safely, being largely out of range. Although the Germans were able to block the road traffic, they could not completely block the pass due to lacking their field artillery, left behind because of the impossibility of moving it through the mountains. Although the Germans had a few Austro-Hungarian mountain guns, these lacked the stopping power of the larger field pieces. On the southern end of the pass, the Romanians fared better. Lieutenant-Colonel Toma Popescu, a staff officer of the 1st Army carrying messages for Popovici, came across the Bavarian Guards of Prince Heinrich's III Battalion at the Câineni bridge. Immediately recognizing the threat, the Romanian officer rounded up 13 day laborers from the village and marched them to the Mayor's office. There, he found some rifles, before sending the now-armed men into the hills above the bridge. Under the leadership of a Police Sergeant and an army straggler, the Romanians put the Germans under fire, with such success that the Bavarians became confused and started searching the east side of the pass. With the Germans distracted by this fruitless task, Popescu headed south and came across a Romanian Jäger battalion with two howitzers at Brezoiu. Dividing this force into two columns, he sent one north to Câineni and the other west to fall on the Bavarians from the rear. Popescu's attack succeeded, Prince Heinrich's men abandoning the bridge and town as night fell. For the moment, the Romanians were able to prevent the Germans from becoming established. On 27 September, the Romanians realized the seriousness of the situation when reinforcements were unable to get through the pass. Popovici sent 5 battalions south and managed to drive the Alpine Corps Jägers from the northern part of the defile and out of most of Râu Vadului as well. But the Germans still remained in the center area, jamming up Romanian convoys in bloody engagements. At the southern end, Prince Heinrich's III Battalion had reoccupied Câineni and Lunci Point. All day long, battalions from the Romanian 20th Division attacked from the south, trading possession of the disputed bridges with the Germans throughout the day. Traffic came to a halt as the Romanians waited for the cover of darkness, when they could move units with greater safety. On the 27th, 37 men from an advanced section of the 9th Company of the Bavarian Guard Regiment were captured by the Romanians at Râu Vadului. The