MONASTIR FALLS
A glance at the map will show that Monastir was now practically in the
hands of the Allies, that it would be impossible for the Germans and
Bulgarians to hold it any longer. As has already been explained, the
plain or valley near whose head it stands is a broad, level region
which here penetrates the mountainous interior of this portion of the
Balkan Peninsula. To the eastward it is bounded by low, rolling
foothills, which gradually rise into high, rocky mountains or heights.
On the west there are no foothills: the mountains rise abruptly,
stretching south almost to Kastoria. The railroad, after leaving
Banitza, in the foothills, swings around into the plain, but under the
shadows of the high ridges on the western side. Up toward the head of
the plain these mountains curve slightly inward. About ten or fifteen
miles below the point where they meet the rolling foothills, thus
forming the head of the valley, the city of Monastir lies, some of its
outlying suburbs being plastered up against the base of the mountains.
An army occupying the heights above would absolutely dominate the
city; its artillery could pound it to a wreck within a few hours.
It was along these heights on the western edge of the plain that the
French and the Serbians had advanced, driving the Bulgarians and
Germans before them. Just at Monastir these heights are especially
high and jagged, and the Bulgarians and Germans might very well have
held out here against the enemy for a much longer period. But the
foothills over on the eastern side of the plain had been passing into
the hands of the Serbians operating in that region. These forces were
now passing to the northward of the city, though the marshy plain
still intervened. They were advancing toward the head of the valley.
Should they succeed in reaching this point, where the highway to
Prilep passed, they would cut off the retreat of the Bulgarians.
But there was still another road by which the Bulgarians might have
retreated: the highway leading through Resna to the upper part of Lake
Ochrida. Had this been open they might have risked the blocking of the
Prilep road. But, as was later indicated by the reports, the Italians
had by this time advanced above Koritza and were not only in touch
with the Russians operating around Kastoria and the lower part of the
Prespa and Ochrida lakes, but they were skirting the western shore of
Ochrida and threatening to advance on Monastir by this very highway.
Thus the Bulgarians were threatened from two directions--by the
Italians, who were turning their right flank, and by the Serbians, who
had broken through their lines in the foothills east of the Monastir
plain. There is probably no doubt that they could have held off all
frontal attacks from the heights above Monastir. Thus they were
squeezed, rather than driven, out of the city.
On the night of the 18th the German and Bulgarian forces in the city
quietly withdrew and retreated along the Prilep road to the head of
the valley. At 8 o'clock the following morning, on November 19, 1916,
exactly a year since the Serbians had been driven out of the city by
the Austrians and Bulgarians, the Allied forces marched into the
Macedonian city, and an hour later the flag of King Peter once more
floated above the roofs. Apparently the Bulgarian retreat had been too
long delayed, for before reaching the head of the valley they were cut
off by the Serbians and only escaped after heavy losses, both in
killed, wounded, prisoners, and materials. At the same time the
Serbians effectually closed the road, taking several villages and all
the dominating heights.
From a military point of view the fall of Monastir was not of vast
importance; it was of about the same significance from a tactical
aspect as Bucharest. But from a moral and political aspect it was of
immense importance. Though only populated by some 50,000 of mixed
Turks, Vlachs (Rumanians), Greeks, a few Serbs and Bulgarians, the
latter predominating, it was the center of the most Bulgarian portion
of Macedonia. Throughout the outlying districts down to Kastoria, over
to Albania, and up to Uskub, the population is purely and aggressively
Bulgar. Here the simple peasants were persecuted by the Greek Church
for fifteen years preceding the First Balkan War and by the Serbians
afterward; by the one on account of their religion, by the other on
account of their nationality. Here, too was the center of the
revolutionary movement against the Turks, and here the people rose
time and time again in open insurrection, only to be quenched by fire
and blood. Nowhere in the Balkan Peninsula has there been so much
oppression and bloodshed on account of nationality. For these reasons
Monastir has a deep sentimental significance to every Bulgarian. No
part of Macedonia means so much to him. Its possession by the Serbians
after the Balkan Wars did more, probably, to reconcile the country to
King Ferdinand's otherwise hateful pro-German policy than anything
else. As is now well known, Ferdinand stipulated that this city should
not only be taken from the Serbians, but that it should belong to
Bulgaria, before he entered the war on the side of the Germans and
Austrians. Otherwise it is quite likely that the Teutons would not
have considered it worth while to advance so far south. Its recapture
by the Serbians and their allies must, therefore, have had a
corresponding depressing effect in Bulgaria.
On the day following the evacuation of Monastir the Italians appear
for the first time in the reports of the fighting in this region. They
had obviously come in contact with the Bulgarians on their extreme
right and were pressing them back, thus forcing the whole line to
retire. The French, too, made some advance along the eastern shore of
Lake Prespa, while the Serbians took five villages in the foothills at
the head of the plain. The main forces of the Bulgarians and Germans
were making their stand about twelve miles north of the city, well up
in the hills and crossing the Prilep highway.
For some days following bad weather again settled down over the
Monastir section of the Macedonian front, and though it did not stop
the fighting, it rendered further progress on the part of the Allies
very difficult. But in spite of the brilliant victories announced by
the dispatches from Berlin and Sofia, these very reports indicated, by
the changing localities of the skirmishes that the Germans and
Bulgarians were still being pressed back. By the end of the month the
Serbians northeast of Monastir had advanced as far as Grunishte. In
the northwest the Italians were fighting in the mountains about
Tcervena Stana. Reporting on the last day of the month, Berlin
announces that "this was the day of hardest fighting." The Germans and
the Bulgarians had now reached their next line of defense and were
making desperate efforts to hold it.
Meanwhile, over on the right of the Allied front, between Doiran and
the Vardar, violent fighting had been going on during the past few
weeks, and though the Allies seemed to make some slight progress here
and there, none of these gains were of a significant nature. Here the
Bulgarians seemed to be holding their own completely. Possibly it was
not Sarrail's object to attempt any real advance over in this section;
merely to keep the enemy engaged there and prevent his rendering too
much aid to the harried Bulgarian right wing. His main offensive, if
he really had contemplated a real advance, had evidently been planned
for the Monastir route into Serbia. That all the Slavic troops, the
Russians and Serbians, were placed over in this section gives,
besides, some little color to this supposition.