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Germany and King Ferdinand of Bulgaria squeeze pincers on Serbia at the city of Nisch. Germany and Austria-Hungary began their joint invasion across Serbia's norther border on October 6, 1915. Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers on October 14, and invaded Serbia from the east. Nisch fell to the invaders on November 5.The Serbia capital of Belgrade on the Danube and the city of Monastir on the Greek border are marked with initials.Handmade postcard map dated November 12, 1915.
Uniforms of the British Army, 1914, from a series of postcards of uniforms of the combatants in the 1914 European War.
England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
A panorama of Loretto Heights including part of Vimy Ridge. Notre Dame de Lorette, a pilgrimage site in 1914, stood on the Heights, and was, with Vimy Ridge, part of the high ground seized by German troops in the Race to the Sea after the Battle of the Marne. French commander Joffre hoped to capture Loretto Heights and Carency, a village the Germans had fortified, in the First Battle of Artois in December, 1914.
Chosen Boy, a 1918 watercolor by Paul Klee. From Paul Klee: Early and Late Years: 1894-1940. © 2013 Moeller Fine Art
"Monday, October 25, 1915The Serbian disaster is developing apace.A swift Bulgarian raid on Vrania, on the upper Morava, and Uskub, on the Vardar, has cut the Nish-Salonica railway. Henceforth the Royal Government and the diplomatic corps cannot flee to Monastir. They intend to try and reach Scutari and the shores of the Adriatic via Mitrovitza, Pritzend and Diakovo, i.e., crossing the mountain tangle of Albania, where all the passes are already blocked by snow!Every day Pastchich is sending a desperate—and vain—appeal to the Allies." ((1), more)
"Yesterday's newspaper had an 'intriguing' article under the name of one of the troupe of journalists kept at G.H.Q. to tell the public at home what G.H.Q. thinks it may be told. . . . The first paragraph chides the public for entertaining extravagant expectations: as if expectations had not been inflated by the official pæans of victory, which, by the way, the journalists 'despatches' echoed. Then there is a dissertation on the use of reserves. One may guess that there has been a searching of the text-books at G.H.Q. The reference to the magnitude of the success attainable if calculations had been fulfilled is the lollipop. (The Medical Department had pegged sites for hospitals 30 miles east of here.) To-day's papers give the appointment of another Cavalry General to a high command in this war in earth burrows.. . . The battle which was to have restored the war of movement failed completely of its purpose. It was just a vast upheaval in the deadlock. Here it is in epitome as quoted to me—'mismanagement at the top, inefficiency in the middle, want of training at the bottom.'" ((2), more)
"The German submarine campaign in the Mediterranean is generally considered to have begun in earnest in October 1915 when the Admiralstab ordered U.33 and U.39, followed by U.35 later in the month, to attack the approaches to Salonika and Kavalla. The Germans sank 18 ships in the Mediterranean in October, representing 63,848 tons. This was the major portion of the 83,714 tons sunk in all theaters the same month. The Admiralstab decided on further reinforcement for the Mediterranean, and a sixth large U-boat, U.38, sailed for Cattaro in mid-October." ((3), more)
"Cursing, grumbling, complaining, each one of us marched along, dragging himself forward as best he could. To arrive where? In gloomy boyaux, full of mud, where we argued with each other over half-collapsed holes which our predecessors had dug. Only the officers had halfway decent shelters at their disposal.A few slabs of sheet metal, some planks placed across the top of the trench and covered with earth, would have been enough to give us a shelter, if not comfortable, at least sufficient to protect us from the glacial wind and the downpours. But no. There, like practically everywhere else, nothing had been planned for, nothing had been ordered, by some colonel or other or by Generalissimo Joffre, to shelter the human cattle against the bad weather." ((4), more)
"On the 6th October the Austro-German forces opened their carefully prepared campaign against Serbia, beginning the passage of the Danube and the Save the next day. On the 7th October, King Constantine of Greece definitely refused to intervene on behalf of Serbia, and M. Venizelos resigned and was replaced by M. Zaimis. On the 14th October, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and advanced into Macedonia. On the 15th, Great Britain and, on the 16th, France declared war on Bulgaria.In consequence of these events, M. Delcassé, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, resigned and brought about, on the 29th, the fall of the Viviani Cabinet. M. Briand succeeded to the Presidency of the Council, with General Galliéni as Minister of War." ((5), more)
(1) Attacked from the north and northwest by German and Austro-Hungarian forces, and from the east by two Bulgarian armies, Serbia's sole hope was the Franco-British forces that had landed in Salonika, Greece. In cutting the rail line from Greece, the Bulgarians had insured the Serbs could neither retreat to the south nor expect relief from that direction. The only direction possible was west, into mountainous Albania to reach the Adriatic Sea whence Allied ships could transport them to safety. Monastir was a Serbian city on the Greek border. Pastchich, or Pashitch, was the Serbian Premier.
An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. II by Maurice Paléologue, page 96, publisher: George H. Doran Company
(2) A bitter entry from October 26, 1915 from the writings — diaries, letters, and memoirs — of Captain J.C. Dunn, Medical Officer of the Second Battalion His Majesty's Twenty-Third Foot, The Royal Welch Fusiliers. The success of the first day — September 25, 1915 — of the Battle of Loos was celebrated even as the gains were being lost in renewed attacks and German counter-attacks. The Western Front Allies longed for a return to the war of movement, with infantry breaking the enemy front and the cavalry outflanking and getting behind the German lines.
The War the Infantry Knew 1914-1919 by Captain J.C. Dunn, pp. 162, 163, copyright © The Royal Welch Fusiliers 1987, publisher: Abacus (Little, Brown and Company, UK), publication date: 1994
(3) With Bulgaria's entry into the war, Germany transferred submarines UB.7 and UB.8 from the Mediterranean to its new ally's Black Sea coast which Russia first bombarded on October 20. The German and Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia included one of Montenegro. Cattaro was a significant Austro-Hungarian port on the border of Montenegro. Kavalla remains a Greek port 150 km. east of Salonika where Franco-British forces had landed on October 5.
A Naval History of World War I by Paul G. Halpern, page 383, copyright © 1994 by the United States Naval Institute, publisher: UCL Press, publication date: 1994
(4) Extract from the notebooks of French Corporal Louis Barthas whose reserve unit was moving into reserve trenches near Neuville-Saint-Vaast on October 28, 1915. The men had taken part in the Third Battle of Artois, part of the great autumn Anglo-French offensive of 1915 and, since its suspension, had been trained in grenade throwing (much of by throwing rocks) to harass the Germans through the coming winter. Boyaux are communication trenches.
Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918 by Louis Barthas, page 131, copyright © 2014 by Yale University, publisher: Yale University Press, publication date: 2014
(5) October 1915 extended the Entente Allies' disastrous year that included disappointments for the French in the Second and Third Battles of Artois and the First and Second Battles of Champagne, for the British at Neuve Chapelle and Loos, for both countries in the Dardanelles, for Russia in the long months of retreat after the May 2nd launch of the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive, for their new ally Italy in the First, Second, and Third Battles of the Isonzo. The Franco-British landing at Salonica bordered on being an invasion of Greece, opened a new battle front, and did nothing to stop the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian overrunning of Serbia. The military, governments, the press, and the public looked for change and identification of those responsible.
Military Operations France and Belgium, 1915, Vol. II, Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos by J. E. Edmonds, pp. 405, 406, copyright © asserted, publisher: Macmillan and Co., Limited, publication date: 1928
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