Serbian Campaign.Montenegrin Campaign.The Serbian Campaign of was fought from late July 1914, when invaded the at the outset of, until the war's conclusion in November 1918. The front ranged from the River to southern and back north again, and it drew in forces from almost all the combatants of the war.After the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, the conflict ended with Allied and Serbian victory, and Serbian troops were able to re-enter Belgrade on 1 November 1918.The declined severely towards the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation.

The estimates of casualties are various: the Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war (both army and civilian losses), which represented over 29% of its overall population and 60% of its male population, while western historians put the number either at 45,000 military deaths and 650,000 civilian deaths or 127,355 military deaths and 82,000 civilian deaths. According to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers, or 25% of all mobilized people. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.

The Austro-Hungarian government's declaration of war in a telegram sent to the government of Serbia on 28 July 1914, signed by Imperial Foreign Minister.In 1912 and 1913, the was fought between the of, and and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting further shrank the Ottoman Empire by creating an independent and enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. See also:The standing peacetime Austro-Hungarian army had some 36,000 officers and and 414,000 soldiers. During the mobilization, this number was increased to a total of 3,350,000 men of all ranks. The operational army had over 1,420,000 men, and a further 600,000 were allocated to support and logistic units (train, munition and supply columns, etc.) while the rest – around 1,350,000 – were reserve troops available for replacing losses and the formation of new units.

This vast manpower allowed the Austro-Hungarian army to replace its losses regularly and keep units at their formation strength. According to some sources, during 1914 there were on average 150,000 men per month sent to replace the losses in the field army. During 1915 these numbers rose to 200,000 per month. According to the official Austrian documents in the period from September until the end of December 1914, some 160,000 replacement troops were sent to the Balkan theater of war, as well as 82,000 reinforcements as part of newly formed units. The pre-war Austro-Hungarian plan for invasion of Serbia envisioned the concentration of three armies (2nd, 5th and 6th) on the western and northern borders of Serbia with the main goal of enveloping and destroying the bulk of the Serbian army. However, with the beginning of the Russian general mobilization, Armeeoberkommando (AOK, Austro-Hungarian Supreme Command) decided to move the 2nd Army to 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 AOK to assign some units of the 2nd Army to take part in operations in Serbia before that date. Eventually, AOK allowed General to deploy a significant part of the 2nd Army (around four divisions) in fighting against Serbia, which caused a delay of transport of these troops to the for more than a week. Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian defeats suffered during the first invasion of Serbia forced AOK to transfer two divisions from the 2nd Army permanently to Potiorek's force. By 12 August, Austria-Hungary had amassed over 500,000 soldiers on Serbian frontiers, including some 380,000 operational troops. With the departure of the major part of the 2nd Army to the Russian front, this number fell to some 285,000 of operational troops, including garrisons. 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. 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 to this, most of the soldiers — ethnic Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians and South Slavs — had linguistic and cultural links with Austro-Hungarian empire's various enemies. Serbian The Serbian military command issued orders for the mobilization of its armed forces on 25 July and the mobilization began the following day, 26 July. By 30 July, the mobilization was completed and the troops began to be deployed according to the war plan.

Deployments were completed by 9 August, when all of 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 able-bodied men between 21 and 45 years of age.The operational army consisted of 11 and 1/2 infantry (six of 1st and five of the 2nd ban) and 1 cavalry division. Aged men of the 3rd ban were organized in 15 infantry regiments with some 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 operational army as well, bringing its strength up to around 250,000 men. Serbia was in a much more disadvantageous position when compared with Austria-Hungary with regard to human reserves and replacement troops, as its only source of replacements were new recruits reaching the age of military enlistment. Their maximum annual number was theoretically around 60,000, which was insufficient to replace the losses of more than 132,000 sustained during operations from August to December 1914.

This shortage of manpower 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. There were only 180,000 modern rifles available for the operational army, which meant that the Serbian Army lacked between one-quarter to one-third of the rifles necessary to fully equip even their front line units, let alone reserve forces. 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, 2nd ban troops often wore the obsolete dark blue M1896 issue while the 3rd ban had no proper uniforms at all and were reduced to wearing their civilian clothes with military greatcoats and caps. 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.Ammunition reserves were also insufficient for sustained field operations as most of it 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 was completely dependent on imports of ammunition and arms from France and Russia, which themselves were chronically short of supplies. Montenegrin troops outside of, October 1914.Serbia's ally Montenegro mustered an army of some 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). Uniform of Serbian soldiers from 1914Initially, three out of six Austro-Hungarian armies were mobilized at the Serbian frontier, but due to Russian intervention, the 2nd Army was redirected east to the Galician theater.

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However, since the railroad lines leading to Galicia were busy with transport of other troops, the 2nd Army could only start its departure northward on 18 August. In order to make use of the temporary presence of the 2nd army, AOK allowed parts of it to be used in Serbian campaign until that date.

Eventually, AOK directed significant parts of the 2nd Army (around 4 divisions) to assist general 's main force and postponed their transportation to Russia until the last week of August. Defeats suffered in the first invasion of Serbia eventually forced AOK to transfer 2 divisions from 2nd Army to Potiorek's army permanently.The V and VI Austro-Hungarian Armies had about 270,000 men who were much better equipped than the Serbs. Overall, Austro-Hungarian command was in the hands of general Potiorek. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had the third largest population in Europe in 1914, behind Russia and Germany (almost twelve times the population of the Kingdom of Serbia), giving it an enormous manpower advantage.Battle of Cer. First Attack on Serbia, August 1914Potiorek rushed the attack against Serbia from northern Bosnia with his Fifth Army, supported by elements of the Second Army from. The Second Army was due to be transported to Galicia to face the Russians at the end of August, but he made use of it until then.

The Sixth was positioning itself in southern Bosnia and was not yet able to commence offensive operations. Potiorek's desire was to win a victory before Emperor Franz Joseph's birthday and to knock Serbia out as soon as possible. Thus he made two grave strategic errors by attacking with only just over half of his strength and attacking hilly western Serbia instead of the open plains of the north.

This move surprised Marshal, who expected attack from the north and initially believed that it was a feint. Once it became clear that it was the main thrust, the strong Second Army under the command of General was sent to join the small Third Army under already facing the Austro-Hungarians and expel the invaders. After a fierce four-day battle, the Austro-Hungarians were forced to retreat, marking the first victory of the war over the led by Germany and Austria-Hungary.

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Casualties numbered 23,000 for the Austro-Hungarians (of whom 4,500 were captured) and 16,500 for the Serbs.Battle of Drina. 'The Serbians, seasoned, war-hardened men, inspired by the fiercest patriotism, the result of generations of torment and struggle, awaited undaunted whatever fate might bestow.'

, The Great War.7 September brought a renewed Austro-Hungarian attack from the west, across the river Drina, this time with both the Fifth Army in and the Sixth further south. The initial attack by the Fifth Army was repelled by the Serbian Second Army, with 4,000 Austro-Hungarian casualties, but the stronger Sixth Army managed to surprise the Serbian Third Army and gain a foothold. After some units from the Serbian Second Army were sent to bolster the Third, the Austro-Hungarian Fifth Army also managed to establish a bridgehead with a renewed attack. At that time, Marshal Putnik withdrew the First Army from Syrmia (against much popular opposition) and used it to deliver a fierce counterattack against the Sixth Army that initially went well, but finally bogged down in a bloody four-day fight for a peak of the Jagodnja mountain called Mačkov Kamen, in which both sides suffered horrendous losses in successive frontal attacks and counterattacks.

Two Serbian divisions lost around 11,000 men, while Austro-Hungarian losses were probably comparable.Marshal Putnik ordered a retreat into the surrounding hills and the front settled into a month and a half of trench warfare, which was highly unfavourable to the Serbs, who had little in the way of an industrial base and were deficient in heavy artillery, ammunition stocks, shell production and footwear, since the vast majority of infantry wore the traditional (though state-issued), while the Austro-Hungarians had waterproof leather boots. Most of their war material was supplied by the Allies, who were short of such materials themselves. In such a situation, Serbian artillery quickly became almost silent, while the Austro-Hungarians steadily increased their fire. Serbian casualties reached 100 soldiers a day from all causes in some divisions.During the first weeks of trench warfare, the Serbian Užice Army (first strengthened division) and the Montenegrin Sanjak Army (roughly a division) conducted an abortive offensive into Bosnia. In addition, both sides conducted a few local attacks, most of which were soundly defeated. In one such attack, the Serbian Army used for the first time: the Combined Division dug tunnels beneath the Austro-Hungarian trenches (that were only 20–30 meters away from the Serbian ones on this sector), planted mines and set them off just before an infantry charge.Battle of Kolubara. Refugee Transport from Serbia 1914/15 in,Early in 1915, with Ottoman defeats at the and in the, the German tried to convince the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, of the importance of conquering Serbia.

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If Serbia were taken, then the Germans would have a direct rail link from Germany through Austria-Hungary, then down to and beyond. This would allow the Germans to send military supplies and even troops to help the. While this was hardly in Austria-Hungary's interests, the Austro-Hungarians did want to defeat Serbia. However, Russia was the more dangerous enemy, and furthermore, with the entry of into the war on the Allied side, the Austro-Hungarians had their hands full (see ).Both the Allies and the Central Powers tried to get Bulgaria to pick a side in the Great War.

Bulgaria and Serbia had fought two wars in the last 30 years: the in 1885, and the Second Balkan War in 1913. The result was that the Bulgarian government and people felt that Serbia was in possession of lands to which Bulgaria was entitled, and when the Central Powers offered to give them what they claimed, the Bulgarians entered the war on their side. With the Allied loss in the and the Russian defeat at, King signed a treaty with Germany and on 23 September 1915, Bulgaria began mobilizing for war.Opposing forces During the preceding nine months, the Serbs had tried and failed to rebuild their battered armies and improve their supply situation. Despite their efforts, the Serbian Army was only about 30,000 men stronger than at the start of the war (around 225,000) and was still badly equipped. Although Britain and France had talked about sending serious military forces to Serbia, nothing was done until it was too late. When Bulgaria began mobilizing, the French and British sent two divisions, but they arrived late in the town of.

Part of the reason for the delay was the in Greek politics of the time that generating conflicting views about the war.Against Serbia were marshalled the Bulgarian commanded by, the German commanded by and the Austro-Hungarian commanded by, all under the control of Field Marshal. In addition the Bulgarian commanded by , which remained under the direct control of the Bulgarian high command, was deployed against.Course of the Campaign The Austro-Hungarians and Germans began their attack on 7 October with their troops crossing the Drina and Sava rivers, covered by heavy artillery fire. Once they crossed the Danube, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians moved on Belgrade itself. Vicious street fighting ensued, and the Serbs' resistance in the city was finally crushed on 9 October.Then, on 14 October, the Bulgarian Army attacked from the north of Bulgaria towards and from the south towards (see map). The Bulgarian First Army defeated the Serbian Second Army at the, while the Bulgarian Second Army defeated the Serbians at the. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became untenable; the main army in the north (around Belgrade) could either retreat or be surrounded and forced to surrender. In the, the Serbs made a last and desperate attempt to join the two incomplete Allied divisions that made a limited advance from the south, but were unable to gather enough forces due to the pressure from the north and east.

They were halted by the Bulgarians under General Todorov and had to pull back. Serbian Army during its retreat towards AlbaniaMarshal Putnik ordered a. The weather was terrible, the roads poor, and the army had to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them with almost no supplies or food left.

But the bad weather and poor roads worked for the refugees as well, as the Central Powers forces could not press them hard enough, so they evaded capture. Many of the fleeing soldiers and civilians did not make it to the coast, though – they were lost to hunger, disease and attacks by enemy forces and Albanian tribal bands.

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The circumstances of the retreat were disastrous. All told, only some 155,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers, reached the coast of the and embarked on Allied transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands (many to ) before being sent to Salonika. The evacuation of the Serbian army from Albania was completed on 10 February 1916. The survivors were so weakened that thousands of them died from sheer exhaustion in the weeks after their rescue. Marshal Putnik had to be carried during the whole retreat and he died around fifteen months later in a hospital in France.The French and British divisions had marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the command of French General. The War Office in London was reluctant to advance too deep into Serbia, so the French divisions advanced on their own up the River. This advance gave some limited help to the retreating Serbian Army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the (October–November 1915).

By the end of November, General Sarrail had to retreat in the face of massive Bulgarian assaults on his positions. During his retreat, the British at the were also forced to retreat. By 12 December, all allied forces were back in Greece. German and Bulgarian commanders in Serbia on 16 November 1915.

From right to left:, and.The Army of Serbia's ally Montenegro did not follow the Serbs into exile, but retreated to defend their own country. The Austrian-Hungarians launched their on 5 January 1916 and despite some success of The Montenegrins in the, they were completely defeated within 2 weeks.This was a nearly complete victory for the Central Powers at a cost of around 67,000 casualties as compared to around 90,000 Serbs killed or wounded and 174,000 captured. The railroad from Berlin to Istanbul was finally opened.

The only flaw in the victory was that much of the Serbian Army had successfully retreated, although it was left very disorganized and required rebuilding.1916–1918. Main article:In 1917, the Serbs launched the and liberated for a short time the area between the mountains and the river. The uprising was crushed by the joint efforts of Bulgarian and Austrian forces at the end of March 1917.The Macedonian Front in the beginning was mostly static. French and Serbian forces re-took limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing on 19 November 1916 as a result of the costly, which brought stabilization of the front.French and Serbian troops finally made a breakthrough, after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had withdrawn. This breakthrough was significant in defeating Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary, which led to the final victory of World War I. The Bulgarians suffered their only defeat of the war at the of 15–18 September 1918, but days later, they decisively defeated British and Greek forces at the, avoiding occupation. After the Allied breakthrough, Bulgaria capitulated on 29 September 1918.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff concluded that the strategic and operational balance had now shifted decidedly against the Central Powers and insisted on an immediate peace settlement during a meeting with government officials a day after the Bulgarian collapse.The disappearance of the meant that the road to and was now opened for the 670,000-strong army of General as the Bulgarian surrender deprived the Central Powers of the 278 infantry battalions and 1,500 guns (the equivalent of some 25 to 30 German divisions) that were previously holding the line. The German high command responded by sending only seven infantry and one cavalry division, but these forces were far from enough for a front to be re-established.The Allied armies, mostly French, but aided by British, Serbian and Greek troops, pushed forward in September 1918, forced Bulgaria to leave the war and eventually managed to liberate Serbia two weeks before the end of World War I.End of the War The ramifications of the war were manifold. When World War I ended, the awarded to Greece, whereas Serbia received some minor territorial concessions from Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary was broken apart, and Hungary lost much land to both Yugoslavia and Romania in the. Serbia assumed the leading position in the new, joined by its old ally,. Meanwhile, Italy established a quasi-protectorate over Albania and Greece re-occupied Albania's southern part, which was autonomous under a local Greek provisional government (see ), despite Albania's neutrality during the war.Casualties. The remains of Serbs killed by Bulgarian soldiers during the.

It is estimated that 2,000–3,000 Serbian men were killed in the town during the first months of the Bulgarian occupation of southern Serbia.Before the war, the Kingdom of Serbia had 4,500,000 inhabitants. According to the, 150,000 people are estimated to have died in 1915 alone during the worst in world history. With the aid of the and 44 foreign governments, the outbreak was brought under control by the end of the year. The number of civilian deaths is estimated by some sources at 650,000, primarily due to the typhus outbreak and, but also direct clashes with the occupiers. Serbia's casualties accounted for 8% of the total Allied military deaths.

58% of the regular (420,000 strong) perished during the conflict. According to the Serb sources, the total number of casualties is placed around 1,000,000: 25% of Serbia's prewar size, and an (57%) of its overall male population. Times and N.Y. Times also cited early Serbian sources which claimed over 1,000,000 victims in their respective articles. Modern western and non-Serb historians put the casualties number either at 45,000 military deaths and 650,000 civilian deaths or 127,355 military deaths and 82,000 civilian deaths.The extent of the Serbian demographic disaster can be illustrated by the statement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister: 'Serbia ceased to exist' ( New York Times, summer 1917).

In July 1918 the urged the Americans of all religions to pray for Serbia in their respective churches.The Serbian Army suffered a staggering number of casualties. It was largely destroyed near the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 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. In the 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%.

At the end of the war, there were 114,000 disabled soldiers and 500,000 orphaned children. Attacks against ethnic Serb civilians. Austro-Hungarian firing squad executing Serbian civilians in 1917The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, was followed by violent anti-Serb demonstrations of angry Croats and Muslims 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 the establishment of 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. That night there were anti-Serb demonstrations in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.Incited by anti-Serbian propaganda with the collusion of the command of the Austro-Hungarian Army, soldiers committed numerous atrocities against the Serbs in both Serbia and Austria-Hungary. According to the Swiss criminologist and observer, 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.

See also.References.