Seite - 463 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The Fourth Offensive against Serbia 463 offered it immediately, was to be given the ‘handshake’.1106 For Tsar Ferdinand from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who had been born in Vienna, and who had served as an Officer of the Hussars in the Imperial and Royal Army and most certainly felt sympathetic towards the Danube Monarchy, there was quite possibly a further, personal reason : he was afraid of being the victim of an assassination like Archduke Franz Fer- dinand, and therefore had a conscious desire to remain reticent.1107 This mixture of con- siderations, feelings and concerns, as well as not wanting to feel drawn to any one side or the other, resulted in Bulgaria’s neutrality. It was understandable that the Central Pow- ers, like the Entente, attempted to pull Bulgaria on to their side. Russia simplified the process by making threats : if Bulgaria were to enter the war on the side of the Central Powers, the Tsarist Empire would savagely attack its former foster child. Thus, Bulgaria continued to wait. The belligerents made repeated attempts. What Bulgaria wanted was comparatively clear. As a prize for its allegiance, it wanted territorial gains that would compensate for the loss of territory that Bulgaria had occupied between the first and the second Balkan Wars. Although these had only been annexed for around four months, like all the other Balkan states, Bulgaria was fond of using its former size as an argument. The British, who would gladly have accommodated Bulgaria’s wishes, faced the problem that they could not meet its desire for either Serbian or Romanian territories.1108 For their part, the Central Powers in turn needed to pay particular attention to Romania and Greece, since they did not wish to create more enemies. Furthermore, Kaiser Wilhelm II had blood ties to the ruling families of both kingdoms. Finally, Greece made it clear that if Bulgaria attacked Serbia, it would intervene in the war. If however a German and Austro-Hungarian strike were to be made against Serbia, and Bulgaria were merely to participate and follow suit, Greece would see no reason for intervening. This was a subtle difference ! Romania, on the other hand, had allowed Italy’s entry into the war to pass without exploiting the situation, and wished to continue to wait and see how the war would unfold. Finally, the Turks tipped the scales : since for the Ottoman Empire the decision regarding whether or not to continue the war depended on whether the Turk- ish troops would very rapidly receive supplies of weapons and ammunition by land, the High Porte agreed to territorial concessions for Bulgaria in the Maritsa region.1109 On 6 September, the alliance between the Central Powers and Bulgaria was established in the form of a German-Bulgarian friendship treaty without the involvement of Austria, a German-Bulgarian secret agreement regarding territorial changes relating to Serbia, and a military convention in which Austria-Hungary also participated. The military operations were to begin no later than 30 days following the signing of the alliance agreement. Now, only the issue of the supreme command was left to be decided. Falkenhayn approached his goal with resolution. Mackensen was to be the man for the post. He however was to receive his orders directly from the German Supreme Army Command. Falkenhayn explained this by claiming that the operation had been