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.