The Serbian Retreat Across Albania

[Benoit Douville]

I am looking for more info about a terrible event that happened during World War I, it is the Serbian retreat across Albania, an event really forgotten. Here is what happened before, it is called the campaign of Serbia:

In October 1915, the Fourth Invasion of Serbia is about to take place. For the attack, German General Mackensen commands three of the four armies taking part - the Austrian Third, German Eleventh, and Bulgarian First. The Germans and Austrians are to strike from Austria-Hungary in the north, aiming for the Serbian capital of Belgrade, while the Bulgarian First will approach from the east. A fourth army, the Bulgarian Second, commanded from Sofia, is to attack into southeast Serbia .The Serbs are outnumbered, outclassed, and lack artillery. Belgrade falls two days later.The surviving Serbian armies, fighting on in the west and south, are forced to retreat into Albania.

[Dave Bender]

http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/ ... p%2033.htm
This site has a good map showing where the various armies were positioned for the October 1915 Serbian operation.

[Benoit Douville]

Awesome Map.

Regards

[agblume]

You may also check the Map section at my http://www.warchron.com website. There are some excellent maps of the Serbian Campaigns. Best regards, agblume

[The Edge]

...an event really forgotten.

Only if you live out of Serbia.

[The Edge]

In October 1915, the Fourth Invasion of Serbia is about to take place. For the attack, German General Mackensen commands three of the four armies taking part - the Austrian Third, German Eleventh, and Bulgarian First. The Germans and Austrians are to strike from Austria-Hungary in the north, aiming for the Serbian capital of Belgrade, while the Bulgarian First will approach from the east. A fourth army, the Bulgarian Second, commanded from Sofia, is to attack into southeast Serbia .The Serbs are outnumbered, outclassed, and lack artillery. Belgrade falls two days later.

:roll: From here? http://www.naval-history.net/WW1CampaignsSerbia.htm

Two “insider” stories I found on Net:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/greatretreat.htm
http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_ ... gic_01.htm

[Dave Bender]

For English language speakers the entire war appears to be forgotten except for what went on in the British sectors. Try finding a decent English language account of the Argonne, Gorlice-Tarnow, Champagne and Woevre battles which also took place in 1915. All these battles were far more significant to the outcome of WWI then anything the British army accomplished during 1915.

[Benoit Douville]

I totally agree with you Dave, those Battles that you described were probably really important. Now I am curious about the Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow, can you tell me a brief account of that event.

Those stories about the Serbian retreat across Albania were pretty good, that's really appreciated.

Regards

[Dave Bender]

The largest land battle of 1915 and overall probably the most successful army operation of WWI. But I will try to summarize it.

Map of Gorlice-Tarnow Operation.
http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/ ... p%2031.htm

2 May 1915. Beginning of Gorlice-Tarnow Attack.
German 11th Army was the schwerpunkt, with 11 infantry divisions and most of the German ammunition reserve. The German attack was more successful then anticipated, so they reinforced success. By September 1915 virtually the entire Austrian and German Ost Front force was pursuing the smashed up Russian army.

3 June 1915. Przemysl fortress captured.
22 June 1915. Lemberg captured.
5 August 1915. Warsaw captured. This was a key rail center in Poland.
19 August 1915. Novo-Georgiewsk fortress captured. This was a huge complex.
26 August 1915. Brest-Litovsk captured. Another important fortress and rail center.
28 August 1915. German portion of attack begins winding down. Army Group Mackensen HQ transfers to Biala, Poland. Preparations begin for October 1915 invasion of Serbia.

2 Sep 1915. Grodno fortress captured by German 8th Army.
6 Sep 1915. Bulgaria joins the Central Powers.
18 Sep 1915. Vilna captured.
18 Sep 1915. The core of German 11th Army (10 infantry divisions) withdrawn from Gorlice-Tarnow attack. After being reconstituted they will form the cutting edge of the Serbian invasion force.

Results Summary.
Approximately 1 1/2 million Russian casualties.
Capture of virtually the entire Russian fortress system.
Field Marshall Falkenhayn halted the Gorlice-Tarnow operation in mid September 1915 to free up resources for the Serbian invasion. He was worried about the Ottomans running out of ammunition due to the Gallipoli invasion. The main rail line from Germany ran through Serbia. Bad luck for Serbia, but it likely saved Russia from total defeat during the fall of 1915.

[Benoit Douville]

Dave,

That is really appreciated. Good point also the fact that it probably saved Russia from total defeat during the fall of 1915.

Regards

[Nikolay]

A very detailed account of the events in the autumn 1915 could be found in the official histories of the Serbian and Bulgarian armies' participation. If you could read in both languages, that is .
The Serbian official history is called "Veliki rat Srbije 1914-1918" (The Edge might correct me if I am wrong, but I believe at least part of it was translated into French). I have read parts of it from the original Serbian edition.
The Bulgarian official history: "Bylgarskata armija v Svetovnata vojna 1915-18" vol.2,3, 4 and 5 covering the events in question- unfortunately only in Bulgarian.
Both histories are quite objective and generally reliable source of information.

[Kim Sung]

A map of Serbian retreat through Albania from October to November in 1915



Anybody has a more detailed data on the size of Serbian troops and civilians who evacuated from Durazzo to Sardinia, Italy?

* Image Source : 第一次世界大戰 ('The First World War')

[Benoit Douville]

Another great Map.

Where I can find The Serbian official history "Velik Srbije 1914-1918''?

Regards

[Kim Sung]

The chasers and the chased

Austro-Hungarian soldiers taking a break, chasing the Serbs. The man standing on the right is a sergeant of the Hungarian military police.




Desperately retreating Serbs over snow-covered mountains



* Image Source : 第一次世界大戰 ('The First World War')

According to a Japanese source, the retreating Serbs had a large number of Austro-Hungarian POWs, which made their retreat much harder. How many POWs accompanied the retreating Serbs? And how many of them died and how many survived?

[Dule_smor]

Hello people! I am new here and my English is not very good, but I’ll give my best:). As you see I am from Serbia, I live in a small town of Smederevo, and study in Belgrade. I am glad to see that there are people interested in Serbian military history, especially in Serbia’s participacion in the First world war. I personally think that was one of the brightest and most noble period in whole Serbian history. I’ve read a lot about this, and hope I can give you some information. I wrote some text on the local forums, but they are all in serbian. I’ll try to translate some of them, but until now here is a link to topic about ww1 with some nice pictures. And I see I am not the only one here who knows serbian:).

http://www.klanrur.co.yu/forum/index.ph ... opic=43280