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Updated: June 27, 2025
Only ten miles farther south, over high, rolling ground, was Campulung, the terminus of a railroad running directly into Bucharest, only ninety miles distant. But Falkenhayn made no further progress that day. In the neighboring passes he was held back successfully while his left flank in the Oitoz Pass and his right flank in the Vulkan Pass were each thrown back.
They were French territory at the beginning of the war and had been seized by the army of the Crown Prince, co-operating with the Army of Metz because of their immense value to the Germans in war making. As a preliminary to the battle, von Falkenhayn placed a semicircle of huge howitzers and rifles around the field of Briey.
It was even rumoured that the Empress, alarmed by the situation, had ordered a train to be made ready in order to go to him and try to convince him of the necessity of returning to Berlin. The newly appointed minister of war, Falkenhayn, went to Donaueschingen, where he was joined by von Deimling.
It was the prospect of Falkenhayn, with the huge army of half a million men, flushed with its recent easy victory over Rumania, being freed for employment on the French front, that caused our hurried over-late expedition to Siberia.
They were aided by a French commander, General Bertholet, and struck back hard at Von Falkenhayn, gaining some signal successes in the last days of October and early in November and capturing several thousand prisoners and much war material. These successes, however, proved insufficient to do more than check the Teuton advance toward Bucharest.
The Kaiser, influenced by the Crown Prince and by von Falkenhayn, decreed that the Russian campaign must be postponed and that von Hindenburg must send his crack troops to join the army of the Crown Prince fronting Verdun. Ludendorff promptly resigned as Chief of Staff to von Hindenburg and suggested that the Field Marshal also resign.
The Germans, disregarding their heavy losses, returned repeatedly to the charge. It was ascertained through a document found on a prisoner that General Falkenhayn, chief of the German General Staff, had given the order to advance at all costs. The Germans attacked fearlessly, but the only progress they succeeded in making was through the Caillette Wood to the southern edge of Vaux Pool.
That grim old warrior declined to take this action, preferring to remain idle in East Prussia and watch what he predicted would be a useless effort on the western front. His warning to the General Staff was explicit, but von Falkenhayn coolly ignored the message. Why did Germany select this particular point for its grand offensive?
Two columns which crossed the mountains east of the Roterturm Pass and made for Salatrucul were flung back with heavy losses on the 18th, and Falkenhayn transferred his main attack to the Vulcan Pass still farther west.
Von Falkenhayn despatched the following telegram from Constantinople on August 25, 1917, to German General Headquarters: The possibility of a British attack in Syria has had to be taken into consideration from the beginning. Its repercussion on the Irak undertaking was obvious.
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