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in Poland, the British reverse at the Dardanelles, and their own ambition to attain the abortive terms of the Treaty of San Stefano, the Bulgars embarked upon the world war in the belief that it would be a brief one once they threw their weight in the scales. They immediately mobilized every available mon down to the youngest class and enrolled about 750,000 men, leaving the women and old men to work the farms. It was essential to their success that the war be brief, because only about 35,000 youths mature every year, and they had no other reserves.

Their attack on the Serbian rear attained its object and made possible the Austrian advance under General von Mackensen. So far their losses had not been great, because their strength had not been tested out in a pitched battle with a well-equipped foe. They had, moreover, proved themselves good fighting material, and were well-backed up by heavy artillery lent by their northern allies.

The Retreat from Serbia

Meanwhile, at Saloniki, the French had landed a division under General Sarrail, the renowned defender of Verdun, and the British had disembarked the heroic remnants of the Tenth Irish Division under Sir Bryan Mahon, who had led the flying column to the relief of Mafeking during the Boer war. There was no Commander in Chief to co-ordinate the movements of the allied forces, who now moved up country, where the French took station on the left around Krivolak and the British on the right around Doiran. General Sarrail endeavored to extend his left flank to get in touch with some 5,000 Serbians who were retreating from Uskub, and were at the moment holding the Babuna Pass, north of Prilip. Owing to the weakness of his force he did not succeed, although his manoeuvre diverted the attention of the Bulgars and enabled the Serbians to escape into Albania.

The allied commanders themselves now had to think about retreating, but were hampered by the Greeks in their rear wrecking trains and endeavoring to prevent stores and ammunition reaching the

allied forces from the base at Saloniki. The Government at Athens announced that if the Anglo-French army came back into Greek territory they would intern it. The protecting powers responded with an ultimatum threatening to blockade Greece, whereupon Athens gave way with a bad grace.

In November, 1915, large allied reinforcements arrived at Saloniki, but were not sent up country, partly owing to the threatening attitude of the Greek Army and partly because a retreat from the front had already been decided on. They consisted of one French corps, and two British corps-of which two divisions were veterans from the old regular standing army.

General Sarrail retreated to Ghevgeli with small loss and saved his stores, but on Dec. 7, 1915, he was attacked in force and retired without advising his colleague on the right of his change of position. The British on the right still held their ground in ignorance of the French withdrawal, and were suddenly overwhelmed by a Bulgarian army several times their number. They were only saved from annihilation through the Bulgars not venturing to follow them into Greek territory. The Tenth Irish and a portion of the Twenty-second British Division in support were lost for days in the mountain mists, and some of the sentries were frozen to death in the hills.

The Allies fell back on Saloniki with the Greek Army all around them, truculent and obstructive, and with the Greek guns trained upon the allied camp.

Fortified Camp at Saloniki

General Sarrail was appointed Commander in Chief and instructed to fortify Saloniki, while the guaranteeing powers compelled the Greek King to withdraw his main army from Macedonia and retire it to Old Greece, or the kingdom as it existed prior to the Balkan war of 1912. General Mahon was given a high command in Egypt, and afterward succeeded General Maxwell in command of the troops in Ireland, he himself being an Irishman. General Milne of the Royal Artillery was appointed to the

vacancy.

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In Saloniki itself the Greek division stationed there claimed the best landing facilities for themselves, and permitted Fort Kara-Burram to be used as a base of supplies for German submarines. When the position became intolerable, General Sarrail deported the enemy Consuls and ousted the Greek garrison from the fort and quay.

The military considerations which dictated the holding of Saloniki were not less important than the political. They are comparable to those which determined the Duke of Wellington to establish the succession of impregnable lines at Torres-Vedras to cover the Port of Lisbon during his operations in the Peninsula in 1809. These not only provided him with a safe retreat, but kept open his entry into the Peninsula until such time as his army could be suitably augmented, and had the additional merit of lying across the enemys' line of action. So with Sarrail at Saloniki. He found that nature had provided him with such a camp, and that, with little alteration, it could be made impregnable against assault by the whole Bulgarian Army of 750,000.

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INNER DEFENSES OF SALONIKI

Sarrail's garrison now consisted of three French and five British divisions, with supplementary detachments-in all about 170,000 troops; but the great camp in Egypt was only three days distant and could be drawn upon for assistance if required. When General de Castelnau arrived at Christmas, 1915, from head

were only two roads available-one to Monastir and the other to Seres. Since then they have constructed over 5,000 miles of new roadways, besides building railways and improving the landing facilities at the port.

The outposts were then advanced about thirty miles, to just within the Greek frontier, from Karasuli to Kilindir. The British occupied the right with three divisions, the French the left with two divisions, and the remaining three divisions held Saloniki and the line of communications. The Greeks still had 12,000 troops in Saloniki and 38,000 in Eastern Macedonia, as well as other troops in Western Macedonia.

The major portion of the Serbian Army arrived in April and May, 1916, after leaving a division behind at Corfu. It consisted of 110,000 young hardy veterans, the survival of the fittest in the retreat through Albania; but they had still to be armed, equipped, and reorganized.

The Bulgars held the Midji Mountains on the west and the Belashitza Mountains on the east. They had encroached on the Monastir plain to within a short distance of Florina, then held by the French, and at the Vardar Pass they

had again come within Greek territory. Otherwise they adhered to their own frontier. This line was held by six Bulgarian divisions of 30,000 men each, under General Teodoroff, to whose command some German gunners and engineers were attached.

In Western Macedonia the Greeks were undisturbed. In Albania the Italians had occupied Valona (or Avlona) as a precautionary measure shortly after Austria entered the Balkan area. Their strong force at Valona, however, was not in touch with Sarrail's army at Saloniki until after the capture of Monastir.

The prompt action of the Italians in seizing Valona defeated one of the political objects Austria had in initiating the war, and the Anglo-French occupation of Saloniki completed the discomfiture of the Dual Kingdom.

The Bulgars Invade Greece

Satisfactory assurances having apparently been obtained by the Teutonic powers from the Greek King, the Bulgarian forces crossed the frontier on May 26, 1916. A German officer led the vanguard and demanded the surrender of Fort Rupel, the Hellenic key to the Struma River Pass. When the commander refused he was requested to telephone Athens, and, on doing so, was directed by the War Office to yield up the fort. The same procedure followed with the other forts guarding the passes into Eastern Macedonia.

The Central Powers were now in possession of all the strategic sites of value without Saloniki. The Greek Government had refused to permit the powers who were protectors of their kingdom to occupy these vantage points and so prevent such a dénouement.

General Sarrail immediately proclaimed martial law in Saloniki, seized all the means of communication, and expelled the Greek civil authorities. The British, on the right, left their intrenched lines and advanced to the Struma, while the Bulgars dug themselves in on the further bank.

King Constantine adopted the wellunderstood Levantine attitude of simulating compliance, but was hampered by his

own evanescent Government creations. Early in September, 1916, the whole Greek army corps in Eastern Macedonia declined to accept passage to Old Greece and voluntarily surrendered to the Germans with all their artillery and the stores which Sarrail had sent to them by motor transport from Saloniki.

This placed the seaport of Kavalla, the inland towns of Drama and Seres, and the Oriental railway from Greece to Constantinople in the hands of the Bulgarians. It also enabled them to bring in Turkish troops from Adrianople.

The protecting powers thereupon seized the Island of Thasos, which dominates Kavalla.

The Summer of 1916

Coincident with the arrival of the Serbian Army at Saloniki, the enemy had been reinforced by two Bulgarian divisions, or 60,000 troops. The military position now was that the Anglo-French army had about 120,000 rifles, 500 field guns, and some 200 heavy guns. The Serbians were being rearmed with about 80,000 rifles, and their organization had been taken in hand, as their primitive formations were unsuited for co-ordination with their allies. Their guns and horses had not yet come to hand. Until the Serbians were ready, Sarrail was unable to move, because the Bulgars were possessed of 150,000 rifles and 700 guns, including heavy artillery.

Throughout the Summer the British troops holding the line on the Struma marshes were afflicted with malarial fever, and half their number were on the sick list. The Bulgars were not so affected because, besides being acclimatized, their local knowledge of climatic conditions had warned them to keep to the higher ground which they were already in possession of.

The equipment of the British force, while admirable for defending the intrenched camp at Saloniki, was unsuited for taking the offensive in mountain warfare in a country where there were no cart roads. Pack mules must replace their motor transport and light railways, and mountain guns take the place of their garrison artillery.

The Asquith Government had their eyes on the great battle on the Somme, and, after their misadventures at the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia, were not sympathetic to a vigorous prosecution of the war in the East. For this they were later turned out of office. Contrary to press reports, there was no serious intention at this time of attempting to cut the Balkan railway.

The political object of foiling Austria had been attained by occupying Saloniki and Valona in force.

In August two more divisions arrived to reinforce the Bulgarian Army, and the latter now attacked the Serbians, whom Sarrail had placed on the left wing. The Serbs yielded Florina at the first onslaught and fell back behind Lake Ostrova, where they checked the Bulgar advance. Here they were strengthened on their extreme left by the arrival of a division of Russian infantry, together with French troops, who had been set free from the right wing by the timely arrival of Italian troops. The latter were inset in the British lines between

was designed to play the leading rôle. The only other striking force available was the Russian strategic reserve, but we know now that the Russians were not prepared for a move in this direction at that time. The inference, therefore, is that the press correspondents misinterpreted the situation.

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REGION COVERED IN THE CAPTURE OF MONASTIR

Lake Doiran and Lake Butkova, or, in other words, at the base of the Belashitza Mountains. The Italians were better equipped for the hill fighting than the British, and this determined the task assigned to them.

Until the Bulgars are driven out of the Belashitza Mountains the railway to Seres cannot be used. With a view to the coming offensive, General Milne took over the greater part of the allied centre in addition to holding the right wing.

Autumn Campaign of 1916

If the Entente General Staff contemplated an attack on the Sophia-Adrianople railway at the moment when Rumania entered the war, then it seems clear from subsequent events that neither Sarrail's force nor the Rumanian Army

The Autumn campaign opened with Sarrail's army aligned in the following disposition:

On the right wing, three British divisions held the line of the Struma and the Italians held the base of the Belashitza Mountains. In the centre, the Vardar front was held by two British divisions on the east side of the river and by French forces on the west side. On the left wing, the second Serbian army held the line of the Nidji Mountains, and their first army, supplemented by French and Russian detachments, held the country on either side of Lake Ostrova. The position of the Entente army was concentric, with its communications arranged accordingly.

The Bulgarian Army, augmented by

Austrian, German, and Turkish troops, was strung out along the hills in concave formation, and suffered from the absence of lateral communications.

Both sides in the early Autumn were jockeying for position, with the Bulgars uncertain whether the attack would come from the British on the right or from the French on the left. On Sept. 11, 1916, the British forded the Struma on a wide front, and during the next few days carried several villages. Simultaneously, artillery preparation commenced on the Vardar front. Sept. 29 and 30 the attack was renewed in force on the Struma front. These, however, were only feints while the mass of the French artillery and troops engaged the enemy's right.

The Capture of Monastir

The real fighting took place on Sarrail's left wing, and this was quite a brilliant affair, in which the Serbians gained great honor.

The plain of Monastir is the dry bed of an ancient lake and one of the few level stretches in this war theatre. It lies in a north and south direction and, therefore, appeared to General Sarrail an inviting entrance to outflank and turn all the Bulgar positions west of the Vardar. The Bulgarian flank was secure on that wing because the terrain was impossible. The eastern side of the valley is also protected by hills, but of a less formidable nature, and round this mountain mass the Cerna River bends back on its own course.

The Bulgars had constructed a series of intrenchments across the southern entrance of the valley near the town of

Kenali and stretching from the eastern mountains to those on the west. Between these lines and the Serbian front at Lake Ostrova lay a ridge of hills culminating in the high peak of Kaymakchalan. They were situated astride Sarrail's line of advance and were held in by force by the enemy.

On Sept. 14 the Serbian outposts were heavily reinforced and counterattacked the Bulgars opposed to them. Meantime, a Franco-Russian column was outflanking the western end of the ridge, and next day the Serbian advance captured the main position with thirtytwo field and heavy guns. The Bulgars fought a rear-guard action at the River Brod, but failed to hold their pursuers, and on the 18th the French and Serbians entered Florina.

On the 19th the Serbs carried by assault the high peak of Kaymakchalan and repelled successive counterattacks to recover it during the next week. Another fortnight passed in carrying forward the railway, bringing up the heavy guns and accumulating a sufficiency of shells. On Oct. 14 and 15 a frontal assault on the Kenali lines failed.

General Sarrail now changed his tactics and directed the artillery against the positions on the eastern hills. The next month was occupied by the French artillery and Serbian infantry in clearing ridge after ridge from which they enfiladed the Kenali lines, and, in cooperation with a Franco-Russian frontal assault, compelled the Bulgars to evacuate them on Nov. 14. The latter were unable to make a further stand in front of Monastir, and on Nov. 19 General Sarrail's troops entered the city.

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