Following the assassination of the Crown Prince by a Bosnian Serb, Austria-Hungary had attacked Serbia in August 1914 but had failed to overcome Serbian resistance. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers (November 1914), the decisive factor in the Balkans became the attitude of Bulgaria. Bulgaria occupied a strategically important position on the Serbian flank, and its intervention on either side of the belligerents would be decisive. Bulgaria and Serbia had fought each other twice in the previous thirty years: in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 and the Second Balkan War of 1913. Bulgaria had suffered defeat in 1913, and the Bulgarian government and people generally felt that Serbia had seized land which rightfully belonged to Bulgaria. While the Allies could only offer Bulgaria small territorial concessions from Serbia and neutral Greece, the Central Powers' promises appeared far more enticing, offering to cede most of the land Bulgaria claimed. With the Allied defeats at the Battle of Gallipoli (April 1915 to January 1916) and the Russian defeat at Gorlice-Tarnów (May to September 1915) demonstrating the Central Powers' strength, King Ferdinand signed a treaty with Germany and on 21 September 1915 Bulgaria began mobilizing for war.[13]
A propaganda postcard commemorating the victory of the Central Powers over Serbia in 1915. The three monarchs depicted from left to right are Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, and King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The caption in German reads "Serbia's End".The retreat of the Serbian troops in winter 1915/16 across a snowy mountain in Albania to Adriatic coast.A dead Serbian soldier in the snow.Exhausted Serbian soldiers on the seashore in the expectation of Allied ships, February 1916.
After the victory of the Serbian army in the Battle of Kolubara in December 1914, the Serbian front saw a lull until the early autumn of 1915. Under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, the German 11th Army and river flotillas on the Danube and the Sava began an offensive on 6 October 1915, the largest offensive against Serbia. By September 1915, despite the extreme sacrifice of the Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, having crossed the rivers Sava and Drina, and the German 11th army after crossing the Danube, occupied Belgrade, Smederevo, Požarevac and Golubac, creating a vast bridgehead south of the Sava and Danube rivers, and forcing Serbian forces to withdraw to southern Serbia.[14]
On 15 October 1915, two Bulgarian armies attacked, over-running Serbian units and penetrating the valley of the South Morava river near Vranje up to 22 October 1915. The Bulgarian forces occupied Kumanovo, Štip, and Skopje and prevented the withdrawal of the Serbian army to the Greek border and Thessaloniki (Salonika).[15]
French soldiers halting in Thessaloniki (1915).
The Allies (Britain and France) had repeatedly promised to send military forces to Serbia, but nothing had materialized for a year. However, with Bulgaria's mobilization to its south, the situation for Serbia became desperate. The developments finally forced the French and the British to decide upon sending a small expedition force of two divisions from Gallipoli (156th Infantry Division (France)[16] and 10th (Irish) Division respectively). Though the first troops landed in the port of Salonika on 5 October to combine into an Army of the Orient under the French commander Maurice Sarrail, they arrived in the Greek port of Thessaloniki (Salonica) too late to contribute to the operations to help Serbia. The main reason for the delay was the lack of available Allied forces due to the critical situation in the Western Front. The Entente used Greek neutrality as an excuse[citation needed], although they could have used the Albanian coast to rapidly deploy reinforcements and equipment during the first 14 months of the war. (As the Serbian Marshal Putnik had suggested, the Montenegrin army gave adequate cover to the Albanian coast from the north—at a safe distance from any Bulgarian advance in the south in the event of a Bulgarian intervention.) The Entente was also delayed due to protracted through finally fruitless secret negotiations to bring Bulgaria into the Allied camp, which would have alleviated Serbia's need for Franco-British help.[17]
Wearing new khaki uniforms, the 2nd Zouaves arrive at Salonika aerodrome following disembarkation.
In the event, the lack of Allied support sealed the fate of the Serbian army. Against Serbia, the Central Powers marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a German army, and an Austro-Hungarian army, all under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians began their attack on 7 October with a massive artillery barrage, followed by attacks across the rivers. Then, on 11 October, the Bulgarian army attacked from two directions, one from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš, the other from the south towards Skopje (see map). The Bulgarian army rapidly broke through the weaker Serbian forces that tried to block its advance. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became hopeless; their main army in the north faced either encirclement and forced surrender or retreat.[18]
Marshal Putnik ordered a full Serbian retreat, southwards and westwards through Montenegro and into Albania. The Serbs faced great difficulties: terrible weather, poor roads and the need for the army to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. Only c. 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the Adriatic coast and embarked on Italian transport ships that carried the army to Corfu and other Greek islands before it travelled on to Thessaloniki. Marshal Putnik had to be carried around during the entire retreat; he died just over a year later in a French hospital.
The French and British divisions marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the joint command of French General Maurice Sarrail and British General Bryan Mahon (Commander, British Salonika Force, 1915). However, the London War Office was reluctant to advance too deep into Serbia. So the French divisions advanced up the Vardar river alone. This advance gave some limited help to the retreating Serbian army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the Battle of Krivolak (October–November 1915).[19] By the end of November, General Sarrail had to retreat in the face of massive Bulgarian assaults on his positions. During his retreat, the British at Kosturino were also forced to retreat. By 12 December, all Allied forces were back in Greece. The Germans ordered the Bulgarians not to cross the Greek borders, reluctant to risk a Greek entry into the war in response to a Bulgarian invasion in Macedonia. The Allies took advantage of that, reinforcing and consolidating their positions behind the borders.[20]
Thus there resulted in a clear, albeit incomplete, victory for the Central Powers. They opened the railway line from Berlin to Constantinople, allowing Germany to prop up its weaker partner, the Ottoman Empire. Despite the victory, the Allies managed to save a part of the Serbian army, while although battered, seriously reduced, and almost unarmed, escaped destruction and reorganized, resuming operations six months later. And most damagingly for the Central Powers, the Allies—using the moral excuse of saving the Serbian army—managed to replace the impossible Serbian front with a viable one established in Macedonia (albeit by violating the territory of an officially neutral country); this front would prove key to their final victory three years later.[21]
On 5 January 1916, the Austro-Hungarian Army attacked Serbian ally Montenegro. The small Montenegrin army offered strong resistance in the Battle of Mojkovac, which greatly helped the withdrawal of the Serbian army, but soon faced impossible odds and was compelled to surrender on 25 January.[22] The Austro-Hungarians advanced down the coast of the Adriatic Sea into Italian-controlled Albania. By the end of the winter, the small Italian army in Albania had been forced out of nearly the whole country.[23] With the war in the Balkans almost lost, the British General Staff wanted to withdraw all British troops from Greece, but the French government protested strongly, and the troops remained. The Allied armies entrenched around Thessaloniki, which became a huge fortified camp, earning themselves the mocking nickname "the Gardeners of Salonika".[21] The Serbian army (now under the command of General Petar Bojović), after rest and refit on Corfu, was transported by the French to the Macedonian front.[24]
The lines of earthworks around Salonika, French troops dig trenches to defend the city.
In the meantime, the political situation in Greece was confusing. Officially, Greece was neutral, but King Constantine I was pro-German, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was pro-Allied. Venizelos invited the Entente into Thessaloniki.[25] With the knowledge that Romania was about to join the Allied side, General Sarrail began preparations for an attack on the Bulgarian armies facing his forces.[26] The Germans made plans of their own for a "spoiling attack". The German offensive was launched on 17 August, just three days before the French offensive was scheduled to start. This was a Bulgarian offensive, as the Austro-Hungarian army was in Albania, and only one German division was on the Greek border. The Bulgarians attacked on two fronts. In the east, they easily conquered all Greek territory east of the river Struma (see Struma Offensive) since the Greek army was ordered not to resist by the pro-German King Constantine. The attack achieved early success in the west thanks to surprise, but the Allied forces held a defensive line after two weeks. Having halted the Bulgarian offensive, the Allies staged a counter-attack starting on 12 September (Battle of Kaymakchalan).[27] The terrain was rough, and the Bulgarians were on the defensive, but the Allied forces made steady gains. Slow advances by the Allies continued throughout October and into November, even as the weather turned cold and snow fell on the hills. Though the Germans sent two more divisions to help bolster the Bulgarian army, by 19 November, the French and Serbian armies captured Kaymakchalan, the highest peak of Nidže mountain and compelled the Central powers to abandon Bitola to the Entente; c. 60,000 Bulgarians and Germans were killed, wounded or captured. The Allies suffered c. 50,000 battle casualties while another 80,000 men died or were evacuated due to sickness.[28] The front moved about 25 miles (40km).[29]
A 1976 Yugoslav postage stamp depicting the collapse of the Salonika front by war artist Veljko Stanojević
The unopposed Bulgarian advance into Greek-held eastern Macedonia precipitated a crisis in Greece. Though the royalist government ordered its troops in the area (the demobilized IV Corps) not to resist and to retreat to the port of Kavala for evacuation, naval vessels did not turn up to permit the evacuation to take place. Despite occasional local resistance from a few officers and their nucleus units, most of the troops, including their commander, surrendered to a token German force and were interned for the remainder of the war at Görlitz, Germany. The surrender of territory recently won with difficulty in the Second Balkan War of 1913 was the last straw for many Venizelist army officers. With Allied assistance, they launched a coup which secured Thessaloniki and most of Greek Macedonia for Venizelos. From that point, Greece had two governments: the "official" royal government at Athens, which maintained Greek neutrality, and the "revolutionary" Venizelist "Provisional Government of National Defence" at Thessaloniki. At the same time, the Italians had deployed more forces to Albania, which managed to push the Austrian corps back through very hilly country south of Lake Ostrovo.[30]
The Allies treated Salonika very much like a colony.[31]Thessaloniki was more ethically and religiously mixed than today, was viewed by the British and French soldiers as an exotic "Oriental" city with its winding, cramped streets, domes, churches, synagogues, mosques, and the very striking White Tower that overlooked the city.[32] Thessaloniki had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912 when it was won by Greece in the First Balkan War, and in 1915 the city still had a very Ottoman feel to it. Etienne Burnet, a French bacteriologist sent out from Paris to take part in an anti-malaria campaign marveled: "What a multi-colored crowd on the quayside! Caftans, turbans, western suites in the latest style, black robes and scarlet fezzes like poppies" and Thessaloniki was "both wretched and splendid, just like the Orient".[32] Burnet's reaction to Thessaloniki was very typical of the Anglo-French responses to Thessaloniki, a city that did not match expectations of classical Greece and seemed to them to be more Ottoman than Greek.[32] The treatment of the local women by their menfolk created much disgust as the women were always cloistered away or treated as "beasts of burden".[32] Many of the French soldiers were peasants who were much incensed by the backward state of agriculture in the farms outside of Thessaloniki, which led many French soldiers to complain about the primitive farming methods of Macedonia.[33] The French in particular saw themselves as engaged in the mission civilisatrice ("civilizing mission"), which led for the French Army to embark upon a series of public works projects such as building bridges, improving roads, providing piped water to rural villages, trying to eradicate malaria, and so forth.[34] Such projects were intended primarily to benefit the French Army, but many French officers genuinely believed that helping the local people "come to love France" as one French colonel put it was an idealistic goal in and of itself that was worth pursuing.[34] Of the 8 French Army divisions stationed on the Salonika front, three were colonial divisions while the 156th French Division had a significant number of colonial units attached to it.[35] Of the 221, 000 French troops who served in Macedonia, at least 47,000 (21%) were colonial units, mostly the tirailleurs sénégalais from West Africa, a number of units from Algeria, and the Tirailleurs indochinois from Vietnam.[35] Algeria was considered part of France at the time and a significant minority in Algeria were pied noirs as the European settlers were called, and the French did not necessarily consider Algerian units to be colonial units, and it is possible that at least third of the French Armée d' Orient were colonial units.[35] The presence of so many colonial units from Algeria, French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina led to a "reverse exoticism" for the Greek Macedonia as Vietnamese soldiers serving in the tirailleurs indochinois celebrated their traditional Vietnamese holidays, which provided unusual spectacles in the Balkans.[36]
The troops of the 10th (Irish) Division of the British Army had very a "live and let live" attitude towards their Bulgarian enemies, and refrained from trench raids, only shelled each other's trenches at specific times to avoid too inconvenience to the other side and often avoided shooting at the enemy.[37] The mostly Irish troops in their letters to their families back home often described Bulgarians as "Brother Bulgar", and reserved all their hatred for the Germans and the British General Staff, which was they accused of neglecting them.[38]
1917
By spring 1917, General Sarrail's Allied Army of the Orient had been reinforced to 24 divisions, six French, six Serbian, seven British, one Italian, three Greek and two Russian brigades. An offensive was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with significant losses, and the offensive was called off on 21 May.[39] To put more pressure on Athens, the Venizelists and the Entente occupied Thessaly and Isthmus of Corinth, dividing the country. After an attempt to occupy Athens by force, which caused the reaction of the local royalist forces and ended in a fiasco in December (see Noemvriana), the Allies established a naval blockade around southern Greece which was still loyal to King Constantine, causing extreme hardship to the people in those areas. Six months later, in June, the Venizelists presented a list of conditions, resulting in the exile of the Greek king (on 14 June, his son Alexander became king) and the reunification of the country under Venizelos. The new government immediately declared war on the Central Powers and created a new army.[40]
1918
Opposing forces in the middle of September
Central Powers
Order of battle: Army Group Scholtz (General of the Artillery Friedrich von Scholtz)
Colonel Nikolaos Christodoulou, one of the leaders of the Greek National Defence Army, interrogates Bulgarian prisoners of war.
On 30 May 1918, the Allies launched an offensive on the heavily fortified Skra salient, commencing the battle of Skra-di-Legen. The battle marked the first significant Greek action for the Allied side.[41] Utilizing the cover of heavy artillery, a Franco-Hellenic force made a rapid push into the enemy trenches, conquering Skra and the surrounding system of fortifications. Greek casualties amounted to 434–440 killed in action, 154–164 missing in action and 1,974–2,220 wounded, while France lost approximately 150 men killed or injured. A total of 1,782 soldiers of the Central Powers became prisoners of war, including a small number of German engineers and artillery specialists that served in Bulgarian units; considerable amounts of military equipment also fell into Allied hands. The plan for a Bulgarian counteroffensive against Skra remained unfulfilled as Bulgarian soldiers refused to participate in the operation. Both the Greek and the French press used the opportunity to laud the efforts of the Greek army, favourably influencing the Greek mobilization.[42][43][44]
The fall of Skra prompted Bulgarian prime minister Vasil Radoslavov to resign on 21 June 1918. Aleksandar Malinov, who assumed office immediately afterwards, pursued secret negotiations with Britain, offering to withdraw Bulgaria from the war with the condition that Bulgaria fully retain eastern Macedonia. However, British prime minister David Lloyd George rejected the proposal, assuring the Greek ambassador in London Ioannis Gennadius that Britain would not act against Greek interests.[45]
With the German spring offensive threatening France, Guillaumat was recalled to Paris and replaced by General Franchet d'Espèrey. Although d'Espèrey urged an attack on the Bulgarian army, the French government refused to allow an offensive unless all the countries agreed. General Guillaumat, no longer needed in France, travelled from London to Rome, trying to win approval for an attack. Finally, in September 1918, an agreement was reached, allowing d'Espèrey to launch his grand offensive.[46]
The Allied forces were now large, despite the Russian exit from the war due to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Greece and its army (nine divisions) were fully committed to the Entente, while 6,000 Czech and Slovak former prisoners of war held on the Italian front were re-armed, reorganized, and transferred to the Macedonian front to fight for the Entente.[47] The Bulgarians had also increased their army during 1917, leading both sides to have roughly equal military power (291 Allied battalions vs. 300 Bulgarian battalions and ten German battalions). However, as 1918 progressed, it was clear that the Entente had the momentum the Central Powers lacked. Russian defeat had yielded no meaningful benefit to the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire faced a progressive loss of Arab lands. In Austria-Hungary, non-German and non-Hungarian parts of the multinational empire grew more openly restive. On the Western Front, intense German spring offensives had not defeated France, and American deployment was increasingly effective, with US forces operating under independent command from June 1918. Though Bulgaria was not at war with the United States, German victory over the United States appeared conceptually infeasible. Finally, and most importantly for Bulgaria, although almost all of its territorial war aims were already achieved, because World War I was not merely a third Balkan War, Bulgaria could not quit. Alongside its partners, Bulgaria continued to suffer high casualties and civilian privation, including food shortages, seemingly to achieve the unrealized objectives of its allies. As a constitutional monarchy, Bulgaria depended on the consent of its people to keep fighting while stress and discontent with the war grew.
An unintentional result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ended the war with Russia and the Treaty of Bucharest which ended the war with Romania was to undermine morale in the Austrian Imperial and Royal Army.[48] Besides for the peace treaties, Serbia had been defeated in 1915 and Italy had been almost defeated in 1917, meaning that most of the Austrian war aims had already achieved, and from the Austrian point of view, there was no more point in continuing the war.[48] However, the Austrian Empire was very much the junior partner in its alliance with Germany, and under strong German pressure Austria-Hungary had to continue the war, which caused serious morale problems in the Imperial and Royal Army by 1918.[48] Within the Imperial and Royal Army, Germany was cursed as the "secret enemy" that had bullied the Austrian empire into continuing the war in order to achieve German war aims.[48]
Bulgarian major Ivanov with white flag surrendering to Serbian 7th Danube regiment near Kumanovo
The preparatory artillery bombardment of Bulgarian and Central Powers positions for the Battle of Dobro Pole began on 14 September. The following day, the French and Serbians attacked and captured their objective.[49] On 18 September, the Greeks and the British attacked but were stopped with heavy losses by the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran.[50] The Franco-Serbian army continued advancing vigorously, and the next day, some Bulgarian units started surrendering positions without a fight, and the Bulgarian command ordered a retreat.[51]
In the official British government history of the Macedonian campaign, Cyril Falls wrote a detailed analysis of the situation of the Bulgarian forces and the situation of the front. Although a breakthrough was achieved at Dobro Pole and the Allied forces continued their advance, the Bulgarian army was not routed and managed an orderly retreat. By 29 September (a day before Bulgaria exited World War I), Skopje fell, but a Bulgarian and German force had been ordered to try and retake it the next day; the number of Bulgarian prisoners-of-war in allied hands around that day was only 15,000.[52]
Another major factor contributed to the Bulgarian request for an armistice. A mass of retreating Bulgarian mutineers had converged on the railway centre of Radomir in Bulgaria, 30 miles (48km) from the capital city of Sofia. On 27 September, leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union took control of these troops and proclaimed the overthrow of the monarchy and a Bulgarian republic. About 4,000–5,000 rebellious troops threatened Sofia the next day. Under those chaotic circumstances, a Bulgarian delegation arrived in Thessaloniki to request an armistice. On 29 September, the Bulgarians were granted the Armistice of Salonica by General d'Espèrey, ending their war. The Macedonian front ended at noon on 30 September 1918 when the ceasefire came into effect. The Soldiers' Uprising was finally put down by 2 October.[53]
The British army headed east towards the European side of the Ottoman Empire as the French and Serbian forces continued north and liberated Serbia, Albania and Montenegro. The British army neared Constantinople, and with no Ottoman forces capable of stopping it, the Ottoman government asked for an armistice (the Armistice of Mudros) on 26 October; Enver Pasha and his partners had fled several days earlier to Berlin. The Serbo-French army recaptured Serbia and overran several weak German divisions that tried to block its advance near Niš. On 3 November, Austria-Hungary was forced to sign an armistice on the Italian front ending the war there. On 10 November, d'Espèrey's army crossed the Danube river and was poised to enter the heartland of Hungary. At the request of the French General, Count Károlyi, leading the Hungarian government, came to Belgrade and signed another armistice, the Armistice of Belgrade.[57]
Memorials
Inter-Alliance Memorial of the victory on the Macedonian Front on the 94th anniversary, in Latomi Kilkis, built on a site donated by Christos Th. Karathodoros
Winston Churchill in his memoirs/history of the First World War, The World Crisis, assigned much importance to the defeat of Bulgaria in September 1918, which he saw as beginning a series of events that led to the defeat of Germany in November 1918, and which led him to place the operations in the Balkans as one the decisive theaters of the war.[58] The idea that the lands around the Mediterranean Sea were the weak point for the opposing side influenced Churchill's strategy in World War Two, where consistently showed a preference for operations in the Mediterranean area as the supposed weak point in the Axis.[58]
Frenchman instructing Serbian in the use of a trench mortar, 1916–1917
The Monument of the Alliance for the Split of the Macedonian Front, during the 94th anniversary, in Latomeio, Kilkis (constructed in an area donation of Christos Karathodoros)
↑ The German 11th Army was composed of mostly Bulgarian divisions.[2]
1 2 3 The Serbian armies were corps sized formations.[3]
↑ Losses for Bulgaria in the whole war are given as 266,919 (including killed and died 87,500; wounded 152,930; Prisoners and missing 27,029). Bar 30,250 casualties in the Romanian Campaign and 37,000 casualties in the Serbian Campaign losses were all taken on the Salonika front.[6]
↑ Total Serbian military casualties in World War I numbered approximately 481,000, including 278,000 dead from all causes (including POWs),[9] 133,000 wounded, and 70,000 living POWs.[10] Of these 481,000, some 434,000 were suffered in the earlier Serbian campaign. Most of the rest were taken on the Macedonian front following the evacuation of the Serbian army.
↑ Total casualties for Greece were 27,000 (killed and died 5,000; wounded 21,000; prisoners and missing 1,000)[6]
↑ Breakdown: 2,797 were killed, 1,299 died of wounds, 3,744 died of disease, 2,778 were missing/captured, 16,888 were wounded (minus DOW), 116,190 evacuated sick (34,726 to the UK, 81,428 elsewhere) of whom an unknown proportion returned to duty later. Overall, 481,262 were hospitalized for sickness.[11]
↑ Losses are given as follows for 1916 to 1918. Macedonia: 8,324, including 2,971 dead or missing and 5,353 injured. Albania: 2,214, including 298 dead, 1,069 wounded, and 847 missing.
Related Research Articles
The Balkan Wars were a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defeated it, in the process stripping the Ottomans of their European provinces, leaving only Eastern Thrace under Ottoman control. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria fought against the other four original combatants of the first war. It also faced an attack from Romania from the north. The Ottoman Empire lost the bulk of its territory in Europe. Although not involved as a combatant, Austria-Hungary became relatively weaker as a much enlarged Serbia pushed for union of the South Slavic peoples. The war set the stage for the July crisis of 1914 and thus served as a prelude to the First World War.
The Bulgarian First Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II.
The Battle of Skra-di-Legen was a two-day battle which took place at the Skra fortified position, located northeast of Mount Paiko, which is north-west of Thessaloniki, on May 29–30, 1918, on the Macedonian front of World War I. The battle was the first large-scale employment on the front of Greek troops of the National Defense Army Corps, and resulted in the elimination of a whole enemy regiment and the capture of the heavily fortified Bulgarian positions.
The National Schism, also sometimes called The Great Division, was a series of disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos regarding the foreign policy of Greece in the period of 1910–1922 of which the tipping point was whether Greece should enter World War I. Venizelos was in support of the Allies and wanted Greece to join the war on their side, while the pro-German King wanted Greece to remain neutral, which would further favor the plans of the Central Powers.
The Balkans theatre or Balkan campaign was a theatre of World War I fought between the Central Powers and the Allies.
Maurice Paul Emmanuel Sarrail was a French general of the First World War. Sarrail's openly socialist political connections made him a rarity amongst the Catholics, conservatives and monarchists who dominated the French Army officer corps under the Third Republic before the war, and were the main reason why he was appointed to command at Salonika.
The Battle of Dobro Pole, also known as the Breakthrough at Dobro Pole, was a World War I battle fought between 15 and 18 September 1918. The battle was fought in the initial stage of the Vardar Offensive, in the Balkans Theatre. On 15 September, a combined force of Serbian, French and Greek troops attacked the Bulgarian-held trenches in Dobro Pole, at the time part of the Kingdom of Serbia. The offensive and the preceding artillery preparation had devastating effects on Bulgarian morale, eventually leading to mass desertions.
The Armistice of Salonica was the armistice signed at 10:50 p.m. on 29 September 1918 between Bulgaria and the Allied Powers at the General Headquarters of the Allied Army of the Orient in Thessaloniki. The armistice came into force at noon on 30 September 1918. The armistice would remain in effect until the conclusion of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the final general peace treaty, in November 1919.
The Kingdom of Bulgaria participated in World War I on the side of the Central Powers from 14 October 1915, when the country declared war on Serbia, until 30 September 1918, when the Armistice of Salonica came into effect.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Kingdom of Greece remained neutral. Nonetheless, in October 1914, Greek forces once more occupied Northern Epirus, from where they had retreated after the end of the Balkan Wars. The disagreement between King Constantine, who favoured neutrality, and the pro-Allied Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos led to the National Schism, the division of the state between two rival governments. Finally, Greece united and joined the Allies in the summer of 1917.
The Noemvriana of December [O.S. November] 1916, or the Greek Vespers, was a political dispute which led to an armed confrontation in Athens between the royalist government of Greece and the forces of the Allies over the issue of Greece's neutrality during World War I.
The Bulgarian Second Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II.
The Vardar offensive was a World War I military operation, fought between 15 and 29 September 1918. The operation took place during the final stage of the Balkans Campaign. On 15 September, a combined force of Serbian, French, and Greek troops attacked the Bulgarian-held trenches in Dobro Pole, at the time part of Serbia. The assault and the preceding artillery preparation had devastating effects on Bulgarian morale, eventually leading to mass desertions.
In World War I, Albania had been an independent state, having gained independence from the Ottoman Empire on 28 November 1912, during the First Balkan War. It was recognised by the Great Powers as the Principality of Albania, after Turkey officially renounced all its rights in May 1913. Being a fledgling new country, it quickly unravelled and just a few months after taking power, its German ruler, Prince Wilhelm, was forced to flee. After World War I broke out, anarchy took hold of the country as tribes and regions rebelled against central rule. To protect the Greek minority, Greek control was established in the southern districts replacing the Northern Epirote units beginning in October 1914. In response to this, Italy, although officially neutral at the time, also sent troops into the port of Vlorë, while Serbia and Montenegro took control of northern regions. In 1915 Serbia was overrun by combined German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces; the Serbian army retreated across the mountain passes of northern Albania, towards the Adriatic. Italian troops drove the Greeks from southern Albania and brought almost all Albanian territory under their control. Austrian forces invaded in June 1916; Austro-Hungarian forces remained in Albania until the end of the war when a multinational Allied force broke through and pushed them out in 1918.
The Battle of Krivolak was a World War I battle, fought between 21 October and 22 November 1915. It was fought in the initial stage of the Macedonian campaign, in the Balkans Theatre. On 21 October, Bulgarian troops attacked the French-held positions near the Strumica rail station, at the time part of the Kingdom of Serbia, starting the battle. Fighting continued until 22 November, when two Serbian divisions failed to capture Skopje, thus rendering the continuation of Entente offensive operations dangerous and forcing the French to evacuate their forces from the region.
The Battle of Kosturino was a World War I battle fought between 6 and 12 December 1915. It was fought in the initial stage of the Macedonian campaign, in the Balkans Theatre. On 6 December, Bulgarian troops attacked the French and British-held trenches in Kosturino, at the time part of the Kingdom of Serbia. Though the early offensive was held in check, on 8 December, Bulgaria managed to infiltrate the Memesli ravine. Bulgaria then seized Crete Simonet, thus threatening to outflank the Allies. The Entente defeat at Kosturino led to the complete withdrawal of Allied forces from Serbia, thus enabling the Central Powers to build the Berlin to Constantinople rail line. In the meantime, the Allies concentrated on solidifying their defenses in Greece.
The Liberation of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro was a military action in the Balkans in the final weeks of World War I. Between 29 September and 11 November 1918, the Allied Army of the Orient liberated these three countries from occupation by the Central Powers.
Sliven was a Bulgarian prisoner-of-war camp established in Sliven in 1915 with the intent of housing Serbian troops captured during the course of World War I. Over time Greek and Serbian civilians joined their ranks reaching 19,000 at its peak. From 1916 until its dissolution in 1918, the camp served as a punitive institution. Internees suffered from the lack of proper housing conditions, typhus, malnutrition and ill treatment from their guards. This led to the deaths of over 6,000 prisoners.
The Bulgarian occupation of Serbia during World War I started in Autumn 1915 following the invasion of Serbia by the combined armies of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. After Serbia's defeat and the retreat of its forces across Albania, the country was divided into Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian occupation zones.
The Serbian campaign of 1915 refers to a military campaign carried out by the Central Powers, primarily Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, against the Kingdom of Serbia during World War I. The campaign took place from October to November 1915.
References
↑ Олейников А. Россия-щит Антанты. С предисловием Николая Старикова.-СПб.:Питер, 2016. – 336 с.-( серия «Николай Стариков рекомендует прочитать») ISBN 978-5-496-01795-4
1 2 "Military Casualties-World War-Estimated" Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) p. 219.
↑ Until the Armistice of 11 November 1918. Max Schiavon. Le Front d'Orient. Des Dardanelles à la victoire finale. Tallandier. 2014. p. 114, 368.
↑ Urlanis, Boris (1971). Wars and Population. Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp.66, 79, 83, 85, 160, 171, 268.
↑ Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914–1920. The War Office. p.353.
↑ T. J. Mitchell and G.M. Smith. "Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War." From the "Official History of the Great War." pp. 190–191.
↑ Ministero della Difesa: L’Esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915–1918), vol. VII: Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale: Albania, Macedonia, Medio Oriente, t. 3° bis: documenti, Rome 1981, Parte Prima, doc. 77, p. 173 and Parte Seconda, doc. 78, p. 351; Mortara, La salute pubblica in Italia 1925, p. 37.
↑ "De Gallipoli à Salonique". Forum (in French). pp.14–18. Retrieved 8 September 2020. transcriptions of primary source documents, listing which units redeployed to Salonika
Falls, C. (1996) [1933]. Military Operations Macedonia: From the Outbreak of War to the Spring of 1917. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol.I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Pressed.). London: HMSO. ISBN089839242X.
Falls, C. (1996) [1935]. Military Operations Macedonia: From the Spring of 1917 to the End of the War. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol.II (Imperial War Museum and Battery Pressed.). Nashville, TN: HMSO. ISBN0898392438.
Horne, John (2022). "Unintentional Colonialism? The Armée Française d'Orient and Macedonia". In Basil C. Gounaris, Michael Llewellyn-Smith, Ioannis D. Stefanidis (ed.). The Macedonian front, 1915–1918 politics, society and culture in time of war. Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. pp.28–37. ISBN9780367353780.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
Geramanis, Athanasios (1980). Πολεμική Ιστορία Νεωτέρας Ελλάδος: Επιχειρήσεις εν Μακεδονία κατά τον Α' παγκόσμιον πόλεμον 1915–1918[Military History of Modern Greece Operations in Macedonia During WWI 1915–1918] (in Greek). Vol.IV. Athens: Kefallinos.
McDermott, Alice; Power, Mark (November–December 2006). "'It's a Long Way to Salonika': Irish Soldiers in the Balkans in World War I". History Ireland. 16 (6): 29–34.
Korsun, Nikolay (1939). Балканский фронт мировой войны 1914–1918 гг[Balkan Front of the World War 1914–1918] (in Russian). Moscow: Boenizdat. OCLC7970969.
Omiridis Skylitzes, Aristeidis (1961). Ο Ελληνικός Στρατός κατά τον Πρώτον Παγκόσμιον Πόλεμον, Τόμος Δεύτερος, Η Συμμετοχή της Ελλάδος εις τον Πόλεμον 1918[Hellenic Army During the First World War 1914–1918: Hellenic Participation in the War 1918] (in Greek). Vol.II. Athens: Hellenic Army History Department.
Rauchensteiner, Manfried (2014). The First World War And the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914–1918. Vienna: Böhlau Wien. ISBN9783205793700.
Reynolds, David (2004). In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War. New York: Random House. ISBN0679457437.
Strachan, Hew (2022). "The breakthrough on the Salonika front and the German armistice, 1918". In Basil C. Gounaris, Michael Llewellyn-Smith, Ioannis D. Stefanidis (ed.). The Macedonian front, 1915–1918 politics, society and culture in time of war. Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. pp.219–236. ISBN9780367353780.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
Thomas, Nigel; Babac, Dusan (2001). Armies in the Balkans 1914–18. Osprey Publishing. ISBN184176194X.
Vaidis, Theodoros (1979). Η Βιβλος του Ελευθεριου Βενιζελου:Ιστορια της Νεωτερας Ελλαδος, 1917–1922[The Bible of Eleftherios Venizelos: History of Modern Greece, 1917–1922] (in Greek). Vol.IV. Athens: Smyrniotakis.
Leontaritis, Georgios (2005). Ελλάδα στον Πρώτο Παγκόσμιο πόλεμο 1917–1918[Greece during the First World War 1917–1918] (in Greek). Athens: Hellenic National Bank Educational Institution. ISBN960-250-195-2.
Lewis, Jon B (2023). The Forgotten Front: The Macedonian Campaign, 1915–1918. Solihull: Helion. ISBN978-1-91-511373-3.
Mitrović, Andrej (2007). Serbia's Great War, 1914–1918. London: Hurst. ISBN978-1-55753-477-4.
Nedev, Nikola (1923). Дойранската епопея 1915–1918[The Doiran Epopee 1915–1918] (in Bulgarian). Sofia: Armeiski voenno-izdatelski fond. ISBN978-954-8247-05-4.
Saint-Ramond, Francine (2019). Les Désorientés: Expériences des soldats français aux Dardanelles et en Macédoine, 1915–1919 (in French). Presses de l’Inalco. ISBN978-2-85-831299-3.
Vittos, Christos (2008). Εθνικός διχασμός και η Γαλλική κατοχή: (1915–1920)[National Schism and the French Occupation: (1915–1920)] (in Greek). Thessaloniki: Olympos. ISBN978-960-8237-30-8.
Wakefield, Alan; Moody, Simon (2004). Under the Devil's Eye: Britain's Forgotten Army at Salonika 1915–1918. London: The History Press. ISBN978-0750935371.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
