enabled him to shift his
forces back and forth, wherever the contingencies of the situation
made them needed most. By the 12th he was facing the Rumanians in the
passes. Heavy fighting then began developing at Torzburg, Predeal, and
Buzau Passes. Finally the Rumanians were forced back toward Crasna on
the frontier. A critical moment seemed imminent. Averescu, who had
defeated Mackensen, was now recalled from the Dobrudja and sent to
take command of the Rumanian forces defending the passes behind
Brasso.

By the middle of the second week of October, 1916, the Rumanians had
lost all the territory they had taken, except a little in the
northeast. The German-Austrian pressure was now heaviest in two areas:
about the passes behind Brasso and before the Gyimes Pass in the
northeast.

In the latter region, on the 11th, the Rumanians had retired from
Csikszereda and from positions higher up on the circular strategic
railroad in the valley of the Maros. Before Oitoz Pass they resisted
fiercely, and for a time were able to hold their ground. But it was in
the passes behind Brasso that Falkenhayn's weight was being felt most
severely. On the 12th the following description of the general
situation was issued from Bucharest:

"From Mount Buksoi as far as Bran the enemy has attacked, but is being
repulsed."

On the following day came better news than the Rumanians had heard for
some weeks. The Germans had not only been checked in the Buzau and the
Predeal Passes, but they had suffered a genuine setback there, being
forced to retire. This victory was important in that Predeal Pass had
been saved, for not only was this pass close to Bucharest, but through
it ran a railroad and a good highway, crossing the mountains almost
due south of Brasso at a height of a little over 3,000 feet. On the
next day, however, the Rumanians were driven out of the Torzburg Pass
and forced to retire to Rucaru, a small town seven miles within
Rumanian territory. Falkenhayn's forces were now flowing through the
gap in the mountain chain and deploying among the foothills on the
Rumanian side of the chain. Here the situation was growing dangerous
to an extreme degree. 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