Last year- 1914- Serbia was repeatedly invaded by the Austro-Hungarian Imperial army, but
managed to repel the invaders each time. Over the following winter and spring, a typhus
epidemic secured Serbian borders but at a great cost in lives, and over the summer,
Serbian enemies had their hands full on other fronts, but this week, Serbia is invaded once again.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to the Great War
The big news last week were brand new French and British offensives on the western front
in Artois, Champagne, and at Loos. They failed to produce the much hoped for breakthrough,
but did produce tens of thousands of corpses. The Austro-German summer offensives had finally
been stopped on the Eastern Front along the entire line by stiffening Russian resistance
and autumn mud, and in the Middle East, the British Indian forces had taken Kut and were
setting their sights on Baghdad. This is what happened next.
One other reason that the German offensives in the east had come to a halt is that their
chief architect, General August von Mackensen, had been called to another theater of war.
German army chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn had sent the German 11th Army to join his
Austrian counterpart Conrad von Hotzendorf’s forces under the command of Mackensen to invade
Serbia from the north and knock her out of the war. Another Balkan nation, Bulgaria,
was going to join the war and attack from the east. The Bulgarians had seen the enormous
success of Mackensen’s earlier offensive in Poland and Galicia and thought this would
be a good time to get the land in Macedonia they’d been promised after the Balkan Wars
of 1912 and 1913, but never given. They were now promised plenty of land at Serbian expense
and they’d agreed last month to join the Central Powers, though they were going to
wait until Germany and Austria had invaded, since they were justifiably skeptical of the
Austrian army’s prowess after its losses against Serbia in 1914.
Taking Serbia out of the war would not only close its front with Austria-Hungary and free
up a bunch of Austro-Hungarian troops, it would open up a land route from Germany to
the Ottoman Imperial capital Constantinople, so the Germans could then supply the Turks
who were still locked down at Gallipoli.
On October 2nd, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey says the “situation one
of utmost gravity” and notes that Austrian and German officers have arrived in Bulgaria
to take direct command of local troops. On the 3rd, Russia issued an ultimatum to Bulgaria
that basically said, “we know what you’re up to, and you better not do it.”
And on October 6, 1915, the Austro-German combined assault began with a heavy artillery
bombardment on Serbian positions on the Danube and Sava Rivers. German and Austrian bridgeheads
were established pretty much right away, and once the Serbian lines were broken, the weight
of the invaders- some 400,000 strong- overwhelmed them. On the 7th, the invaders crossed the
Sava, Drina, and Danube Rivers, on the 8th, the Serbs evacuated Belgrade, and on October
9th, 1915, Austro-Hungarian Imperial forces occupied Belgrade, capital of Serbia.
Meanwhile, Bulgarian forces concentrated across the Serbian border to the east. But to the
south, in Salonika, allied troops began landing on the 5th, and by the end of the week, there
were 20,000 troops there. Also at the end of the week, Austria-Hungary invaded Montenegro.
This whole front was getting really really ugly.
But what exactly were the Allies expecting to do in Salonika, in neutral Greece?
Well, by now it was pretty apparent that the only thing that could prevent Bulgaria actively
joining the war and attacking Serbia was a show of force, but where was that going to
happen? The Austrian navy was a big threat in the Adriatic, and there weren’t harbors
on the Albanian coast that could support a big allied landing, so the Greek port of Salonika
was pretty much the only choice.
Greece, though, was in turmoil and was really worried about being dragged into the war.
I mean, technically Greece had been a winner in the two Balkans Wars, but it was a rough
experience, so Greece had remained neutral when this war broke out, but there were still
huge internal political battles about which side to support. The King, King Constantine,
was for the Central powers. Well, he was married to the Kaiser’s sister. The Prime Minister,
though, Elutherios Venizelos, was a supporter of the Allies and saw their help as a real
chance to expand Greek influence in the Balkans. So, as the threat to Serbia grew, the Allies
sort of bullied Greece using Venizelos as their inside man who made the offer of allowing
British and French troops to land at Salonika, which they did as I said. But this was a flagrant
violation of Greek neutrality, and it sparked a huge fight between King and Prime Minister,
which caused Venizelos to resign.
Now, the expeditionary force itself was pretty tricky for the Allies to arrange. Only the
French acceptance of total failure at Gallipoli allowed them to pull over troops, so they
sent a division, and the British managed to send a division, and they were all under the
command of French General Maurice Sarrail, so 20,000 of them landed, and at the exact
same time 20 times that many Austrians and Germans invaded Serbia from the north, and
the Bulgarians were gearing up to the east. So what was their purpose in Salonika? A show
of force? Not likely anymore.
But the Allies were certainly making a show of force on the western front, as their offensives
there continued.
They didn’t continue with nearly the force they had during their first week, which had
resulted in tens of thousands of casualties including three British major generals, but
there were new developments. At Loos, the Royal Flying Corps under Brigadier General
Hugh Trenchard was making itself known. Early in the battle, they had flown target sorties
to help artillery shells from being wasted. They had been using new improved wireless
transmitters, which made a huge difference in relaying target information, though many
artillery batteries refused to use the information because they didn’t believe it was accurate.
One thing, though, during this battle British pilots carried out organized tactical bombing
for what may have been the first time in history, targeting German trains, railway lines, and
marshaling yards. The Germans made several counter attacks at Loos this week, hoping
to recover lost ground, including an enormous push at the end of the week, but these resulted
in heavy German losses.
British tactics were also in play in the Middle East this week.
After last week’s victory at Kut, General John Nixon, Commander of the British Indian
army, wanted the battle’s winner General Charles Townshend to pursue the enemy all
the way to Baghdad. Townshend saw things a little differently, and this is from his diary
from October 3rd: “The army commander does not seem to realize the weakness and danger
of his line of communications. We are now 380 miles from the sea and we have only two
weak divisions, including my own, in the country. There is my division to do the fighting and
Gorringe’s to hold the line of communications from Kut to the sea. Thus there is no possible
support to give me if I receive a check.”
Thing is, because of the lack of success against the Turks after over five months at Gallipoli,
the war office in London was pretty desperate for any success over the Ottomans, so it allowed
itself to believe there were sufficient men and enough transport to make the capture of
Baghdad feasible.
We haven’t looked at the Eastern Front this week, but the Russians had begun new attacks
in the region of Dvinsk. We’ll see more of that soon. And a note I didn’t have time
to mention last week: on September 27th, in the Italian port of Brindisi, Austrian saboteurs
destroyed the Italian battleship Benedetto Brin, killing 456 sailors.
And so we come to the end of yet another week of war, as the Serbian front becomes active
once again and the Austrians occupy Belgrade. The fighting is still intense on the Western
Front, the British are making plans in the Middle East, and the Allies landed thousands
of troops in neutral Greece.
And Serbia is invaded once again, this time by not one, not two, but possibly three larger
nations. The Serbs had fought better than perhaps any other nation in the war, but had
paid a terrible price for their continued independence. Disease was rampant throughout
the country, doctors now numbered fewer than 200; there was hunger, refugees, and unlike
its invaders, Serbia had lost far more of its fighting men then it could hope to replace.
Winter would soon be upon Serbia and despair, destruction, and death, death, death would
rule. And all for what? I don’t know. Do you? I got nothing. What a waste.
If you want to find out more about how General Typhus’ rampage in Serbia, check out our
episode right here.
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