Ioan Culcer


Ioan Culcer was a Romanian general from World War I and politician.

Military career

Born in Târgu Jiu, he entered the Military School and graduated with the rank of second lieutenant. He participated in the Romanian War of Independence, in which he was wounded and promoted to lieutenant.
After the war he attended the Polytechnic School in Paris, and subsequently the École d'application militaire in Fontainbleau. He specialized as chief engineer and became teacher at the Military School in Romania.
In 1882, under the direction of Belgian military architect Henri Alexis Brialmont, he supervised the building of a Romanian system of defensive fortifications on the line Galați-Nămoloasa-Iași, and around the capital Bucharest.
He was secretary general of the Ministry of Defence and then became Inspector General of the Romanian Army. In this function, he helped mobilize the Romanian Army for the Second Balkan War.

Second Balkan War

On 10 July 1913, Romania declared war on Bulgaria, thus entering into the Second Balkan War. The first Romanian forces to enter Bulgaria consisted in the 80,000 soldiers of the Romanian 5th Corps, commanded by Ioan Culcer. Culcer led his forces into Bulgaria on that same day, and - meeting no resistance - his forces occupied a line from Tutrakan to Balchik. The rest of the Romanian Army crossed the Danube on 14-15 July.
For his efforts, King Carol I appointed him Governor of the Southern Dobruja, the province annexed by Romania after the Treaty of Bucharest.

World War I

When Romania entered World War I in August 1916, Culcer was recalled from retirement and put in command of the First Army. With his army, he advanced into Transylvania, reaching the outskirts of Nagyszeben by mid-September. The Pui-Șelimbăr line became the furthest advance of Culcer's army into Transylvania, the former being reached by Romanian outposts on 12 September and the latter being taken on 10 September. But then the Germans under command of Erich von Falkenhayn launched a counter-attack and the Romanians had to retreat. Culcer was relieved of command on 24 October 1916.

Petrozsény Campaign (Battle of Transylvania)

When Romania entered World War I on the Allied side on 27 August 1916, Culcer commanded the Romanian 1st Army. The town of Petrozsény within the then-Austro-Hungarian Transylvania was taken by Culcer's forces on 29 August, which inflicted heavy losses to the Hungarian coal miner battalions defending the town. Petrozsény was located in a region of valuable coal mines, whose output was vital to the Hungarian railway system. It was the first location of any military or commercial importance to fall into Romanian hands. Culcer managed to defend Petrozsény against a combined German and Austro-Hungarian counterattack on 8 September, but lost the town to a mostly-German force on 18 September, followed by the Surduc Pass leading to it on the next day. On 22 September, two battalions stormed yet another mountain pass on Culcer's front, but the Romanian general took this opportunity to counterattack. Intel provided by sympathetic ethnic Romanians native to the region revealed that the two battalions which stormed the Vulcan Pass were the only Central Powers force left in the area. Culcer thus counterattacked, retaking Petrozsény on 25 September. Between 30 September and 5 October, the Central Powers finally secured Petrozsény and the Surduc Pass, but not before Culcer's forces destroyed the town's strategically vital coal mines. Culcer's retaking of Petrozsény on 25 September notably marked the only instance during the Battle of Transylvania when a Transylvanian town captured by the Romanians was retaken by the Central Powers, then taken by the Romanians once again, even if for a few days. In most cases, Transylvanian urban centers captured by the Romanians during their initial offensive were abandoned without even being defended, much less retaken in a counterattack. The Romanian North Army was ordered to retreat from Transylvania in early October, swiftly abandoning all of the towns it had taken. The Romanian 2nd Army, after managing to check an initial German offensive, abandoned the town of Fogaras on 4 October, and only mounted a defense for Brassó, which faltered after two days. By comparison, Culcer's 1st Army not only defended Petrozsény successfully during the first Central Powers attempt to retake the town, but after the latter had succeeded he counterattacked and recaptured it, albeit for only a few days.

Nagyszeben Campaign (Battle of Transylvania)

Culcer's main force - the Olt-Lotru Group - entered the Red Tower Pass and advanced towards Nagyszeben. After sporadic shootings all throughout the night of 27/28 August, the Romanians took the village of Boica at the head of the Pass. The Lotru Group reached Nagytalmács on 29 August, and subsequently regrouped there before advancing a few more miles North towards Nagyszeben, stopping at Vesztén. The advancing Romanians also blocked the important railroad linking Brassó and Nagyszeben. The Austrian commander at Nagyszeben, Colonel Arnold Barwick, sent an armored train to investigate, but this was set ablaze by the Romanians and rendered unserviceable. Nagydisznód was taken by the Romanians on 30 August. However, instead of advancing into Nagyszeben, the Romanians started to dig in south of the city during the night of 30 August. Nonetheless, Nagyszeben was declared an open city and surrendered to the commander of the 23rd Division, General. Castriș accepted the surrender, and neither side occupied the city, as the Romanians made no effort to occupy it and the Austrians withdrew. The 1st Army advanced very little throughout September. Its eastern flank continued to dig in just south of Sibiu, reinforcing its defense lines, while its Western flank moved into the Merisor valley. It inched northwest along the valley, but never left it. The Romanian forces stopped upon running into Austrian and German defenders, coupled with the threat of German forces disembarking at Karánsebes.
The Battle of Nagyszeben began at the dawn of 26 September, with an attack by the German 9th Army. Its forces in the area were commanded by General, and included the Hungarian 51st Honvéd alongside two German units. The German plan was to isolate the Romanians and cut off the escape route through the Red Tower Pass. The German attack on the 26th ran into stiff resistance, and failed. After amassing his artillery, von Staabs attacked again on the 27th, driving the Romanians towards the mouth of the Red Tower pass by nightfall. Twenty-four hours later, von Staabs had pushed the Romanians into the Pass. German Alpine Corps were deployed to both ends of the Pass on the 26th. The Romanian 48th Infantry Regiment was decimated by German machine gun fire when deployed against the German positions at the North of the Pass. Subsequently, Romanian forces in the Pass moved to its Eastern side, out of the range of German machine guns. Lacking heavy field artillery, the Germans could not completely block the Pass. The Romanians managed to drive off the Germans from the north of the pass, and temporarily from the south of it, but the latter soon returned. The Romanians began their retreat through the pass in earnest on the 28th through the bullets of the Alpine Corps and German barricades of dead horses and wagons, which had to be blasted away by artillery. In the final hour of the battle the Romanians made their way through machine gun fire towards the buildings which served as the firing points for the Alpine Corps at the South of the Pass, and bayoneted to death everyone inside. Then, during the afternoon of the 29th, the Romanian forces made it out of the pass and reached safety. Despite the heroic efforts of the Alpine Corps, the bulk of the Romanian force had escaped. The Germans captured the relatively small number of 3,000 prisoners. Part of the reason for the Romanian defeat was the poor quality of Romanian-manufactured artillery shells. Percussion fuses often exploded inside gun barrels, killing or wounding gunners, or would not explode on the target. Although an undeniable defeat for the Romanians, this battle was never a rout, and historian John Buchan rates the Romanian retreat over the mountains as "one of the most honourable achievements in the story of Rumanian arms".

Capture of Orsova

The Romanian 1st Division - part of Culcer's 1st Army - took the Austro-Hungarian town of Orsova in the Banat region on 4 September. The division was commanded by General Ioan Dragalina. The battle started on the morning of 28 August, with a bombardment of Turnu Severin by the Álmos. The monitor had left Orsova at dawn, shelling harbor facilities, the rail yards, a cavalry barracks and some shipyards at Turnu Severin, where Dragalina's division had its headquarters. The Austrian warship fired almost 500 artillery rounds of 75 mm, as well as considerable machine gun fire. Returning upstream to Orsova, Álmos couldn't overcome the current until her crew threw 25 tons of coal overboard. In retaliation, the Romanians put Orsova under artillery fire around noon on that day. Dragalina recognized the Alion Height, towering above the city on the east side of the Cerna's mouth, as the key to the Austrian position. The Romanians launched a full-scale assault on 1 September, their numbers enabling them to take the Alion Height by the end of the day. A simultaneous diversionary attack to the north on that same day enabled the Romanians to capture Mehádia and Herkulesfürdő. The Austro-Hungarians conducted a rear-guard action, but lost Orsova along with the west bank of the Cerna on 4 September, retreating north of Mehádia.

Downfall: Jiu Valley

On 13 October, Culcer's forces managed to repulse an Austro-Hungarian attack in the Vulcan Pass. However, on 23 October, a German-led and mostly German force launched the First Battle of the Jiu Valley. Culcer's forces were outnumbered, outgunned and lacked reserves. As such, Culcer suggested retreating, and was promptly relieved of command on 24 October. Culcer's two months-long rule over the Romanian 1st Army contrasted sharply with what followed after his relief. Within less than two weeks, the 1st Army changed its commanding general three times, and by the end of November, a fourth change took place.

Later life

After the war he served as Minister of Public Works in the Alexandru Averescu cabinet from January 29 to March 4, 1918.
In 1923 he became a senator. He died in 1928 and was buried in the Heroes' Cemetery in Târgu Jiu.