Raid on Ruse

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Romanian. (August 2021) Click for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 328 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Romanian Wikipedia article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ro|Raidul naval de la Rusciuc din 27 august 1916}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Raid on Ruse
Part of Romanian Campaign of World War I
Diagram of the Romanian attack
Date 27 August 1916 Location Ruse, Bulgaria Result Romanian victory Territorial changes The Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla retreats 130 km (81 miles) West along the Danube and is prevented from interfering in the subsequent Battle of Turtucaia
Belligerents
Romania	Austria-Hungary
Commanders and leaders
Constantin Niculescu-Rizea [ro]	Karl Lucich
Strength
3 torpedo boats (6 torpedoes)	5 monitors 4 armed boats 1+ barges
Casualties and losses
None	1 Barge sunk Light damage to the Bulgarian port

The Raid on Ruse was the first naval action to take place on the Romanian front during World War I. It took place on the first day of the campaign, 27 August 1916, just as Romanian troops were crossing the border into Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary.

The Romanian attack

During the night of 27 August 1916 three Romanian small torpedo boats (the old 10-ton Rândunica and the converted hydraulic service vessels Bujorescu and Catinca, each armed with two torpedoes in wooden carriages) attacked the Austro-Hungarian Navy's Danube Flotilla stationed in the Bulgarian port of Ruse, which consisted of five monitors and four armed river boats. The objective was to sink one of the monitors, but the attack failed in its immediate purpose, as only one barge loaded with fuel was sunk (by Rândunica, commanded by Captain Constantin Niculescu-Rizea) and a quay was damaged by another torpedo. Due to this attack, however, the Austro-Hungarian Danube Flotilla (Commander Karl Lucich) retreated 130 kilometres (81 miles) west along the Danube, stopping at Belene and subsequently taking extensive defensive measures. The three crewmen of Rândunica were received as heroes in Bucharest, and the retreating Austro-Hungarian warships were prevented from interfering in the subsequent Battle of Turtucaia.

References