Serbian and Macedonian fronts

as we've already talked about multiple times World War one broke out in 1914 in the beginning of it was all about austria-hungary declaring war on Serbia using the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the pretext for declaring war on Serbia this was in July July 28 1914 they declared war on Serbia and if you are a military analyst at the time you would have assumed that this would have been kind of a quick action and this is why frankly austria-hungary was so eager to declare war on Serbia they thought it would be very easy for them to put the Serbians out of commission austria-hungary you're talking about this empire here a huge economy huge military industrial complex huge army Serbians much smaller country much poorer country they had also fought several recent Wars they were very ill-equipped so any military analysts would thought that this would be a short war but 1914 did not prove that way for the austro-hungarians and this actually could be viewed as a huge victory a huge surprise for the Serbians that the Serbians were able to keep the austro-hungarians back Serbians Serbians hold now this isn't to say that it was an incredibly incredibly incredibly bloody you've had several offensives across the border into Serbia the austro-hungarians briefly captured Belgrade than the Serbians captured back in the meantime tens and hundreds of thousands of folks were dying but at the end of 1914 you would have surprised the military analysts and the Serbians were able to hold despite being less equipped and despite just being a smaller country now the luck for the Serbians did not hold out that well as we go into 1915 by 1915 other parties other than the austro-hungarians decided to get involved again get involved against the Serbians in particular you have the Bulgarians that prior to 1915 they're kind of trying to figure out who which side of the war they want to fall in on but they have had several battles or several Wars recently with Serbia one as recently as 1913 they were eager to capture back some territory so in 1915 the Bulgarians joined the war on the side of the central hours and as we exit 1915 you have a joint offensive between the Bulgarians the austro-hungarians and the Germans against the small country against this small country of Serbia and the Germans interest other than the fact that they wanted to support their their ally austro-hungary Astraea they were also eager to take control of the railways between Berlin and Constantinople in that railway went but went into went into Serbia and so if they were able to capture this take Serbia out of the war then they were able to they would be able to send supplies much more easily to the to the Ottoman to their other ally the Ottoman Empire so on October of 1915 October of 1915 you have a joint offensive between the German army and this is what this map right here is depicting right over here this is the 3rd austrian army this is the 11th german army this is the first bulgarian army this is the second bulgarian army and their joint offensive is hugely successful for the Central Powers they're essentially able to roll into Serbia it's actually impressive on the side of the Serbians that it took this much force for to be able to roll through Serbia but they were able to roll through Serbia essentially occupy all of Serbia they put the Serbian army on the run and and the only redeeming thing is that some for the Serbians is that some element of the Serbian army was actually able to escape through Montenegro and Albania and and some of the civilians and then they were transported by the Allies by the untaught to be able to recuperate and then join as we'll see on the Macedonian front so 1915 1915 you have the Central Powers Central Powers roll through Serbia roll roll through through Serbia so from from you know to any observer right now Serbia is essentially lost now right when that was happening the the Allies had recognized that Serbia was in a very difficult situation and as we got to the end of 1915 they did start the French and British troops did start to land did start to land and some annika right over here in order to one would think help the serbian help the serbian forces now they weren't able to arrive and act in enough time to prevent what happened in October of October of 1915 you have some French forces that were able to essentially distract the Bulgarians 2nd army that aided to some degree the Serbian retreat but essentially they started to build they started to build their own forces right over here in Salonika now this is interesting because we're talking about this region right over here kind of Macedonian Greece and at this point in the war Greece had stayed neutral the king was leaning towards King Constantine the first he was leaning towards the Central Powers while the Prime Minister and I want to I'm sure I'm going to say this incorrectly venes ELO's but he was leaning toward the ally parties and so you hearted to have this kind of disconnect between the two and the Prime Minister resigns but he has active support especially especially in kind of Macedonian especially in Macedon in Greece and obviously he has support he has support amongst the Allies so as you go into 1916 as you go into 1916 you have a coup for venice' lows in the Met in Macedonian Greece especially in around Salonika which is essentially being held by the Allies even though Greece is essentially is officially neutral so coo coo for Venizelos the NEAs ELO's which leads to a very interesting situation so after the coup for Venizelos you essentially have greece kind of macedonian greece is under the control of supporters of Venizelos and supporters of the Allies while the rest of Greece while the rest of Greece is still is still loyal to the king and the king is leaning towards the central powers but it's not really clear what what what he wants to do about it then you get into 1917 the Allies start to get a little bit forceful about it in 1917 they have a blockade they they apply a blockade of southern Greece obviously blockades are always inflict a lot of hardship economic hardship human hardship on civilians but this essentially forces in June in June of 1917 Constantine the first Constantine Constantine goes into exile and essentially at this point all of Greece is under is is kind of a supporting the Allies and Greece goes on the side of the Allies so in this map right over here that shows kind of the Allied powers the the untapped powers and the Central Powers Greece right over here is depicted as an allied power but it was neutral it was officially neutral as we go through 1917 only after the overthrow as only after Constantine the first goes into exile do we have Greece formally formally becoming an ally and so that set gives us the set up into 1918 so you've had regrouped Serbian forces and at this point would be called the Macedonian front Serbia has been lost to the central powers you have regrouped Serbian forces at Salonika they've been transported to Salonika and Greek Macedonia in general you now have the Greek army who is now on the side of the Allies you have the British and the French army and so as we get into September 1918 they are ready to go on the offensive and you need to remember what's happening on in the rest of Europe at this point you might remember August 1918 this is the beginning of the hundred days offensive that marked the Allied victory on the Western Front so news was already getting in there you had you had great morale amongst the Allies you had not-so-great morale amongst the the Central Powers and so in 1918 September you have the Allied offensive allied offensive allied offensive coming out of Greece coming out of I guess you could call it Macedonian Greece hugely successful they're able to retake they're able to retake Serbia and actually some of the British forces are able to go east and retake Constantinople and so this is part this Macedonian front is part of this overall and we saw on the western front kind of the end to the to the end to the Central Powers ambitions in world or in World War one and it ends with an armistice on this front and as we know as we get into November of 1918 you have essentially armistice armistice is or cease fires on all the major fronts and the Allies have essentially won