Background
Constantin Prezan was bom on January 27, 1861 in Butimanu, United Principalities.
Constantin Prezan was bom on January 27, 1861 in Butimanu, United Principalities.
Standard reference works do not record his exact place of birth in Rumania, but he received his secondary education and early military training in Bucharest, attended artillery and engineering courses in France, then returned to his country to serve as a Rumanian army officer.
Commissioned a lieutenant in 1880, he distinguished himself as an engineer and received quick promotion. A captain in 1887, he was a major five years later, and became a lieutenant colonel in 1895 at the age of thirty-four. His preparation for high command in the First World War included service on the General Staff and as adjutant to King Ferdinand.
When Rumania entered the war in August 1916, Major General Prezan took command of the Fourth Army. His forces cut through the Carpathian passes into northern Transylvania. But German led counterattacks elsewhere (by General von Mackensen in the Dobrudja and then by General von Falkenhayn against the armies on Prezan's southern flank) led Bucharest to order a general halt in Transylvania, then a partial withdrawal. Prezan was overruled when he objected to General Averescu's plan to tap the Carpathian forces to form a new army to take Mackensen in the rear. Prezan's fears were well-founded. The poor Rumanian rail system made such lateral transfers difficult. Averescu failed, and the other armies had increasing difficulty holding the line of the Carpathians.
By late November Mackensen and Falkenhayn were converging on Bucharest from the south and west. Prezan took command of a new southern army group. His forces were to present a defensive screen against Falkenhayn, while turning the weight of their attack on Mackensen. This bold Napoleonic concept it came either from Prezan himself or from the French military adviser, General Berthelot was beyond the power of Rumania's tired and inexperienced army to execute. Prezan, his reputation intact, led the remnants of the Rumanian forces northeastward to Moldavia.
At the close of 1916 Prezan was promoted lieutenant general and named chief of staff. In early 1917 he directed the painful reconstitution of the Rumanian army, while Averescu's Second Army and a variety of Russian forces held the Sireth River line. Virtually all of Rumania then lay in enemy hands. Prezan accompanied Prime Minister Bratianu to Petrograd in April and received pledges of Russian support for a summer offensive. Rumanian forces fought with success in offensive operations at Marasti (July 1917), then held off a fierce counterattack by Mackensen the next month at Marasesti. But the collapse of the Russians rendered such victories meaningless. In December 1917, King Ferdinand surrendered his titular rank of commander in chief to Prezan to facilitate the inescapable armistice. The peace negotiations of early 1918 led to the partial demobilization of the Rumanian army, but Prezan retained his post at the top, in contrast to many ranking officers who resigned.
During the fall of 1918 Prezan consulted informally with Bratianu to plan Rumania's reentry into the war. That event, which preceded the November armistice by one day, provided Bratianu with invaluable leverage at Versailles the following year.
Prezan commanded the Rumanian army throughout 1919. The presence of Rumanian troops in such areas as Transylvania and the Banat of Temesvar enhanced Bratianu's territorial claims at the peace conference. Prezan's leadership culminated in the capture of Budapest and the collapse of the Communist government of Bela Kun. The brutal behavior of the Rumanian army in seizing all forms of movable wealth from occupied Hungary left a bitter legacy for the postwar era. Prezan was an unconvincing apologist for the conduct of his forces.
General Prezan retired in 1920. The political crisis of 1930, during which King Carol II returned from exile to reclaim his throne, brought Prezan momentarily to prominence. Promoted to the rank of field marshal, he was asked to form a nonparty government. He failed and returned to obscurity. Prezan spent his last years in Italy, but returned to Rumania where he died at his Moldavian estate on August 27, 1943, the anniversary of his country's entry into World War I.