Bulgarian machine-gunners laying out ammunition belts on the Salonica Front.
"At two in the morning on August 17 [1916] a column of Bulgarian infantry, with light artillery trundling behind, set out along half-forgotten hill tracks on the western fringe of the Kenali valley, which led from Monastir to Florina. Shortly afterward a second infantry regiment began a parallel advance on the opposite side of the valley. By dawn they had overpowered the Serbian outposts, and by the time that news of the attack had reached Sarrail eighty miles away in Salonika, the Bulgarians had captured the station of Florina and were in a position to cut off the town, which lay three miles west of the railway. By the following morning the Bulgarians had rushed 18,000 men through the gap and outnumbered the Serbs who opposed them by two to one."
German and Bulgarian commands anticipated an offensive against Bulgaria by the Allies forces in Greece and were aware Romania was about to join the Allies in the war against Austria-Hungary. German forces had helped, and continued to help, Austria stop Russia's attempts to reinvigorate their success in the Busilov Offensive, leaving the Bulgarians to take the lead in preempting the Allied attack. Under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail, the Allied line included French, British, Russian, and Serbian troops. It was the Serbian sector on the Greek frontier the Bulgarians struck.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 77, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
1916-08-17, 1916, 08, Salonica, Salonika, Serbian army
