801 MT COY ASC
An overview of the Salonika campaign
The Great War started in the Balkans with the assassination of the Austrian Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand on June the 28th in Sarajevo. This gave the Austro-Hungarians the excuse they had been looking for to declare war on Serbia in July 1914. Throughout the autumn of 1914 the Serbs put up a heroic and successful defense of their country. In the spring and summer of 1915 not much happened in the Balkans, the Austro-Hungarians were preoccupied with the Russians, but the Serbs hit by a typhoid epidemic were unable to reinforce their depleted army. In the autumn of 1915 Bulgaria joined the war on the side of the central powers and a combined offensive with the Austro-Hungarians and the Germans was launched against Serbia. The Serbs asked for help and the French and the British sent troops but they were too little too late, by November the Serbs were defeated and fled through the mountains into Albania. The British and French withdraw back to Salonika and expecting a siege the allies set about building defensive positions around the city.
In April 1916 the French and Brits move up country and limited engagements with the enemy took place. In the summer of 1916 the refitted Serbian army arrived in Salonika along with Italian and Russian forces. In August 1916 the Bulgarians went on the offensive, advancing down the Vardar valley and into the Struma valley, the offensive was finally halted at the end of August. In September the Serbs supported by the French take Kajmackalan, Florina and Monastir. The first British offensive action is the assault on Horseshoe Hill at the end of August, followed by the battle of Machukovo and the capture of villages in the Struma valley. The Roumanians entered the war but were defeated in a short campaign. By December 1916 the fighting had died down.
In the spring of 1917 the combined efforts of the French, Serbs, Italians and Russians are largely a failure to the west of the River Vardar in the Moglena mountains. The British role in the offensive was a full scale assault on the enemy positions west of Lake Doiran and a series of actions in the Struma valley. The first battle of Doiran fails to break through the Bulgarian lines but the actions in Struma valley are largely successful. Problems with Greek neutrality are finally resolved when the Pro German Greek King abdicates and the Greeks enter the war on the side of the allies.
With the exception of the Greeks taking Skra De Legen west of the Vardar, there is no offensive in the spring of 1918; however, in September 1918 a full scale offensive is launched. The British and the Greeks attack either side of Lake Doiran but fail to break through. The Serbs and the French finally breakthrough the Bulgarian lines in the Moglena mountains. The Bulgarians and Germans begin to withdraw. The French take Prilep then Skopje, Serbs advance rapidly into Serbia. On the 30th September Bulgarians sign an armistice, the first of the central powers to concede defeat.