After the occupation of Monastir, the distribution of the Allied forces was stabilized as follows. From Ersek, where a liaison had been effected with our Albanian force (I shall deal later with the relations between the armies in Macedonia and those in Albania) to the eastern arm of the Cerna, the line was held by the A.F.O. The latter now comprised seven French divisions, viz. the 30th, the 57th, the 76th, the 156th, and the 11th Colonial, the two Russian brigades, the 35th Italian, the 16th and 17th French Colonial Divisions. Of the two Russian brigades which were for a short time in the Cerna loop, one was soon afterwards transferred to the lake of Presba and the other to the east of the Cerna. Later, when they were amalgamated into one division, they were concentrated in the Presba area, where they remained until their final break up. The 16th and 17th Colonial Divisions were on our right in the Cerna loop. Between the Cerna and a point near Nonte there were the three Serbian armies, afterwards reduced to two. The line between Nonte and the Vardar was held by the 122nd French Division, subsequently strengthened by one, later on by two, and finally by three Greek divisions. The A.F.O. was divided into two “groupements de divisions” (corresponding to army corps), one between the Cerna and Albania, one in the Cerna loop (comprising the Italian troops); the 122nd Division with the Greek forces afterwards added to it formed the “1er groupement.” Between the Vardar and the mouth of the Struma in the Gulf of Orfano was the British area—the XII Corps (10th, 22nd and 26th Divisions) from the Vardar to lake Butkova, and the XVI Corps (27th, 28th and 60th Divisions) from Butkova to the sea. There were in addition the 228th Garrison Brigade and two cavalry brigades. The 10th and 60th Divisions and the cavalry brigades were transferred to the Palestine front in the summer of 1917.
The medium and heavy calibre artillery was wholly French and British, and in the A.F.O. all the artillery was French, except for the Italian mountain batteries, to which the Greek ones were afterwards added. A fixed quantity of French field and medium calibre artillery had been assigned to our division, and it was placed under the orders of the Italian artillery commander. Some other medium and heavy artillery, which was under the orders of the Army Command, was from time to time assigned to the Italian sector in varying quantities, according to necessity.
The Allied strengths at the beginning of 1917 were roughly as follows:
| Ration Strength. | Rifles. | |
|---|---|---|
| French | 210,000 | 50,000 |
| British | 180,000 | 50,000 |
| Italian | 55,000 | 18,000 |
| Serbs | 152,000 | 80,000 |
| Total | 597,000 | 198,000 |
I shall subsequently have occasion to mention the variations in these strengths.
This distribution shows how General Sarrail’s object was to have French detachments always dovetailed in between troops of other nationalities. Thus the Russians, who were at first divided into two separate groups, were between two French divisions, the 35th Italian Division was also between two French divisions, while French units separated the Italians from the Serbs and the latter from a British and the Greeks. He knew that he did not enjoy sufficient prestige with the other Allies to be able to do what he liked with them, so that he kept French troops scattered about all over the front, and he stated that he acted thus in order to avoid incidents between Allies who did not get on with each other. But he never succeeded in having the whole of the Armée d’Orient under his absolute control, and for every operation undertaken in common or transfers of non-French units, diplomatic negotiations were necessary, in which the interested Governments took part and did not always decide according to Sarrail’s desires. General Leblois commanded the A.F.O. for a short time, and was subsequently relieved by General Grossetti, an excellent officer with whom our Command was always on the best of terms. Unfortunately he became seriously ill, and had to return to France, where he died. General Régnault succeeded him temporarily, and finally General Henrys, who commanded the A.F.O. until the end of the war. With him, too, our Command always got on satisfactorily.
The Allies were faced by the enemy’s Army of the Orient, under a German Commander-in-Chief, General von Scholtz, whose G.H.Q. was at Uskub, with a German Staff. In the early part of the campaign, until after the fall of Monastir, the Army comprised several German divisions, 2 Turkish ones and some Austrian battalions. But gradually the German units were withdrawn, except the Staffs of the C.-in-C., of one of the armies, 2 corps and 1 division, some infantry battalions (at first they were about 20, afterwards reduced to 3 or 4), the artillery and some detachments of specialists (air force, engineers, machine gunners, trench-mortar companies, Flammenwerfer, etc). The Turkish forces were all withdrawn, except the 177th Infantry Regiment, which remained until the beginning of 1918. Several Austrian battalions remained in the area west of the lake of Ochrida, some of whom took orders from the Macedonian Command, whereas others, although they were facing detachments of the Allied armies in Macedonia, belonged to the Austrian Army in Albania. All the rest of the infantry was Bulgarian, and there was also a considerable amount of Bulgarian artillery.
The area between the lake of Ochrida and the Mala Rupa (east of Nonte) was held by the so-called XI German Army (German, as we have seen, only in name and regards the command, but composed almost entirely of Bulgarian troops), with its H.Q. at Prilep and commanded by General von Steuben. It comprised two corps, the LXI and LXII German Corps, whose liaison was at the western curve of the Cerna. The LXI consisted of some Austrian battalions, the mixed Bulgarian division, the 4th, 1st, and 6th Bulgarian Divisions. The LXII Corps comprised the 301st German Division consisting of a few German battalions, and several Bulgarian regiments. It occupied the whole of the Cerna loop opposite our division and the two French colonial divisions. Further east were the 2nd and 3rd Bulgarian Divisions. From the Mala Rupa to a point on the Beles range opposite Dova Tepe (east of Lake Doiran) the line was held by the I Bulgarian Army comprising the 5th, 9th and Mountain Divisions. Next, from Dova Tepe to the sea, came the II Bulgarian Army (commanded by General Lukoff), together with elements of the IV Army; the II comprised the 7th, 8th and 10th Divisions. Along the Ægean coast as far as the river Mesta, the Ægean Coast Defence Group was spread out. The II Army was nominally independent of the German Command, but practically it was, like the whole of the rest of the Bulgarian Army, at the complete disposal of the Germans. The Bulgarian Commander-in-Chief was General Gekoff. The total strength of the enemy on the Orient front varied from 600,000 to 800,000. The number of battalions was slightly inferior to that of the Allies, but the battalions were stronger, and whereas all Allied reinforcements had to be transported by sea, with great difficulties and still greater risks, the enemy’s depots were close at hand. Moreover, Germany and Austria were, until the beginning of 1918, ever able to send troops to the Balkans with much greater facility and speed than we could. Even Turkey might have sent reinforcements to Macedonia by rail; but Germany did not wish to make use of this assistance, because the Bulgarians were jealous of Turkish co-operation in a country like Macedonia, which until a few years ago had formed part of the Ottoman Empire.
The number of the enemy’s field and mountain guns was slightly inferior to that of the Allies, but they were much stronger in medium and heavy calibre guns; they also had a number of guns of greater calibre and range than anything of which we could boast, and they kept their forces on the Macedonian front supplied with their best and most up-to-date material, whereas the Allies neglected theirs.
The enemy defences, which were rudimentary at first, were gradually perfected until they came to constitute a system of really formidable fortifications, especially in the Monastir area, Hill 1050, and the sector west of Lake Doiran. Opposite the Serbian area and in certain other sectors there were fewer artificial defences, but the enemy positions were there, as indeed along almost the whole of the front, infinitely superior to ours. In the Italian sector, as we shall see, the summits of the ridge were all in the hands of the enemy, by whom our lines of access were to a large extent dominated; the same conditions existed opposite the II Serbian Army (Dobropolje-Vetrenik area) and opposite the British, west of Lake Doiran.