Balkans theatre: Difference between revisions
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|strength1={{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 1,200,000<ref name="Tucker">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHI3PCjDtsUC&q=Direct+and+Indirect+Costs+of+the+Great+World+War&pg=PA172|title=Spencer Tucker. The European powers in the First World War: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, 1996, pg. 173.|isbn=9780815303992|access-date=30 November 2014|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Wood|first2=Laura Matysek|last3=Murphy|first3=Justin D.|year=1996}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Austria-Hungary}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|German Empire}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} ''Unknown'' |
|strength1={{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 1,200,000<ref name="Tucker">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHI3PCjDtsUC&q=Direct+and+Indirect+Costs+of+the+Great+World+War&pg=PA172|title=Spencer Tucker. The European powers in the First World War: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, 1996, pg. 173.|isbn=9780815303992|access-date=30 November 2014|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|last2=Wood|first2=Laura Matysek|last3=Murphy|first3=Justin D.|year=1996}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Austria-Hungary}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|German Empire}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} ''Unknown'' |
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|strength2={{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} 707,343<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} 50,000<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|French Third Republic}} 350,000+<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.france24.com/en/20181109-video-reporters-salonica-front-victory-wwi-world-war-one-1918-armistice-greece-macedonia|title=Reporters - Reporters: How the Salonica front led to victory in WWI|date=Nov 9, 2018|website=France 24|access-date=Jan 19, 2021}}</ref><br>{{flagdeco|Greece|royal}} 230,000<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} |
|strength2={{flagicon|Kingdom of Serbia}} 707,343<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of Montenegro}} 50,000<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|French Third Republic}} 350,000+<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.france24.com/en/20181109-video-reporters-salonica-front-victory-wwi-world-war-one-1918-armistice-greece-macedonia|title=Reporters - Reporters: How the Salonica front led to victory in WWI|date=Nov 9, 2018|website=France 24|access-date=Jan 19, 2021}}</ref><br>{{flagdeco|Greece|royal}} 230,000<ref name="Tucker"/><br>{{flagicon|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} 404,207<ref name="stats">{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/statisticsofmili00grea |title=Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914–1920, p. 739 |last=Great Britain. War Office |date=27 February 2023 |publisher=London H.M. Stationery Off |access-date=27 February 2023 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of Italy}} 144,000<br>{{Flag icon|Russian Empire}} ''Unknown'' |
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|casualties1= {{flagicon|Austria-Hungary}} 300,000+{{sfn|Lyon|2015|p=235}}<ref name="Spencer Tucker 2005">Spencer Tucker, "Encyclopedia of World War I"(2005) pg 1077, {{ISBN|1851094202}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 267,000<ref>Military Casualties-World War-Estimated," Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) Page 219.</ref><br>87,500 killed<br>152,930 wounded<br>27,029 missing/captured<br>{{flagicon|German Empire}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} "a few thousand"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turkeyswar.com/macedonia.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-05-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118103834/http://www.turkeyswar.com/macedonia.html |archive-date=2015-11-18 }} turkeyswar, Campaigns, Macedonia front.</ref> |
|casualties1= {{flagicon|Austria-Hungary}} 300,000+{{sfn|Lyon|2015|p=235}}<ref name="Spencer Tucker 2005">Spencer Tucker, "Encyclopedia of World War I"(2005) pg 1077, {{ISBN|1851094202}}</ref><br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of Bulgaria}} 267,000<ref>Military Casualties-World War-Estimated," Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) Page 219.</ref><br>87,500 killed<br>152,930 wounded<br>27,029 missing/captured<br>{{flagicon|German Empire}} ''Unknown''<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} "a few thousand"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turkeyswar.com/macedonia.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-05-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151118103834/http://www.turkeyswar.com/macedonia.html |archive-date=2015-11-18 }} turkeyswar, Campaigns, Macedonia front.</ref> |
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Revision as of 17:18, 27 February 2023
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Balkans theatre | |||||||
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Part of the European theatre of World War I | |||||||
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Central Powers:
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Allied Powers
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
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Serbian Campaign:![]() Macedonian Front: ![]() Unknown wounded or captured ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Balkans theatre or Balkan campaign was a theatre of World War I fought between the Central Powers (Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and the Ottoman Empire) and the Allies (Serbia, Montenegro, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, and later Greece).
The campaign began in 1914 with three failed Austro-Hungarian offensives into Serbia. A new attempt a year later by the combined forces of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria led to the conquest and occupation of Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian army did not surrender but retreated through the mountains of Albania and was evacuated to Corfu before reforming in Salonika a few months later. On the Macedonian front, the Royal Serbian Army joined the Franco-British Allied Army of the Orient and fought a protracted trench war against Bulgarian and German forces. The allied army presence in Greece resulted in the National Schism on whether Greece should join the Allies or remain neutral, which would benefit the Central Powers. Greece eventually joined the Allied Powers in 1917. In September 1918, the Vardar Offensive broke through the Bulgarian lines, forcing them to surrender. The liberation of Serbia, Albania and Montenegro soon followed.
Overview
A major cause of the war was the hostility between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, where the First World War began. Serbia held out against Austria-Hungary for more than a year before it was defeated in late 1915.
Dalmatia was a strategic region during the war that Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. Italy entered the war upon agreeing to the Treaty of London, 1915, which guaranteed Italy a substantial portion of Dalmatia.
After the war at in the Treaty of Versailles Italy was only given a small piece of Dalmatia, due to the new countries that were formed. This resulted in widespread resentment among the general public, which is one of the reasons why Italy joined the Axis Powers in WWII.[citation needed]
The retreating Serbian troops entered Albania, which caused the Central Powers to invade Albania. The Serbian troops were evacuated by Italian transport ships in the Adriatic sea. They were transported to Corfu and other Greek islands before they were moved to Thessaloniki. The Allies had landed in neutral Greece to form the Macedonian front.
In 1917, Greece entered the war for the Allies. In 1918, the multinational Allied Army of the Orient, based in northern Greece, finally launched an offensive, which drove Bulgaria to seek peace, recaptured Serbia and halted only at the border of Hungary in November 1918.
Serbian–Montenegrin campaign
The Serbian army managed to defend against the larger Austro-Hungarian Army due to a Russian invasion from the north. In 1915, Austria-Hungary placed additional soldiers on the southern front and succeeded in engaging Bulgaria as an ally.
Soon, the Serbian army was attacked from the north and the east, forcing a retreat to Greece. Despite the loss, the retreat was successful, and the Serbian army remained operational in Greece with a newly-established base.
Italian campaign
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Vlora_zur_Zeit_der_italienischen_Besatzung_1916-1920.jpg/250px-Vlora_zur_Zeit_der_italienischen_Besatzung_1916-1920.jpg)
Prior to direct intervention in the war, Italy had occupied the port of Vlorë in Albania in December 1914.[15] Upon entering the war, Italy spread its occupation to the region of southern Albania beginning in Autumn 1916.[15] Italian forces in 1916 recruited Albanian irregulars to serve alongside them.[15] Italy, with the permission of Allied command, occupied Northern Epirus on 23 August 1916, forcing the neutralist Greek army to withdraw its occupation forces there.[15]
In June 1917, Italy proclaimed central and southern Albania to be a protectorate of Italy. Northern Albania was allocated to the states of Serbia and Montenegro.[15] By 31 October 1918, French and Italian forces had expelled the Austro-Hungarian army from Albania.[15]
Dalmatia was a strategic region during World War I that both Italy and Serbia intended to seize from Austria-Hungary. Italy joined the Triple Entente Allies in 1915 upon agreeing to the London Pact, which guaranteed Italy the right to annex a large portion of Dalmatia in exchange for Italy's participation on the Allied side. From November 5 to 6 1918, Italian forces were reported to have reached Lissa, Lagosta, Sebenico, and other localities on the Dalmatian coast.[16]
By the end of hostilities in November 1918, the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the London Pact and, by 17 November, had seized Fiume as well.[17] In 1918, Admiral Enrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia.[17] The famous nationalist Gabriele d'Annunzio supported the seizure of Dalmatia and proceeded to Zadar in an Italian warship in December 1918.[18]
Bulgaria
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1c/Bulgaria_during_World_War_I.png/450px-Bulgaria_during_World_War_I.png)
In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Bulgarian opinion turned against Russia and the western powers, whom the Bulgarians felt had done nothing to help them.[citation needed] Russia blamed Bulgaria for breaking up the alliance it had forged, and for starting the disastrous Second Balkan War against its former allies, and now looked to Serbia as a more reliable Slavic ally against Austria-Hungary.[19] The Bulgarian government aligned itself with Germany and Austria-Hungary, even though this meant also becoming an ally of the Ottomans, Bulgaria's traditional enemy. But Bulgaria now had no claims against the Ottomans, whereas Serbia, Greece and Romania (allies of Britain and France) were all in possession of lands that the Bulgarians perceived as Bulgarian.
Bulgaria, recuperating from the Balkan Wars, sat out the first year of World War I. When Germany promised Bulgaria all of Serbian Macedonia, parts of northeastern Serbia, as well as a new loan of 200,000,000 gold francs,[20] Bulgaria declared war on Serbia in October 1915. Britain, France and Italy then declared war on Bulgaria.
Although Bulgaria, allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary, won military victories against Serbia and Romania: occupying much of Southern Serbia (taking Nish, Serbia's war capital on November 5), advancing into Greek Macedonia, and taking Dobruja from the Romanians in September 1916, the war soon became unpopular with the majority of Bulgarian people, who had suffered enormous economic hardship. The Russian Revolution of February 1917 had a significant effect in Bulgaria, spreading antiwar and anti-monarchist sentiment among the troops and in the cities.
In September 1918 a collective group of Serbian and Allied forces broke through on the Macedonian front in the Vardar Offensive. While Bulgarian forces stopped them in Dojran, Tsar Ferdinand was forced to sue for peace.
To head off the revolutionaries, Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his son Boris III. The revolutionaries were suppressed and the army disbanded. Under the Treaty of Neuilly (November 1919), Bulgaria lost its Aegean coastline in favour of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers (transferred later by them to Greece) and nearly all of its Macedonian territory to the new state of Yugoslavia, and had to give Dobruja back to the Romanians (see also Dobruja, Western Outlands, Western Thrace).
Macedonian front
In 1915, the Austro-Hungarians gained the military support of Germany and brought in Bulgaria as an ally. Serbian forces were attacked from both north and south and were forced to retreat through Montenegro and Albania, with only 155,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers, reaching the coast of the Adriatic Sea and evacuating to Greece by Allied ships.
The Macedonian front stabilized roughly around the Greek border after the intervention of a Franco-British-Italian force that had landed in Salonica. The German generals had not let the Bulgarian army advance towards Salonica because they had hoped that they could persuade the Greeks to join the Central Powers.
In 1918, after a prolonged build-up, the Allies, under French General Franchet d'Esperey led a combined French, Serbian, Greek and British army attack out of Greece. His initial victories convinced the Bulgarian government to sue for peace. He then attacked north and defeated the German and Austro-Hungarian forces that tried to halt his offensive.
By October 1918, his army had recaptured all of Serbia and was preparing to invade Hungary proper, but the offensive was halted by the Hungarian leadership offering to surrender in November 1918.
Results
The French and British each kept six divisions on the Greek frontier from 1916 to the end of 1918. Originally, the French and British went to Greece to help Serbia, but with Serbia's conquest in the autumn of 1915, their continued presence did not produce major effects and so they mobilized the useful forces to the Western Front.
In mid 1918, led by General Franchet d'Esperey, those forces were added to conduct a major offensive on the south flank of the Quadruplice (8 French division, 6 British division, 1 Italian division, 12 Serbian division[21]). After the successful offensive launched on 10 September 1918, they freed Belgrade and forced Bulgaria to an armistice on 29 September. That had a significant effect by threatening Austria-Hungary (which agreed to an armistice on 4 November 1918) and then the German political leadership.
In fact, Keegan argued that "the installation of a violently nationalist and anti-Turkish government in Athens, led to Greek mobilization in the cause of the "Great Idea" - the recovery of the Greek empire in the east - which would complicate the Allied effort to resettle the peace of Europe for years after the war ended."[22]
References
- ^ a b c d Tucker, Spencer C.; Wood, Laura Matysek; Murphy, Justin D. (1996). Spencer Tucker. The European powers in the First World War: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis, 1996, pg. 173. ISBN 9780815303992. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
- ^ a b "Reporters - Reporters: How the Salonica front led to victory in WWI". France 24. Nov 9, 2018. Retrieved Jan 19, 2021.
- ^ Great Britain. War Office (27 February 2023). "Statistics of the military effort of the British Empire during the Great War, 1914–1920, p. 739". London H.M. Stationery Off. Retrieved 27 February 2023 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Lyon 2015, p. 235.
- ^ Spencer Tucker, "Encyclopedia of World War I"(2005) pg 1077, ISBN 1851094202
- ^ Military Casualties-World War-Estimated," Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) Page 219.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-05-19.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) turkeyswar, Campaigns, Macedonia front. - ^ Urlanis, Boris (1971). Wars and Population. Moscow Pages 66,79,83, 85,160,171 and 268.
- ^ Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914–1920, The War Office, P.353.
- ^ As mentioned in the sources above about Serbian military casualties in World War I, they numbered approximately 481,000 in total, including 278,000 dead from all causes (including POWs), 133,000 wounded, and 70,000 living POWs. Of these 481,000, some 434,000 were suffered in the earlier Serbian campaign. Most of the rest were taken on the Macedonian front following the evacuation of the Serbian Army.
- ^ Military Casualties-World War-Estimated," Statistics Branch, GS, War Department, 25 February 1924; cited in World War I: People, Politics, and Power, published by Britannica Educational Publishing (2010) Page 219. Total casualties for Greece were 27,000 (killed and died 5,000; wounded 21,000; prisoners and missing 1,000)
- ^ T. J. Mitchell and G.M. Smith. "Medical Services: Casualties and Medical Statistics of the Great War." From the "Official History of the Great War". Pages 190-191. Breakdown: 2,797 killed, 1,299 died of wounds, 3,744 died of disease, 2,778 missing/captured, 16,888 wounded (minus DOW), 116,190 evacuated sick (34,726 to UK, 81,428 elsewhere) an unknown proportion of whom returned to duty later. A total of 481,262 were hospitalized for sickness overall.
- ^ Ministero della Difesa: L’Esercito italiano nella Grande Guerra (1915-1918), vol. VII: Le operazioni fuori del territorio nazionale: Albania, Macedonia, Medio Oriente, t. 3° bis: documenti, Rome 1981, Parte Prima, doc. 77, p. 173 and Parte Seconda, doc. 78, p. 351; Mortara, La salute pubblica in Italia 1925, p. 37.
- ^ Losses are given as follows for 1916 to 1918. Macedonia: 8,324, including 2,971 dead or missing and 5,353 injured. Albania: 2,214 including 298 dead, 1,069 wounded, and 847 missing.
- ^ a b c d e f Nigel Thomas. Armies in the Balkans 1914-18. Osprey Publishing, 2001. Pp. 17.
- ^ Giuseppe Praga, Franco Luxardo. History of Dalmatia. Giardini, 1993. Pp. 281.
- ^ a b Paul O'Brien. Mussolini in the First World War: the Journalist, the Soldier, the Fascist. Oxford, England, UK; New York, New York, US: Berg, 2005. Pp. 17.
- ^ A. Rossi. The Rise of Italian Fascism: 1918-1922. New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2010, p. 47.
- ^ Chary 2011, p. 50.
- ^ Luckau 1971, p. 278.
- ^ Bernard Schnetzler, Les erreurs stratégiques pendant la Première Guerre Mondiale, ECONOMICA, 2011 ISBN 2717852255
- ^ Keegan, John (2000). World War I. Vintage. p. 307. ISBN 0375700455.
Sources
- Chary, F.B. (2011). The History of Bulgaria. Greenwood histories of the modern nations. Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-38446-2.
- Dutton, D. J. (January 1979). "The Balkan Campaign and French War Aims in the Great War". The English Historical Review. 94 (370): 97–113. doi:10.1093/ehr/XCIV.CCCLXX.97. JSTOR 567160.
- Fried, M. (2014). Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the Balkans during World War I. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-35901-8.
- Mitrović, Andrej (2007). Serbia's Great War, 1914–1918. London: Hurst. ISBN 978-1-55753-477-4.
- Lyon, James (2015) [1995]. Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4725-8005-4.
- Omiridis Skylitzes, Aristeidis (1961). Ο Ελληνικός Στρατός κατά τον Πρώτον Παγκόσμιον Πόλεμον, Τόμος Δεύτερος, Η Συμμετοχή της Ελλάδος εις τον Πόλεμον 1918 [Hellenic Army During the First World War 1914–1918: Hellenic Participation in the War 1918] (in Greek). Vol. II. Athens: Hellenic Army History Department.
- Sfika-Theodosiou, A. (1995). "The Italian presence on the Balkan Front (1915-1918)". Balkan Studies. 36 (1): 69–82.
- Luckau, A. (1971). The German Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. H. Fertig. ISBN 978-0-86527-078-7.
- Nigel Thomas; Dusan Babac (2012). Armies in the Balkans 1914–18. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78096-735-6.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Wars involving the Balkans
- Battles of the Balkans Theatre (World War I)
- Campaigns and theatres of World War I
- European theatre of World War I
- Albania in World War I
- Military operations of World War I involving Austria-Hungary
- Bulgaria in World War I
- Greece in World War I
- Serbia in World War I
- Military operations of World War I involving Germany
- Military operations of World War I involving the Ottoman Empire
- Macedonian front
- Modern history of the Balkans