LAND & WATER 
October 5, 1916 
The Red Tower Pass 
By Hilaire Belloc 
IN the Roumanian field at the moment of writint,' 
two very important things arrest our attention. The 
first is the defeat our Alhes have sustained in front 
of the Red Tower Pass, that is before Hermannstadt. 
We must try as far as the very imperfect news hitherto 
afforded permits us to do so, to estimate the weight and 
character of that action. The second is the crossing dl 
the Danube by the Roumanians and their estabhsh- 
ment for the. moment at least of a bridgehead on Sund;i\- 
last somewhere in the neighbourhood of the village nl 
Riahovo. 
What has happened in front of Hermanstadt must 
first be described before we proceed to examine its 
strategical value and ieffect. 
Our Allies advajiced into Transylvania over the nine 
Passes with which the reader is already acquainted. They 
did so partly with the object of securing these gates by 
which invasion might threaten Roumanian soil, partly 
with the political object of occupying Transyl- 
vania, which our Allies regard as rhorally a part 
of their own country oppressed by an alien enemy. 
It will be remembered that we pointed out in these 
columns that the general plan was to attack in thr 
main by the south. Thexe were really two distinct 
operations combined. One was that which put the Rou- 
manian forces in the extreme north in touch with Russia ; 
the other was that which proposed an invasion of Transyl- 
vania ; and this latter campaign depended for success 
]ipon being able to push forward from the Southern 
passes. For it was there that the line of the Maros. 
shorter by tar than the old frontier and provided with a 
good road and railway all the way along, was nearest to 
(and therefore most vulnerable to) a Roumanian stroke. 
The Maros line with'^ts road and railway is the firm 
foundation of the enemy's position in Transylvania. It 
is the only good lateral communication and the o«/y one, 
01 the only short line the enemy can hold. The enemy 
was well aware of the peril to the southern part of tliis 
line and in his turn, while concentrating upon the line of 
the Maros, proposed to check the Roumanian pressure 
through the Southern Passes. 
Those Southern Passes constitute a group of three. 
There is first of all the twin neighbouring Passes which 
converge on Brasso (6 and 5) . There is next the curious Red 
Tower Pass 7 — which is not really a Pass at all but a river 
gorge — and which makes straight for Sibiu, officially called 
in the German language and upon most of our maps, 
Hermannstadt. Lastly, there is the Vulcan Pass, 8, the 
road from which after passing through Petroseny and the 
narrow Merisor Gorge leads to Hatzeg. The Roumanians 
in the northern ill-populated and densely wooded part 
of Transylvania pushed forward to the line of the great 
Kokel, and indeed in the last day or two have crossed 
that river. They acquired Brasso and have retained it. 
But in their lunge forward through the Red Tower Pass 
and the Vulcan Pass they have met the full pressure 
which the enemy has been able to exercise, and the 
result of the shock has been as follows : 
A fortnight ago the Roumanians, having some time 
before seized the Vulcan Pass and occupied Petroseny, 
XT" 
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O 25' TO 
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