Seite - 468 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

468 War Aims and Central Europe However, it was no longer possible to reach Skopje, since it had already been occupied by the Bulgarians. Now, it was simply pure survival that was at stake, and for the troops of the Central Powers who were in pursuit, it now no longer mattered whether the Serbs could be followed with more or less artillery. The Serbs had lost so much that they were hardly any longer able to maintain their resistance. The prisoners of war who fell into the hands of the Central Powers spoke for themselves. Until then, there had been 20,000, more than half of which had been taken by the Germans. However, their appearance was the same everywhere : they embodied the deepest human misery. ‘This was hunger and psychological anguish covered in rags. The residue of the beaten, flee- ing army had suffered unimaginable horrors during its retreat. This collapse, regardless of who won or lost, was one of the shocking dramas of the Great War’, noted Captain Hesshaimer, who had again been sent out in order to draw and paint his impressions for the War Press Bureau.1115 For what remained of the Serbian Army, the only option left open was to head towards Montenegro.