Great Retreat (Serbia)

The Great Retreat, also known in Serbian historiography as the Albanian Golgotha (Serbian: Албанска голгота, Albanska golgota), refers to the retreat of the Royal Serbian Army through the mountains of the Principality of Albania during the winter of 1915–16 in World War I. The retreat is a defining event in Serbian history and is most commonly referred to in historiography as the Albanian Golgotha.

In late October 1915, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria launched a synchronised major offensive, under German leadership, against Serbia. Earlier that month, France and Britain landed four divisions at Salonika, under the commands of General Maurice Sarrail and General Sir Byron Mahon, to assist their outnumbered Serbian ally caught between the invading forces. The Royal Serbian Army fought while retreating southwards with the plan to withdraw into Macedonia and link up with Entente forces. After the defection of Greece, Bulgarian forces halted the Franco-British relief force in the Vardar Valley. The Serbs were eventually pushed into the plain of Kosovo by the converging Austro-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian columns.

To escape encirclement, on 23 November 1915, the Serbian government and supreme command made the joint decision to retreat across the mountains of Montenegro and Albania. The objective was to reach the Adriatic coast, where the Serbian Army could reorganise and reequip with Allied assistance. The retreat involved the remnants of the army, King Peter I, hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees, and prisoners of war. Between November 1915 and January 1916, during the journey across the mountains, 77,455 soldiers and 160,000 civilians froze, starved to death, died of disease, or were killed by enemy raids. Austrian pilots used the new technology of the time, dropping bombs on the retreating columns in what has been described as 'the first aerial bombardment of civilians'.

The Serbian retreat is considered one of the most devastating in modern military history, with immense human and strategic consequences. Of the 400,000 people who set out on the journey, only 120,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians reached the Adriatic coast, where they were evacuated by Allied ships to the island of Corfu. There, a Serbian government-in-exile was established, headed by Prince-Regent Alexander and Nikola Pašić. A further 11,000 Serbs would later die from disease, malnutrition, or exposure sustained during the retreat. The Serbian Army would later contribute to Allied efforts on the Salonica front, playing a key role in the liberation of Serbia.