Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania by Michael B. Barrett (review)

Historians have given the Romanian front of World War I little attention. Michael Barrett works to correct this gap, comprehensively describing Romania’s 1916 invasion of Hungary and the reaction of the Central Powers. Barrett states boldly his position: “Historians, especially in the English-speaking world, have tended to minimize or dismiss the Romanian campaign as an almost farcical interlude in a serious war leading to a lopsided victory. That image is incorrect” (296). The author’s ten chapters together provide a solid comprehensive military history of the Austro-German campaign in Romania.

Barrett begins with Romania’s August declaration of war on Austria-Hungary. In doing so, the Romanian government turned its back on the Central Powers, motivated by the desire to take Transylvania—a province of the Dual Monarchy—and thus bring millions of ethnic Romanians into its realm. He then moves to describe the invasion of Transylvania by the inexperienced Romanian army. In response, the Germans and their Bulgarian allies, under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen, quickly crossed the Romanian border from Bulgaria in the Dobrogea region. Russian reinforcements joined the Romanians, but this “diversionary campaign … had succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations,” prompting the Romanian leadership to put “its precious offensive in Transylvania on hold while it diverted almost one-fourth of its combat units to the Dobrogea” (91). By October, the Romanians launched an attack on Mackensen’s troops by crossing south across the Danube; but there the field marshal—leading German, Turkish, and Bulgarian soldiers—beat back the Romanians and their Russian reinforcements, moving north across the Danube in late November.

The strategies of German General Erich von Falkenhayn lie at the heart of this analysis. The 9th German Army, under his leadership, had assembled in Hungary in September after the Romanian invasion of Transylvania. The general had just been fired as chief of staff of the Prussian army for his failed strategies on both the western and eastern fronts; thus the assignment served as Falkenhayn’s chance to rescue his reputation. His army, supported by the 1st Austrian Army guarding its flank, began chasing the remaining Romanian troops out of Transylvania in late September. They squeezed through tight alpine mountain passes separating Transylvania from the Romanian core region of Walachia while facing deteriorating conditions of the coming winter. They then raced across the sprawling, oil- and grain-rich Walachian Plain to Bucharest, capturing the capital in December, all the while destroying enemy forces, and “all during the course of a campaign that covered more than 360 miles and just took 135 days” (314). By early 1917, three Russian armies entered Romania to save it, but the March abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the subsequent disintegration of the Russian army in the region led to a formal cessation of hostilities in December 1917. Romania had little choice but to sign a harsh peace treaty with the Central Powers in March 1918. Still, Barrett suggests that Falkenhayn’s victory probably prolonged the war by a year insofar as it “enabled the Central Powers to help themselves to the agricultural richness of Walachia in 1917” (292).

Barrett draws remarkably on source material from American, Austrian, British, German, Romanian, and Russian repositories to weave his narrative. His painstaking level of detail is impressive, and this analysis will be of particular interest to military historians. The level of detail can become somewhat wearisome to nonspecialists, however, and Barrett’s work could have benefited from additional summarization and signposting throughout the text. Moreover, such a history inevitably involves an extensive cast of characters from all corners of Europe. A glossary summarizing in a couple sentences the role and significance of the major players and units would have benefitted this work.

Nonetheless, Barrett offers two major takeaways. First, his meticulous analysis emphasizes that victory on the Romanian front did not come easy for the Central Powers. Costing the...