Battle of Galați

Part of Romanian Campaign (World War I)
Russian Civil War

Date	January 12–22, 1918
Location	Galați, Galați County, Romania
Result	Romanian victory; Russian troops disarmed

Belligerents

Romania

Russia

Commanders and leaders

Constantin Prezan
Constantin Niculescu-Rizea

Strength

500 troops

12,000 troops

The Battle of Galați was a military engagement between the formally allied Romanian and Russian troops at the end of World War I, as the former sought to prevent the latter from retreating from the armistice line along with their equipment.

Romania was neutral for the first two years of World War I, but with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest Romania joined the Entente Powers and declared war on 27 August 1916. After initial advances the Romanian military campaign quickly turned disastrous for Romania as the Central Powers occupied two-thirds of the country, including the capital Bucharest within months and Russian troops occupied the rest in order to prop up the Romanian government and prevent an invasion of Russia from the south. Galați, the last port on the Romanian Danube River, was a vital lifeline for supplying the rump Romanian territory and Russian Moldova and it remained on the Entente side of the front lines.

The 1917 February Revolution in Russia forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate but the Russian Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky decided to continue the war on the Entente side though the battle lines remained mostly stalemated.

In the summer 1917, on the Romanian front, existed one of the largest concentrations of combat forces and war materiel assembled during World War I: nine armies, 80 infantry divisions with 974 battalions, 19 cavalry divisions with 550 squadrons and 923 artillery batteries, whose effectives amounted to some 800,000 men, with about one million in their immediate reserve. Under Allied pressure to continue the war, Russia launched what became known as the Kerensky Offensive against the Central Powers. During this offensive Romania took part in three battles at Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz, preventing a significant advance of the enemy troops.

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Wikipedia