almost before it was established for the Greek garrisons were still in being. General Milne therefore chose this front on which to exercise such holding action as was possible in the conditions.
On the main battle-front Cordonnier's advance on the left of the new Bulgarian position continued on the i5th and i6th, the Russians in the mountains, combined with a newly con- stituted French force 1 working round, and the main body moving directly on Fiorina and the line of the Brod. On the 17th Fiorina was taken by parts of the 57th and is6th Divs.; on the iSth Sarrail intervened again to press the advance towards the rear of the Bulgarians opposing the Serbians on the Brod and Kaimakchalan front. But, probably from supply difficulties due to the blowing up of the railway viaducts, but also because Cordonnier thought it necessary to clear the mountains on his left before swinging in, the advance came to a standstill again on the igth. On the 2oth the Serbians made an important advance in the region of Kaimakchalan, and held their gains against counter-attack. The Franco-Russian Div. on the extreme left also maintained its positions, and on the 23rd Cordonnier was ready to attack in concert with the Serbians along and W. of the Brod line. 2 But, meantime, reinforcements were arriving on the Brod from the British front, where the policy of demonstrations had at last been detected by the enemy. On the 24th and following days, while the artillery of Cordon- nier's force was being got into position for the attack of the Brod line, and the mountain country W. of Fiorina was being cleared, the Bulgarians made fierce counter-attacks on the Serbian positions about Kaimakchalan. That point itself had been stormed by the Serbians on the 2oth, and their hold was not shaken, but it was the 2gth before the whole area was in their possession. On Oct. 3 a concerted attack of Cordonnier and the Serbs was delivered on the whole front from Kaimak- chalan westward, while the British on the Struma front developed the holding-offensive already mentioned. This general attack was initiated by a vigorous Serbian push in the mountains W. of Kaimakchalan, and, finding their line turned on its left, .the Bulgarians fell back, with only rear-guard resistance, to a position defined by four geographical points: German on Lake Prespa, point 1906 in the Baba ranges, Kenali in the plain, the ex- tremity of the Cerna bend and the ridge N. of Kaimakchalan.
This closed the second phase of the battle. The Bulgarians were being effectively held, at the least. As a relief offensive, coincident in date with a new Russian offensive on Brussilov's front, with the seventh Isonzo battle on the Italian, with renewed efforts on the Somme front, and with the battles of Hermannstadt and Dobrich on the two Rumanian fronts, the Balkan battle in its first two phases accomplished all that could be expected of it. But from the point of view of the Salonika forces it was disappointing, especially to the ardent Serbians who at Kaimakchalan had reentered their own country.
The next phase was the general advance against the Kenali- Cerna bend line. It occupied the period Oct. 4-19, and was marked by even more internal friction than the previous phase. The operations themselves consisted in artillery bombardments and local attacks, in which the Serbs advanced to the Cerna bend (7-8 Oct.) and over the river and on to the plateau N. of Velyeselo (Oct 18-19). Otherwise no important progress was made, and, indeed, a set-back occurred on the 6th, when a French and Russian attack W. of Kenali failed with somewhat heavy loss. General Cordonnier thereupon reverted to the idea of a wider turning movement, but Sarrail, who believed, from the reports of his agents and from incidents on the Serbian front, that the whole Bulgarian Army was ripe for a moral collapse, insisted vehemently on direct action. The frontal attack was carried out on the i4th, for the first time with the aid of gas shell, but it failed, with heavy losses to the French and particu- larly to the Russian contingent. A violent interview on the battlefield between Sarrail and Cordonnier, in the presence of many Allied officers, completed the disorganization of the
1 Henceforward called the Franco-Russian Division.
- There was some overlapping of the Serbians and French about
Boresnitsa, due to a Bulgarian counter-attack on the igth.
command. Cordonnier, who was suffering from almost mortal disease, was sent home a few days later, being replaced for the time being by Gen. Leblois, but for some days the Serbian attack on the Cerna bend went on unsupported, until Sarrail took the step of placing the available French forces under the superior command of the Serbian Gen. Mishich with the idea of restoring moral as well as tactical unity to his dislocated offensive. The necessity of continuing it, and the chances of a striking success if it were persevered in, were equally evident. The Bulgarian moral had suffered from stagnation and from the rude shock of meeting an enemy risen from the grave. The German elements of the XI. Army had mostly been withdrawn, 3 its commander von Winckler (who succeeded Gallwitz in July) was in early October no longer under Mackensen's orders but under those of the Bulgarian higher command; and Gen. Otto von Billow, sum- moned with the staff of the VIII. Army from Lithuania to take general charge of operations in Macedonia, only arrived in the middle of the battle. No higher purpose than gaining time and avoiding defeat was or could be contemplated on the part of the Germans and Bulgarians, and self-sacrifice in such a r61e requires either the constant moral of a professional army, such as that of the old regular divisions of Milne's command, or the crisis-moral of the citizen soldier. In these conditions, although th lateness of the season and the sharp enemy offensive in the Dobruja made a junction with the Rumanians impossible, Sarrail had reason to hope for an important victory. In any event, the turn of events in Rumania (Hermannstadt, Fogaras, Kronstadt), and on the Italian front (eighth and ninth Isonzo battles), dictated a continued offensive towards Monastir.
For some days after the Serbian success at Velyeselo weather and counter-attack prevented their further progress, and this time was utilized by Sarrail in strengthening them with French troops drawn both from the Vardar (where the British took over their line), from the western mountains (where the Italians 4 relieved them), and from the centre about Kenali, where the weather flooded the country. At the same time the artillery was established in position, the maintenance service organized to supply the battle,, and touch gained on the extreme left with the Italian force advancing in Albania, 5 while Milne's Struma troops made a strong diversion by attacking and carrying Barakli Dzuma (Juma) on Oct. 31. Finally, on Nov. 10, the Serbians with French support opened a new strong attack in the Cerna bend. Between the loth and the i3th Polog, the ridge to the E., and Iven were taken, while the artillery on the Kenali front kept up interdiction fire to prevent enemy reinforcements from crossing the Cerna; and on the i4th a general attack brought the Serbians to the ridge on which Jaratok Monastery stood, with lesser advances to right and left. The Kenali lines being now completely turned, the enemy on the night of 14-15 fell back, covered by rain and snow, to a position but little in front of the line Peristeri-Monastir-height 1378-Grunishta. But this time the advance did not halt. On the ijth, in terrible weather, the French left pushed forward to the Viro brook; in the mountains, though mud was absent, rain and snow were still more violent, but the Serbians continued to progress. On the 1 7th Mishich's troops, with the French aiding and conforming on their left, captured height 1212, and the i8th they stormed 1378, pursuing to Makovo in the night following, while the French centre and left forded the Viro, the Russians S. of Monastir took Kanina, Zabiani and Holeven, and the Italians, French and Russians in the western mountains devel- oped an outflanking movement right and left of Lake Prespa.
On the morning of the igth the town of Monastir was found evacuated, and the third phase of the Allied offensive, definitely
3 Apart from staffs, there only remained 17^ battalions and cor- responding artillery and army troops.
- A newly-disembarked Italian force relieved these in their posi-
tion in the Dova Tepe region.
6 Apart from the movement of the Valona force up the Voyusa, a fresh Italian contingent had landed at Santi Quaranta and ad- vanced by the Turkish military road to Koritsa, and thence to the region of Okhrida and Prespa Lakes. This line became a regular line of communication.
