Battle of Nagyszeben | |||||||
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Part of the Battle of Transylvania of the Romanian Campaign of World War I | |||||||
![]() Romanian prisoners marching by Austro-Hungarian artillery in the Red Tower Pass after the battle | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
I Corps: 20,000+ (25 battalions of over 800 men) 16 batteries (2 heavy) 3 aircraft (1 operational) Toma Popescu Detachment (26 June): 1 Jäger battalion 2 howitzers 1 militia platoon (15 men) |
XXXIX Corps: 17,500 - 21,000 (35 battalions of 500 - 600 men) 54 batteries (13 heavy) Alpine Corps: 9 battalions 2 mountain batteries | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
I Corps (1st Army): 3,000 prisoners 13 guns captured 6 machine-guns captured 2 aircraft captured 2nd Army: Unknown total 1 aircraft captured |
Unknown total 300 prisoners (28-29 September) |
The Battle of Nagyszeben was a World War I military engagement fought between the forces of the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) on one side and the forces of Romania on the other side. It was the decisive engagement during the Battle of Transylvania, and also the largest, involving four armies out of the five fighting in the region: two Romanian, one German, and one Austro-Hungarian.
German General Erich von Falkenhayn planned to surround and annihilate the entire I Corps of General Ioan Culcer's Romanian 1st Army. Although this failed - the bulk of the Romanian force including almost its entire artillery managing to escape - the battle was still decisive in that it compelled the Romanian abandonment of Transylvania. Midway into the battle, the Romanian 2nd Army tried to relieve the besieged I Corps, attacking both the flank of the German 9th Army and the western flank of the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army. Thus, in the second half of the battle, two more armies joined the fray.
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