Background
On 27 August 1916, Romania joined World War I on the side of the Allies by invading Transylvania, at that time part of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. The advance of the Romanian 1st Army north of the Red Tower Pass came to a halt on 10 September, when Sellenberk (Șelimbăr/Schellenberg) was taken.[1][2]
In mid-September, General Ioan Culcer - the commander of the Romanian 1st Army - moved the I Corps headquarters (General Ioan Popovici) to Nagytalmács (Tălmaciu/Talmesch), to direct the operations of the two divisions located there. Popovici and his staff arrived in Nagytalmács on 16 September. Popovici had two divisions, the 13th Division of General Ioan Oprescu being the one deployed to the east.[3]
On 19 September, General Erich von Falkenhayn assumed command of the German 9th Army. Among the units of this army was the Schmettow Cavalry Corps, comprising the 1st Austro-Hungarian and 3rd German Cavalry Division, both under von Schmettow's command, the 3rd Division's commander. As part of von Falkenhayn's plan for the Battle of Nagyszeben, von Schmettow had to block any reinforcements that might have come from the Romanian 2nd Army, threatening the 9th Army's vulnerable flank.[4]
References
- ^ The Times, 1917, The Times History and Encyclopaedia of the War, Volume 11, pp. 211-213
- ^ William Dunseath Eaton, Harry C. Read, Leonard Wood, C. Thomas Company, 1919, A Complete History of the World War: A Connected and Complete Narrative of the War on All Fronts, Covering All Events Between 1914 and 1924, Volume 1, p. 394
- ^ Michael B. Barrett, Indiana University Press, Oct 23, 2013, Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania, pp. 103-104 and 106
- ^ Michael B. Barrett, Indiana University Press, Oct 23, 2013, Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania, pp. 99-100 and 102-103