Page - 986 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

986 The War becomes History and Serbian troops at the forefront, the Allies attacked the army group of the German General von Scholtz, which comprised German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops. On 17 and 18 September, signs of disintegration were evident in the Bulgarian 2nd Division. The Bulgarian Army no longer wanted to fight, for which reason the focus of the defence was from the outset on the German and Austro-Hungarian for- mations. The German 11th Army also had to be withdrawn very quickly from the Lake Ohrid region and from Prilep in the direction of Skopje, whilst the Bulgarians were still attempting to defend on the Vardar River. On the morning of 25 September, British cavalry crossed the Bulgarian border. A democratic revolution began, and the King had barely any reliable troops at his disposal. Bulgaria appealed for German and Aus- tro-Hungarian reinforcements to be sent immediately and insisted on the fulfilment of the military convention from 1915. The Imperial and Royal Army High Command in Baden promptly agreed to send two divisions, but let the Foreign Ministry confiden- tially know that 1,000 trains would be required. In view of the railway situation, the transport would take three to four weeks.2418 Sofia, Berlin and Vienna were aware that it would be too late. On 26 September, the Bulgarian government sent an armistice del- egation to the headquarters of General Franchet d’Espèrey and attempted at the same time tactical manoeuvring, even hinting at a Bulgarian change of fronts. D’Espèrey was not interested.2419 All that remained for Bulgaria was unconditional military surrender. On 29 September, a formal armistice was concluded. Tsar Ferdinand informed the allied monarchs of what had passed. In his response, Emperor Karl reacted with the somewhat irrational question as to whether Bulgaria’s step was irreversible. In fact, he could answer this question himself and, in the draft of his telegram, crossed out the obligatory closing message ‘In loyal friendship’. With Bulgaria’s surrender, a large proportion of those troops were lost who had stood as far as the Albanian border, since Bulgaria had also occupied substantial parts of the Balkan Peninsula in order to bolster its own territorial demands. The Com- mander of the Austro-Hungarian Army Group Albania, General Pflanzer-Baltin, be- gan a painstaking withdrawal with Serbian, British and French troops on his left flank, and Italians and the sea on the other side. In Serbia, however, it was not possible for the German and Austro-Hungarian troops to make a stand against the Allies. Troops were hastily transferred from Italy and Ukraine to the Balkans. Evidently, however, only radical measures could help here. General von Arz suggested to Emperor Karl that all available Austro-Hungarian forces, namely five infantry divisions and a cavalry division, together with three to five German divisions, occupy the shortest line from the Adriatic to the Danube and establish a front from Shkodër, via Peć, Mitrovica and Niš, as far as Vidin. In this way, it would have been possible to shield the Government General of Serbia. This force was to be placed as an army group under the command of Field Marshal Hermann