Great Retreat (Serbia)

Central Powers attack on Serbia, October 1915

On July 28, 1914, a month after the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary, the second-largest country in Europe, declared war on Serbia. Five months later after suffering a third major defeat on the battlefield,[8] the Habsburg monarchy was left humiliated by "the peasant regiments of a small Balkan kingdom". Franz Ferdinand had not been avenged, with the Dual Monarchy losing twice as many men as the Serbs had. The blow to Habsburg prestige was incalculable and Serbia marked the first Allied victory of World War One.[9][10]

In early 1915, the German chief of the general staff von Falkenhayn convinced the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff von Hoetzendorf to launch a new invasion of Serbia. In September Bulgaria signed a treaty of alliance with Germany and quickly mobilized its army.[11] On 6 October 1915, combined German and Austro-Hungarian forces under the command of Field Marshall August von Mackensen attacked Serbia from the north and west with the intention of drawing the bulk of the Serbian forces along the Sava and Danube.[12]

On 11 October, without a previous declaration of war, the Bulgarians started making attacks on Serbian border positions. On 14 October Bulgaria finally declared war on Serbia and the First and Second Armies, under the command of General Boyadzhiev, advanced into the Timok region of northeastern Serbia[13] with the mission of cutting the vital rail line that ran from Salonika up the Vardar and Morava River valleys, and depriving Serbia of reinforcements and artillery ammunition.[14] Numbering nearly 300,000 men, the forces of Bulgaria quickly overwhelmed the weak Serbian units along the frontier.[13] The Serbian Army had 250,000 men of which a large number were already battling 300,000 Germans and Austrians in the north. In addition, Austrian troops soon started marching from Dalmatia.[15]

Facing a front of 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) against three armies and as promises of aid and reinforcements from the Allies fell through, the Supreme Command of the Serbian Army started an organised retreat towards Kragujevac and Niš.[15] On 6 November the Bulgarian First Army made contact with General Gallwitz's Eleventh German Army in the vicinity of Niš; on 10 November they crossed the Morava River about 18 miles (29 km) south of Niš and struck the Serbs. For two days, the greatly outnumbered Serbian army held Prokuplje but eventually had to retreat.[12] The pressure of the Austro-Hungarians, the Germans, and the Bulgarian First Army in the north and the Bulgarian Second Army advancing from the east forced the Serbs to retreat in a southwesterly direction into Kosovo.[16]

In mid-November, the Serbian armies reached Pristina ahead of their pursuers, but were unable to break south through the blockade of the Bulgarian Second Army at Kačanik Pass near Skopje, in order to reach Salonika and establish the liaison with the French troops of General Sarrail.[12] The goal of Mackensen was to corner the Serbs in the Kosovo area and force them to fight a decisive final battle.[17]

Frontlines of the Serbian Army between October and November 1915.

The rupture of communications between Niš-Skopje-Salonika and the rupture of the liaison with the Allies brought the army into a most critical situation. Field Marshal Putnik began concentrating his troops for the purpose of securing access to the plateau of Gnjilane known as the "Field of Blackbirds".[3][16]

The Austrian Luftfahrtruppen, that until then provided air support to the Austro-Hungarian army and communications between the German Eleventh and Bulgarian First Armies,[18] started using reconnaissance aircraft to carry out bombing missions across the plain of Kosovo, striking the columns of refugees and blurring the lines between combatants and noncombatants in what has been called "the first-ever aerial bombardment of civilians".[19] Albanians hostile to Serbs mounted guerrilla actions picking off weak detachments, acting in revenge for the repression they endured following the transfer of the province from Ottoman to Serbian and Montenegrin territory two years earlier.[20][21]

The entire Bulgarian army, supported from the north by parts of the Eleventh German Army, now advanced against the Serbs. Following intense fighting on 23 November, Pristina and Mitrovica fell to the Central Powers and the Serbian government abandoned Prizren, its last temporary capital in Serbia.[22]

Only three possibilities were considered: capitulation and separate peace, a final honourable-but-desperate battle of annihilation, or further retreat. Nevertheless, only retreating and counterattacking were seriously considered, while capitulation was not an option on the table; the Serbian government led by Prime Minister Nikola Pašić, Prince Regent Alexander and the Supreme Command under Field Marshall Radomir Putnik made the decision to order a general withdrawal and fight on from exile.[15] The only possible avenue of escape lay to the southwest and northwest, over the towering Korab and Prokletije mountain ranges of Albania and Montenegro, part of the Dinaric Alps, a region with a mean altitude of over 6,000 feet (1,800 m) at a time when snow was beginning to fall. The Serbian Government planned to reorganise and reform the army with the help and support from the Allies.

On 23 November, Vojvoda Putnik ordered all Serbian forces to use the last of the artillery ammunition and then bury the cannons, taking the breechblocks and sights with them; if burying the guns was impossible, they were to be rendered useless.[14] Putnik also ordered that, to save them from being captured by the enemy, every boy near military age, from twelve to eighteen years old, 36 000 in total, was to follow the army and join the retreat with the goal of saving the country's manhood and raising soldiers for the future front.[23] On 25 November 1915, an official order of retreat addressed to the commanders of all armies, was published by the Serbian High Command:

The only way out of this grave situation is a retreat to the Adriatic coast. There our army will be reorganized, furnished with food, arms, munitions, clothing, and all other necessities which our allies will send us, and we shall again be a fact with which our allies must reckon. The nation has not lost its being, it will continue to exist even though on foreign soil, so long as the ruler, the government and the army are there, no matter what the strength of the army may be.

— Serbian High Command, 25 November 1915, [24]

The Northern column took the route across southern Montenegro, from Peć to Scutari, via Rožaje, Andrijevica and Podgorica.[17][31]

The group was composed of the First, Second and Third Army and the troops of the defense of Belgrade. It contained the largest contingent of Serbian troops and it also included a mobile medical unit named "The first Serbian-English Field Hospital", with two doctors, six nurses and six ambulance drivers. The unit was headed by British nurse and commissioned major, Mabel Stobart.[32] The retreat of this force to Andrijevica was to take place under the direction of the First Army, which, with this object, was to occupy positions at Rožaje. Members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in Serbia also evacuated in this route, at times alongside the army.[33]

The mission of the troops of the defense of Belgrade was to cover the retreat of the Army of the Timok as long as that army had not begun its movement of retreat, and then to retire in its turn.[7] Because of this, the northern column delayed its departure from Peć until 7 December. It also had the responsibility to act as a rearguard against an attack by the Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Germans.

Tracing an arc from northwest to southwest through Montenegrin territory and skirting the northern border of Albania through the snow-covered mountains, hunger, exposure, and disease killed soldiers and civilians, as well as prisoners of war traveling with them, by the thousands.[34]

Serbian officers and artillery crews in Montenegro handed over 30 cannons to the Montenegrin Army,[14] Montenegrin forces played a key role in covering up the withdrawal, most notably against Austro-Hungarian forces in the Battle of Mojkovac.[35] The northern column began to reach Scutari on 15 December.

Serbian artillery retreating

The central column took the route through central Kosovo across northern Albania, from Prizren to Scutari via Lum and Pukë.[36] The central column consisted of the King, the Crown Prince, the administration and the Supreme Command of the Army. Once across the Vizier's Bridge, the troops, who had retreated from Macedonia, would continue west through Albania, ultimately to Alessio. The Timok Division would also continue to move south and then west through Albania to Durrës. It had the shortest route to the sea but encountered some resistance from hostile Albanians.[37]

Regent Alexander crossed it in just two and a half days and the Serbian government set off on 24 November, reaching Scutari four days later. The officers of the Supreme Command who accompanied the Chief of the General Staff Radomir Putnik took longer, leaving on 26 November and arriving in Scutari on 6 December.[35]

The southern column followed the third route of withdrawal, from Prizren to Lum and further through the Albanian mountains to Debar and Struga.[37]

The southern column was the first to depart and the last to arrive at the coast. The southern route presented the most direct way to make contact with Sarrail's Army of the Orient. The General Headquarters had asked the commanders of these groups to keep in constant telegraphic communication, but from the first day of the operations this was found to be impossible. The geography of the country did not allow of any other means of communication, so that the commanders of these groups were left to their own devices during the whole movement.

All the troops part of this group were placed under the orders of the commander of the Army of the Timok.[7] The column left on 25 November and moved south all the way to Elbasan. Along the way it had to contend with Albanian resistance and Bulgarian attacks; on 10 December, the Bulgarians attacked Serbian positions along the crest of the Jablanica mountain range.[38] As the Bulgarians again reached Struga before them, Serbian soldiers and civilians turned southwesterly, marching down the Albanian coast to Valona and across via Tirana reaching Durrës on 21 December.