Romanian Eagle

Chapter 215 Serbia is occupied

On October 5, 915, according to the agreement of the Three Kingdoms Military Agreement, the German and Austrian armies began to attack. The Allies concentrated 1,700 heavy artillery pieces and 72 mine throwers to prepare for the Serbian army's positions. Under two days of artillery bombardment, 90% of the Serbian army's front-line positions were destroyed, resulting in heavy casualties.

On October 7, the right-wing Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army (7 divisions in total) crossed the Drina River under the command of Austro-Hungarian Admiral Corvez.

Shortly thereafter, the German 11th Army (7 German divisions) under the command of German General Goowitz, also supported by the shallow-water heavy gunboats of the Austro-Hungarian Danube Fleet, crossed the Danube to attack Belgrade.

However, in the rubble and almost ruined urban area of ​​Belgrade, the remnants of Serbian troops resisted stubbornly. These remnants from almost 27 different units organized themselves and carried out a tragic battle with no support. And the arduous street fighting, street by street, every street, every ruin, must be covered with several layers of corpses and stained with blood before the final attribution can be determined.

Belgrade fell on October 9 under the onslaught of German and Austrian troops.

When the front line was tight, the Serbian 2nd Army, which had assembled on the Bulgarian-Serbian border in response to the Bulgarian mobilization, began to mobilize troops to reinforce the Serbian 1st and 3rd Army that responded to the German and Austrian armies.

So Bulgaria entered the war on October 13. Afterwards, the Bulgarian army, already deployed on the left and right flanks, attacked Serbia. The right wing attacked the southern Serbian Macedonia and Kosovo regions, while the left wing attacked Nis. Niš is located in the north of the Morava river basin and the south of the Vardar river basin, and its location is very important. Located on the way to the main transport corridor linking Greece with Central Europe, the railway linking Sofia and Istanbul also passes through here.

The occupation of Niš means that the four countries of Germany, Austria, and Turkey are integrated into one. It can be said that the supply of German and Austrian arms to Ottoman Turkey is a long drought. At that time, Ottoman Turkey was almost alone in the Gallipoli Peninsula, Sinai, Caucasus and Mesopotamia4 Two fronts fought at the same time, busier than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although the Bulgarian 1st Army has the largest number of troops and the best equipment, it is not strong against the Serbian army, and its strength is less than half of the Bulgarian 1st Army. However, due to unfavorable conditions such as the main attacking area of ​​Piro, which has a group of fortresses preset by Serbia, the bad weather caused the roads to be very muddy, the frequent fog made the visibility extremely low and other unfavorable conditions, the early progress was not fast. It was not until November 5 that the Bulgarian 1st Army finally occupied Niš.

Compared to the slowness of the 1st Army, the Bulgarian 2nd Group performed best as a partial division. On October 16, 1915, just 3 days after Bulgaria entered the war, the 2nd Army occupied the town of Vlanje, which is located in southern Serbia, due east of the Kosovo region, because it is on the Belgrade-Thessaloniki railway. One stop, the occupation of Verange, cut off the connection between Serbia and Macedonia, and further cut off the main artery of the Allies supplying Serbia.

The offensive of the 2nd Army was very smooth, and the momentum was broken. On October 20, Kumanovo was captured, and on October 23, Skopje, the largest city in Macedonia, was captured. One third of the total population of Cyprus Macedonia lives here, and it is the political, cultural, economic and academic center of Macedonia. The name of the city during the Ottoman Empire was Uskup, which was later renamed Skopje by the Serbs.

October 5, 1915, seemed to be a meeting point of fortunes, and the rest of the Balkans was not peaceful either, in which other countries, like moths to a flame, were involuntarily involved in the world war.

Also on this day,

King Constantine I of Greece once again dismissed Eleftherios Venizelos as prime minister, delaying Greece's entry into the Allied war by almost another two years. In terms of relatives, the British, German, and Russian royal families are all closely related by blood, which does not prevent the fighting between nations.

The Prime Minister of Venizelos actively advocated joining the Entente to participate in the war from the very beginning. According to the 1913 Segy League Treaty, when either side was attacked by Bulgaria, the other party was obliged to participate in the war. Constantine I claimed that the attacking party was Austria-Hungary, not the Bulgaria remains neutral. In fact, Constantine I was pro-German, his wife was the sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and he accepted the honor of Marshal of the German Empire on August 8, 1914, when the war had just begun.

On the same day, in the name of supporting Serbia, the French army as the main Allied armies landed in the then neutral Greek port of Paralia. The 4th front of the European battlefield of World War I - the Macedonian front, on this front Bulgaria almost independently supported.

As soon as the French landed, they disarmed the Paraliahi battery and took over the entire port. Greece was not involved in the war at that time, and the Allies did so as a gross violation of Greece's neutrality. The reason for Britain's participation in the First World War was that Germany violated Belgium's neutrality through Belgium, and there is no historical data to make moral accusations against the French army.

There is a direct railway from Thessaloniki to Belgrade. If the three landing French divisions from Paralia immediately attack Thessaloniki, then not only the human and material resources will support Serbia's war of resistance, but also spiritually. It will also stimulate the morale of the Allied countries to share the same hatred and hatred, and it can definitely have the effect of four or two. It's just that the French army stopped in Paralia and stopped inexplicably.

At this time, the Bulgarian 2nd Army, which was attacking the Macedonia region, immediately transferred its left flank to the Salonika line to defend against possible French attacks. At the same time, Bulgaria mobilized 3 divisions from the country to the front line of Thessaloniki, so Bulgaria formed the 2nd Army Plain Cluster in the Thessaloniki Plain, and defeated the Allies who came to capture Thessaloniki with 6 divisions. 4 divisions (3 French divisions, 1 British division).

The Bulgarian 1st Army captured Niš and opened up the passage for Germany and Austria to support the Ottoman Empire. Germany's main purpose has been achieved and began to transfer its troops to the Eastern Front.

Under the command of the old coach Putnik, the Serbian army was defeated without chaos.

All the bridges on the Morava River on the way forward of the Bulgarian 1st Army were blown up by the Serbian army. It took a lot of effort to cross the two divisions. The same was true for the German and Austrian army. The weather and road caused the logistics to fail to keep up, affecting The delivery of force and firepower.

Marshal Mackensen's three-way joint attack plan to annihilate the Serbian army on the Kosovo plain has become a piece of paper, but it has given Serbia a fleeting opportunity.

The last major battle of the Serbian campaign in 1915 was the Battle of Kosovo. The Serbian army, with Pristina in Kosovo as its axis, prepared to defeat the Allied forces one by one with the advantage of the inside.

Initially targeting the Bulgarian 1st Army, it attacked the Bulgarian army in the direction of Niš, northeast of Pristina, and within two days captured Pfapril in southern Serbia.

Then clockwise and right-handed to the northern group of the Bulgarian 2nd Army, which had already invaded Kosovo, launched a powerful blow. In Granine, the Bulgarian 2nd Army Group northwards fought fiercely with Serbia. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. In the end, Serbia ended with more than 30,000 casualties and 200 artillery pieces captured.

On November 23, the German 101st Division and the 9th Division of the Bulgarian 1st Army entered Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, without bloodshed.

On November 25, the commander-in-chief of the Serbian army, Putnik, issued a general retreat order. The Serbian army crossed the mountains and mountains in four routes, retreated to the port on the coast of the Adriatic Sea in Albania, and was placed on the island of Greece by the Allied fleet.

The first road starts from Kosovo Mitrovica and goes through Montenegro - Albania - Shkoda - Durrës.

The second route starts from Pristina and goes through Pecs - Les Albania - Durrës.

The third route also starts from Pristina, via Prizren - Tirana, Albania - Durrës.

The fourth road is the remnants of Macedonia, starting from Struga - Berat, Albania - Vlora.

So Serbia violated the neutrality of the nascent small country Albania. Moreover, at that time, the Serb soldiers and civilians had to pass through the cold weather and lacked food and clothing, so they were naturally recruited from Albania. For the people of Albania, this is a group of bandits who snatch their belongings.

420,000 Serbian soldiers and civilians fled and were finally picked up from Albania by the British and French fleets. When they arrived in Greece, there were 260,000 soldiers and civilians, including 155,000 soldiers. Many people on the Greek islands suffered from excessive weakness and infectious diseases ( Mainly typhoid fever) and died one after another.

The Serbian campaign in 1915 ended with the end of a skirmish between Bulgaria and the British army on December 12 and the occupation of the entire Greek border.

During the entire battle, Bulgaria had a total of 424,375 people involved in the battle, with 37,000 casualties, including 24,000 casualties of the 2nd Army. The result was that Serbia killed more than 90,000 people and captured 174,000 people.

Now the entire territory of Serbia is divided by Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. They are all satisfied with the results of this time. Now they only need Bulgaria to defend the first line of Macedonia. This time, apart from the most miserable Montenegro and Serbia occupied the whole territory, Greece is the most tragic neutral country. The two camps completely ignored Greece's neutrality and fought in Greece at will. In particular, Britain and France not only occupied Greek ports, but also forcibly used Greek islands to house the defeated Serb soldiers and civilians.

ps; The update is completed today. The steamed buns are at home these days, so the update is not stable. I hope everyone will forgive me.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like