TimelineMapsSearch QuotationsSearch Images

Follow us through the World War I centennial and beyond at Follow wwitoday on Twitter

Balkan Front

Map of the the Balkan Front — Germany's Southeast Front — with the mountain passes between Austria-Hungary and Romania. From the Reichsarchiv history of the wars in Serbia and Romania, Herbstschlacht in Macedonien; Cernabogen 1916.
The capitals of Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Constantinople (Turkey) are prominent, as is Salonica, Greece, the Allied entry port into the country.
Text:
Übersichtskarte der Süd-Ost-Front
Skizze I.
Erklärungen:
Oesterreich Ungarn
Landesgrenzen
Overview map of the south-east front 
Sketch I. 
Explanations: 
Austria-Hungary
Borders

Map of the the Balkan Front — Germany's Southeast Front — with the mountain passes between Austria-Hungary and Romania. From the Reichsarchiv history of the wars in Serbia and Romania, Herbstschlacht in Macedonien; Cernabogen 1916.
The capitals of Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Constantinople (Turkey) are prominent, as is Salonica, Greece, the Allied entry port into the country.

Image text

Übersichtskarte der Süd-Ost-Front

Skizze I.

Erklärungen:

Oesterreich Ungarn

Landesgrenzen



Overview map of the south-east front

Sketch I.

Explanations:

Austria-Hungary

Borders

Other views: Larger, Larger

The Balkan Front encompassed the Serbian Front, the Salonika Front, and the Romanian Front, all of them in the Balkans.

The Serbian Front was active in 1914 and 1915. Serbia defeated Austria-Hungary's 1914 invasions of Serbia, but could not stop the combined invasion by Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Bulgaria in late 1915. Geographically the front was within Serbia itself and along its borders with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria.

The Salonica Front opened with a failed Allied attempt to support Serbia that was stopped by Bulgarian forces, and expanded with the addition of troops evacuating Gallipoli, additional French troops, survivors of the Serbian retreat, Russians, and Italians. In 1918, this Allied Army defeated Bulgaria and liberated Serbia. The Front was named for the Greece port of Salonica. It roughly followed the northern border of Greece, and included southern Albania, which was held by Italian forces.

Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies in part due to the success of Russia's Brusilov Offensive, and offensive that had already been stopped. A brief, successful strike into Hungarian territory ended in defeat by Central Power forces that combined German, Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Turkish units. The Romanian Front included not only Romania, but also Transylvania in Austria-Hungary, which Romania invaded to begin its war. Most of its army was defeated in 1916, but Romanian and Russian troops held Moldavia until the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Balkan Front is a battle front in Europe.

A sample pie chart graphic

Some books about Balkan Front (1)

Title Author Last Name Author First Name
The Gardeners of Salonika Palmer Alan