November 15, 1914

One hundred years ago today the pivotal Battle of Kolubara was fought in Serbia.  

Leading up to this battle Austria-Hungary launch a third invasion into Serbia on November 6, 1914. Austria-Hungary had invaded Serbia twice before, only to be defeated by the Serbian army. Austria-Hungary was determine to have this invasion succeed as it was under enormous pressure on the Eastern Front and it needed to end the Serbian campaign to turn its full attention to the east.

The Austro-Hungarian invasion began with early success and by November 8, 1914 the Serbian defenders had started to falter and by November 10, 1914 Serbian army was in full retreat to defensive position along the Kolubara river. Serbia was in a dire situation. Its army lacked sufficient ammunition, supplies, heavy weapons and winter clothing. The Serbian government sent out pleas for supplies to Great Britain, France and Russia but this yielded little results. With defeat at the door the Serbian government debated whether to try to make peace with Austria-Hungary but it was decided that the Serbian army should fight on, as to surrender at this point would likely lead to annexation of Serbia by Austria-Hungary.

On November 15, 1914 250,000 beleaguered and poorly equipped Serbian soldiers held the east bank of the Kolubara river, with an additional 150,000 soldiers protecting the northern flank. These forces were faced by 450,000 well equipped Austro-Hungarian soldiers to the north and west . Celebrations were being held in Austria-Hungary that the war in Serbia would soon be over. The next day Austro-Hungarian forces assaulted the Serbian positions along the Kolubara.

What would happen over the next thirty days would be a disaster for Austria-Hungary and is still heralded today in Serbia as "The miracle of Kolubara." Despite Serbia's lack of men and war materials they were not unprepared for this attack. Choosing Kolubara to make a stand was not an idle decision. The river was in mountainous terrain but the west bank (the side the Austro-Hungarians would approach from) was fairly open, but the terrain on east bank offered a good deal of protection. Additionally the Serbians had been building fortified position along the Kolubara for weeks. When the Serbians retreated from the Austro-Hungarian border to the Kolubara they destroyed any infrastructure providing communication or transportation to deprive the Austro-Hungarians of its use. With the winter rains in full force much of roads and countryside of Serbia were a quagmire of mud, any Austro-Hungarian supplies, messages, or reinforcements to Kolubara would be significantly slowed during the course of the battle.       

For days the battle raged with the Austro-Hungarian forces regularly crossing the Serbian held Kolubara in freezing weather only to be thrown back each time at great cost to both sides. By November 28, 1914 Serbian losses mounted and it was clear that Belgrade to the north (Serbia's capital), so near the Austro-Hungarian border could no longer be defended and was evacuated and the Serbian army retreated to defensive positions to the south surrendering the city to the Austro-Hungarians on December 1, 1914.

At this point Austria-Hungary was so confident of victory it started drawing up plans for an occupational government of Serbia. But though Belgrade had fallen the Serbian army was still holding the Austro-Hungarian invasion from pressing much deeper into Serbian territory.

The grinding battle had drained the both sides but the Austro-Hungarians had become overstretched as they pushed deeper into Serbia and were struggling to keep their frontline troops supplied and in communication with commanders. On December 2, 1914 the Serbians saw their opportunity for a counter attack. Though Russia and Great Britain did not offer assistance, France eventually answered Serbia's call for supplies and by December these supplies had finally reached the frontlines allowing the Serbians to launch a sustained offensive. Everything the Serbians had was thrown into the attack. Even the Serbian's seventy year old King, Peter I, donned a uniform and was armed with a rifle and participated (though mostly symbolically) in the attack.

Not realizing the Serbians had received French supplies and not expecting a Serbian offensive (as the Serbians had been predominately fighting defensively for weeks) the Austro-Hungarians were completely caught off guard, so much so that the Austro-Hungarians were conducting a military parade in captured Belgrade as the attack commenced. With the mud bogging down messengers the Austro-Hungarians artillery and reserves miles away from the frontline were unaware of the initial attack, leaving the frontline Austro-Hungarian soldiers unsupported until it was to late and they had been overrun by Serbian forces. By December 6th it was clear that the third invasion of Serbia was a failure and the Serbian army was poised to retake lost territory.    

Having been ejected from Serbia twice before the Austro-Hungarian army took steps to prevent them from losing the territory that they had taken. But due to poor planning much of the Austro-Hungarian defensive efforts did more harm than good. As the Austro-Hungarians captured cities, towns and villages they left soldiers and artillery behind to defend these gains and fortify these positions. Though the captured towns were well defended and fortify the surrounding countryside was not. Using the hills and valleys of the Serbian countryside as cover the Serbian army surrounded each captured town cutting off the Austro-Hungarian defenders within. Often without the defenders even knowing until it was too late. Tens of thousands of Austro-Hungarian soldiers were taken prisoner this way, along with their supplies and weapons. Supplies and weapons the Serbian army desperately needed.  By December 16, 1914 Belgrade had been liberated and the Austro-Hungarians had once again been repulsed from Serbia.

The battle was a disaster for Austria-Hungary. Not only had a third invasion failed but out of the 450,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers who invaded Serbia 273,000 were killed captured or wounded. Additionally, the defeat left Austria-Hungary in political turmoil and even more diplomatically subordinate by Germany who began to increasingly view the Austro-Hungarian army as incompetent. The Battle of Kolubara would take on near mythic qualities in Serbia, but the victory was no without a high price. The 400,000 man Serbian army suffered 132,000 casualties, 22,000 of which were killed. Aside from the military losses civilian suffering was catastrophic. As the Serbian army retook much of the lost countryside it found that village after village was empty. Later military investigation and Western press revealed  the occupied parts of Serbia had been devastated, with farms destroyed, wells poisoned, buildings burned and rampant murder and abuse of the civilian population.  

November 11, 1914

One hundred years ago today British forces attacked the Mesopotamian city of Basra (in modern day Iraq). By the end of November, Basra would be secured as would the British owned oil facilities along the Persian Gulf. However Ottoman forces would continue to attack the British held positions in Mesopotamia. As the war continued British forces would take territory with each counter attack, only to be attacked from positions further and further into Mesopotamia. By the end of the war the British mission to secure coastal oil facilities would result in the occupation of much of modern day Iraq.

Also on this day the final major action of 1914 on the Eastern Front began.
 

Since the beginning of the war the front line had seesawed back and forth across the region of modern day Poland and Ukraine. Austria-Hungary had successfully repelled a Russian invasion, only to launch an invasion into Russia that would itself be repelled. Resulting in a Russian counter attack that would invade deep into Austria-Hungary. To the north Russia invaded Germany only to be defeated, resulting in a German counter invasion into Russian territory which in turn would be repulsed.

With the German and Russian front relatively unchanged from the prewar border the Russians decided on this day to launch a major offensive deeper into Austria-Hungary, where the Russian had made better progress. Midway into November each nation had its own goals on the Eastern Front. Russia launched an offensive to try to cross the Carpathian mountain range and press deeper into Austria-Hungary. Germany launched a counter-offensive toward Warsaw while the Russians were busy attacking Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary strove to hold the Carpathian mountain passes and halt the Russian advance.  

Fighting raged for well over month. All three nation's armies would suffer terribly due to the weather. Much of the battle was fought with temperatures well below freezing and causalities from frostbite and exposure were common. Fight in November until the end of the year would result in hundreds of thousands of casualties all sides, but the front lines would remain more or less static. The Germans would fail to reach Warsaw and the Russians would fail to cross the Carpathian mountains. With German assistance to the north the Austro-Hungarian army successfully halted the Russian advance but would not able to counterattack to reclaim lost territory.

This battle would set a pattern that would continue for the remainder of the war in the East. Austria-Hungary would have to rely on German assistance for any amount of success, the Germans would be unable to overcome the Russian's superior numbers, and the Russians would be unable to overcome superior German's training and equipment. The end result is that all three nations would be locked in a bloody deadlock, in which a military victory for either side would seem to remain just out of grasp.

 

November 7, 1914

One hundred years ago today the after weeks of siege and hundreds of casualties, the German held port of Tsingtao (in China) fell to the Japanese army. The Japanese army took 4,700 German prisoners of war. The German prisoners of war spent the remained  of the war in Japan. The Japanese government treated the German prisoners well and over one hundred chose to remain in Japan after the war.

The victory at Tsingtao solidified Japan as a rise power in East Asia.  In the past twenty years Japan had defeated its rival China in a war and two European powers, Russia and now Germany. Until Japan's victories, a European nation had never lost a war against a non-European nation in modern history. Japan's expansion in territory and power would continue until World War II.   

November 6, 1914

One hundred years ago today the British Army landed troops in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) to secure oil facilities that were in the Ottoman Empire, but were owned by British companies. Fighting in Mesopotamia would last for the remainder of the war and be the first step in the creation of many of the modern Arab nations in the Middle East.

November 2, 1914

One hundred years ago today the Russian Empire declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

By the start of November 1914 the war was going poorly for the Center Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Austria-Hungary’s invasion of both Serbia and Russia had failed badly and Russia had taken vast tracts of Austro-Hungarian land. Despite early German successes on both Western and Eastern Fronts, the situation was now bleak. The French and British armies had halted the German advance in France, leading to a stalemate. In the East much of the Russian armies had been smashed, but with most of the German army tied down in France and with the Austro-Hungarian army in no position to provide much support, the Germans did not have the manpower to take advantage of the Russian weakness. With the winter setting in the chances of a quick victory, or any victory, in either the West or the East was quickly evaporating. Some high officials in both the German and Austro-Hungarian military and government were discussing the possibility of entering into peace negotiations and ending the war while they were in some position to negotiate peace terms. From both the Allied and Central Powers points of view the war had hit its high watermark, and could possible end sooner than later.  

But with Russia’s declaration of war (and Great Britain and France quickly following suit) on the Ottoman Empire the whole dynamic of the war would shift. Though the Ottoman Empire’s government had been reluctant to join the war, its military had been eager and was prepared for operation the day Russia declared war.

The Central Powers desperately need Ottoman Empire as an ally, and with the Ottoman Empire the Central Powers gained several advantages. First off this ensured that the Turkish straights would remain closed to Allied ships (it had closed some weeks earlier on the grounds of remaining neutral in the conflict, now there was no risk of the Allies negotiating the straights to be reopened). This was a disaster for the Russian empire. With war on its western land border almost all of Russia’s international trade had to pass through the Turkish straights. With that closed not only would it be devastating to Russia’s economy it was a massive blow to its army as well. Russia was not as industrially developed as many of the European powers and could not manufacture much of the weapons its armies needed on the scale that the war required. In the past Russia traded its vast agricultural and raw material resources for cash, which in turn it would use buy the industrial goods and modern weapons it needed. This was cheaper then manufacturing the items domestically as the Russian Empire lacked the much of the technical expertise needed to build and maintain the necessary factories. In a few months the Russian army would be short on everything it needed. By the summer of 1915 hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers would be sent to the frontlines with no weapons, no ammunition,  and would receive rations barely able to prevent starvation. 

Secondly, the Russian army would have to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the Eastern front, were they were badly needed, to the Caucasus (the region between the Black and the Caspian Seas), where Russia shared a border with the Ottoman Empire. This region had to be defended because it was the chief producer of oil for the Russian Empire.

Thirdly, the Ottoman Empire controlled what is today Israel and Palestine and was in a prime position to attack the British controlled Suez canal, which Great Britain needed to remain open to keep the British Isles supplied with raw materials from its colonies in Asia to keep it war economy afloat. This required the British Empire to relocate troops, needed both in colonial conflicts and the Western front, to Egypt to defend the Suez.

Lastly, the Ottoman Empire had diplomatic and intelligence connections though out the  Islamic world (being the most powerful Islamic state of its day) with Ottoman weapons, supplies, intelligence and diplomatic encouragement uprising and rebellions caused conflicts for the French, British and Russian colonial forces and allies in the Islamic world stretching from Algeria to Afghanistan. This required the Allies to move even more troop out of Europe and into the Middle East and North Africa.    

All of this culminated in a great reduction of pressure for Germany and Austria-Hungary, which gave then the confidence that they could win the war after all and gave up on finding a diplomatic solution. The war would go on and there was little chance that 1915 bringing peace.