The 23rd was commanded by General Matei Castriș and the 13th by General Ioan Oprescu. The two divisions formed the I Corps, headquartered at Nagytalmács since 16 September. The Romanian divisions occupied a line of 25 miles, a large distance even by Eastern Front standards. General Popovici kept his units in the forward trenches, meaning that - given the length of the front - there were no reserves and no depth. General Culcer - Popovici's superior as overall commander of the Romanian 1st Army - was aware of these issues, but his attempts to get Popovici to shorten his lines and form a reserve were unsuccessful. The Romanian front extended east and west, with Sellenberk (Șelimbăr/Schellenberg) for its center. To the east, the extreme right wing of the Romanian lines reached Porumbák (Porumbacu/Bornbach), in the valley of the Olt River. To the west, the Romanian front extended to the Szecsel (Săcel/Schwarzwasser) - Orlát (Orlat/Winsberg) - Popláka (Poplaca/Gunzendorf) line. A gap of 15 miles intervened between the extreme right of this front (Porumbák) and the vanguard of the Romanian 2nd Army, west of Fogaras (Făgăraș/Fogarasch). The left wing of this Romanian group had no connection either to the west or to the south. The two wings extended like the branches of a tree, their trunk being the road and railway going through the Red Tower Pass. Over 10 miles of tall mountains separated this Romanian front from the Romanian border. The Romanians were supplied by only one railway line, while von Falkenhayn had three supply lines. Prisoners had revealed to Culcer on the 24th that two German regiments had entered the mountains. Culcer passed this information on to Popovici, adding that it was confirmed by two other reports. In response to these reports, Popovici sent two battalions into the mountains: one battalion and some guns for the protection of the Red Tower Pass and another battalion was dispatched to protect the regions west of the pass. The German XXXIX Corps, under General Hermann von Staabs, comprised the 187th Prussian Division (General Edwin Sunkel), the 51st Honvéd Division (General Béla Tanárky) and the 76th Prussian Reserve Division (General Hugo Elster von Elstermann). When the battle began at dawn on 26 September, Von Staabs had his divisions arrayed with the 76th Reserve Division on the east flank, the 51st Honvéd in the center and the 187th Division to the west. The cavalry group