{"id":12263,"date":"2016-02-25T04:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12263"},"modified":"2016-02-25T04:00:53","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T10:00:53","slug":"world-war-i-history-six-facts-about-the-forgotten-battle-that-ended-the-great-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/25\/world-war-i-history-six-facts-about-the-forgotten-battle-that-ended-the-great-war\/","title":{"rendered":"World War I History: Six Facts About the Forgotten battle that Ended the Great War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"B1\"<\/h3>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Conventional wisdom holds that World War One ended\u00a0in the west with\u00a0the collapse of the Hindenburg Line; in reality it was a comparatively small clash in one of the war\u2019s forgotten fronts that precipitated the downfall of the Central Powers.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

WHEN GERMANY<\/strong> signed the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918<\/a>, the Central Powers were still in a strong position (at least on paper).<\/p>\n

The Kaiser had already pushed Montenegro, Romania, and Russia out of the war; occupied Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, large parts of Poland and the Ukraine; and secured access to natural resources in the east. On the Western Front, French, British and American armies had yet to set foot on German soil. But despite all of this, Berlinstill<\/em> sued for peace in the autumn of 1918. For many historians, this makes the end of the war on the Western Front somewhat hard to explain; it is difficult to find a decisive battle that served as the \u2018straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yet, such an engagement did occur. It took place at Dobro Polje<\/a>\u00a0on the Salonika Front<\/a> in today\u2019s Macedonia. This little-known Allied victory, which was won by a small Franco-Serbian army, ended on Sept. 17, 1918. Although the clash generated fewer than 5,000 casualties, it broke the deadlock in the Balkans\u00a0precipitating a \u2018chain reaction\u2019 of events\u00a0that\u00a0forced Berlin to seek terms within weeks.<\/p>\n

\"B2\"<\/p>\n

The Allied victory at Dobro Polje broke the Bulgarian army, compelling Sofia to seek a separate peace on Sept. 29. Alone and isolated, the German 11th<\/sup> Army<\/a>, which had been shoring up the southern flank since 1915, had no choice but to surrender too. This in turn weakened the Italian Front<\/a> and opened the door for British troops to force Turkey to the peace table in October<\/a>. The Central Powers\u2019 \u2018soft underbelly\u2019 was suddenly exposed and utterly defenseles \u2014 Germany\u2019s fate (and that of Austria-Hungary) was sealed.<\/p>\n

Conventional wisdom holds that World War One ended with the Battle of Amiens<\/a>, theHundred Days Offensive<\/a> in the west and the collapse of the Hindenburg Line<\/a>; in reality it was a comparatively small clash in one of the war\u2019s forgotten fronts that precipitated the downfall of the Central Powers. Here are six things about Dobro Polje, the most decisive battle you\u2019ve probably never heard of.<\/p>\n

\"B3\"<\/p>\n

A Successful Multi-National Effort<\/h2>\n

The Entente forces at Salonika were comprised of just seven-and-a-half Serbian divisions, eight French, one Italian, 10 Greek, and three British divisions. The Anglo French forces consisted of significant numbers of colonial troops. All operated under the leadership of France\u2019s General Franchet d\u2019Esperey<\/a>, commander of the Allied Armies of the East. The 62-year-old veteran of the Marne<\/a> had been transferred to the region following his poor performance at the Third Battle of the Aisne<\/a> in May 1918. He\u2019d more than make up for his lackluster showing in the West by delivering the Allies a war-winning victory.<\/p>\n

\"B4\"<\/p>\n

Serbian Esprit, French Reluctance<\/h2>\n

Serbia\u2019s small 60,000-man army<\/a> is often given most of the credit for the victory at Dobro Polje, as well as and the subsequent breakout that brought World War One to a speedy conclusion. Following Bulgaria\u2019s decision to seek a separate peace with the Allies, Kaiser Wilhelm sent a telegram to the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand fuming about the outcome of the battle. \u201cDisgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided the war,\u201d wrote Germany\u2019s emperor. His assessment was remarkably astute. The Serbian army, which had been forced into exile following the Austro-Hungarian occupation of 1915, had been pressing for a major offensive on the Salonika Front for two years. Its leaders hoped to restore the army\u2019s honour by finally liberating their homeland. France, however, had long opposed a major offensive in the south, viewing the Balkans as a sideshow, wishing to focus instead on what Paris viewed as the far more important Western Front. Serbia\u2019s army-in-exile relied on France for all its supplies and equipment. As such, the Salonika Front remained largely stagnant from the end of 1916 until the Battle of Dobro Polje. During the lull, Serbian artillery was allowed to fall into disrepair. France also insisted that its own officers control the heavy guns, the Serbs would get only light artillery and trench mortars. It was only in 1918 when France decided in favor of an offensive in the Balkans that artillery was refurbished and reinforced.<\/p>\n

Read the Remainder at Military History Now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cConventional wisdom holds that World War One ended\u00a0in the west with\u00a0the collapse of the Hindenburg Line; in reality it was a comparatively small clash in one of the war\u2019s forgotten fronts that precipitated the downfall of the Central Powers.\u201d\u00a0 WHEN GERMANY signed the Armistice on Nov. 11, 1918, the Central Powers were still in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[475,1286,2426,4418,1898,3545],"tags":[3823,4857,4858,3544,4859],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}