On October 5, 1915, in accordance with the military agreement between the three countries, the German and Austrian armies began to attack. The Allied forces concentrated 1,700 heavy artillery and 72 mine throwers to prepare for artillery fire on the Serbian army positions. After two days of artillery fire,
Under the bombardment, 90% of the front-line positions of the Serbian army were destroyed, and the casualties were extremely heavy.
On October 7, the right-wing Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army (a total of 7 divisions) crossed the Drina River under the command of Austro-Hungarian General Kovis.
Shortly afterwards, the German 11th Army (seven German divisions) commanded by the German General Gauwitz also crossed the Danube River to attack Belgrade with the support of the shallow-water heavy gunships of the Austro-Hungarian Danube Fleet.
However, in the rubble-strewn and almost ruined city of Belgrade, the remaining Serbian troops put up a tenacious resistance. These remaining troops from almost 27 different units spontaneously organized themselves and carried out a fierce battle with no backup.
And the arduous house-to-house street-to-street fighting, every street, every ruin, has to be paved with several layers of corpses and stained with several layers of blood to determine the final ownership.
Under the fierce attack of the German and Austrian troops, Belgrade fell on October 9.
Under the tight situation on the front line, the Serbian 2nd Army assembled on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia to deal with Bulgaria's general mobilization began to mobilize troops to reinforce the Serbian 1st Army and 3rd Army to deal with the German and Austrian armies.
So Bulgaria entered the war on October 13. Afterwards, the Bulgarian troops, which had already been deployed on the left and right wings, attacked Serbia. The right wing attacked Serbian Macedonia and Kosovo on the southern front, while the left wing attacked Niš. Niš is located on the Morava River.
The geographical location of the northern part of the basin and the southern part of the Vardar River basin is very important. It is located on the main transportation corridor connecting Greece and Central Europe, and the railway connecting Sofia and Istanbul also passes here.
The occupation of Nis meant that the four German and Austrian territories were integrated into one. It was a relief after a long drought for the urgently needed German and Austrian arms to supplement the Ottoman Turkey. At that time, the Ottoman Turkey was almost alone in the Gallipoli Peninsula, Sinai, Caucasus and Mesopotamia 4
Fighting on multiple fronts at the same time, it was busier than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Although the Bulgarian 1st Group Army has the largest number of troops and the best equipment, the Serbian army it faces is not strong, and its strength is less than half of the Bulgarian 1st Group Army. However, because the Piro area where it is mainly attacking has a Serbian fortress group, the harsh climate has caused
The roads were very muddy, and frequent heavy fog made visibility extremely low. The early progress was not fast. It was not until November 5 that the Bulgarian 1st Army finally occupied Niš.
Compared with the slowness of the 1st Army, the 2nd Bulgarian Army performed best as a partial division. The 2nd Army occupied the town of Fanlanje, which is located in Serbia, on October 16, 1915, just three days after Bulgaria entered the war.
In the south, due east of the Kosovo region, because it is a station on the Belgrade-Salonika railway, occupying Vanlanje cut off the connection between Serbia and Macedonia, and further cut off the main artery of the Allies supplying Serbia.
The 2nd Army's offensive was very smooth and overwhelming. It captured Kumanovo on October 20 and Skopje, the largest city in Macedonia, on October 23. One-third of the total population of Serbian Macedonia lives here, which is the Macedonian region.
It is the center of politics, culture, economy and academia. 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 fate. The rest of the Balkan Peninsula was not peaceful either. Other countries in it were involuntarily involved in the world war like moths drawn to a flame.
It was also on this day that King Constantine I of Greece once again dismissed Eleftherios Venizelos from his position as prime minister, delaying Greece's joining the Allied Powers in the war for almost another two years. In terms of relatives,
The royal families of Britain, Germany, and Russia are all very close by blood, and this does not hinder the fight between nations.
Prime Minister Venizelos actively advocated joining the Allied Powers to participate in the war from the beginning. According to the 1913 Treaty of the Serbian-Greek Alliance, when either party was attacked by Bulgaria, the other party was obliged to participate in the war. Constantine I argued that the attacking party was the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bulgaria remained neutral on the grounds that in fact Constantine I was pro-German, and his wife was the biological 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, the Allied forces, with the French army as the main force, landed in the then neutral Greek port of Paralia in the name of supporting Serbia. More and more Allied forces gathered with Paralia as the center, and finally formed
The fourth front in the European battlefield of World War I - the Macedonian Front, on which Bulgaria almost supported itself independently.
As soon as the French army landed, they disarmed the Paragliagi fort and took over the entire port. Greece did not participate in the war at the time. This was a gross violation of Greece's neutrality by the Allies. The reason for Britain's entry into World War I was that Germany used Belgium.
It grossly violated Belgium's neutrality, and there is no historical data to make moral accusations against the French army's move.
There is a direct railway from Salonika to Belgrade. If the three French divisions that landed in Paralia immediately attack Salonika, it will not only provide strong support for Serbia's resistance in manpower and material resources, but also spiritually.
It will also stimulate the morale of the Allied Powers who share the same hatred with the enemy, and can definitely have the effect of making a fortune. However, the French army stopped in Paralia and stopped inexplicably.
At this time, the Bulgarian 2nd Army, which was attacking the Macedonian area, immediately transferred its left wing to the Salonika front line to defend against possible French attacks. At the same time, Bulgaria mobilized three divisions from home to the Salonika front line, so Bulgaria
The 2nd Army Plain Cluster was formed in the Salonika plains, and with 6 divisions, it defeated the 4 Allied divisions (3 French divisions, 1 British division) that came to capture Salonika.
The Bulgarian 1st Army captured Niš, opening up a channel for Germany and Austria to support the Ottoman Empire. Germany's main goal had been achieved and it began to transfer troops to the Eastern Front.
Under the command of the old commander Putnik, the Serbian army was defeated without chaos. As they retreated, they fortified the walls and cleared the fields, burning war supplies and destroying roads along the way.
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 troops. The weather and roads made it impossible for logistics to keep up, which affected
The delivery of troops and firepower.
Marshal Mackensen's three-pronged attack plan to annihilate the Serbian army in the Kosovo plains became a paper idea, but it gave Serbia a fleeting opportunity.
The last major battle of the Serbian campaign in 1915, the Battle of Kosovo, began. The Serbian army, with Pristina in Kosovo as its axis, prepared to defeat the Allied forces one by one using its internal advantages.
At first, it targeted the Bulgarian 1st Army and launched an attack on the Bulgarian army in the direction of Nis, northeast of Pristina. Within two days, it occupied Pfapje in southern Serbia.
Then he turned clockwise to the northern cluster of the Bulgarian 2nd Army that had already invaded Kosovo and launched a devastating blow. In Granine, the Bulgarian 2nd Army North Group fought a fierce battle with Serbia. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.
, Serbia ended with more than 30,000 casualties and the capture of 200 artillery pieces.
On November 23, the German 101st Division and the 9th Division of the Bulgarian 1st Army entered Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, without any bloodshed. However, the main force of the Serbian army had already crossed the Stinca River to escape the German, Austrian and Bulgarian pursuit.
On November 25, Commander-in-Chief of the Serbian Army Putnik issued a general withdrawal order. The Serbian Army was divided into four routes across the mountains and retreated to ports on the Adriatic coast of Albania, where they were picked up by the Allied fleet and placed on Greek islands.
The first route starts from Mitrovica in Kosovo and passes through Montenegro - Shkodra, Albania - Durrës.
The second route starts from Pristina and passes through Pec - Les Albania - Durrës.
The third route also starts from Pristina and passes through Prizren - Tirana, Albania - Durrës.
The fourth route is the remnants of the Macedonian army, starting from Struga - Berat, Albania - Vlora.
So Serbia violated the neutrality of this new small country, Albania. Moreover, at that time, the Serbian soldiers and civilians went through the cold weather and lacked food and clothing, so it was natural to recruit them from Albania. To the people of Albania, they were a group of bandits who robbed their own belongings.
420,000 Serbian soldiers and civilians fled. The number of Serb soldiers and civilians who were finally picked up from Albania by the British and French fleets arrived in Greece was 260,000, including 155,000 soldiers. Many people on the Greek islands suffered from excessive weakness and infectious diseases (
Mainly due to typhoid fever) and died one after another.
The Serbian campaign ended in 1915, ending with Bulgaria ending its skirmish with the British army on December 12 and occupying the entire Hispanic-Serbian border.
Throughout the campaign, Bulgaria invested a total of 424,375 people in the battle, suffering 37,000 casualties, including 24,000 casualties in the Second Army. The result was that Serbia lost more than 90,000 killed and 174,000 prisoners.
Now the entire territory of Serbia is divided between Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. They are both satisfied with the results this time. Now Bulgaria only needs to defend the Macedonian front line. This time, except for the worst Montenegro and Serbia, which have occupied the entire territory, Greece is considered the most
A miserable neutral country. The two major camps completely ignored Greece's neutrality and fought in Greece arbitrarily. In particular, Britain and France not only occupied Greek ports, but also forcibly used Greek islands to resettle defeated Serb soldiers and civilians.
PS: The update is completed today. Mantou has been at home these days so the update is not stable. I hope everyone can forgive me.
