With the Serbs in Macedonia

274 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
In the midst of this mortal struggle with
Mackensen on a 700 mile front, the Serbians
were struck in the back by eight Bulgar
divisions—and the retreat across Albania in
winter began, that course being preferred to
a shameful Peace and a desertion of the Allies.
1916. In the spring, rested, reorganized
and refitted, the survivors left Corfu and took
the field again. By November, after much
hard fighting among the mountains and heavy
casualties, they took Monastir and found
themselves the only army in the Balkans with
a decisive success to their credit.
1917. A year of endurance and stalemate,
during which they were constantly pleading
for another offensive— a year of many " demonstrations
" and small engagements with
a steady drain of casualties.
1918. Till September a period of more
straining at the leash and improving of positions
and pinning large forces of the enemy
down and ; then, at last, the final rush— a
breathless, reckless business, in which, though
the lowered moral of the Bulgarians was undoubtedly
a strong factor in the case, it was
the surprising energy and resolution of the
Serbs that was beyond question the chief
cause of Bulgaria's capitulation at that particular
moment.