CHAPTER XXXII
BULGARIA ENTERS THE WAR
The Bulgarian Government suddenly threw aside all dissimulation and declared war on Serbia, on the pretext that the Serbians had crossed the frontier and attacked Bulgarian troops. On October ll, 1915, the Bulgarian army began operations by attacking the Serbians at Kadibogas, northwest of Nish, the attack gradually extending up and down the frontier. This was the fatal blow. To oppose the 300,000 men that the Bulgarians could easily put into this field, the Serbians had not over a third as many.
Bulgaria had two large armies against the Serbian frontier. The First Army, under General Boyadjieff, was fully 200,000 strong and was concentrated in the north from Vidin to Zaribrod, threatening the Timok Valley and that part of the Belgrade-Sofia railroad running from Pirot to Nish.
The Second Army, under the command of General Todoroff, was only half as large, and directed itself toward Macedonia and especially toward Uskub, both on account of the strategic importance of that place as a railroad center and as the best point from which a wedge might be driven into the side of Serbia, separating the north from the south. The headquarters of this second force was in Kustendil, its left wing extending down to Strumitza in Macedonia.
On this eastern front, to oppose the Bulgarians, the Serbian forces were in three groups. In the north, its left flank touching the forces operating against the Austro-Germans, lay the Timok group, commanded by General Zivkovitch, whose headquarters were in Zaichar. South of this force came the second group—territorial troops—numbering three divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, altogether about 80,000 men, and commanded by Marshal Stepanovitch. It was based on Pirot and was especially charged with the defense of the railroad. Lower down, with headquarters in Vranya, was the detachment of the Southern Morava. Farther down in Macedonia, concentrated around Uskub, Veles, and stretched down along the Vardar toward the Greek frontier at Doiran, were another 25,000 men under the command of General Bojovitch.
Under fire from the Serbian forces, General Mackensen's engineers constructed this great bridge across the Danube, and his army crossed for the invasion of Serbia.
As a slight offset to the disheartening news that the Bulgarians had at last definitely joined hands with the Teutonic forces, came the tidings that France and England had declared war on Bulgaria and that their forces, which had been landing in Saloniki, were already advancing up the Vardar with the intention of making a junction with the southern Serbian forces. Already, on that same day, October 15, 1915, the allied vanguard had advanced as far as Valandova and was there attacked by the Bulgarians, the latter being beaten back and heavily defeated. These were the French troops, under command of General Sarrail; having thrown back the Bulgarians he worked his way northward along the railroad until he reached Krivolak and Gradsko, a few miles below Veles. But transporting troops from France and England was a slow business, and General Sarrail had not then, nor had he later, enough forces to advance north any farther. Meanwhile the Bulgarians in the north, under Boyadjieff, began operations against the Serbians.
The country in this section is extremely rough, being all rocky ridges and deep ravines, with roads little better than mountain trails. Boyadjieff succeeded at once in crossing the Lower Timok, then divided his force into two main divisions. One of these he advanced against Pirot, the other against Zaichar and Kniashevatz. But now the Serbians began a strong resistance.
On October 15, 1915, the Bulgarians began three strong assaults, east and southeast of Zaichar, all of which the Serbians repulsed successfully. East of Kniashevatz another series of bitterly contested encounters took place, neither side making any decided gains. On the following day the fighting extended to Svinski Vis. By this time the Serbians east of Kniashevatz began giving way slowly and the Bulgarians pushed forward and on October 19, 1915, they arrived before Negotin. Toward Pirot they also succeeded in making some advance.
For several days the two fighting lines of men swayed back and forth. Here artillery played not so important a part. Both Bulgars and Serbs, primitive, rugged fighters, threw military science to the winds and plunged into the battle face to face and breast to breast, thrusting each other with cold steel. In some of the struggles the men lost their guns; they picked up the bowlders that lay about them thickly and hurled them at their enemies or they gripped each other with their hands and fought as animals fight. Quarter was neither asked nor given.
Witnesses state that in neither of the two Balkan wars was there such ferocious fighting, such awful slaughter, as during the encounters between the Serbians and Bulgarians along this section of the frontier. Both sides lost heavily; whole companies and even battalions were hemmed in against the rock walls, then exterminated to the last man.
But finally numbers began to show the advantage, and the Serbians were obliged to retire from ridge to ridge. Village after village was taken and burned.
In Macedonia, Todoroff, though his force was much smaller, was having comparatively easy work. A large part of the vital railroad line passed through this section and it was Todoroff's first aim to throw himself astride of it, thus effectually breaking off communication between the vanguard of the French army and the Serbians. It was this portion of the country that the Greeks would have defended, had they joined the Allies.
The first thing that Todoroff did was to detach a strong force from his main body, with which he struck at the railroad between Vranya and Zibeftcha and succeeded in cutting it. The detachment of the Southern Morava was driven back at the first encounter and on October 17, 1915, the Bulgarians entered Vranya. On the same day the main body of the Bulgarians advanced down the slopes from Kustendil and took Egri Palanka, on the road toward Kumanova and Uskub. Farther south they penetrated the Valley of the Bregalnitza, the scene of the Bulgarian defeat in the Second Balkan War, where they captured the important strategic point, Sultan Tepe, and the town of Katshana, taking twelve field pieces. Passing rapidly on through Ishtip, they occupied that part of Veles lying east of the Vardar River, where, on October 20, 1915, they again cut the railroad line and so made any further advance on the part of the French almost impossible. The next day the Bulgarians captured Kumanova and then, on the day following, drove the Serbians on through Uskub. The Serbians retired fighting to Katshanik Pass, north of Uskub, where they made a stand that became one of the notable achievements, on their part, of the whole campaign. For by the defense of this pass they made the Bulgarian effort to cut Serbia in two for some time fruitless.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE TEUTONIC INVASION ROLLS ON
Meanwhile, Bulgaria having plunged into the fighting, the Teutonic allies in the north resumed their efforts to advance southward. But for some time they had all they could do to maintain themselves on the banks of the rivers. Before them rose the rock-ribbed hills skirting the mountains of the interior, and along these hills the Serbians had, during the previous ten months, built up line after line of strong intrenchments, one behind the other. To carry one line was only to gain a few hundred yards of territory.
Just as soon as Kövess felt his hold on Belgrade secure, he began an attack on the heights to the south. After three days of intense bombardment he succeeded in taking Mount Avala, an eminence some 1,600 feet in height and ten miles from the city. On the same day, October 18, 1915, Obrenovatz fell into his hands, and Shabatz three days later. However, these two places were still only on the banks of the river.
The chief efforts of the invaders, however, were directed toward making an advance down the Morava Valley. Their first assault was made against the Serbian positions in the mountainous country of the Podunavlie. Gallwitz here had an exceedingly difficult task, for the ground rose in rocky, steplike formation, offering all the advantages to the defenders. But the bombardment from the heavy artillery had its effect and slowly the Germans advanced. By October 23, 1915, they had reached the southern bank of the Jesenitza, not far from Palanka and had passed Rakinatz on the road to Petrovatz on the Mlava.
During this same period the German left wing, having smashed Tekia with gunfire, crossed the Danube near Orsova and succeeded in taking the heights overlooking the river. On the extreme western front the Austrians crossed the Drina at Vishegrad. Thus all the rivers forming the frontiers had passed completely into the hands of the invaders. But it had been a costly gain. By this time the Austro-German forces had lost very heavily. The Serbians also had had heavy losses, but not half so many as the enemy.
It was the policy of General Putnik, the Serbian Chief of Staff, to prolong the fighting as much as possible, for during this time the transports of the Allies were disembarking troops in Saloniki, at the rate of 5,000 men a day, and there was hope that eventually they would be able to advance northward, and at least save the Serbians from the Bulgarians. This same hope had stiffened the resistance of the soldiers in every skirmish. Then came word that the Russians would relieve the pressure by attacking the Bulgarians, either through Rumania, or by landing troops in either Bourgas or Varna. And once indeed the Russian ships did bombard Varna, but without any attempt at disembarking troops.
As the days passed and no help from outside came, the belief began gradually to dawn on the Serbian people that they were doomed as a nation. This feeling first manifested itself in the flight of the civil population. At first the noncombatants had merely retired with the fighting line. The first three invasions had shown that the Austrians did not always refrain from committing atrocities, especially when their armies had suffered unusually. Nor was there any reason to suppose that the Germans were any kindlier to civilians. Thus it was that hardly any of the civil population remained behind in conquered territory.
Then, gradually, came the conviction that Serbian soldiers alone must face the enemy, and even the most patriotic realized what a hopeless fight it was. The whole population began moving southward; along every available road trailed long lines of slowly moving ox carts, loaded with the few movable belongings of their peasant owners. South continued the exodus and then—the Bulgarians blocked the way. The roads to Greece were closed. There remained nothing for them to do but to turn toward the awful mountain wilderness intervening between them and the Adriatic sea coast, infested by fierce bands of Albanian brigands and tribesmen.
The weather was bad; rain fell heavily and incessantly, the roads were deep in mud and the plight of these people, most of them old men and women and children, became intensely miserable.
The Austro-German lines in the north continued their slow but persistent southward advance; the invasion rolled on, the Serbians retiring before them step by step. During the last week of the month Gallwitz came to the heights east of Banitzina, south of Jesenitza, and began storming them. Then followed another spurt of severe fighting and Livaditza and Zabari, on the Morava River, fell into their hands, after which they occupied the region south of Petrovatz. By the 28th they had gained Svilajnatz, beating down the Serbian resistance by sheer weight of men and guns, and by the last day of the month they were within a day's march of Kragujevatz, in which was located Serbia's chief arsenal. Situated on the Lepenitza, a branch of the Morava, it lay about half way between Belgrade and Nish, on a branch line of the main railroad. It was a point well worth defending, and the Serbians did defend it stubbornly, but on November 1, 1915, they were compelled to evacuate it, after first destroying the arsenal and all the materials it contained.
It was here that the Shumadia Division especially distinguished itself. The regiments of that unit had been recruited in this section; it was literally defending its native soil. During the first part of the fighting it had been intrenched in the hills to the north of the town. The day was wet and dense mists rolled through the mountain passes down over the hills. The Germans had effectually shelled the positions of the Shumadians and were under the impression that they had retired, wherefore they advanced upward to occupy the deserted trenches.
And then, suddenly, wild yells and shouts burst out from the rolling mist and the Shumadians fell upon the invaders with set bayonets. The latter, who had been growing accustomed to the purely defensive tactics of their enemy, were completely taken by surprise and thrown into disorder.
The first line of the Teutons wavered, then broke and scattered. Coming up against reenforcements behind, they re-formed and advanced again. And again the Shumadians burst down on them and engaged them hand to hand. Fighting like savages, they drove the invaders before them for a considerable distance, taking over 3,000 prisoners and several guns. When finally they retired just as the main body of the advancing foe was coming up, they left behind them hundreds of enemy dead, the fallen literally covering the ground in heaps.
The mixed forces of Kövess, keeping in touch with Gallwitz's right wing, had been advancing more or less in line with the Germans, marching along the railroad from Belgrade and Obrenovatz toward the Western Morava. South of Belgrade the Serbians had put up a stout resistance at Kosmai, but were finally dislodged by the heavy artillery fire. On October 25, 1915, Kövess arrived at Ratcha, south of Palanka, on the right side of the Morava. After a hard fought battle at Gorni Milanovatz, he reached Cacak on November 1, 1915, a few miles west of Kragujevatz. Here it was that he struck the Western Morava and the railroad passing along it eastward from Ushitze to its junction with the main line. Farther to the westward his cavalry, on October 26, 1915, had occupied Valievo on the Upper Kolubara and one of his divisions had crossed the Maljen Mountains, where the Austrians had been so humiliatingly defeated the year before. Farther west, but more to the south, the Austrians, who had pushed on from Vishegrad, arrived in Ushitze on November 2, 1915, and presently effected a junction with the main body.
Meanwhile, a day or two before the end of the month, an incident up in the northeast foreshadowed the attainment of the main objective of the Austro-German forces. The Serbians had, naturally, withdrawn from this section and now a German cavalry patrol, scouting in advance of its own lines, met with a body of Bulgarian scouts. The Bulgarian and the Teutonic forces had come in contact with each other. But the chief significance of this fact was that now the road was open for communication between Germany and Turkey. Even if the railroad running from Belgrade to Constantinople, by way of Sofia, should be temporarily cut, or should not be captured throughout its entire length for some time, shipments of war material could already be made to Turkey by way of the Danube down to Rustchuk in northern Bulgaria and thence by railroad. Thus the Turks at Gallipoli, who had been running short of ammunition, could now be relieved.
This opening of communication with Turkey was made much of in the German official reports and some of the newspapers began referring to Mackensen's army as "the army of Egypt."
On the first day of November, 1915, Mackensen could really say that he had conquered all of northern Serbia. But the fact remained that the Serbian army was still in the field; not even a part of it had as yet been captured or annihilated. And it is a military axiom that no matter how far an army may retreat and no matter how much territory may have been conquered, no battle is decisive until the enemy has been destroyed, either entirely or in large part. The Germans were to be reminded of this fact more than once on the Russian front.
Up till this time Boyadjieff, at the head of his Bulgarian army, was attacking the Serbians from two directions: along the Timok against Kniashevatz, Zaichar, and Negotin, and along the Nishava against Pirot. Both movements were directed ultimately toward Nish, but the more northerly had also the purpose of effecting a junction with the left wing of the Germans under Gallwitz, which was advancing from Tekia, in the northeast corner of Serbia. Negotin and Prahovo, the latter a port on the Danube, had been taken on October 25, 1915. Lower down, the Bulgarians, who were in overwhelming strength, occupied both Zaichar and Kniashevatz on the 28th. Meanwhile, the Serbians were also compelled to abandon the commanding heights of Drenova Glava, fifteen miles northwest of Pirot, and on the 28th Pirot fell, though not without heavy fighting. With Pirot on the south and Kniashevatz on the north in the hands of the Bulgarians, the situation of Nish became very precarious. The Serbian Government was now shifted to Kralievo.
Down in Macedonia the Second Bulgarian Army, under Todoroff, seemed to have come to an end of its initial success. After its occupation of Uskub it had advanced to Katshanik Pass, which was occupied by the Serbians under General Bojovitch. Todoroff at once began a violent attack and by October 28, 1915, part of the defile seemed to have been cleared of the Serbians. But presently the Serbians were reenforced by two regiments of the Morava Division and two of the Drina Division, whereupon Bojovitch suddenly turned and once more possessed himself of the pass.
Again and again the Bulgarians attacked, determined to take the pass, but as often as they hurled themselves up the defile, just so often the Serbians drove them back with fire and bayonet.
During this same period another Serbian force under Colonel Vassitch was fighting farther south. On October 22, 1915, he succeeded in recapturing Veles, which, it will be remembered, Todoroff had taken in his rapid advance during the first few days of his fighting. Here it was that the Serbians expected to make a juncture with the French forces under Sarrail, and for several days they could even hear the thunder of the French guns repelling a Bulgarian attack, so close together were they.
For a whole week Vassitch held Veles against the overwhelming attacks of the Bulgarians; then, finally, on the 29th, he was compelled to retire to the Babuna Pass, the narrow defile also known as the Iron Gate, through which passed the highway from Veles to Monastir, by way of Prilep. By the first of November, 1915, the Serbians were still holding this pass, which was all that prevented the Bulgarians from driving in the wedge that was to separate Upper Serbia from Macedonia.
While it was true that no important part of the Serbian army had as yet been eliminated from the field; that it was, as a whole, still intact, yet it was now evident that the little nation had come very near to the end of her resistance. By this time it was quite obvious that no real help could be expected from the Allies. Great Britain had offered the island of Cyprus to the Greeks, if they would stand by their agreement by joining the Serbians, against the Bulgarians, at least. But even that tempting offer would not induce them to risk themselves in a fight whose outcome seemed so doubtful. On October 20, 1915, Italy had given her moral support by declaring war against Bulgaria, but for the time being she offered nothing more material. On October 21, 1915, British and French ships bombarded the Bulgarian port of Dedeagatch, on the Gulf of Enos, and also a junction of the railroad connecting Saloniki with Constantinople, but this had no material result in deterring the Bulgarians from pressing their campaign against the Serbians in Macedonia. On October 28, 1915, Russian ships bombarded Varna, on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. This was done, not so much for any material damage that could be done to Bulgaria, but for the moral effect it might have on the population, which was supposed to have very deep feelings of regard for Russia, because she had freed them from the Turks in 1878. But the Bulgarian troops previously stationed at this point had been replaced by Turkish forces, so that it is probable that the Bulgarian population was not much affected.
On land, the French troops under Sarrail had advanced farthest north; on October 23, 1915, they defeated the Bulgarians severely at Rabrova and pushed on to Krivolak, where they again engaged the Bulgarians on the 30th and repulsed their attack. By November 2, 1915, the French were at Gradsko, where the Tcherna joins the Vardar River, hoping to get in touch with the Serbians who were defending the Babuna Pass and whose guns they could hear pounding over the ten miles of intervening mountain ridges. The British bore little of this fighting, having made their advance over toward Lake Doiran.
But though the French had arrived within hearing of the Serbian guns, they lacked the numbers that would give them the strength to push farther. The French, indeed, had done well in their efforts to support the Serbians in their distress. It was Great Britain that had not lived up to her promise of affording "our Allies all the material assistance in our power." So obviously had the British military authorities failed that much public sentiment in Great Britain was worked up against them, which became all the more acute when a telegram from M. Pachitch, the Serbian premier, was published, in which he said: "Serbia is making superhuman efforts to defend her existence, in response to the advice and desire of her great ally. For this she is condemned to death.... In spite of the heroism of our soldiers, our resistance cannot be maintained indefinitely. We beg you to do all you can to insure your troops reaching us that they may help our army...."
On the same day this was published in the London papers, there was also printed a speech made by Lord Lansdowne in the House of Lords, in which he stated that the British had landed in Saloniki a force of only 13,000 men.
In France the sentiment in favor of assisting the Serbians was so strong that the Cabinet, which did not approve of a Balkan campaign, was forced to resign. The French president thereupon found a new prime minister in M. Briand, the ex-Socialist, who once before had been premier, and, associating with himself M. Viviani and other ex-ministers, he formed a Cabinet which was prepared to push the campaign in aid of Serbia to the fullest extent. On the following day, October 29, 1915, General Joffre went to London to consult with the British Government and to persuade them to take more energetic measures with regard to transporting troops to Saloniki. Apparently his mission was successful, for after that large forces were sent to the Near East, but so far as any effectual help to Serbia was concerned, it was now too late.
At about this time Greece was showing a decided change of attitude. Evidently this change was not a little due to the success of the Austro-Germans and the Bulgarians in the north, and the nearer they came to her own frontier, the less cordial became Greece to the Allies. Every obstacle, short of armed interference, was put in the way of transportation of troops and supplies to the front up in Macedonia. This attitude was to continue until the Serbians were finally swept out of their native land and the question came up of retiring the allied troops back to Saloniki, across Greek territory, when the British and French took very severe measures against the Greek authorities.
Meanwhile, the invasion of Serbia was rolling onward. Having taken Kragujevatz, where they began restoring the arsenal to working order with feverish haste, the Austro-Germans crossed the Cacak-Kragujevatz road and continued onward. Kövess advanced over the Posetza and the Germans entered Jagodina on November 3, 1915.
By this time the Serbian headquarters at Kralievo was seriously threatened; in fact, the Serbian Government was able to withdraw just in time to prevent capture and establish itself in Rashka. On came the enemy, along both banks of the Western Morava. In the streets of Kralievo there was fierce fighting, at times hand-to-hand, between the defenders and the Brandenburg troops of the invaders, but finally, on November 5, 1915, the town was taken.
Here the invaders made their first large capture of war material, which included 130 guns, though most of them were said to be of an obsolete pattern, the others being without breech-blocks. Within forty-eight hours the Germans had reached Krushevatz, where 3,000 Serbian soldiers were captured, not counting 1,500 wounded lying in the hospital.
The whole Western Morava was now in the hands of the invaders. To the eastward Gallwitz pressed on until he came to the hills south of Lugotzni, where he was held up for a short space by the Serbian rear guards. Finally, the heights were taken by storm. On November 4, 1915, Parachin on the railroad was taken; from this point a branch line runs back to Zaichar, already in possession of the Bulgarians, so that now the two armies, German and Bulgarian, were almost in touch with each other. And next day, in fact, their lines joined up at Krivivir, which was taken that night by an assault under cover of darkness. Their lines were now only thirty miles from Nish.
During this time other large bodies of Bulgarians under Boyadjieff were also advancing on Nish; one from Pirot, in a southerly direction, and another along the road from Kniashevatz, marching north. They were now closing in on that city in overwhelming strength.[Back to Contents]
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE FALL OF NISH—DEFENSE OF BABUNA PASS
At a small village called Svrlig, six miles outside the city, the Serbians began a fight which presently assumed the character of some of the bloody battles they had fought earlier in the campaign. Again and again the Bulgarian attacks were hurled back; thus the battle lasted for three days, from November 2 to 5, 1915. The Serbians retired only when the Bulgarians began bringing up their big guns, and the shells were already dropping into Nish. On November 5, 1915, the Bulgarians entered the city and took possession, where even yet the British and French flags were flying, raised by the Serbians when they still thought that only a few days intervened until they would be welcoming the allied troops. A hundred guns were taken with Nish, though the Serbians claimed that they were old and obsolete.
The fall of Nish, from a political point of view, at least, was the worst blow that the Serbians had suffered since the capture of Belgrade. The German and Austrian papers made the most of it, and indeed all Europe now realized that the last days of the Serbian resistance were at hand.
In Macedonia the Bulgarians under Todoroff were not having an easy success. They were being held up still at Katshanik Pass, where the Serbians under Colonel Bojovitch were daily beating back the Bulgarian assaults and thus keeping open the retreat of the main Serbian army. Down in the Babuna Pass the Serbians were making a similar stubborn defense, hoping against hope that the French would come to their relief. And possibly, had it not been for the defeats that the Bulgarians were receiving from the French at Strumitza, they would have been able to take the pass long before. For in that direction Todoroff had been suffering great loss; so severely was he pressed that he was, for the time being, unable to press his advance into the heart of Macedonia. To this extent, at least, the Allies, and especially the French, did help the Serbians.
The Bulgarians were in exactly the same position, and trying to accomplish exactly the same thing, as in the Second Balkan War. At that time they were endeavoring to drive a wedge in between the Serbians and the Greeks. Now the situation was the same, except that the French were in the place of the Greeks.
From Katshanik to Krivolak the railroad was in Bulgarian hands. From Krivolak south to Doiran it was in the hands of the Allies, though parts of it were at times under the fire of the Bulgarian artillery. South of Katshanik the Bulgarians had crossed the road and had pushed westward until they were held up at the Babuna Pass. Should the pass be forced the Serbian line was in immediate danger of being flanked and the French, too, would be in a similar danger, for by striking south the Bulgarians could make a move around toward the French rear. Hence the almost superhuman efforts both Serbians and French were making to close this gap.
The stand that the Serbians made in Babuna Pass was one of those feats which will remain inscribed on the pages of history through the ages and will excite the admiration of all people, regardless of how their sympathies may lie toward the main issues of the war. During the first week of November Colonel Vassitch had only 5,000 men with which to dispute the right of way against 20,000 Bulgarians. And not only had the Bulgarians a great advantage in the matter of numbers, but they were well supplied with big guns. Day after day and night after night, the little force of Serbians crouched among the deep shadows of the defile, sometimes without food, always under a heavy fire, now and again making the rock cliffs about them echo with bursts of their plaintive, national folk songs. After November 4, 1915, the Bulgarian attacks became more persistent, and their infantry would hurl itself up into the pass; then the Serbians would spring up from behind rocks and ledges and throw themselves at their hated kinsmen with naked bayonets, shouting such words in their common language as send the flush of rage burning through the cheeks of men and make things red before their eyes. Again and again were these sanguinary hand-to-hand struggles enacted under the towering rock walls of those forbidding mountains, and again and again the Bulgarians were thrown back. Meanwhile, the French, only ten miles away, were within sound of the firing.
As a matter of fact, General Sarrail had already done wonders, considering the shortness of the time he had had and the small forces and few facilities at his disposal. It seemed, to those at a distance, such a small gap to fill. And indeed, so nearly did Sarrail effect the junction that nothing but the absence of reenforcements at a critical moment caused him to fail.
As soon as he had landed at Saloniki he had sent every soldier under his command along the railroad up the valley of Vardar, toward Veles. Unfortunately, transportation facilities were poor; the road was only single track; curving and twisting in and out among the rising foothills and mountain spurs.
His first fighting had been at Strumitza station, where he defeated the Bulgarians and so assured himself of possession of Demir Kapu defile, a cleft in the mountains ten miles in length and from which, had they held it, the Bulgarians could easily, with a comparatively small force, have prevented any further advance. Having secured this pass, Sarrail pushed through it to Krivolak, which was reached on October 19, 1915. But here he was compelled to make a halt, to fortify this advanced position and to await further reenforcements.
When news of the proximity of the French advance reached Vassitch, he redoubled his efforts, and on October 22, 1915, he thrust his little army forward and succeeded in recapturing Veles. This town lay along the railroad, about thirty-five miles northwest of Krivolak.
Three miles north of Krivolak, on the road to Ishtip, rises a steep and forbidding height, called Kara Hodjali (the Black Priest), which the French were fortunate enough to take before the Bulgarians came up in force. It was this height which enabled them, when the Bulgarians did swarm down on them, some days later, to hold their position. From October 30, 1915, until November 5, 1915, the fighting here was furious, but finally the Bulgarians were driven back. Meanwhile, however, the advance had been delayed and Vassitch, after holding Veles a week, was forced to retire to Babuna Pass again.
From Krivolak to the pass was twenty-five miles, due east. For fifteen miles the road lay across a rolling plain, to the River Tserna, as the Macedonians and Serbians called it, or Tcherna, meaning "Black," in Bulgarian. Beyond that rose steep and difficult mountain ridges, which the Bulgarians had occupied and fortified. Yet Sarrail determined to make an effort to force his way across.
By this time reenforcements had arrived from Saloniki, so he began moving across the plain through Negotin and Kavadar to the Tcherna. This stream, though narrow, was deep and unfordable. It could be crossed only in one place, by a small plank bridge, at Vozartzi.
On November 5, 1915, the French troops began crossing this bridge and scaling the heights before them, some of whose peaks towered fully a thousand feet above the river. And here it was that they first heard the booming of the Serbian guns, on the other side of the ridge.
Sarrail now advanced his men northward, along the west bank of the Tcherna, and next day he delivered an assault on the Mount of the Archangel, ten miles below Vozartzi. Here was the center of the Bulgarian positions, and here their lines must be pierced, if Babuna Pass was to be reached.
But not only was this position well fortified, but the Bulgarians were in superior force to the French. Moreover, as soon as Todoroff heard of what was going on, he hurried reenforcements to the Bulgarians on Mount Archangel. And this Sarrail knew; yet, without hesitation, he began the assault.
At the first attack the Bulgarian advance lines were driven out of the villages at the base of the mountain. The French continued their advance, and on November 10, 1915, they began a circling movement which resulted in the Bulgarians being squeezed out of Sirkovo, a village some distance up the mountain.
But by this time the Bulgarian reenforcements were beginning to arrive, and by the end of the second week of the month they began to take the offensive. They now had 60,000 men; against this force it was obviously impossible for the French to make any further headway.
The Bulgarian commander now showed that it was his intention to circle about the French, cut off their retreat by destroying the wooden bridge over the Tcherna in their rear, then pin them up against the mountain and pound them until they surrendered, all of which might have been accomplished by a more skillful general.
For three days a violent battle raged, in which the fate of the French army more than once hung in the balance, but superior military skill counted in the end. Possibly, too, the hearts of the Bulgarian soldiers were not in this fight, for the Bulgarian people have an almost reverential respect for the French. At any rate, they did not show here the same qualities that so distinguished them in the war against the Turks. At the end of the third day their lines began wavering, then broke. So completely were they routed that the French were compelled to bury nearly 4,000 of the dead they left behind. So close had the fighting been that at times the Bulgarian infantry charged the French positions to within a dozen yards, but in the last moment lacked the dash to carry them through the machine-gun fire and into the French ranks. At such moments the French would countercharge, whereupon the Bulgarians would turn and flee. Had the French been only a few thousand men stronger, they could have followed up their advantage, completely routed the Bulgarians, pushed their way across the mountains to Babuna Pass and so relieved the Serbians, as well as closing the gap through which the Bulgarians were yet to penetrate into Macedonia.
The French completed their victory on November 14, 1915; until the next day the Serbians held out, hearing the French guns, now loud and clear, then receding, hoping every hour to see them come streaming over the mountains to their aid. But the French could not do the impossible. The Bulgarians had been thrown back, but not crushed. Sarrail dared not leave that slender crossing over the Tcherna too far behind.
On November 16, 1915, the Serbians finally fell back from the pass on Prilep. The French, however, not knowing of the Serbian retirement at the time, continued to hold their advanced position at Mount Archangel until November 20, 1915, when the Bulgarians returned to give them fresh battle. And again the French were able to repulse their attacks, but further advance was now out of the question.
The situation of the Serbian armies up in the north was now truly desperate. The combined Austro-German and Bulgarian lines, beginning at Vishegrad, north of Montenegro, swept in a straight line across the heart of Serbia to Nish, where it curved downward to Vranya, then swept into Veles and down to where the French army prevented it from reaching the Greek frontier. It was, in fact, like a great dragnet, which had only to be contracted to sweep the Serbians inward, over against the awful defiles of the Montenegrin and Albanian Mountains, a country through which no organized army could pass in a body, and through which only the strongest of the noncombatants could hope to escape alive. And for a time it seemed as though the French would prick a hole through this net, through which, by rending it into a wide gap, the Serbians could have been saved. But with the retirement of Colonel Vassitch from Babuna Pass that last chance was gone; Serbia was left to her fate.
Meanwhile the pressure from the north continued irresistibly; steadily the Serbian armies were being pushed back against the mountain ranges, in comparison to which their own mountains were mere hills. And while the Serbians were waxing weaker every day, their enemies were growing stronger, not only because their long line was contracting, but because now they were being constantly reenforced. Also, with the cutting of the railroad, all means of supply were gone; the Serbians must now continue the fight with their own resources. They were now becoming woefully short, not only of ammunition, but of food as well. Yet they continued the struggle, retreating before the enemy facing them, step by step backward, taking advantage of every little natural position to cause the invaders as much loss as possible.
During the two weeks following the fall of Nish the three commanders of the invading armies began, and continued, a great converging movement on the Kossovo Plain, their object being to completely encircle the main Serbian armies. Kövess was advancing his forces toward Mitrovitza on the north side of the plain from Kralievo up the valley of the Ibar, branching out of the Western Morava. In the hills north of Ivanitza the Serbian rear guards made a stubborn attempt to hold him back, but finally they were dislodged and the Austrians occupied Ivanitza on November 9, 1915. Four days later, after driving the Serbians from their intrenchments in the Stolovi ranges, he reached Rashka, which had been the seat of the Serbian Government after its flight from Kralievo and which was situated on the Ibar, some distance along the road to Mitrovitza and only a few miles from Novi Bazar. This place he took on November 20, 1915, and with it a small arsenal, in which were fifty large mortars and eight guns, which even the German reports described as of "somewhat ancient pattern."
To the eastward the Austrians had taken possession of Sienitza and Novi Varosh, up toward the Montenegrin frontier. Being expelled from Zhochanitza, the Serbians retired to Mitrovitza. By November 22, 1915, the Austrian lines had followed to within five miles of that point.
Gallwitz and his Germans, in the meanwhile, operating on the left flank of the Austrians, was pushing southward, his object being to take Pristina, on the east side of the Kossovo Plain and about twenty miles southeast of Mitrovitza. But this was a task that could not be accomplished without much difficulty, for before him towered the backbone of Serbia's main mountain ridges, each ravine and each ledge sheltering strong Serbian forces.
As usual, however, the big guns cleared the way before Gallwitz, though at Jastrebatz the Serbians made him pay a heavy price in the losses he suffered. On this front the Bulgars were now coming close enough to the Germans to support them; against the two the Serbians had not the slightest chance.
By November 8, 1915, Gallwitz was starting out from Krushevatz, after which he followed the banks of a small branch of the Western Morava in a southwesterly direction, toward Brus, with one part of his force, another being sent due south across a range of high hills toward Kurshumlia. He soon reached Ribari and Ribarska Bania, where the retreating Serbians gave him what he himself described in his official report as "very stiff fighting." Next he stormed the pass through the mountains and thus gained an entrance to the valley of the Toplitza, through which flows a river westward into the Morava, the main stream by that name, though in this district it is known as the Southern Morava.
A week's hard fighting and marching followed before Kurshumlia could be taken, which the Serbians evacuated without resistance, though not before they had stripped it of everything that might be of value to the enemy. Here was located a Serbian hospital, full of wounded soldiers, all of whom fell into the hands of the Germans.
Moving on from this town, which lay about halfway between Krushevatz and Pristina, the Germans next pushed on to Prepolatz defile in the eastern part of the Kopaonik Mountains, which they reached on November 20, 1915, then scaled the intervening ridges on their way southward. The Serbians struggled on, but the same day on which Kövess came within striking distance of Mitrovitza, Gallwitz was threatening Pristina from the north end of the Lab Valley.
Thus the Serbians were finally driven out of the last corner of their native land, on November 20, 1915. Only a week previously Mackensen had communicated with the Serbian leaders, offering them terms that certainly should have seemed alluring to them in their dire extremity. This offer had been to the effect that if they would make peace they should lose nothing but Macedonia and a strip of territory along the Bulgarian frontier, including Pirot and Vranya.
The answer of the Serbian Premier, M. Pachitch, to this offer of separate terms was:
"Our way is marked out. We will be true to the Entente and die honorably."
After the evacuation of Nish the Serbians, under Marshal Stepanovitch, retreated to the west bank of the Morava, blowing up the bridges as soon as they were across. Here they held up the Bulgarians for some time, the river acting as a screen. It will have been noted that the Serbian forces always offered the most stubborn resistance to the Bulgarians, often coming to close quarters with them, whereas the Austro-Germans drove them on miles ahead of them. The reason was that the Bulgarians were not so well provided with heavy artillery, such as they had being more or less matched by the Serbian field pieces. The Germans, however, could stand off several miles and shell a Serbian position without the Serbians being able to reply with one effective shot.
In this battle along the Morava, King Peter appeared, hobbling up and down the lines under fire, talking to the men here and there and uttering words of encouragement. This had the effect of reviving some of the old enthusiasm which was somewhat dampened after such a continuous series of reverses and retreats.[Back to Contents]