The Great Retreat was the final phase phase of the Serbian campaign of World War I, occurring from 25 November 1915 to 18 January 1916 as the Central Powers (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria) overwhelmed Serbia, forcing its armies to retreat south through Montenegro and Albania in order to be evacuated to the Greek island of Corfu by Allied ships. The Great Retreat culminated in the fall of Serbia to the Central Powers, temporarily closing a front of the war.
Background[]
Although World War I started with Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia, by 1915 the Serbian front had become a backwater. After Serbia's successful resistance against invasion by Austro-Hungarian forces in the first months of the war, fighting subsided. Austria-Hungary did not have the resources to defeat Serbia while also fighting Russia and, from May 1915, Italy.
Serbia's neutral neighbor Bulgaria had lost territory to Serbia, Greece, Turkey, and Romania in the Second Balkan War of 1913. It was courted both by the Allies and the Central Powers. Allied failure against Turkey at Gallipoli and the Russian retreat from Poland influenced Bulgaria's leaders to form an alliance with the Central Powers.
History[]
In September 1915, negotiations between the Central Powers and Bulgaria were brought to a successful conclusion. In return for a promise of substantial territorial gains, the Bulgarians signed the Pless Convention on 6 September, agreeing to join in an invasion of Serbia within 35 days. Unimpressed by the performance of Austro-Hungarian forces, they stipulated that the invasion must include German troops and be under German command. This was not to the liking of Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hotzendorf, who was increasignly worried by German dominance, but it suited German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn. He wanted a swift defeat of Serbia that would bind Bulgaria into an alliance with the Central Powers and open up a direct line of communication between Germany and Turkey.
Invasion of Serbia[]
A Le Petit Journal illustration depicting Bulgaria stabbing Serbia in the back
German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of General August von Mackensen launched their offensive on 6 October. Their main thrust was directed southward across the Danube. The river was high but the crossing was achieved with the support of heavy artillery and the guns of Austro-Hungarian gunboats. The Serbian forces were in poor shape. In addition to being outnumbered and short of weapons and munitions, they had been decimated by a typhus epidemic. The capital, Belgrade, had already fallen by the time the Bulgarian army attacked across Serbia's eastern border on 11 October. Under its experienced commander, Field Marshal Radomir Putnik, the Serbian army retreated southward in the face of the Austro-Hungarian advance.
Cornered in Kosovo[]
Putnik's hopes of avoiding encirclement were dashed by the speedy progress of the Bulgarians. By November, the Serbians were trapped in Kosovo, facing a choice between a fight to the death or a retreat across the mountains. Serbia might have hoped for some assistance from the Allies, but none was forthcoming. Only three days before the launch of the Austro-German invasion, advanced parties of an Anglo-French forces, known in France as the Army of the Orient, had landed at Salonika in neutral Greece, where they were to proceed by rail to Serbia. But their arrival provoked a political crisis in Greece. The prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, was dismissed by the country's pro-German king Constantine. The Allies suddenly found themselves unwelcome. Under the command of General Maurice Sarrail, some 45,000 French troops advanced across Macedonia into southern Serbia. After brief clashes with the Bulgarians, they withdrew again to Salonika.
Flight through the mountains[]
In the last week of November, Putnik ordered a general retreat across the mountains to the Adriatic. Some 200,000 soldiers and civilians set off on this trek, including the Serbian government and the 71-year-old King Peter, carried in a sedan chair. The roads were deep in snow and temperatures were far below freezing. Thousands died of exposure. Although bad weather dissuaded enemy forces from mounting a pursuit, Albanian warlords attacked the Serbians passing through their territory. The survivors reached the Adriatic coast after about three weeks. From there, they were evacuated by Allied transport ships, chiefly to the Greek island of Corfu. But the island had no adequate food or shelter for a sudden influx of 140,000 military and civilian refugees. The Germans made no attempt to continue the Serbian Campaign towards Salonika, where the Army of the Orient was in a potentially perilous position. Falkenhayn decided to leave the Balkan front dormant while he turned his attention to an offensive against the French at Verdun. Bulgaria was satisfied with its victory over the Serbs. Austria-Hungary, however, was not - Conrad disliked the fact that it had been achieved under German command. Relations between Austro-Hungarian and German leaders deteriorated and cooperation declined. Meanwhile, Corfu became the seat of a Serbian government-in-exile, complete with parliament. Much of the Serbian army joined the Allied forces in Salonika, waiitng for the chance to wage a war of national liberation.
Aftermath[]
There were outbreaks of revolt in Serbia against harsh rule by Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation forces, but the Balkan front remained largely inactive until 1918. In autumn 1916, Allied forces from Salonika, including Serbian troops, advanced across the border from Greece and forced the Bulgarians to withdraw from parts of southern Serbia. No further progress was made in 1917, as the Allies focused on persuading Greece to join the war, a goal achieved in June 1917. Serbia was liberated by an Allied offensive launched in September 1918. The Corfu Declaration of July 1917 foreshadowed the creation of the Serbian-led postwar state of Yugoslavia.