The German offensive began on the night of 5–6 August, with a violent 8 hours-long artillery bombardment which included poison gas shells.

The intervention of the 5th Romanian Division in this threatened sector stabilized the situation, shelling the left flank of the Germans as they attempted to cross the river along with the Russians.

The commander of the Russian 4th Army decided to delay the counterattack, allowing the Germans to advance towards Mărășești and threaten the rear of the Romanian 9th Division.

On the morning of 14 August, after a powerful artillery bombardment with high explosive and gas shells, the Germans attacked the Russian troops at Panciu and pushed them back, threatening the left flank of the Romanian 2nd Army at Oituz.

The attempt to seize Mărășești, at the left flank of the Romanian 1st Army (commanded by General Eremia Grigorescu since 12 August) failed.

On the next day, German troops advancing southeast of Panciu were halted by units of the Romanian 1st Army, supported by accurate Romanian-Russian artillery fire.

German prisoners reported extremely heavy casualties, stating that they "had not come across such stiff resistance since the battles of the Somme and Verdun".

[5] In March 1918, Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk after Austrian-German forces had captured huge territories in the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine in February.

German chemist Eduard Buchner, who won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on fermentation, was killed in the battle at Focșani.

His left femur had been injured by a shell at Bătinești on 11 August, and he died of his wounds two days later at a field hospital in Focșani, where he is buried.