Serbian campaign (1915)
147-632: Serbian campaign (1914) Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Aegean Albania Greece ( National Schism ) Macedonian front The Noemvriana ( Greek : Νοεμβριανά , " November Events ") of December [ O.S. November] 1916, or the Greek Vespers (after the Sicilian Vespers ), was a political dispute which led to an armed confrontation in Athens between
294-679: A punitive measure but in reality with the aim of reestablishing its authority in the Balkans. On 23 July 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia , presenting a list of stringent demands. On 25 July Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf , the Chief of the General Staff , gave the mobilisation order for the Austro-Hungarian units required for Case B , the war plan formulated against Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian response to
441-587: 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. 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
588-411: A British diplomat: Not only has Mr. Venizelos' action put a fresh spirit in its promoters here [Thessaloniki], but it has encouraged recruits to come forward from Macedonia where, as I have reported, very little enthusiasm had hitherto been manifested... The Committee of National Defence must now have at its disposal nearly twenty thousand men. From the very beginnings, Venizelos continued his appeals to
735-513: A civil war. The Venizelists continued fighting after the evacuation of the Allied marines until the next day, when they capitulated. The royalists claimed that large caches of weapons and ammunition were found in their strongholds packed in French military containers. Venizelists were led to prison surrounded by a furious mob, and supposedly, only the royal army escorts saved them from being murdered by
882-473: A committee sent by Venizelos. Two days later, army officers loyal to Venizelos organized a military coup in Thessaloniki and proclaimed the " Provisional Government of National Defence ." Despite the support of the army, the provisional government was not officially recognized by Venizelos nor the Allied powers. Venizelos criticized this course of action, noting that without the support of the Allied army,
1029-569: A compromise was reached at the end of the day. The day after the Allied contingent evacuated from Athens, a royalist mob began rioting throughout the city, targeting supporters of Venizelos. The rioting continued for three days, and the incident became known as the Noemvriana in Greece, which in the Old Style calendar occurred during the month of November. The incident drove a deep wedge between
1176-483: A compromise. Du Fournet, with a small contingent of troops, was unprepared to encounter organized Greek resistance and was already short of supplies, so he readily accepted the king's compromise. However, before an agreement was finalized, the battle resumed. The Greek battery from Arditos Hill fired a number of rounds at the entrance of Zappeion , where the French admiral had established his headquarters. The Allied squadron from Phaliron responded by bombarding sections of
1323-604: 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. Besides for the peace treaties, Serbia had been defeated in 1915 and Italy had been almost defeated in 1917, meaning that most of
1470-435: 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
1617-642: A demonstration in Athens. Venizelos said that the King had become a victim of his advisers, whose aims were to destroy the goals of the Goudi revolution . Additionally, Venizelos appealed to the King to pursue a policy of benevolence and true neutrality. Venizelos ended his speech by stating that "if this proposal does not lead to success, then there are other means to protect the country from complete catastrophe". The King refused to accept any compromise, including meeting with
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#17327650801121764-504: A diplomatic solution. On 29 November, the royalist government rejected the proposal of the Allies, and armed resistance was organized. By 30 November, military units and royalist militia (the epistratoi , "reservists") from surrounding areas had been recalled and gathered in and around Athens (in total over 20,000 men) and occupied strategic positions, with orders not to fire unless fired upon. The Allied commanders failed in their assessment of
1911-741: A diversionary crossing, suffering around 6,000 casualties while inflicting only 2,000. With most of his forces in Bosnia , Potiorek decided that the best way to stop the Serbian offensive was to launch another invasion into Serbia to force the Serbs to recall their troops to defend their much smaller homeland. "The Serbians, seasoned, war-hardened men, inspired by the fiercest patriotism, the result of generations of torment and struggle, awaited undaunted whatever fate might bestow." Winston Churchill , The Great War . A renewed Austro-Hungarian attack from
2058-566: A division) conducted an abortive offensive into Bosnia. In addition, both sides conducted local attacks, most of which were defeated. In one such attack, the Serbian Army used mine warfare for the first time: the Combined Division dug tunnels beneath the Austro-Hungarian trenches (that were only 20–30 meters away from the Serbian ones on this sector), planted mines and set them off just before an infantry charge. Having weakened
2205-548: 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
2352-549: A huge fortified camp, earning themselves the mocking nickname "the Gardeners of Salonika". 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. 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
2499-803: A limited offensive across the Sava River into the Austro-Hungarian region of Syrmia with its Serbian First Army . The main operational goal was to delay the transport of the Austro-Hungarian Second Army to the Russian front. The objective was shown to be futile as forces of the Second Army were already being transported. Meanwhile, the Timok Division I of the Serbian Second Army suffered a heavy defeat in
2646-548: A military coup by Venizelist military officers in Thessaloniki with the support of the Allies. The former Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos , who supported the Allies from the beginning, established a provisional government in northern Greece. He began forming an army to liberate areas lost to Bulgaria, but this effectively split Greece into two entities. The inclusion of the Hellenic army along with Allied forces and
2793-550: 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". 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. The treatment of
2940-480: A new government. When Bulgaria mobilized against Serbia in September 1915, Venizelos ordered a Greek counter-mobilization and asked the Anglo-French army to defend Thessaloniki and aid Serbia. The Allies, led by General Maurice Sarrail , began landing on 22 September 1915 and entrenched around the city. The Greek parliament gave Venizelos a vote of confidence to help Serbia, yet the king unconstitutionally dismissed
3087-736: A number of units from Algeria, and the Tirailleurs indochinois from Vietnam. 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. The presence of so many colonial units from Algeria, French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina led to
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#17327650801123234-543: 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
3381-523: A retreat into the surrounding hills, and the front settled into a month and a half of trench warfare. This was highly unfavourable to the Serbs, who had little in the way of an industrial base and were deficient in heavy artillery, ammunition stocks, shell production and footwear since the vast majority of infantry wore the traditional (though state-issued) opanaks when the Austro-Hungarians had waterproof leather boots. Most of their war material
3528-674: 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. 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
3675-694: A stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River , pitting a multinational Allied force against the Bulgarian army , which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the other Central Powers . The Macedonian front remained stable, despite local actions, until the Allied offensive in September 1918 resulted in Bulgaria capitulating and
3822-778: A treaty with Germany and on 21 September 1915 Bulgaria began mobilizing for war. 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,
3969-680: A year later, after combining the armies of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria , the Central Powers returned for a massive offensive during the Serbian Campaign of 1915 . On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie were assassinated while visiting Sarajevo , the provincial capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina , formally annexed by Austria-Hungary . The perpetuator, Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip ,
4116-636: Is to crown this warfare will make up for the extremely bloody sacrifices which this generation of Serbs is making". This led to announcing Serbia's intention to annex extensive amounts of Austria-Hungary's Balkan provinces. Macedonian front (World War I) Army Group Scholtz Allied Army of the Orient Serbian campaign (1914) Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Aegean Albania Greece ( National Schism ) Macedonian front The Macedonian front , also known as
4263-466: The 5th and 6th Armies, attacked Serbia from the west and north. The Serbian army under the command of General Radomir Putnik using their knowledge of the rugged terrain and the strategic advantage of the rivers, defeated the 5th Army at the Battle of Cer , repelling all the Austro-Hungarian forces out of Serbia, marking the first Allied victory of the First World War. After the failure of
4410-598: 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 . 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
4557-680: The Salonica front (after Thessaloniki ), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia , in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria . The expedition came too late and with insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece (the National Schism ). Eventually,
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4704-688: 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). 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
4851-509: 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. 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
4998-581: The royalist government of Greece and the forces of the Allies over the issue of Greece's neutrality during World War I . Friction existed between the two sides from the beginning of World War I. The unconditional surrender of the border fortress of Roupel in May 1916 to the Central Powers ' forces, mainly composed of Bulgarian troops, was the first event that led to the Noemvriana. The Allies feared
5145-469: The "Old Greece" (mainly Athens and Peloponnese ) was mostly pro-royalist. Venizelos, Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis and General Panagiotis Danglis formed a triumvirate provisional government and, on 9 October, moved to Thessaloniki to assume command of the National Defense. They directed Greek participation in the Allied war effort in direct conflict with the royal wishes in Athens. According to
5292-511: 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 . The Allies treated Salonika very much like a colony. Thessaloniki was more ethically and religiously mixed than today, was viewed by
5439-472: 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 ). 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
5586-416: The Allied troops reached their designated positions, they found them already occupied by Greek troops. For more than two hours, both sides stood facing each other. Sometime in the morning, an unknown origin rifle shot was fired, and the battle of Athens began. Each side blamed the other for firing first. Once the battle spread throughout the city, the king requested a ceasefire, proposing a solution and reaching
5733-426: 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
5880-586: 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
6027-412: The Allies. Diplomacy failed despite continuing pressure applied by the Allies against Athens. On 24 November, du Fournet presented a seven-day ultimatum demanding the immediate surrender of at least ten Greek mountain artillery batteries. Du Fournet was instructed not to use force to take possession of the batteries. The admiral made a last effort to persuade the king to accept France's demands. He advised
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6174-482: The Austrian bombardment. Despite the incomplete concentration of the 5th and 6th Armies, the Austro-Hungarian forces launched their first offensive into Serbia on 12 August. The 2nd Army was due to be transported to Galicia to face the Russians on 18 August, which was also Emperor Franz Josef’s 84th birthday. Therefore the high command was determined to knock Serbia out as soon as possible. 5th Army started crossing
6321-537: The Austrian war aims had already achieved, and from the Austrian point of view, there was no more point in continuing the war. 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. Within the Imperial and Royal Army, Germany
6468-605: The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Serbia's ally, Montenegro, contributed an extra 40,000 men. During the night of 28–29 July 1914, three Austro-Hungarian river monitors of the Austrian Danube Flotilla attempted to secure the bridges over the River Sava between Semlin ( Zemun ) and Belgrade. After facing fierce resistance from Serbian irregulars, the landing was aborted, and the monitors were redirected to
6615-541: The British Embassy as police idly stood by without interfering. This incident gave France the political ammunition to persuade Britain that more extreme measures were needed. On 17 June, the London conference decided "that it was absolutely necessary to do something to bring the king of Greece and his Government to their senses". On 27 August 1916, Venizelos explained his disagreements with the King's policies during
6762-668: 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. 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
6909-529: The Bulgarian and German army . After the first serious battle (see battle of Skra ), the Bulgarian Army gave up its defensive positions and began retreating towards their country. On 29 September, the armistice with Bulgaria was signed by the Allied command. The Allied army pushed north and defeated the remaining German and Austrian forces . By October 1918, the Allied armies had recaptured all of Serbia and were preparing to invade Hungary. The offensive
7056-432: 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. Marshal Putnik ordered
7203-408: The Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran . 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. 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
7350-438: 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. 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,
7497-617: The Central Powers and created a new army. 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. 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
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#17327650801127644-422: 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
7791-433: The Central Powers' plans in the Balkans, while the Allies wanted demobilization of the Hellenic army and the surrender of war materiel equivalent to what was lost at Fort Roupel as a guarantee of Greece's neutrality. By the end of the summer of 1916, the failure of negotiations, along with the Bulgarian Army 's advance in eastern Macedonia and the Greek government's orders for the Hellenic army not to offer resistance, led to
7938-413: The Central Powers. In early 1915, Britain offered Greece "territorial concessions in Asia Minor " if it would participate in the upcoming Gallipoli Campaign . Venizelos supported this idea, while the king and his military advisers opposed it. Dismayed by the king's opposition, the prime minister resigned on 21 February 1915. A few months later, Venizelos' Liberal Party won the May elections and formed
8085-453: The Central Powers. Meanwhile, in Athens, Constantine praised his generals. There were also in circulation various pro-royalist and religious brochures calling Venizelos a "traitor" and "Senegalese goat". A royal warrant for the arrest of Venizelos was issued and the Archbishop of Athens , pressured by the royal house, anathematised the prime minister (in a special ceremony with the crowd throwing stones to an effigy of Venizelos). In France,
8232-399: The Drina River from northern Bosnia and was the first to engage in action, supported by elements of 2nd Army from Syrmia . On 15 August, 6th Army, positioned in southern Bosnia, attacked across the Serbian and Montenegrin border with its 16th Corps. This move surprised Marshal Putnik , who expected an attack from the north and initially believed it to be a feint. Once it became clear that it
8379-411: The Entente. 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
8526-405: The French proposals for Constantine's removal from the throne) caused France and Great Britain to take more drastic measures against King Constantine. In June, they decided to invoke their obligation as "protecting powers" and demanded the king's resignation; Charles Jonnart , authorized by the Allied governments, directed French forces to take control of Isthmus of Corinth and Thessaly , ensuring
8673-399: 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 , although they could have used the Albanian coast to rapidly deploy reinforcements and equipment during the first 14 months of
8820-416: The Greeks, with over 300,000 soldiers, were the single largest component of the Allied army on the Macedonian front. The Greek army gave the much-needed advantage to the Allies that altered the balance between the two sides on the Macedonian front. On 14 September 1918, under the command of French General Franchet d'Esperey , a combined Greek, Serbian, French and British force launched a major offensive against
8967-399: The King and the royal family. According to Elliot's report, Venizelos hoped that the "success of his action and pressure of the public opinion might at the last moment convert His Majesty". The proposal had French support. However, it met with strong opposition from Britain , forcing Venizelos to abandon the plan. On 9 June, the Allies held a conference in London to examine the reasons behind
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#17327650801129114-440: The King intensified. The Allies wanted further demobilization of the Greek army and the removal of military forces from Thessaly to ensure the safety of their troops in Macedonia. The king wanted assurances that the Allies would not officially recognize or support Venizelos' provisional government, and he wanted guarantees that Greece's integrity and neutrality would be respected. After several unproductive negotiations, on 23 October,
9261-453: 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
9408-433: 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
9555-406: The Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Army launched another massive attack on 5 November. The Serbs withdrew step by step, offering strong resistance at the Kolubara River, but to no avail, due to the lack of artillery ammunition. It was at that time that General Živojin Mišić was made commander of the battered First Army, replacing the wounded Petar Bojović. He insisted on a deep withdrawal to let
9702-539: The Serbian capital, on 2 December 1914. Following a successful counter-offensive at the Battle of Kolubara , the Serbian Army managed to expel the Central Powers forces again from its territory before the end of December, consequently ending the campaign. Potiorek was relieved of his command after the three invasions had achieved none of their objectives. The Campaign cost the Habsburg forces 28,000 dead and 122,000 wounded. Serbian losses were also heavy with 22,000 dead, 91,000 wounded, and 19,000 captured or missing. Less than
9849-411: 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
9996-607: The Third, the Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army established a bridgehead with a renewed attack. At that time, Marshal Putnik withdrew the First Army from Syrmia (against strong opposition), using it to deliver a fierce counterattack against the Sixth Army that initially went well but finally bogged down in a bloody four-day fight for a peak of the Jagodnja mountain called Mačkov Kamen, in which both sides suffered horrendous losses in successive frontal attacks and counterattacks. Two Serbian divisions lost around 11,000 men, while Austro-Hungarian losses were probably comparable. Marshal Putnik ordered
10143-434: 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
10290-436: The Venizelists and the royalists, bringing closer what would become known as the National Schism . Following the Noemvriana, the Allies, determined to remove Constantine I, established a naval blockade to isolate areas that supported the king. After the resignation of the king on 12 June 1917, Greece unified under a new king, Alexander , Constantine I's son, and the leadership of Eleftherios Venizelos. It joined World War I on
10437-412: The angry citizens. Other historians deny that the Venizelists collaborated with the Allied forces: Pavlos Karolidis , a contemporary royalist historian, argues that no Venizelist attacked their fellow citizens and the only weapons found during the raids on prominent Venizelists' houses were knives. The authorities used the pretext of the events to claim that the Venezelists had staged an insurrection with
10584-476: The assurances of Falkenhayn, Bulgarian soldiers immediately began to forcibly round up the Greek population into large cities, namely Serres , Drama and Kavala . German attempts to restrain Bulgarian territorial ambitions were partially successful, yet on 4 September, Kavala was occupied by the Bulgarian Army. The surrender of Fort Rupel caused the Allies to believe that the German-Bulgarian advance
10731-646: The city, mostly around the Stadium and near the Palace. Discussions soon were resumed, and a final compromise was reached. The king compromised to surrender just six artillery batteries camouflaged in the mountains instead of the ten that the Allied Admiral demanded. By late afternoon the battle was finished. The Allies had suffered 194 casualties, dead and wounded, and the Greeks lost 82, not counting civilians. By
10878-616: 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. 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
11025-524: The conflict. The Greek leadership was divided between Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who supported Great Britain on the side of the Allies, and King Constantine, who was educated in Germany and married to the Kaiser 's sister . The king admired Prussian militarism and was anticipating a quick German victory. The king wanted Greece to remain neutral in the conflict, a strategy favorable to Germany and
11172-468: The convocation of a [national] assembly, not to change the structure of the state, or the dynasty, or restrict the prerogatives of the Crown as stipulated in the constitution, but in order to explain, elucidate, and safeguard these prerogatives as much as possible so that no king in the future will tell the representatives of the popular sovereignty that in the great national questions, he was right to disregard
11319-580: The culmination of the National Schism. Despite the localized nature of the events, the consequences that followed changed the tide of the Great War. On 2 December [ O.S. 19 November] 1916, Britain and France officially recognized Venizelos's government as the only lawful government of Greece, effectively splitting the country. On 7 December [ O.S. 24 November] 1916, Venizelos' government officially declared war on
11466-463: The division of Greece sparked several anti-Allied demonstrations in Athens. In late October, a secret agreement was reached between the king and the Allied diplomats. The pressure from the military advisers forced the king to abandon this agreement. The Allies landed a small contingent in Athens on 1 December [ O.S. 18 November] 1916 to enforce their demands. However, it met organized resistance, and an armed confrontation took place until
11613-988: The early 20th century placed Greece in a difficult position. The ownership of the Greek-occupied eastern Aegean islands was contested by the Ottoman Empire , which claimed them as its own. In the north, Bulgaria , defeated in the Second Balkan War , was engineering revanchist strategies against Greece and Serbia. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary 's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused Germany and Austria-Hungary, and countries allied with Serbia (the Triple Entente ) to declare war on each other, starting World War I. Greece, like Bulgaria, initially maintained neutrality during
11760-437: The early morning of 2 December, all Allied forces had been evacuated. The role of the Venizelists during the battle has been intensely contested by witnesses and historians. Vice Admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet wrote that Venizelists supported the Allies and attacked passing Greek royalist army units. Venizelists' participation was allegedly so extensive that lead Admiral du Fourne wrote in his report that he had been involved in
11907-456: The efforts of the Greek army, favourably influencing the Greek mobilization. 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
12054-533: 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
12201-460: The evacuation of the Allied forces, many "criminals" and "collaborators" on the payrolls of different Allied spy agencies slipped out of Athens at night after allegedly "terrorizing the city for nearly a year". Due to his failure Vice-Admiral Dartige du Fournet was relieved of his command. This incident became known in Greece as Noemvriana (November events, using the Old Style calendar) and marked
12348-401: 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,
12495-611: The first invasion, Austria-Hungary regrouped and launched a second invasion in September 1914, at the Battle of the Drina the Serbs pushed the 5th Army back into Bosnia while forcing on 25 September the remains of the Balkanstreitkräfte to retreat to avoid encirclement. On 24 October, the Valjevo Offensive saw Potiorek launching a third invasion, this time reaching deep into northern Serbia, capturing Belgrade ,
12642-473: The foreigners [the Allies] and criticism among our friends there. But our friends should allow me to say that they are suffering from incurable conservatism, which, had it influenced us, would have rapidly succeeded in stifling our movement due to lack of life. For the foreigners, whose friendly feelings I do not doubt, it is natural to think only of their own difficulties and to ignore ours. The Venizelist advance
12789-405: 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
12936-741: 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. The front moved about 25 miles (40 km). The unopposed Bulgarian advance into Greek-held eastern Macedonia precipitated
13083-478: The holy struggle for the defense of their homesteads and their freedom, the government of the Kingdom (of Serbia) considers that, in these fateful times, its main and only task is to ensure the successful completion of this great warfare which, at the moment when it started, also became a struggle for the liberation and unification of all our unliberated Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian brothers. The great success which
13230-438: The imprisonment of certain prominent Venizelists, such as Emmanuel Benakis (mayor of Athens), as a disgrace. Some authors argue that Benakis was not only arrested and imprisoned but also disrespected and ill-treated. Seligman describes that they were only released 45 days later after a strong demand contained within the Entente ultimatum, which was accepted on 16 January. Opposing reports also exist, e.g., Abbot asserts that during
13377-491: The king suddenly agreed to some of the demands required by the Allies, including the removal of the Greek army from Thessaly . The king also volunteered war materiel and the Greek navy to assist them. In exchange, the king requested French Deputy Paul Bénazet to keep this agreement secret from the Central Powers. On 3 November, Vice-Admiral du Fournet , commander-in-chief of the Allied Mediterranean fleet, used
13524-404: The king that he would land an Allied contingent and occupy certain positions in Athens until Greece accepted all the demands. The king said that the citizens of Greece, as well as the army, were against disarmament and only promised that the Greek forces would not attack the Allies. Despite the gravity of the situation, neither the royalist government nor the Allies made any serious effort to reach
13671-410: The king to join forces to jointly liberate Macedonia. Venizelos wrote: ...I think that the political orientation of the movement is very clear. We want to build an army in order to recover... the territories occupied by our hatred enemy and fulfill our treaty obligations to Serbia, and thus removing the stigma from the face of our nation. After this, and naturally, when the war is over, we shall request
13818-622: 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. On 15 October 1915, two Bulgarian armies attacked, over-running Serbian units and penetrating
13965-476: The liberation of Šabac , the largest town in Mačva , marked the ultimate failure of the first Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia. This success marked the first Allied victory of the war over the Central Powers . Casualties numbered 600 officers and 23,000 men for the Austro-Hungarians (4,500 of whom were captured) and 259 officers and 16,045 men for the Serbian Army. Under pressure from its allies, Serbia conducted
14112-536: The liberation of Serbia. 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
14259-417: The local women by their menfolk created much disgust as the women were always cloistered away or treated as "beasts of burden". 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. The French in particular saw themselves as engaged in
14406-553: The movement would fail immediately. This further polarized the population between the royalists (also known as anti-Venizelists ), and Venizelists . The newly founded separate "provisional state" included the "New Lands", lands won during the Balkan Wars: Northern Greece ( Macedonia and Epirus ), Crete and the Aegean Islands . The population in the "New Lands" broadly supported Venizelos, while
14553-436: The national honor of a segment of "Old Greece" and increased the king's popularity. The king refused to honor his secret agreement with Bénazet, and soldiers who requested to fight against the Bulgarian occupation were charged with "desertion to the rebels". A growing movement amongst the low-rank officers within the army, led by Ioannis Metaxas and Sofoklis Dousmanis , were determined to oppose disarmament and any assistance to
14700-508: 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. German Emperor Wilhelm II , in his telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I , stated: "Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided
14847-505: The other side and often avoided shooting at the enemy. 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. 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
14994-402: The popular will and to impose his own views because he considers himself responsible before God. Venizelos' moderation did not convince many citizens, even among his own followers. It was only after the end of 1916 and the "Noemvriana" that he pushed for a radical solution to end the stalemate. After the creation of the provisional government in Thessaloniki, negotiations between the Allies and
15141-467: The possibility of a secret pact between the Greek royalist government and the Central Powers. Such an alliance would endanger the Allied army in Macedonia bivouacking around Thessaloniki since the end of 1915. Intensive diplomatic negotiations between King Constantine I and Allied diplomats took place throughout the summer. The king wanted Greece to maintain her neutrality, a position that would favor
15288-478: The premiership of Aristide Briand , a leading proponent of engaging with Constantine to reconcile the two Greek administrations, was threatened by the events in Athens, leading to the reorganization of the French government. In Britain, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and foreign minister Sir Edward Grey resigned and were replaced by Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour . The change in the British leadership proved to be particularly important for Greece since Lloyd George
15435-634: The prime minister along with the parliament. This unlawful order escalated the animosity between the king and Venizelos as well as their loyal followers. The Liberals boycotted the December elections . On 9 May 1916, Erich von Falkenhayn , Chief of the German General Staff, informed Athens of the imminent advance of German-Bulgarian forces. In reply, Athens minimized the importance of General Sarrail's movements and requested Falkenhayn to change his strategy. On 23 May, Falkenhayn guaranteed that
15582-697: The proposal, assuring the Greek ambassador in London Ioannis Gennadius that Britain would not act against Greek interests. 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
15729-543: The quick surrender of Fort Rupel and favored a complete demobilization of the Greek army and navy. King Constantine anticipated the results of the conference and ordered a partial demobilization on 8 June. The tension between the royal government and the Allies continued since 'anti-Allied activities' in Athens were ignored by the Greek Government. On 12–13 June, a mob destroyed Venizelist newspapers: Nea Ellas , Patris , Ethnos , and Estia . The mob proceeded to
15876-534: The radio station and the neighborhood of Topčidersko Brdo . At 5 am, Habsburg artillery in Bežanija and Semlin also began shelling the city and Kalemegdan using Krupp Howitzer and Skoda 305 mm mortars . The shelling continued, causing damage to various buildings. The constant shelling on Serbia's border towns and cities continued with varying degrees of intensity over the next 36 days. By October 1914, 60 government buildings and 640 civilian houses were hit by
16023-566: The railway bridge connecting Serbia to the Habsburg Empire . Before the barge could reach it a detachment of Serbian Chetniks blew up the bridge. Around 2 am, two river monitors joined SMS Temes near Belgrade, starting firing 12-cm fused shells and shrapnel fire onto the Serbian side. The Serbs lacked heavy artillery to respond effectively. The monitors then moved closer to the Belgrade Fortress and fired upon
16170-436: 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
16317-589: The respectable conservative newspaper Politiki Epitheorisis ( Greek : Πολιτική Επιθεώρηση , Political Review) that at the beginning urged Greek "justice" to "smite mercifully the atrocious conspiracy" and to purge all followers of the "arch-conspirator of Salonika [Venizelos]", in the end to urge "prudence". During the following three days houses and shops of Venizelists were ransacked, and 35 people were murdered. Chester says that most of those who were murdered were refugees from Asia Minor. Many hundreds were imprisoned and kept in solitary confinement. Karolidis characterizes
16464-554: The side of the Allies . By 1918, the mobilized Hellenic Army provided the numerical superiority the Allies needed on the Macedonian front . Shortly thereafter, the Allied army defeated the Central Powers forces in the Balkans , followed by the liberation of Serbia and the conclusion of World War I. Greece emerged victorious after 1912–1913 Balkan Wars , almost doubling her territory. The unstable international political climate of
16611-608: The sinking of two Greek merchant ships by a German submarine, as well as the secret agreement, to demand the surrender of the docked Greek warships and took command of the Salamis naval arsenal. The Greek government yielded, and on 7 November, the partial disarmament of Greek warships began. The Allies towed away 30 lighter craft. Three weeks later, the French took over the Salamis naval base completely and began using Greek ships operated by French crews. The Constantine–Bénazet agreement
16758-431: 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) 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
16905-504: The situation, disregarding Greek national pride and determination, causing them to conclude that the Greeks were bluffing. The Allies thought that in the face of a superior force, Greeks would "bring the cannons on a plater" (surrender); a viewpoint that Du Fournet also shared. On early morning of 1 December [ O.S. 18 November] 1916 the Allies landed a 3,000-strong marine force in Piraeus , and headed towards Athens. When
17052-582: The support of Allied troops and proceeded with the help of the Reservists to extensive arrests and reprisals against them. The entire operation was led by two army generals; troops of the military district of Athens took orders from General K. Kallaris, and the soldiers of the active defense were commanded by General A. Papoulas (later commander-in-chief of the Asia Minor expedition). The terror and destruction that followed soon went out of hand, making even
17199-468: The surrender of Fort Rupel signaled the loss of Greek Macedonia. On 29 May, Venizelos proposed to Sir Francis Elliot (senior British diplomat in Athens) and Jean Guillemin (senior French diplomat in Athens) that he and General Panagiotis Danglis should establish a provisional government in Thessaloniki to mobilize the Greek army to repel the Bulgarians. Venizelos pledged that the army would not move against
17346-469: The territorial integrity of Greece and the rights of its citizens would be respected. On 26 May, despite an official protest by the Greek government, 25,000 Bulgarian soldiers led by German cavalry invaded Greece. The Greek forces at Fort Rupel unconditionally surrendered. The German Supreme Command was concerned about Allied General Sarrail's movements, Falkenhayn was ordered to occupy strategic positions inside Greek territory, specifically Fort Rupel. Despite
17493-527: The territory of an officially neutral country); this front would prove key to their final victory three years later. 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. The Austro-Hungarians advanced down
17640-524: The troops rest and to shorten the front. Marshal Putnik finally relented, but the consequence was the abandonment of the capital city of Belgrade. After suffering heavy losses, the Austro-Hungarian Army entered the city on 2 December. This action led Potiorek to move the whole Fifth Army into the Belgrade area and use it to crush the Serbian right flank. This, however, left the Sixth alone for a few days to face
17787-471: The ultimatum, which came on 25 July, was conciliatory in some aspects but did not fully comply with all of Austria-Hungary's demands. Serbia accepted most of the conditions but expressed reservations about certain points that it believed impinged on its sovereignty and independence. Austria-Hungary rejected Serbia's response, considering it insufficient. As the diplomatic efforts faltered, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, formally initiating
17934-525: The upcoming harvest would not fall into the hands of the King. Constantine accepted the demands on 12 June 1917 and went into exile to Switzerland . His son Alexander became the new King of Greece instead of Constantine's elder son and crown prince, George who was considered to have German sympathies. The king's exile was followed by the deportation of many prominent royalist officers and politicians considered pro-Germans, such as Ioannis Metaxas and Dimitrios Gounaris , to France and Italy. The events paved
18081-538: 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). 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,
18228-648: The war with the bombardment of Belgrade . The Habsburg invasion plan had the objective of achieving a total defeat of Serbia. Russia , Serbia's ally, began mobilising its forces in response to Austria-Hungary's aggression, leading to Germany declaring war on Russia. General Oskar Potiorek , the Balkanstreitkräfte commander leading the invasion of Serbia, began with a force of 460,000 soldiers spread across 19 divisions. In opposition, Field Marshal Radomir Putnik commanded 400,000 Serbian troops, among whom were 185,000 seasoned veterans who had participated in
18375-694: The war!" On 29 September 1918, the German Supreme Army Command informed Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling , that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless. Ferdinand I abdicated and went into exile on 3 October. 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,
18522-634: 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. In
18669-462: The way for Venizelos to return to Athens on 29 May 1917. Greece, now unified, officially joined the war on the side of the Allies. The entire Greek army was mobilized (though tensions remained inside the army between supporters of the Constantine and supporters of Venizelos) and began to participate in military operations against the Central Powers on the Macedonian front. By the fall of 1918,
18816-546: The west, across the Drina river, began on 7 September, this time with both the Fifth Army in Mačva as well as the Sixth further south. Though the initial attack by the Fifth Army was repelled by the Serbian Second Army, with 4,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties, the stronger Sixth Army managed to surprise the Serbian Third Army and gain a foothold. After some units from the Serbian Second Army were sent to bolster
18963-510: The whole Serbian army. At this point, artillery ammunition finally arrived from France and Greece. In addition, some replacements were sent to the units, and Marshal Putnik correctly sensed that the Austro-Hungarian forces were dangerously overstretched and weakened in the previous offensives, so he ordered a full-scale counterattack with the entire Serbian Army on 3 December against the Sixth Army. The Fifth hurried its flanking maneuver, but it
19110-422: 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
19257-632: Was a known Hellenophile , an admirer of Venizelos and dedicated to resolving the Eastern Question . After Noemvriana, the Allies continued their naval blockade of Athens to put pressure on the king to accept their demands, causing food shortages in the Athenian population. The King resisted despite the rise in the number of deaths by starvation. The fall of the Romanovs in Russia (who refused
19404-480: Was a result of a secret agreement between Athens and the Central Powers, as they were assured that no Bulgarian force would invade Greek territory. The Allies saw this as a violation of Greek neutrality and a disturbance in the balance of power in the Balkans. The Allied press, especially in France , demanded swift military action against Greece to protect the Allied forces in Macedonia . For Venizelos and his supporters,
19551-576: Was a significant military operation during World War I . It marked the first major confrontation between the Central Powers , primarily Austro-Hungary , and the Allied Powers , led by the Kingdom of Serbia . The campaign started on 28 July 1914, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and bombarded Belgrade . On 12 August, the Austro-Hungarian forces, led by General Oskar Potiorek , launched their first offensive into Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian forces, known as Balkanstreitkräfte and consisting of
19698-573: Was a southern Slav nationalist, member of Young Bosnia , a secret society aiming to free Bosnia from Austrian rule and achieve the unification of the South Slavs. The group was helped by the Black Hand , a Serbian secret nationalist group. The Austro-Hungarian government who saw Serbia's nationalist aspirations as a threat to its own multi-ethnic empire, used the assassination as the perfect pretext to take action against Serbia, ostensibly as
19845-764: Was already too late – with the Sixth Army broken, the Second and Third Serbian Armies overwhelmed the Fifth. Finally, Potiorek lost his nerve and ordered another retreat across the rivers into Austria-Hungary's territory. The Serbian Army recaptured Belgrade on 15 December. The first phase of the war against Serbia had ended with no change in the border, but casualties were enormous compared to earlier wars, albeit comparable to other campaigns of World War I. The Serbian army suffered 170,000 men killed, wounded, captured or missing. Austro-Hungarian losses were approaching 215,000 men killed, wounded or missing. . Austro-Hungarian General Potiorek
19992-518: Was an idealistic goal in and of itself that was worth pursuing. 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. 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,
20139-441: Was cursed as the "secret enemy" that had bullied the Austrian empire into continuing the war in order to achieve German war aims. 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. On 18 September, the Greeks and the British attacked but were stopped with heavy losses by
20286-624: Was halted because the Hungarian leadership offered to surrender in November 1918, marking the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire . This ended the First World War since Germany lacked the forces to stop the Allies from invading Germany from the south. The participation of the Greek army at the Macedonian front was one of the decisive events of the war, earning Greece a seat at the Paris Peace Conference under Venizelos. Serbian campaign (1914) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation The Serbian campaign of 1914
20433-558: Was not an attempt to undermine the king's pact with Bénazet since it had been planned long before that. The failure of the secret agreement was caused by subversive activities within segments of the royalist government in Athens to paralyze and disrupt the Thessaloniki provisional government. The seizure of Greek ships by the Allies, the Katerini incident, and the Franco-British violations of Greece's territorial integrity offended
20580-563: Was only 15,000. 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 (48 km) 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
20727-410: Was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with significant losses, and the offensive was called off on 21 May. 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 ),
20874-409: Was pro-Allied. Venizelos invited the Entente into Thessaloniki. 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. 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
21021-583: Was reached, allowing d'Espèrey to launch his grand offensive. 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
21168-587: Was removed from command and replaced by Archduke Eugen of Austria (C. Falls p. 54). On the Serbian side, a deadly typhus epidemic killed hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians during the winter. After the Battle of Kolubara, the Serbian Parliament adopted the Niš Declaration (7 December 1914) on the war goals of Serbia: "Convinced that the entire Serbian nation is determined to persevere in
21315-602: Was short-lived due to Venizelos' military plans as well as pressure exerted by the military in Athens, led by the king, regarding the forced Greek disarmament. The army of the Defence confronted against the royalist army at Katerini (and by January 1917 had taken control of Thessaly). This action at Katerini met with some disapproval among the Allied circles and his own associates in Athens. Answering these criticisms, Venizelos wrote to A. Diamandidis: I am certainly very sorry that our advance to Katerini has caused displeasure among
21462-553: Was supplied by the Allies, who were also short of such materials. In such a situation, Serbian artillery quickly became almost silent while the Austro-Hungarians steadily increased their fire. Serbian casualties reached 100 soldiers a day from all causes in some divisions. During the first weeks of trench warfare, the Serbian Užice Army (the first strengthened division) and the Montenegrin Sanjak Army (roughly
21609-430: Was the main thrust, Serbian 2nd Army under the command of General Stepa Stepanović was sent to reinforce the smaller Serbian 3rd Army under Pavle Jurišić Šturm , by a forced march during the night of 15–16 August. A fierce confrontation ensued on Mount Cer. a A four-day battle ensued, culminating in the decisive defeat of Austro-Hungarian 5th Army on 20 August. The Austro-Hungarians were forced to retreat. On 24 August,
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