Macedonian front (World War I)

Warbox
conflict=Macedonian front
partof=Balkans Theatre (World War I)


caption=
date=October 1915 - November 1918
place= Macedonia - Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia
result=Allied victory, Armistice of Thessaloniki
combatant1=Central Powers:
flagicon|Bulgaria|1878 Bulgaria
flag|Austria-Hungary
flag|German Empire
combatant2=Allied Powers:
flag|France (1915-1918)
flagicon|United Kingdom United Kingdom (1915-1918)
flagicon|Serbia|1882 Serbia
flagicon|Greece|royal Greece (1916-1918)
flagicon|Italy|1861-state Italy (1916-1918)
flagicon|Russian Empire|1914 Russian Empire (1915-1917)
commander1=flagicon|Bulgaria|1878 Vladimir Vazov
flagicon|Bulgaria|1878 Nikola Zhekov
flagicon|Bulgaria|1878 Georgi Todorov
flagicon|Austria-Hungary Oskar Potiorek
flagicon|German Empire August von Mackensen
commander2=flagicon|France Maurice Sarrail
flagicon|France Adolphe Guillaumat
flagicon|France Franchet d'Esperey
flagicon|United Kingdom George Milne
flagicon|Serbia|1882 Petar Bojović
flagicon|Serbia|1882 Živojin Mišić
flagicon|Greece|royal Panagiotis Danglis
strength1=
strength2=
notes=The Macedonian Front (or Salonika front) resulted from 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 in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece (the "National Schism"). Eventually, a stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River, pitting a multinational Allied force against the Central Powers. The Macedonian Front remained quite stable, despite local actions, until the great Allied offensive in September 1918, which resulted in the capitulation of Bulgaria and the liberation of Serbia.

Background

Austria-Hungary had attacked Serbia in August 1914, but had failed to overcome the Serbian resistance. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire in the war on the Central Powers' side, the decisive factor was the position of Bulgaria. Bulgaria occupied a strategically important position on the flanks of Serbia, and its intervention on either side would swing the balance decisively.Bulgaria and Serbia, however, had fought two wars in the last 30 years, the first in 1885 (see Serbo-Bulgarian War for details), the second in 1913 (see the Second Balkan War for details). The result of the latter was humiliating to Bulgaria, and there was a widespread feeling in the Bulgarian government and people felt that Serbia had stolen land which rightfully belonged to it.

While the Allies could only offer small territorial concessions from Serbia and (as yet neutral) Greece, the Central Powers' promises were far more enticing, as they offered to give most of the land Bulgaria claimed. With the Allied defeat at the Battle of Gallipoli and the Russian defeat at Gorlice-Tarnów, demonstrating the Central Powers' strength, King Ferdinand signed a treaty with Germany and on September 21, 1915 began mobilizing for war.

The Fall of Serbia

During the last nine months, the Serbians had tried, and failed, to rebuild their battered armies and improve their supply situation. Despite these efforts, the Serbian army was only about 30,000 men stronger than at the start of the war (around 225,000) and it still was not well equipped. Although the Allies (Britain and France) had talked about sending serious military forces to Serbia, nothing was done until it was too late. When Bulgaria began mobilization, the French and British sent two divisions to help Serbia but they arrived late in the Greek town of Salonika. Part of the reason for the delay was the Greek government's conflicted views about the war.

Against Serbia were marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a German Army, and an Austro-Hungarian Army, all under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen, totalling more than 800,000 soldiers. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians began their attack on October 7 with a massive artillery barrage, followed by attacks across the rivers. Then, on the 11th, the Bulgarian Army attacked from two directions, one from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš, the other from the south towards Skopje (see the map). The Bulgarian Army was large, tough, and rapidly broke through the weaker Serbian forces that tried to block its advance. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position was hopeless; either their main army in the north would be surrounded and forced to surrender, or it could try to retreat.

Marshal Putnik ordered a full retreat, south and west through Montenegro and into Albania. The weather was terrible, the roads poor, and the army had to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. All told, some 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea and embarked on French transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands (many went to Corfu) before being sent to Salonika. Marshal Putnik had to be carried during the whole retreat and he died a bit more than a year later in a hospital in France.

The French and British divisions marched north from Salonika in late November under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail. However, the British divisions were ordered by the War Office in London not to cross the Greek frontier. So the French divisions advanced on their own up the Vardar River. This advance was of some limited help to the retreating Serbian Army as the Bulgarian Army had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat. By mid-December, General Sarrail concluded retreat was necessary in the face of determined Bulgarian assaults on his positions.

This was a nearly complete victory for the Central Powers. The railroad from Berlin to Constantinople was finally opened and as a result, Germany was able to prop up its weak partner, the Ottoman Empire. The only flaw in the victory was the remarkable retreat of the Serbians Army, which stayed organized and was able to fight again just six months later.

1916 - Establishment of the Macedonian Front

The Austro-Hungarian Army attacked Serbia's ally Montenegro. The small army of Montenegro offered strong resisstance in the Battle of Mojkovac that greatly helped the withdrawal of the Serbian army, but soon faced impossibble odds and was compelled to surrender on January 25. The Austro-Hungarians continued advancing down the Adriatic Coast, attacking into Italian-controlled Albania. By the end of the winter, the small Italian Army had been forced out of nearly the whole country.

At this point, with the war in the Balkans effectively lost, the British General Staff wanted to withdraw all their troops from Greece, but the French government protested strongly. Since the French divisions were staying, the British stayed also, with undisguised antipathy. The Allied armies entrenched themselves around Salonika, which became 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 confused. Officially, Greece was neutral, but King Constantine I was pro-German, while Prime Minister Venizelos was pro-British. At first, Greece supported the French-British military support of Serbia, then they opposed it; finally, after Venizelos' resignation, the royalist government settled for officially condemning it, but not actually opposing the superior Allied armies that had landed in Salonika. The Germans, trying to win Greece to their side, were careful not to cross the Greek border.

In May of 1916, General Sarrail demanded that the Greek Army demobilize and the Greek government complied with this demand. However, this action further pushed the Greek government to side with the Central Powers.

With certain 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, with excellent intelligence from Greek supporters, made plans of their own for a "spoiling attack". The German offensive was launched on August 17, just three days before the French offensive was scheduled to start. In reality, this was a Bulgarian offensive, as the Austro-Hungarian Army was in Albania and only a single German division was on the Greek border. The attack achieved early success thanks to surprise, but the Serbian forces held a defensive line after two weeks. Having halted the Bulgarian offensive, the Serbian Army staged a counterattack starting on September 12. The terrain was rough and the Bulgarians were on the defensive, but the Serbian Army made steady gains. Slow advances by the Serbians continued throughout October and on into November even as the weather turned very cold and snow fell on the hills. The Germans sent two more divisions to help bolster the Bulgarian Army, but by November 19 the French and Serbian Army captured Kaymakchalan, the highest peak of Nidže mountain and compelled the Central powers to abandon Monastir (Mak.Битола) to the Entente.

Losses in this campaign were at least 50,000 on the Allied side and likely more than 60,000 killed and captured Bulgarians and Germans (Falls, p. 240). The front had been advanced just 25 miles.

The Bulgarian advance into Greek-held Eastern Macedonia however, precipitated another internal Greek crisis. The government ordered its troops in the area (the demobilized IV Corps) not to resist, and despite occasional local resistance from a few officers, most of the Corps along with its commander was forced to surrender to a token German force, and was interned for the remainder of the war at Görlitz. The unopposed surrender of recently hard-won territory to the hated Bulgarians was seen by many Venizelist Army officers as the last straw. With the active help of the Allied authorities, they launched a coup which secured Salonika and most of Macedonia for Venizelos (see Movement of National Defence). From that point Greece had two governments, the "official" royalist one at Athens, maintaining her neutrality in the face of increasing Allied pressure, and the "revolutionary", Venizelist government at Salonika, which immediately entered the war on the side of the Entente.

At the same time, the Italians had deployed more forces to Albania and these new troops managed to push the Austrian corps back through very hilly country south of Lake Ostrovo.

1917

By the spring of this year, General Sarrail's "Armee d' Orient" had been reinforced to the point that he had 22 divisions: 6 French, 6 Serbian, 7 British, 1 Italian, 1 "National Defence" Greek and 2 Russian brigades. Further 2 Greek divisions were being formed. An offensive was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with major losses and the offensive was called off on May 21.

Subsequently the Allies, wishing to exert more pressure on Athens, occupied Thessaly, which had been evacuated by the royalist Greek Army, and the Isthmus of Corinth, practically severing the country in two. Further diplomatic pressure resulted in the exile of the Greek king (on June 14) and the reunification of the country under Prime Minister Venizelos, supported by Allied bayonets. The new government immediately declared war on the Central Powers and started to create a new Army. Despite this favorable outcome, the new French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau recalled General Sarrail in November and put a much more diplomatic French General Adolphe Guillaumat in his place .

1918

In May, General Guillaumat's Greek troops attacked and captured the strong Bulgarian position of Skra-di-Legen, marking the first major Greek action on the Allied side in the war. However, with the German offensive threatening France, Guillaumat was recalled to Paris and replaced by General Franchet d'Esperey.

Although d'Esperey 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, traveled from London to Rome, trying to win approval for an attack. Finally in September, agreement was reached and d'Esperey was allowed to launch his grand offensive.

The Allied forces were now very large. Not only did they have the Greek army fully on their side (9 divisions strong), but they also had some 6,000 men from the Czech Legion, who had been evacuated from Russia and sailed around the world, ready to fight the hated Austro-Hungarians. However, the Bulgarians had also increased the size of their army during 1917 and in total man power, the two sides were roughly equal (291 Allied battalions vs. 300 Bulgarian battalions, plus 10 German battalions). But in morale, the two sides were completely different. The Allied were certain of their impending victory while the Bulgarians could see the war was lost - the Ottoman Empire was near collapse, the Austro-Hungarian government was in chaos, and the mighty German Army was beaten on the all-important Western Front. The Bulgarians were not willing to fight and die for a lost cause.

The Battle of Dobro Pole started with the (now traditional) artillery bombardment of enemy positions on September 14. The following day, the French and Serbians attacked and captured their objective. On September 18, the Greeks and the British attacked as well, but were stopped with heavy losses by the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran. However the Franco-Serbian army continued advancing vigorously. The next day, some Bulgarian units started surrendering positions without a fight. Bulgarian command ordered a retreat. On September 30, the Bulgarians were granted the Armistice of Solun by General d'Esperey, ending their war. Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria abdicated and went into exile four days later.

At this point, the British army headed east towards the European side of the Ottoman Empire, while the French and Serbian forces continued north. The British Army neared Constantinople and with no serious Ottoman forces to stop it, the Ottoman government asked for an armistice ( The Armistice of Mudros) on October 26 (Enver Pasha and his partners had fled just days earlier to Berlin).

With "Desperate Frankie" (as the British called d'Esperey) pushing ever forward, the Franco-Serbian Army re-captured Serbia and overran several weak German divisions that tried to block its advance near Niš. On November 10, d'Esperey's army crossed the Danube river and was poised to enter the heartland of Hungary when the war finally came to an end. Count Karolyi, leading the revolutionary Hungarian government, came to Belgrade and asked for an armistice.

Sources

* Falls, Cyril The Great War (1960).
* Esposito, Vincent (ed.) (1959). The West Point Atlas of American Wars - Vol. 2; maps 46-50. Frederick Praeger Press.

See also

Balkanalysis.com review of the official British government history of the Macedonian Front campaign, "Military Operations Macedonia": [http://www.balkanalysis.com/?p=532 Part 1] and [http://www.balkanalysis.com/2006/01/19/military-operations-macedonia-the-official-british-history-part-2 Part 2]