Countryside of Serbia (1915)

The countryside of Serbia of 1915 sees the invasion of the Serbia by the Central Empires.

Serbia in 1915

In 1915, Serbia, however in the middle of the intrigue as for the beginning of the First World War, is always main integrality of its territory. The Austrian offensives of August and November 1914 were humiliating failures for the empire of Habsbourg which did not manage to subject the " viper serbe". The crushing of Serbia becomes then for the Central Empires not only one moral requirement, but also an strategic objective of first importance. Indeed, Germans and Austrians, already cut of their invaluable allied Othoman, have evil to convey military material in Turkey because of its insulation, more especially as it is at that time attacked in its heart, i.e. in Dardanelles. Moreover, the invasion of Serbia will make it possible austro-German to have Bulgaria at their sides. In 1915, Serbia holds but is bloodless, tired of these wars which last since nearly 3 years. It is insulated and its most probable combined, the Greece, does not answer its calls to the assistance. This unfavorable context obliges Serbia to be used a strategy of civil defense, in spite of its victories. September 6th, 1915, the Bulgaria sign a treaty of alliance with the central powers which promise to king Ferdinand the Macedonia as well as a good part of traditional Serbia. The last ingredient with the invasion of Serbia east thus added, can then soon begin one of the most important campaigns of the First World War in the Balkans.

Crushed Serbia

The strategy of invasion of Serbia takes form and the direction of the operations is entrusted to August von Mackensen. The Germans who mobilized to them 11th army are massed on Right Bank of the Danube and will have the role of attacking by North. The Austrians, with their 3rd army have the same mission. The Bulgarian ones, as for them, give the " stab in the dos". Their first army in the North-East, will supplement the attack austro-allemande and will try to encircle the Serb army by attacking it of side, while the second, in the South, will have as a role to block a future allied intervention in Serbia and to prevent the Serb army from folding up itself in Greece.

October 6th, the offensive is launched to North, and the Austro-Germans take Belgrade the 9. They progress then towards the South while meeting a sharp resistance on behalf of the Serb ones. The 14, the Bulgarian ones pass to the offensive. Their 2nd army progresses quickly to Macedonia (Uskub is taken the 23), but the first is opposed to the Serb army massed in the center of the country. At the beginning of November, the Serb army, attacked on all sides, is seen forced with the retirement under penalty of surrounding and of destruction (what is the plan of Mackensen). Putnik, the general-in-chief of the Serb armies, gives the order of retirement towards the South and hopes to force the passage vis-a-vis the Bulgarian ones towards Skopje. But the attempt at retirement towards Macedonia is a failure, just as Franco-British forwarding in the South come to lend strong hand to the Serb ones. Putnik is then seen constrained to direct the retirement towards the West, i.e. towards Albania, whose passage is obstructed by important already snow-covered mountains. The retirement appears extremely difficult then: the harassed and famished soldiers must pass from the collars to 2500 meters under extreme temperatures. The king Pierre I {{er}} follows the convoy on board an oxcart. In December, the Serb troops reach the shores of the Adriatic occupied by their Italian allies. Those Ci evacuate the Serb army in boat, of Durazzo to Corfou. Albania sees itself then occupied by the Austrians who fear a future overflow by the Adriatic. This choice will cause tensions between the two staffs, because the Germans had wished to direct the offensive towards Salonique.

The beginning of a war of position

The crushing of Serbia will solidify the war in Balkans until 1918. Henceforth, the two camps enter a war of position. The remainders of the Serb army are used in order to supplement the Army of the East from which the face extends from Albania in Thrace. Each country will send reinforcements on this face, making army of Salonique the window of the internationality of the allied armies.

In the literature

The terrible retirement of Albania and the martyrdom of the Serb soldiers were glorifiés by the poet Milutin Bojić.

Sources

Pierre Miquel: the Great War
Magazine 14-18 , N°4: Serbia in war .

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