Second Battle of Oituz

The planned military action was part of the directive received from the German leadership, on 25 September, 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.^[11]

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.^[12]

In any case, on the 11th, the Romanians attacked in three columns over an extended area, with the aim of pinning the forces present and prevent the transfer of reinforcements elsewhere along the front by causing heavy losses to their opponents.^[13] 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.^[14]

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.^[15]

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.^[16] 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 Gerok, 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 halted due to the heavy losses suffered, meaning that the Romanians kept control of the Gyalu Leszpedin summit, which had a dominating view of the west side of the pass leading from Hârja to Băile Slănic (now Slănic-Moldova).^[17]

Rain and snowfall limited further operations, and a local temporary ceasefire was arranged on the 18th by the Romanians to bury their dead.^[17]

• von Falkenhayn, Erich (1921). Der Feldzug der 9. Armee gegen die Rumänen und Russen, 1916/17 [The Campaign of the 9th Army Against the Romanians and Russians, 1916/1917] (in German). Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn.
• Glaise von Horstenau, Edmund; Brauner, Josef (1932). Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 - 1918: Das Kriegsjahr 1916 - Die Ereignisse von August bis zur Jahreswende [Austria-Hungary's last war 1914-1918: The year 1916 - Events from August to the end of the year] (in German). Vol. 5. Vienna: Verl. der Militärwiss. Mitteilungen.
• Kirițescu, Constantin (1989). Istoria războiului pentru întregirea României [History of the war for the unification of Romania] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică.
• Romanian Commission of Military History (1989). Istoria militară a poporului român [The military history of the Romanian people] (in Romanian). Bucharest: Editura Militară.
• Prodan, Costică (1996). "The Battles for the Mountain Passes". Romanian Review. 51 (5/6). Europolis Pub.: 116–128. ISSN 0035-8088. OCLC 5350807.