Serbian campaign
Serbian campaign | |||||||
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Part of the Balkans theatre of World War I | |||||||
Serbian infantry positioned at Ada Ciganlija. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
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450,000[1] to 842,000[2] Serbian civilians died of war-related causes from 1914 to 1918 |
The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the
The first campaign began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914. The campaign, euphemistically dubbed "
The
After the Allies launched the
The Serbian army declined severely from about 420,000[10] at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The estimates of casualties are various: Original Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war (including both military and civilian losses), which represented more than 29% of its overall population and 60% of its male population.[11][12] More recent historical analysis has estimated that roughly 177,000 Serbian soldiers lost their lives or were not returned from captivity, while the civilian death toll is impossible to determine, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.[13] According to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers or 25% of all mobilized troops. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.[14]
Background
Austria-Hungary precipitated the
In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank the Ottoman Empire by creating an independent Principality of Albania and enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked both Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913, it lost most of its Macedonian region to those countries, and additionally, the Southern Dobruja region to Romania and Adrianople (the present-day city of Edirne) to Turkey in the 33-day Second Balkan War, which further destabilized the region.[16]
On 28 June 1914,
The dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia escalated into what is now known as World War I, drawing in
Military forces
Austro-Hungarian
The standing peacetime Austro-Hungarian army had 36,000 officers, including
The prewar Austro-Hungarian plan to invade Serbia envisioned the concentration of three armies (2nd, 5th and 6th) on Serbia's western and northern borders to envelop and destroy the bulk of the Serbian army. However, with the beginning of the Russian general mobilization, the Armeeoberkommando (AOK, Austro-Hungarian Supreme Command) decided to move the 2nd army to Galicia to counter Russian forces. Due to the congestion of railroad lines towards Galicia, the 2nd Army could only start its departure on 18 August, which allowed the AOK to assign some units of the 2nd Army to take part in operations in Serbia before that date. Eventually, the AOK allowed General Oskar Potiorek to deploy a significant segment of the 2nd army (around four divisions) in fighting against Serbia, which caused a delay in the transport of these troops to the Russian front for more than a week. Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian defeats suffered during the first invasion of Serbia forced the AOK to permanently transfer two divisions from the 2nd Army to Potiorek's force. By 12 August, Austria-Hungary had amassed over 500,000 soldiers on Serbian frontiers, including some 380,000 operational troops. However on 16 August a significant part of the 2nd army was ordered to the Russian front, thus this number fell to some 285,000 active troops, including garrisons.[22] Apart from land forces, Austria-Hungary also deployed its Danube River flotilla of six monitors and six patrol boats.
Many Austro-Hungarian soldiers were not of good quality.[23] About one-quarter of them were illiterate, and most of the conscripts from the empire's subject nationalities did not speak or understand German or Hungarian. In addition, most of the soldiers — ethnic Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians and South Slavs — had linguistic and cultural links with the empire's various enemies.[24]
Serbian
The Serbian military command issued orders to mobilize its armed forces on 25 July, and mobilization began the following day. By 30 July, mobilization was completed, and the troops began to be deployed according to the war plan. Deployments were completed by 9 August when the troops had arrived at their designated strategic positions. During mobilization, Serbia raised approximately 450,000 men of three age-defined classes (or bans) called poziv, which comprised all capable men between the ages of 21 and 45.
The operational army consisted of 11+1⁄2 infantry (six of 1st and five of the 2nd ban) and one cavalry division. Aged men of the 3rd ban were organized in 15 infantry regiments with about 45–50,000 men designated for use in rear and line of communications duties. However, some of them were by necessity used as part of the operational army as well, bringing its strength up to around 250,000 men.[25] Serbia was in a much more disadvantageous position when compared with Austria-Hungary concerning human reserves and replacement troops, as its only source of replacements were recruits reaching the age of military enlistment. Their maximum annual number was theoretically around 60,000 and was insufficient to replace the losses of more than 132,000 sustained during operations from August to December 1914. This shortage of military power forced the Serbian army to recruit under and over-aged men to make up for losses in the opening phase of the war.
Because of the poor financial state of the Serbian economy and losses in the recent Balkan Wars, the Serbian army lacked much of the modern weaponry and equipment necessary to engage in combat with their larger and wealthier adversaries. Only 180,000 modern rifles were available for the operational army, which meant that the Serbian military lacked between one-quarter to one-third of the rifles necessary to fully equip even their front-line units, let alone reserve forces.[26] Although Serbia tried to remedy this deficit by ordering 120,000 rifles from Russia in 1914, the weapons did not begin to arrive until the second half of August. Only 1st ban troops had complete grey-green M1908 uniforms, with 2nd ban troops often wearing the obsolete dark blue M1896 issue, and the 3rd ban had no proper uniforms at all and were reduced to wearing their civilian clothes with military greatcoats and caps.[27] The Serbian troops did not have service issued boots at all, and the vast majority of them wore everyday footwear made of pig skin called opanak.
Ammunition reserves were also insufficient for sustained field operations as most had been used in the 1912–13 Balkan wars. Artillery ammunition was sparse and only amounted to several hundred shells per unit. Because Serbia lacked a significant domestic military-industrial complex, its army depended entirely on imports of ammunition and arms from France and Russia, which were chronically short of supplies. The inevitable shortages of ammunition later would include a complete lack of artillery ammunition, which peaked during the decisive moments of the Austro-Hungarian invasion.
Comparative strength
These figures detail the number of all Austro-Hungarian troops concentrated on the southern (Serbian) theatre of war at the beginning of August 1914 and the resources of the entire Serbian army (however, the number of troops available for the operations on both sides was somewhat less):
Type | Austro-Hungarian[19] | Serbian |
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Battalions | 329 | 209 |
Batteries | 200 | 122 |
Squadrons | 51 | 44 |
Engineer companies | 50 | 30 |
Field guns | 1243 | 718 |
Machine guns | 490 | 315 |
Total combatants | 500,000 | 344,000 |
Serbia's ally Montenegro mustered an army of about 45–50,000 men, with only 14 modern quick-firing field guns, 62 machine guns and some 51 older pieces (some of them antique models from the 1870s). Unlike the Austro-Hungarian and the Serbian armies, the Montenegrin army was a militia type without proper military training or a career officer's corps.
Note:
According to Austro-Hungarian military formation,[28] the average war strength of the following units was:
- Battalion: 1000 (combatants)
- Battery: 196
- Squadron: 180
- Engineer companies: 260
The strength of corresponding Serbian units was similar:
- Battalion: 1116 (combatants and non-combatants)
- Battery: 169
- Squadron: 130
- Engineer company: 250
Heavy artillery
Austro-Hungarian | Serbian |
---|---|
12 mobile batteries:
Additionally, Austro-Hungarian fortresses and garrisons near the Serbian and Montenegrin borders (Petrovaradin, Sarajevo, Kotor etc.) had about 40 companies of heavy fortress artillery of various models. |
13 mobile batteries:
|
Order of battle
Serbian army
- First Army, commanded by general Petar Bojović; Chief of Staff colonel Božidar Terzić.
- Cavalry division, four regiments, Colonel Branko Jovanović
- Timok I division, four regiments, General Vladimir Kondić
- Timok II division, three regiments
- Morava II division, three regiments
- Danube II division (Braničevo detachment), six regiments
- Army artillery, colonel Božidar Srećković
- Second Army, commanded by general Stepa Stepanović; Chief of Staff colonel Vojislav Živanović
- Morava I division, colonel Ilija Gojković, four regiments
- Combined I division, general Mihajlo Rašić, four regiments, regiment commanders Svetislav Mišković, X, X and Dragoljub Uzunmirković
- Šumadija I division, four regiments
- Danube I division, colonel Milivoje Anđelković, four regiments
- Army artillery, Colonel Vojislav Milojević
- Third Army, commanded by general Pavle Jurišić Šturm; Chief of Staff colonel Dušan Pešić
- Drina I division, four regiments
- Drina II division, four regiments, regiment commanders Miloje Jelisijević, X, X and X
- Obrenovac detachment, one regiment, two battalions
- Jadar Chetnik detachment
- Army artillery, colonel Miloš Mihailović
- Užice Army, commanded by General Miloš Božanović
- Šumadija II division, colonel Dragutin Milutinović, four regiments
- Užice brigade, Colonel Ivan Pavlović, two regiments
- Chetnik detachments, Lim, Zlatibor, and Gornjak detachments
- Army artillery
Austro-Hungarian army
August 1914:
- Balkan force
- 5th Army, commanded by Liborius Ritter von Frank
- 9. infantry division
- 21. landwehr infantry division
- 36. infantry division
- 42. Honvéd (Hungarian home guard) infantry division
- 13. infantry brigade
- 11. mountain brigade
- 104. Landsturm infantry brigade
- 13. march brigade
- 6th Army, commanded by Oskar Potiorek
- 1. infantry division
- 48. infantry division
- 18. infantry division
- 47. infantry division
- 40. Honvéd infantry division
- 109. Landsturm infantry brigade
- Banat Rayon and Garrisons
- 107. Landsturm infantry brigade
- sundry units of infantry, cavalry and artillery
- 5th Army, commanded by Liborius Ritter von Frank
- Parts of the 2nd Army, commanded by Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
- 17. infantry division
- 34. infantry division
- 31. infantry division
- 32. infantry division, commanded by Andreas von Fail-Griessler
- 29. infantry division
- 7. infantry division
- 23.infantry division
- 10. cavalry division
- 4. march brigade
- 7. march brigade
- 8. march brigade
1914
1915
Aftermath
1916–1918
The Serbian army was evacuated to Greece and met with the
French and Serbian troops finally made a breakthrough in the
German Emperor
The collapse of the
End of the War
The ramifications of the war were manifold. When World War I ended, the
Casualties
Before the war, the Kingdom of Serbia had 4,500,000 inhabitants.
The extent of the Serbian demographic disaster can be illustrated by the statement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov: "Serbia ceased to exist" (New York Times, summer 1917).[46] In July 1918, the U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing urged the Americans of all religions to pray for Serbia in their respective churches.[47][48]
The Serbian army suffered a staggering number of casualties. It was significantly destroyed near the war's end, falling from about 420,000[10] at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation.
The Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war. Of 4.5 million people, there were 275,000 military deaths and 450,000 among the ordinary citizenry. The civilian deaths were attributable mainly to food shortages and the effects of epidemics such as Spanish flu. In addition to the military deaths, there were 133,148 wounded. According to the Yugoslav government, in 1924, Serbia lost 365,164 soldiers, or 26% of all mobilized personnel, while France suffered 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.[citation needed]
At the war's end, there were 114,000 disabled soldiers and 500,000 orphaned children.[49]
Attacks against ethnic Serb civilians
The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was followed by violent anti-Serb demonstrations of angry Croats and Muslims[50] in the city during the evening of 28 June 1914 and for much of the following day. This happened because most Croats and many Muslims considered the archduke the best hope for establishing a South Slav political entity within the Habsburg Empire. The crowd directed its anger principally at shops owned by ethnic Serbs and the residences of prominent Serbs. Two ethnic Serbs were killed on 28 June by crowd violence.[51] That night there were anti-Serb demonstrations in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[52][53]
Incited by anti-Serbian propaganda and collusion with the command of the Austro-Hungarian Army, soldiers committed numerous atrocities against the Serbs in both Serbia and Austria-Hungary. According to the German-Swiss criminologist and observer R.A. Reiss, it was a "system of extermination." In addition to executions of prisoners of war, civilian populations were subjected to mass murder and rape. Villages and towns were burned and looted. Fruit trees were cut down, and water wells were poisoned in an effort on the Austro-Hungarian part to discourage Serb inhabitants from ever returning.[54][55][56]
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Austro-Hungarian propaganda postcard saying "Serbs, we'll smash you to pieces!"
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Anti-Serbian propaganda postcard
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Austro-Hungarian soldiers executing Serbian civilians during World War I (1916).[57]
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Austro-Hungarian firing squad executing Serbian civilians in 1917
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Memorial to military and the concentration camp victims in Jindřichovice
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Remains of the Štip massacre victims
See also
- Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia
- Bulgarian occupation of Serbia (World War I)
- Albania during World War I
- Momčilo Gavrić (soldier)
- Serbian army's retreat through Albania (World War I)
- World War I casualties
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- ^ a b "Serbian Army, August 1914".
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- ^ http://digi.landesbibliothek.at/viewer/image/AC03568741/1/LOG_0003/ Die Entwicklung der öst.-ung. Wehrmacht in den ersten zwei Kriegsjahren, 10
- ^ http://digi.landesbibliothek.at/viewer/image/AC01351505/1/LOG_0003/ Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 -1918, vol. 2 Beilagen, Wienn 1930, table I )
- ^ http://honsi.org/literature/svejk/dokumenty/oulk/band1.html Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 - 1918, vol. 1, Wienn 1930, p68
- ^ Jordan 2008, p. 20
- ^ Willmott 2009, p. 69
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- ^ James Lyon, p496
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- ^ James Lyon (12 October 2020). "The Battle of Dobro Polje – The Forgotten Balkan Skirmish That Ended WW1". Military History Now. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ Stephanie Schoppert (22 February 2017). "The Germans Could no Longer Keep up the Fight". History Collection. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
- ^ a b Korsun, N. "The Balkan Front of the World War (in Russian)". militera.lib.ru. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
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- ^ "Serbia in 1914".
- ^ "$1,600,000 was raised for the Red Cross" (PDF). The New York Times. 29 October 1915.
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its postwar population included some 114,000 invalids and over half a million orphans
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- Lyon, James B. (2015). Serbia and the Balkan Front, 1914: The Outbreak of the Great War. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4725-8005-4.
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- Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 - 1918, vol. 1, Wienn 1930 [1]
- Österreich-Ungarns letzter Krieg 1914 -1918, vol. 2 Beilagen, Wienn 1931 [2]
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- Sammis, Kathy (2002). Focus on World History: The Twentieth Century. Vol. 5. Walch Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-8251-4371-7.
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- Temperley, Harold W. V. (1919) [1917]. History of Serbia (PDF) (2 ed.). London: Bell and Sons.
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- Tucker, Spencer; Wood, Laura M.; Murphy, Justin D. (1999). The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. OCLC 40417794.
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- Willmott, H. P. (2003). World War I. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-0-7894-9627-0.
- Willmott, H. P. (2008). World War I. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-1-4053-2986-6.
- Willmott, H. P. (2009). World War I. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 978-0-7566-5015-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4930-3192-4.
- Josephus Nelson Larned (1924). The New Larned History for Ready Reference, Reading and Research: The Actual Words of the World's Best Historians, Biographers and Specialists; a Complete System of History for All Uses, Extending to All Countries and Subjects and Representing the Better and Newer Literature of History. C.A. Nichols Publishing Company.
- Prit Buttar (2015). Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-1355-8.
Journals
- Silberstein, Gerard E. "The Serbian campaign of 1915: Its diplomatic background." American Historical Review 73.1 (1967): 51-69 online
- Pisarri, Milovan (2013). "Bulgarian Crimes Against Civilians in Occupied Serbia during the First World War". Balcanica (44): 357–390. .
- Radić, Radmila (2015). "The Serbian Orthodox Church in the First World War". The Serbs and the First World War 1914-1918. Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. pp. 263–285. ISBN 978-86-7025-659-0.
- Radojević, Mira (2015). "Jovan M. Jovanović on the outbreak of the First World War". The Serbs and the First World War 1914-1918. Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. pp. 187–204. ISBN 978-86-7025-659-0.
External links
- Bjelajac, Mile: Serbia, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Tasić, Dmitar: Warfare 1914-1918 (South East Europe), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
- Years which changed the war - WWI in documents from Archive of Serbia
- "Jugoslovenska kinoteka" (in Serbian). Kinoteka.
- Popović, Andra (1926). Збирка књига Универзитетске библиотеке у Београду Ратни албум : 1914-1918 (in Serbian). Digital National Library of Serbia.
- W. H. Crawfurd Price (1918). Serbia's Part in the War ... Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company. (Public Domain)
- Milošević, Krsman (2008). Србија у великом рату (in Serbian). Народна Библиотека Србије, Београд: CIP. ISBN 978-86-82777-16-8.