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In the summer of 1915, tensions in the Balkans were rising as the First World War raged across Europe. The war had started in the Balkans in 1914, and Serbia had successfully defended itself against Austria-Hungary for over a year. Neighbours Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania remained neutral, but hoped to gain territory if the chance arose. Romania wanted Russian-controlled Bessarabia, but also Hungarian-controlled Transylvania. Bulgaria claimed lands controlled by the Ottomans, Greeks, Romanians, and especially Serbian-controlled Macedonia. Most of these disputes were connected to the outcome of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and
1913, where Bulgaria had lost territory. As the war dragged on and the Western Front became a stalemate, the Allies and Central Powers tried to get the neutrals to join them, but the Allies' task was far harder. Bulgaria had the strongest military potential, but whatever the Entente offered Sofia angered Belgrade, Athens, or Bucharest. Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov was clear about his demands: "Bulgaria cannot be denied its historical and ethnographic rights. It cannot exist without Macedonia, for which it has shed so much blood."
The Central Powers could offer more of what Bulgaria wanted, but the Bulgarian authorities still hesitated. Tsar Ferdinand and Radoslavov were pro-German, but most of the opposition parties and population were pro-Russian or simply worried about a third war in three years. The Germans sweetened the deal in 1915 by granting Bulgaria several large loans. Meanwhile, the Allies pressured the Serbs and Greeks to give up territory, which outraged Greek Prime Minister Gounaris: "It seems impossible to us to steal from neutral country whose benevolent neutrality was always useful to the Allies […] and to pay with Greek territories for the assistance
of a people who until today work in the interests of the enemies of the Entente. By what right, under what authority can we mutilate our country?" Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pasic reluctantly agreed to part with some of Macedonia but only in exchange for Austro-Hungarian territory, and only after the war. For months in 1915, the Allies dithered. They were distracted by the Gallipoli campaign, and their politicians and generals disagreed sharply on whether to intervene in the Balkans. French General Joseph Joffre wanted to focus on the Western Front, Italy opposed any gains for Serbia, while Russia opposed
any losses for Serbia. Still others sympathized with what they saw as Bulgarian desires for national unification with Macedonia. Many Allied diplomats falsely believed Bulgaria would not risk fighting against them - French Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé even said it would be "absurd." Delcassé was wrong. Sofia gained confidence when the Ottomans stopped the invasion at Gallipoli and the Central Powers smashed the Russian armies starting in May. In Macedonia, Bulgarian and Macedonian irregular comitadji fighters started harassing Serbian forces. Then, on September 6,
Sofia signed a secret deal with the Central Powers agreeing to join the war in exchange for more than half of Serbia's territory - and a small strip of Ottoman land Constantinople agreed to give up. Bulgarian opposition leaders protested, but when Agrarian National Union head Aleksandar Stamboliyski urged the Tsar to reconsider, Ferdinand threatened him: "Don't worry about my head, I am old. Think about your own, which is still young." The authorities then arrested Stamboliyski, shut down parliament, and mobilized the army on September 23. The escalating crisis threatened Serbia's survival and the prestige of the Entente. So British and French commanders revived a
plan that had been discussed months earlier, and supported by British minister David Lloyd George: an Allied landing in neutral Greece to save the Serbs. It was too late to influence Bulgaria, but an expeditionary force at Salonika might be able to march north and join up with the Serbian army - if it could arrive in time. So Bulgaria had joined the Central Powers, but Allied divisions and slow preparations meant a large-enough expeditionary force for Greece would take time. For Serbia, though, time was running out. Bulgaria's imminent entry allowed German commander Erich von Falkenhayn to finally launch the Serbian
offensive he had long hoped for. Crushing Serbia would free up troops for other fronts, and open a direct rail link with the Ottoman Empire. For Austria-Hungary, a victory would make up for the embarrassment of having been unable to conquer their smaller enemy, though needing German help frustrated Chief of the General Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf: "[…] it was no easy task for me to again call for German help but it weighs on me far more heavily that our war against Serbia, towards which all our traditions point and of which dreamed in 1909, will from now on be led by the Germans. Yet this year has
taught me to bear bitter disappointments." The Central Powers gathered a combined force of about 800,000 men, 10,000 horse, and 1700 guns under German Field Marshal August von Mackensen. Nearly 5% of the troops were from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbs opposed them with 420,000 men, 5000 horse, and 680- guns, plus 48,000 allied Montenegrin troops. Von Mackensen's plan was for the Austro-Hungarian 3rd and German 11th Armies to attack from the north, with a follow-up attack from two Bulgarian armies from the east. If the plan worked, they would surround the Serbs and block any Allied relief from Salonika. The Field
Marshal was confident even though he considered the Serbs the best soldiers in the Balkans: "By no means am I underestimating the military prowess of the Serbs but, together with the Bulgarians, we must overpower them even in their mountainous territories. If common sense triumphs over the hastiness of the Entente forces, Greece and Romania will remain neutral. And if that is not the case, well, then we will try to overthrow them, too. Germany's noble cause must prevail, even if the world is full of devils." The offensive began on October 6. German and Austro-Hungarian artillery opened fire across the Danube and Sava rivers,
knocking many Serbian batteries out of action. The lack of Serbian artillery allowed the Central Powers to throw six bridgeheads across the rivers. Some Serbian civilians joined the army's Defence of Belgrade Group as fighting raged just outside the city's Kalemegdan fortress. Serbian General Zivkovic reported: "Despite our troops' relentless attack, [the enemy] managed to hold their own thanks to their very strong and particularly heavy artillery, which managed to silence all [.] of our heavy weapons." As Central Powers reinforcements and supplies began to cross on pontoon bridges, Serbian units retreated from Belgrade, along with civilian refugees.
However, within days heavy autumn rains and strong winds turned the rivers into torrents, destroying the Central Powers' bridges. The storms limited aerial intelligence, and turned roads into mud. The Central Powers' only advanced about 30km in the first week. Then, on October 14, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and the army crossed the border under General Nikola Zhekov. The Bulgarian 1st and 2nd Armies outnumbered the Serbian 2nd Army under General Stepa Stepanovic more than two to one in men, and nearly 2 to 1 in guns. The Serbs resisted as best they could, helped by the rough terrain and snowy weather, but the Bulgarians drove them back. So the Serbs fought fiercely, but the odds were
stacked against them. The Germans and Austrians brought in mountain troops from other fronts, while the Serbs had no more reserves. Soon, the Serbian army was in full retreat. After more than a year of hard fighting, and lacking weapons, men, supplies, and food, the men had reached their limit. Austro-Hungarian Captain Hesshaimer empathized with his enemy: "This was hunger and psychological anguish covered in rags. The residue of the beaten, fleeing army had suffered unimaginable horrors during its retreat. This collapse, regardless of who won or lost, was one of the shocking dramas of the Great War."
The Bulgarians reached Kumanovo by October 20 and Skopje by the 22nd, cutting off Serbia from Greece and potential Allied help. Serb units destroyed their ammunition dumps in Kragujevac, which Habsburg forces entered on October 31. The fortress city and temporary Serbian capital of Nis was the next to fall, to the Bulgarians on November 4. The capture of Nis meant the Central Powers could connect to their Ottoman allies by rail - but they had so far failed to encircle the crumbling Serbian army. Despite the immense pressure, the Serbian retreat to the west was mostly controlled. Tens of thousands of civilians,
fearing the hardships of enemy occupation, joined the army on the roads. They had even less food than the troops, and the crowds of refugees sometimes blocked military movements along the major roads. Serbian socialist politician Dragiša Lapčević described the scenes in Jagodina: "Since the beginning of the war Jagodina has been full of refugees, especially from Belgrade. Now, when the enemy has started to infiltrate from all sides, refugees have been arriving constantly, night and day, in trains, carts and on foot, and then going on. Many are homeless, without food,
and the poor, barefoot and in tatters, are unable to withstand the cold October weather." As the Central Powers pushed back the Serbs on all fronts, the Allies struggled to coordinate their expeditionary force. The French Army of the Orient finally landed at Salonica in October, but it was a half-hearted affair. The British were more concerned with the defence of Egypt and delayed committing troops. Joffre reduced the number of French forces he'd release from the Western Front, and Italy refused to send any troops at all. The divided Greeks had little say in the matter. General Maurice Sarail arrived with 30,000 French troops, eventually
joined by 13,000 British, in early October. He'd had a falling out with Joffre, but had the support of republic politicians. His orders, though, were vague and contradictory, and his force was too small to protect its supply line back to Salonica if it advanced, and too small to make a difference at the front. General Adolphe Guillaumat confided his doubts to his wife on October 9: "I have felt for six months the solution has been in the Balkans; we understand that now but we'll arrive too late." At first, the Serbs had high hopes for Allied help, but by now their army was falling apart as more and more deserted or surrendered. By late
November, only about 140,000 men, many unarmed, reached the plains of Kosovo. The location was of symbolic importance for Serbian nationalists, who considered Kosovo the birthplace of their movement after the Ottomans defeated a Serbian army there in 1389. Local Albanians, themselves impoverished, traded with the soldiers to their advantage, as Serbian soldier Jelisije Andrić recalled: "We saw Albanians with white hats, barefoot, carrying things bought from the soldiers. They grabbed me in the middle of the road and asked how much I wanted for my cloak
and blanket? Did it all have to be like this? Is this how things collapse? I remembered Tolstoy, his genius … He should have seen this and then he might have written a new War and Peace." Mackensen made one last effort to surround the Serbs in Kosovo, but once again the surviving Serbs slipped away. On November 23, Central Powers' troops entered Priština and the next day, Mackensen declared the major campaign over. The Germans had suffered about 12,000 casualties, the Austro-Hungarians some 18,000, and the Bulgarians around 37,000.
The Serbs and Montenegrins lost perhaps 250,000, 175,000 of whom were prisoners. As for the Army of the Orient, it finally crossed the border into Serbia in November, struggling through the mountains and suffering from the lack of rail and road capacity. They clashed with Bulgarian troops near the Vardar river, and Sarrail accepted he did not have the strength to break through. One of the Bulgarians wounded in the fighting was artillery officer and future general Vladimir Vazov, who was evacuated from the front: "Every bump [in the road] causes me pain. In my head, dark thoughts began to appear. What if the
wound is serious, as the medic said? What if it gets infected, what if there are complications and I die? And so far away from Maria and my children. Oh, if I could see them one more time. I don't want to die so far away from them." On December 3, Sarrail retreated to better defensive positions to wait for reinforcements. General Zhekov asked the Germans to support a follow-up attack to destroy the Army of the Orient in Greece, emphasizing the importance of the moment for his country: "We have committed our entire existence to this war, we have engaged in a bloody combat and have sustained enormous losses."
Falkenhayn refused, arguing the Balkan front was not important enough in the wider war. From the German point of view, Salonika tied down Allied troops, and Greece's new government was not as pro-Allied as earlier in the year. The Bulgarians reluctantly accepted, since they depended on German military and economic aid. So the combined forces of the Central Powers have defeated the Serbian army in the field, but the remnants of the army refuse to give up. Instead, Serbian troops, leaders, and civilians suffer through a torturous retreat.
The only chance to preserve what was left of the Serbian army and state was to make a run for the coast. This meant passing through allied Montenegrin and neutral but unfriendly Albanian territory, and many Albanians recalled their clashes with the Serbs in the recent Balkan wars. The Serbian High Command's orders where frank: "Capitulation would be the worst possible solution, as it would mean loss of the state. The only salvation from this grave situation lies in retreating to the Adriatic coast. There our army will be reorganized, supplied with food,
weapons, ammunition, clothing and everything else necessary that is being sent by our Allies, and we shall once again be a factor for our enemies to reckon with. The state lives; it still exists, albeit on foreign land, wherever the ruler, the government and the army are to be found, whatever its strength may be. In these difficult days our salvation [lies] in the endurance, the patience and utter perseverance of us all, with faith in the ultimate success of our Allies." Tens of thousands of Serbian civilians and mostly Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war joined
the Serbian retreat columns - as did elderly leaders King Petar and Marshal Radomir Putnik, members of the government, artists, scientists, and clergymen. As they struggled through cold and mountainous Albania, Albanian rebels attacked, or stole food and supplies. More Serbian troops deserted in the face of inhuman suffering, some even selling their weapons to Albanians to try to buy scarce food. The survivors finally reached the coast, but the evacuation began slowly. From January 15, 1916, Allied ships ferried the survivors to the Greek island of Corfu from ports
like Durazzo and Valona. French troops prepared medical facilities to treat the sick and wounded, and even some neutral nations sent medicine and food. Thousands, though, crowded by the piers awaiting their turn to be rescued, as a Serbian report from Medua described: "Over 3,000 refugees, mainly old people, women and children, have been queuing in the port for over twenty days waiting to be evacuated. They have no food or shelter. They are afflicted by all kinds of infectious diseases, and even the healthiest among them are helpless in the face of
the cold wind and storms. […] they will all soon be dead if there is no [Allied rescue] action." By the middle of February, 90,000 soldiers and 120,000 civilians had reached Corfu, though all were weak and starving, and thousands would die of disease or exhaustion after their arrival. A French nurse recalled the tragedy: "Corpses, piled up like planks of wood on top of one another., four in a row, sometimes six. An arm, a leg or a convulsed face stuck out here and there." 71-year-old King Petar survived, but felt the Allies should have done more and acted sooner. From 1916 onwards, the Serbian government and
state existed outside their pre-war territory. The army only had about 150,000 men left, while about 200,000 were prisoners of war in Austro-Hungarian hands, and about 100,000 were held by Bulgaria. The Central Powers occupied the country, and Bulgaria incorporated Macedonia into its territory despite calls for caution from some Central Powers leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister István Tisza. The occupation varied in harshness depending on local commanders, but the first wave of deportations began in fall 1915. Occupation authorities removed up to 25,000
civilians of fighting age, retired soldiers, or community leaders to internment camps, to eliminate any potential uprisings and to prepare for the longer-term destruction of Serbian statehood - an objective supported by Conrad: "Serbia is to be removed from the ranks of European states with a single coercive diplomatic act […]; its criminal culpability for having provoked a World War should thus be accentuated. To this end it should, in agreement with German and Bulgarian governments, be declared that: first, Serbia has ceased to exist; secondly, that the Karadjordjević dynasty has accordingly ceased to rule; thirdly,
that the area of today's Kingdom of Serbia comes under military administration as agreed by the three allies that retain the right […] to decide on the future division of the entire territory." Despite the Central Powers' occupation, the Serbian government-in-exile on Corfu survived beyond their reach, and a reconstituted Serbian army would soon fight again. Navigating the internet in 2026 is full of pitfalls. Every public or private service you sign up for requires personal data and over time this data gets out through data breaches or hacks.
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We also want to thank Sophie Souliere and Plamen Ganev for their help with this episode. If you want to learn more about the other new fronts in 1915, check out previous videos about Italy and Gallipoli. If you are watching this video on Patreon or Nebula, thank you so much for the support, we couldn't do it without you.
