The War in the Balkans and the Middle East

World War I broke in the Balkans as a direct result of the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary, with the backing of Germany and the Ottoman Empire (alliance known as “The Central Powers”) attacked Serbia who received the support of the Entente (the British Empire, France, Russia, Italy.) The Central Powers were able to engage as an ally the country with the largest army in the region – Bulgaria. Its entry in the war meant a death blow to Serbia and Romania and ensured the continuous Ottoman war effort by opening the way for much needed German material assistance. Initially the war was characterized with highly successful campaigns of rapid movements in 1915 and 1916. However, once most Bulgarian territorial aspirations had been satisfied it degraded into a state of trench attrition. This prolonged period substantially weakened the economy, created various supply problems and reduced the health and morale of the troops on the front lines. Under these circumstances the Allied armies in Greece, composed of contingents from almost all Entente countries, managed to break the Macedonian Front and cause the rapid collapse of part of the Bulgarian Army. Bulgaria was forced to seek and accept an armistice on 30 September 1918.

The campaign in the Balkans is represented below by two maps from the Olin Library map collection, and maps and images in the public domain, downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

Avidius. Bulgarian military operations against Serbia (1915). 2011. Facsimile. Wikimedia Commons. On 14 October 1915, the Bulgarian Army attacked from two directions, from the north towards Niš and from the south towards Skopje. The Bulgarian First Army defeated the Serbian Second Army at the Battle of Morava, while the Bulgarian Second Army defeated the Serbians at the Battle of Ovche Pole. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became untenable; the main army in the north (around Belgrade) could either retreat, or be surrounded and forced to surrender. In the Battle of Kosovo the Serbs made a last and desperate attempt to join the two incomplete Allied divisions that made a limited advance from the south, but were unable to gather enough forces, due to the pressure from the north and east and were halted by the Bulgarians under General Georgi Todorov and had to pull back. when the Bulgarian 1st Army and the German 11th Army took Pristina on 23 of November the Serbian High Command ordered a general retreat of the entire army to Albania. The circumstances of the retreat were disastrous, and all told, only some 155,000 Serbs, mostly soldiers, reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and embarked on Allied transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands.

Kettler, J. I. Völkerkarte der Balkanhalbinsel, mit statistisch-geographischem Begleittext. [map]. 1:1,500,000. 1919. Facsimile. Cornell University Map Collection. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I transformed the political organization of the Balkans. This map is a testament to the ethnic, religious, and national diversity of the Balkans, but it provides little sense of the demographic damage that the war wreaked on the peninsula, where an estimated one-quarter of the prewar populations of Serbia and Montenegro were killed, one of the highest casualty rates of any combatant country.

Kandi. Bulgaria During World War I. 2011. Facsimile. Wikimedia Commons. Its strategic geographic location and strong military made Bulgaria a desired ally by both warring sides but Bulgarian aspirations were difficult to satisfy because they included territorial claims against four Balkan countries. As the war progressed the Central Powers found themselves in a better position to fulfill Bulgarian demands and persuaded the country to join their cause in September 1915. Despite being the smallest member of the alliance in area and population Bulgaria made vital contributions to the common war effort.

A Propaganda Postcard Commemorating the Central Powers Victory over Serbia in 1915. 2011. Facsimile. Wikimedia Commons. Depicted from rght to left are Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. The Serbian Campaign of World War I was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded the Kingdom of Serbia at the outset of World War I, until the war's conclusion in November 1918. The front ranged from the Danube to southern Macedonia and back north again, involving forces from almost all of the combatants of the war. The Serbian Army declined severely towards the end of the war, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war (both army and civilian losses), which represented over 27% of its overall population and 60% of its male population. According to estimates by the Yugoslav government (1924) Serbia had lost 265,164 soldiers, or 25% of all mobilized people. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.

A Propaganda Postcard from World War I. 2007. Facsimile. Wikimedia Commons. A sketch representing the meeting of Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian troops at Kladovo during the Serbian campaign.

Funk & Wagnalls Company. Map of the Balkan Front [map]. 1:1,900,000. 1918. From: The Literary Digest, Oct. 5, 1918. Facsimile. Cornell University Map Collection. By 1918 the situation at the Balkan front was becoming disastrous for the Central Powers. The Macedonian campaign began on August 15 with a Serbian attack on the strongest Bulgarian positions along the Salonika front. On September 16, the French began an advance with Italian help on First Bulgarian Army. Simultaneously, the British and the Greek engaged Second Bulgarian Army. At some points, particularly closer to their inner frontiers, the Bulgarians held well; however, lacking German and Austrian support, they were defeated decisively. Some of the troops even mutinied and abandoned their positions, heading for Sofia. The war in the Balkans was effectively over.

The Middle Eastern theater of World War I was the scene of action between 29 October 1914, and 30 October 1918. The combatants were on the one hand, the Ottoman Empire with some assistance from the other Central Powers and local tribal groups (Kurds, Turcomans, Circassians, Chechens and a number of Iranian, Arab and Berber tribes); and on the other hand, the British and the Russians (with the aid of the Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and the majority of Arabs.) There were five main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign, and the Gallipoli Campaign. Significant Turkish forces were sent into the Russian Caucasus, where they were annihilated in the snowbound mountains. However, in April 1915 the Ottoman army prevented the British seizure of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles. More British disasters followed. A small Anglo-Indian force advanced in Mesopotamia, but was besieged and forced to surrender in April 1916. An Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal was repulsed by British forces, but the effort to dislodge the Turks from Sinai was unsuccessful until 1917 when Gen. Allenby took Jerusalem. In Persia there were a series of engagements between the British Empire, Russian Empire and Armenian and Assyrian forces against the Ottoman Empire, beginning in December 1914 and ending with the Armistice of Mudros on October 30, 1918. The Russian operations were halted by the Russian Revolution on February 23, 1917 when the Russian Caucasus Army was replaced with Armenian units and an Allied force named Dunsterforce. By September 1918, the Ottomans consolidated their control over northern Persia, but they lost the rest of the region to British. On 30 October 1918, the Ottoman Empire signed the Armistice of Mudros and the military operations ended. The British occupied the territory that was to become Iraq, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The Olin Library Maps Department staff generated the following map of the Middle East operations and the chart with casualties. Data was compiled from R. Grey’s “Chronicle of the First World War.”

Cornell University Library Map Collection. Map of the Middle East 1914-1918. 2014. Generated by Johannes Plambeck; using ArcView GIS 10 [GIS software].

Cornell University Library Map Collection. Chart of Casualties in the Middle East 1914-1918. 2014. Generated by Johannes Plambeck; using ArcView GIS 10 [GIS software]. Estimates of casualty numbers vary to a great extent. The figures listed here are from official secondary sources, whenever available. About two-thirds of the military deaths were in battle, unlike the conflicts that took place in the 19th century when the majority of deaths were due to disease. Nevertheless, disease, including the Spanish flu and deaths while held as prisoners of war, still caused about one third of total military deaths for all belligerents. Ottoman military casualties were certainly enormous: of the 2,900,000 men mobilized by 1918, 750,000 died in battle or from disease, and another 300,000 were seriously wounded.

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