it into the battle, being held up by the rough terrain east of Nagyszeben. The slow start of the Central Powers on the 26th was due to more than Romanian resistance. Von Staabs had ineffectively distributed his guns among all his units equally, meaning that no unit had the power to breach the Romanian lines. Enraged, von Falkenhayn told him to fix the problem by massing the artillery. After this was accomplished, the attack resumed on the 27th. On that day, the 9th Army continued its drive south, its reorganized artillery blasting gaps in the enemy lines. Von Falkenhayn was exasperated to end the battle, giving von Staabs the army's reserve force: the 89th Division and the 8th Landwehr Brigade. These two units were still unloading at Segesvár (Sighișoara/Schäßburg), 25 miles away, too far away to be of help. The German High Command gave von Falkenhayn control of the 89th Division on that same day, 27 September. By nightfall, the Germans had made significant gains against the Romanians. During the 27th, German and Hungarian regiments slowly made their way through Dolmány (Daia/Thalheim), Bongárd (Bungard/Baumgarten) and Hermány (Cașolț/Kastenholz), also capturing the 601 meters-tall Grigori height (the northernmost Romanian position, northeast of Nagyszeben). Not every detachment received the order to retreat while this was still possible, and the Romanians suffered considerable losses during their withdrawal from the encircled positions. On the 27th, fighting also took place at Nagydisznód (Cisnădie/Heltau), a local district capital. The Central Powers troops were surprised to find large numbers of civilians among the dead and wounded in the Romanian trenches. Many locals of Romanian descent had attempted to retreat along with the Romanian Army, but were killed in the German bombardment. Southern front (26-27 September) On the morning of the 26th, the Alpine Corps occupied the Red Tower Pass at several points: on the northern (Transylvanian) side at the village known by the German name of Kaiserbrunnen, and on the southern (Romanian) side at Râu Vadului and Câineni railway stations. As fighting on the northern front intensified, the Romanians became aware of the German forces in their rear and undertook some ineffective measures to drive them out. General Popovici sent his 48th Infantry Regiment from the north, but the Jägers - positioned in the hills above Kaiserbrunnen - decimated the unit with machine-gun fire. The Romanians moved to the east side of the valley, where they could pass