caption_attribution_description: English: Fighting for Gruba Mare and Leșului hills during the Second Battle of the Jiu Valley (11 November 1916)
context_page_description: The Second Battle of the Jiu Valley was a military engagement between German and Romanian forces during the Romanian Campaign of World War I. It lasted between 7 and 17 November 1916 and resulted in a German victory.
context_section_description: On 7 November, the Württemberg Mountain Battalion took the Romanian position at Gruba Mare. The Romanians tried hard to retake the summit on the next day, but - with the support of Hungarian mountain artillery - they were repulsed. Among the German officers involved in this battle was Erwin Rommel, at that time serving as an Oberleutnant in command of a company within the Württemberg Mountain Battalion. One Romanian counterattack isolated the company's leading platoon and knocked out its machine gun. Although the platoon managed to regroup with the rest of Rommel's company, its heavy machine gun was abandoned, a loss which Rommel acknowledged: "We now missed the heavy machine-gun that lay smashed up ahead." Even after Rommel had secured a replacement machine-gun from a nearby outpost, the Romanians did not give up, eventually managing to catch Rommel's Company Headquarters in the firing line and shooting its leader, Feldwebel Dallinger, in the head. As the fog was dispersing, Rommel's company had its left flank completely exposed and was short of ammunition. Rommel telephoned Major Theodor Sproesser, reporting the situation and requesting urgent reinforcements. A few minutes later, a platoon of around 50 men under Lieutenant Hohl arrived, which Rommel deployed on his exposed left flank. There was no further cause for concern for Rommel's company.
  On 10 November, the Germans launched their full-scale attack on a front with a length of 20 miles. One division attacked between the Vulcan and Surduc Passes, and a second division attacked east of Surduc. Smaller groups further to the west limited their advance through the mountains until the battle was decided by the main concentration of German forces, on the Jiu River. The Germans were thus careful not to repeat the mistakes of their ill-fated first offensive into the region. Only on the western end of the front, where there were hardly any Romanian troops, an Austro-Hungarian group pressed forward at a quick pace, aiming to outflank the Romanian positions around Târgu Jiu. On 10 November, three mountains on both sides of the Jiu and a massif 9 miles (14 kilometres) to the east were occupied by the Germans. The Germans continued their advance on the next day with fair success, reaching the exit of the Surduc Pass by daybreak on the 11th, where they were temporarily halted north of Bumbești. At 7 am, after the fog had dissipated, the heavy German 210 mm howitzers started firing at the Romanian fortifications, some of which had armored cupolas. The Romanian fortifications - obsolete as they were - held the Germans in place for the following two days. On 13 November, after German 210 mm howitzers shattered the armored cupolas, the Germans captured the Romanian fortifications. By the night of the 13th, the Germans were astride the Jiu Valley, on a front extending from Vălari past Sâmbotin to Bârcaciu. The Germans had thus gotten to within 6 miles (9.7 kilometres) north of the town of Târgu Jiu.
  On 14 November, Bumbești was taken by the Germans. Up to this point, the Germans had taken practically no new ground. While they were indeed advancing, they were merely retaking land which they had acquired during the early stages of their October offensive (23 to 27 October) and subsequently lost to the Romanian counteroffensive (27 October to 1 November). On 27 October, the Germans had reached Bumbești and were poised to enter Târgu Jiu, but were halted at the Jiu Bridge just west of the town and subsequently driven back.
caption: Fighting for Gruba Mare and Leșului hills on 11 November 1916
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