Serbian campaign

Serbian campaign
Part of the Balkans theatre of World War I
Serbian infantry positioned at Ada Ciganlija.
Date 28 July 1914 – 24 November 1915 (1 year, 3 months, 3 weeks and 6 days) Location Serbia, Montenegro, Albania Result Central Powers victory Serbian retreat through Albania Austro-Hungarian occupation Bulgarian occupation
Belligerents
Central Powers:  Austria-Hungary  Bulgaria (from 1915)  Germany (from 1915)	Allied Powers:  Serbia  Montenegro
Casualties and losses
340,000+ battle and non-battle casualties	405,000+ battle casualties
450,000[1] to 842,000[2] Serbian civilians died of war-related causes from 1914 to 1918

The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the Central Powers against the Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War.

The first campaign began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914. The campaign, euphemistically dubbed "punitive expedition" (German: Strafexpedition) by the Austro-Hungarian leadership,^[3] was under the command of Austrian General Oskar Potiorek. It ended after three unsuccessful Austro-Hungarian invasion attempts were repelled by the Serbians and their Montenegrin allies. The victory of the Royal Serbian Army at the battle of Cer is considered the first Allied victory in World War I, and the Austro-Hungarian Army's defeat by Serbia has been called one of the great upsets of modern military history.^[4][5]

The second campaign was launched, under German command, almost a year later, on 6 October 1915, when Bulgarian, Austro-Hungarian, and German forces, led by Field Marshal August von Mackensen, successfully invaded Serbia from three sides, pre-empting an Allied advance from Salonica to help Serbia. This resulted in the Great Retreat through Montenegro and Albania, the evacuation to Greece, and the establishment of the Macedonian front.^[6] The defeat of Serbia gave the Central Powers temporary mastery over the Balkans, opening up a land route from Berlin to Constantinople, allowing the Germans to re-supply the Ottoman Empire for the rest of the war.^[7] Mackensen declared an end to the campaign on 24 November 1915. Serbia was then occupied and divided between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria.^[8]

After the Allies launched the Vardar Offensive in September 1918, which broke through the Macedonian front and defeated the Bulgarians and their German allies, a Franco-Serbian force advanced into the occupied territories and liberated Serbia, Albania, and Montenegro. Serbian forces entered Belgrade on 1 November 1918.^[9]

The Serbian army declined severely from about 420,000^[10] at its peak to about 100,000 at the moment of liberation. The estimates of casualties are various: Original Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war (including both military and civilian losses), which represented more than 29% of its overall population and 60% of its male population.^[11][12] More recent historical analysis has estimated that roughly 177,000 Serbian soldiers lost their lives or were not returned from captivity, while the civilian death toll is impossible to determine, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.^[13] According to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers or 25% of all mobilized troops. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%.^[14]