THE SERBIANS ADVANCE

Having reviewed the situation in Greece during the month of September, 1916, we may now return to our narrative of the military activities along the Macedonian front. At the end of August, 1916, a lull seemed to settle down along the entire front, nothing being reported save minor skirmishes and trench raids. On the 2d the Italians at Avlona in Albania, said to number 200,000, were reported from Rome to be making an advance. Here the Austrians were facing them, the only point along the line in which Austrian troops were posted. The Italians made an attack on Tepeleni on the Voyusa, and drove the enemy from that position as well as from two neighboring villages. After this event nothing further was heard from them, though, as will appear later, it was obvious that they were making some headway. Apparently it was their object to cooperate with the rest of the Allies in Macedonia by turning the extreme right of the Bulgarian line.

On the 11th the silence was broken by the announcement from London that an energetic offensive was being resumed along the entire front on the part of the Allies. On that date the British made a crossing of the Struma over to the east bank and attacked the Bulgarians vigorously and, in spite of the counterattacks of the enemy, were able to hold their advanced position. The French, too, began hammering the foe opposite them west of Lake Doiran to the Vardar, and a few days later reported that they had taken the first line of trenches for a distance of two miles.

It was over on the extreme left, however, that the Allies were to gain what seemed to be some distinct advantages. Near Lake Ostrovo the Serbians hurled themselves up the rocky slopes toward Moglena and stormed the well-intrenched positions of the Bulgarians, and succeeded in dislodging them and driving them back. A few miles farther over, at Banitza, a station on the railroad, they also centered on a determined attack, and there a pitched battle developed, the Bulgarians having the advantage of the bald but rocky hills behind them. Over in the west, before Kastoria (Kostur, in Bulgarian dispatches), the Russians advanced and succeeded in driving the Bulgarians back. Some miles north of the town rise the naked crags and precipices of an extremely difficult range of mountains; here the Bulgarians stood and succeeded in preventing the Russians from making any further progress, their right flank being protected by the two Prespa lakes.

For almost a week the battle raged furiously back and forth along this section of the front. On the 15th the Bulgarian lines opposed to the Serbians suddenly gave way and broke, and the triumphant Serbs made a rapid advance, pursuing the enemy for nine miles and capturing twenty-five cannon and many prisoners, according to dispatches of Entente origin. For the next thirty-six hours the fighting was intense, and then the whole Bulgarian right wing seemed to crumple and swing backward. For a while the Bulgarians made a stand on the banks of the Cerna, at the southern bend of the great loop made by the river, but finally the Serbians effected a crossing and continued driving the Bulgarians up along the ridges forming the eastern side of the Monastir Valley. Farther to the left the French and Russians were also succeeding in their efforts. The Bulgarians were driven out of and beyond Florina (Lerin in Bulgarian dispatches) and General Cordonnier, in command of the French, immediately established his headquarters at this important point, commanding the whole Monastir plain. Up this level country the Bulgarians fled. Reports did not indicate to just what point up the valley the French were able to advance, but it was quite obvious that the Bulgarians were able to stay them some distance before Monastir, where the mountains approach the city and offer excellent positions for artillery against troops advancing up the railroad line toward the city. On the map at least this important city seemed to be threatened, but it was still too premature to pronounce it in serious danger, as did the Entente press.[Back to Contents]