Battle of Nagyszeben (1916)

Battle of Nagyszeben
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
Date 26–29 September 1916 Location Southeastern Transylvania, Austria-Hungary (Szeben, Fogaras and Nagy-Küküllő counties) and northwestern Wallachia, Romania (Vâlcea and Argeș counties) Result Decisive Central Powers victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Romania	German Empire  Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Ioan Culcer Ioan Popovici Matei Castriș Ioan Oprescu [ro] David Praporgescu Toma Popescu Grigore Crăiniceanu Grigore Simionescu	Erich von Falkenhayn Hermann von Staabs Edwin Sunkel [de] Béla Tanárky Hugo Elster von Elstermann Konrad Krafft von Dellmensingen Franz Ritter von Epp Ludwig Ritter von Tutschek Eberhard Graf von Schmettow Friedrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz Arthur Arz von Straußenburg Curt von Morgen Anton Goldbach von Sulittaborn [de]
Units involved
1st Army I Corps 13th Division 23rd Division 20th Division Toma Popescu Detachment 2nd Army 3rd Division 4th Division 6th Division	9th Army XXXIX Reserve Corps 187th Division 51st Honvéd Division 76th Reserve Division Alpine Corps Bavarian Guard Regiment Jäger Brigade Cavalry Corps Schmettow 3rd German Cavalry Division 1st Austro-Hungarian Cavalry Division 89th Infantry Division 1st Army I Reserve Corps 71st Austro-Hungarian Infantry Division
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.