THE OVERRUNNING OF SERBIA.
December 1914 saw Serbia gloriously victorious; December 1915 saw her plunged in hopeless defeat, the remnants of her army on alien soil, her people in bondage, her aged king a fugitive. Since that August day when the Austrians "let slip the dogs of war" her peasant soldiers had fought like heroes. Thrice had Serbia been invaded, and thrice had she flung back the invader; but every success had drained her of lifeblood, and had brought the hour of her downfall nearer. She must have lost 150,000 men in action, and disease and pestilence had robbed her of another 50,000. The Serbian army was now only 200,000 strong, and there was no possible hope of increasing it. The Allies could not spare her reinforcements, nor did she ask for them. She felt that she could still hold her own, and perhaps she might have done so had not a neighbouring nation treacherously joined the enemy and flung a large and well-equipped army upon her flank.
Serbia's eastern neighbour is Bulgaria. I have already told you that Bulgaria owes her very existence to Russia. In 1878, when the Russians were nearing Constantinople, they agreed to a treaty by which the province of Bulgaria was to be formed into a new state. In the next year the Bulgarians elected a German prince as their sovereign; but his attempts to increase his territory brought about a quarrel with Russia, and in 1886 he was forced to give up the throne and leave the country. A new prince was elected—another German, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1908 Ferdinand declared Bulgaria an independent kingdom, and became its first king.
On page [313] I told you that just before the fall of Brest the Germans prepared to force a road from Austria to the Bosphorus. What was the object of this new move? The Germans were in much the same position as the British and French: they were cut off from their Allies by hostile country. As you know, we undertook the ill-starred expedition to Gallipoli in order to open up communication between the Western Allies and Russia. The Central Powers were now about to invade Serbia in order to open up communication between Austria and Bulgaria and Turkey. If they could get into touch with these Balkan Powers, they could provide Turkey with munitions and supplies; they could send reinforcements into Gallipoli, and generally direct the operations of the Bulgarians and the Turks. Further, they could secure a right of way into Asia Minor, which would enable them to attack Egypt and perhaps advance to the Persian Gulf and threaten India. It was also hoped that new supplies of food, cotton, metals, and men would be tapped.
Look carefully at the map on page [393]. Follow the main railway line, which runs from the Austrian town of Semlin on the Danube through Belgrade, Nish, and Sophia, the capital of Bulgaria, to Constantinople. If the Central Powers could capture this railway, they would secure a through route from Germany to the shores of the Bosphorus. The whole aim and object of the invasion which I am about to describe was to get possession of this railway.
What was the plan of campaign? Von Gallwitz, with the great artillery engine which had driven the Russians back from Galicia into the marshes of the Pripet, was to cross the Danube between Orsova on the Rumanian border and Belgrade, and blast his way through the triangle of country between the railway and the Bulgarian frontier. At the same time the Austrians were to strike south to the west of Belgrade, and while these two movements were in progress Bulgaria was to fall upon Serbia from the east. The little Serbian army was to be taken in front and in flank at nine different points by forces which outnumbered it by at least three to one. The invaders were furnished with huge guns and vast supplies of ammunition, against which the Serbians could not hope to stand. The moment that the blow was launched the fate of Serbia was sealed.
Map to illustrate the Campaign in Serbia.
In 1897 Bulgaria proposed to form a league uniting Greece and the Balkan States against Turkey, and in 1912 the league was formed. Shortly afterwards the First Balkan War began. Turkey was badly beaten, and much territory was taken from her; but when the time came for dividing up the booty the victors fell out and fought amongst themselves. Greece and Serbia took the field against Bulgaria, and overcame her. Ever since that time Bulgaria bitterly hated Serbia. Her king, Ferdinand, was a vain and cunning man, without a spark of personal courage, but with a keen eye for the main chance, and with no scruples to prevent him from seizing it. During the present war he watched and waited, and bided his time. When he saw the Russians retreating day after day, and the British and French making no progress in Gallipoli or in the West, he felt sure that Germany would win. He was a German himself, and he was now prepared to range himself with the Central Powers—at a price. On 17th July he signed a treaty by which, as a reward for joining the two Kaisers, he was to receive Serbian Macedonia, Salonika,[80] and some Greek territory. All August and September he was busy making his preparations, and by the beginning of October he was ready to obey his masters' orders, and fall upon Serbia.
Why did not the Allies hasten to the defence of threatened Serbia? "Thereby hangs a tale." On 11th September the Greek Premier, who believed that his country ought to stand by its treaty with Serbia and enter the fray, asked France and Britain for 150,000 troops. About a fortnight later the Allies agreed to furnish these troops, and the Greek army began to mobilize. Ferdinand had already called up his armies, but he told the world that he had only done so for the purpose of self-defence, and that he had no intention of making war on his neighbours. Serbia, however, knew better, and towards the end of September she informed the British that she was not going to wait until the Bulgarians were fully prepared, but was about to attack them at once. The British Government persuaded her not to do so, because it still had hopes that Bulgaria might be persuaded to stay her hand. You will soon learn that Serbia, by taking the advice of the British Government, suffered terribly.
By agreement with the Greek Premier, the Allies began to land troops at the Greek port of Salonika in the first week of October. The Greeks objected, but did not hinder us; indeed, they helped our army to occupy the place. Then came a remarkable change of front on the part of the Greek king. He had married the Kaiser's sister, and he went in fear of his brother-in-law. Probably he believed that Germany was going to win; he knew that Bulgaria was strong and Serbia weak, and that the 150,000 troops of the Allies could not turn the balance in his favour. So he informed his Prime Minister that he had never consented to fight on behalf of Serbia; whereupon the Prime Minister resigned, and a new Government was formed. It declared that Greece meant to remain neutral, though it was very friendly to the Allies.
While our transports were crowding the harbour at Salonika and the Allies were busy putting the place into a state of defence, Ferdinand threw off the mask. A week later, on 12th October, when his advance guards were over the border, he declared war on Serbia. Four days later Britain declared war upon Bulgaria. Von Mackensen had already crossed the Danube, and was pressing against the Serbian front with 200,000 men; a quarter of a million Bulgarians were moving eastwards against the exposed right flank of Serbia; and in Salonika there were 13,000 French and British troops preparing to march inland against the Bulgarian left. Such was the position of affairs on 15th October.
Now let us return to the Danube and briefly follow the stages of Serbia's agony. By means of the great river, which is linked with the canals of the Elbe and the Rhine, barges full of big guns and supplies had been conveyed to the scene of action. On 19th September, before the big guns arrived, Austrian batteries opened fire on Belgrade; but the Serbians and the British sailors who were fighting with them prevented a crossing. On 3rd October the enemy's big guns were placed in position, and the Serbian trenches were pounded to dust. It was the Donajetz bombardment all over again. Belgrade could no longer be held, and by the 8th of October the Austrians and Germans had crossed the Danube and the Save at six places between Shabatz and Belgrade. There was a desperate struggle in the streets of the capital, but on the morning of the 9th the place was in the enemy's hands. The lesson of Warsaw had been learned, and all that was valuable in the city had been carried off.
By 11th October the Austro-Germans held a hundred miles of front on the south banks of the Save and the Danube. The Serbians had fought desperately, but they could not stand before the mass of artillery brought against them. The Serbian left had been forced back towards the hills on which it had made its first stand against the third Austrian invasion, the centre had fallen back to a ridge seven miles south of the capital, and the right was being harried across the river plain and up the valleys of the Morava and the Mlava. On the Serbian right Mackensen moved his big guns slowly. He was waiting for the Bulgarians to take the Serbians in flank and in rear. On the 12th the Bulgarians attacked the Serbians at five different points, and it was clear that, if the Serbians were to avoid being completely surrounded, they must retreat, as the Russians had done. But, unlike the Russians, they had no vast land into which they could retire. Their only line of withdrawal lay to the west and south-west, into the bare, rugged highlands of Montenegro and the wilderness of Albania.
The French and British in the south were by this time struggling northwards in the attempt to reach Uskub, the great meeting-place of all routes in Southern Serbia. They were, however, too late: the Bulgarians entered Uskub on 22nd October, and the Allies were thus cut off from all communication with the interior.
The Serbians were now in a desperate plight. Along every road and track left open to the south-west thousands of old men, women, and children trudged wearily onward, bearing with them the few household goods which they could carry off. Food was scarce, carts could not be obtained for love or money, and on the desolate hills thousands of wretched peasants perished of cold and hunger. By 26th October the whole north-east corner of Serbia was in the hands of the enemy. The Serbian army which lay between the Drina and Nish was cut off from that which lay in the shape of a half-moon in front of the southern Bulgarian army. There was no more fighting for the northern army; it was slowly but surely being enclosed, and was now in full retreat along the valley of the river Ibar on the road to Montenegro. Meanwhile the southern army made a last despairing effort to stem the Bulgarian advance in the passes between Prisrend and Monastir, and, having failed, retreated into Albania.
Look at the railway line running from Uskub to Mitrovitza and find the pass of Katchanik. If the northern army was to get away safely into Montenegro, the Bulgarians must be prevented from pushing to their rear and swinging to the north to cut off the retreat. It was therefore necessary to hold the enemy at Katchanik Pass. Five thousand men, all that was left of the garrison at Uskub, along with three regiments from the north, now prepared to make a stand. Their guns were on the heights, and they had sufficient ammunition for a battle of several days. The Bulgarians advanced on a fifteen-mile front, but the Serbian guns drove them back. On the third day the Serbians attacked with bombs and the bayonet. All night the desperate struggle continued, and after twelve hours' fighting the Bulgarian line was pierced. But the enemy in overwhelming strength formed up behind the gap and began to enclose the little Serbian force. It fell back fighting and joined the retreating northern army. But it had done its work—the danger of disaster was over.
Another stand was made at the Babuna Pass, which you will see on the map, about fifty miles south of Katchanik Pass. You will notice from the map that if the Bulgarians could get to Prilep no supplies could reach the Serbians from the south. If, too, the Allies could retake the town of Veles,[81] Uskub would be threatened, and the Bulgarians would not be able to follow up the northern army. In the first days of November some 5,000 Serbians actually held the crest of the Babuna Pass for more than a week. The Allies, however, could make no headway from the south, and the gallant rearguard, finding six divisions of the enemy before it, was forced to fall back into Albania.
What of the Allies in Salonika? On 12th October General Sarrail arrived to take command of the French 2nd Division, which had been brought from Cape Helles. Before our 10th Division from Suvla was ready to move, the French moved up country in the hope of joining hands with the Serbians in the neighbourhood of Uskub. You will see on the map a railway running up the Vardar to Veles. Along this railway Sarrail moved his troops. It was a single, grass-grown track, quite inadequate for the advance of an army. Ninety miles north of Salonika, at a point marked X on the map, it begins to run through a narrow gorge with steep rocky walls, called the Iron Gate. If the Bulgarians once gained this ravine, the Allies would be held up and unable to advance. Early in the month of October Bulgarian raiders cut the railway at X, but on the 19th the French advance guards reached the place and drove them out. Four days later the rest of the division arrived, and detachments which were ferried across the Vardar seized positions on the left bank of the river, which was then swollen by the autumn rains. Meanwhile the British 10th Division extended the French right to Lake Doiran. It was now proposed to capture a steep wall of mountain which commanded the valley. In order to reach it the French left had to cross the swollen river once more. It had no pontoons, but by means of an old ferry-boat a detachment got across. The French scaled the summit, drove off the Bulgarians who held it, and dug themselves in. On 4th and 5th November the Bulgarians made a strong attack on the summit, but were repulsed after fierce fighting at close quarters.
Now that the French commanded the valley southward, they began to push on towards the Babuna Pass in order to join hands with the Serbians who were holding the crest. By the time they were within ten miles of the Serbian position the Bulgarians were flinging 125,000 men against the heroic rearguard. The French dared not proceed further. Supplies could only reach them along a hundred miles of single-line railway, which might be cut any day; their only means of crossing the Vardar was by a crazy wooden bridge, and there were twenty miles of bad road in their rear. The Serbians had already retreated from the Babuna Pass, and an advance could be of no service to them. Further, the Bulgarians were trying to cut them off from the bridge. They were, therefore, obliged to retreat; no other course was open to them. The Allied endeavour had come to nothing. The French and British fell back on Salonika, and there remained throughout the winter.
