Conquest of Montenegro

The conquest of Montenegro was a short winter epilogue to the conquest of Serbia. King Nicholas I’s small mountain monarchy had fought alongside Serbia since August 1914, and its guns on the Lovćen massif had threatened the Austro-Hungarian fleet base at Kotor from the start of the war. When at the end of 1915 the remnants of the Serbian army crossed Montenegro and Albania to the Adriatic, the Austro-Hungarian chief of the general staff, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, decided to deal with his last opponent in the Balkans. At the beginning of January 1916 General Hermann Kövess’s Third Army attacked Montenegro from three sides. The Lovćen fell after three days of fighting, and on 13 January the Austrians entered the capital, Cetinje. The government asked for an armistice, the King left for Italy, and the exhausted and hungry Montenegrin army dispersed to their homes or laid down its arms. Montenegro was the only Entente state to lose in this war not only its entire territory but also its army.

Name and dates

This page uses the dates 5–25 January 1916. On 5 January, according to the Austrian official history, the brigades of the Austro-Hungarian VIII Corps set out from Rožaje towards Berane, and a day later heavy fighting began at Mojkovac. The main attack in the west, on the Lovćen massif, began on 8 January, and many studies take that date as the start of the campaign. Minor clashes on the border had in fact been going on since 28 December 1915, when an Austrian detachment took a border hill above the Bay of Kotor. As the end we take 25 January, when, according to the Austrian official history, the terms for the Montenegrin army’s laying down of arms, agreed two days earlier, were signed. The Austrians, however, went on occupying the rest of the country for several more weeks, and in February their troops from Montenegro advanced deep into Albania and on 27 February took Durrës.

The Montenegrins, like the Serbs, then used the Julian calendar, 13 days behind the Gregorian. The Battle of Mojkovac, fought on 6 and 7 January by the Gregorian calendar, thus fell on Orthodox Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Dates on this page are given according to the Gregorian calendar. Montenegrin and Serbian historiography speaks of the “Mojkovac operation” on the northern front and of the fall of the Lovćen in the west. The word “capitulation” is disputed there, because neither the King nor the lawful government signed an act surrendering the state.

Background

Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary on 5 August 1914. Its army, a few tens of thousands of poorly armed highlanders without proper artillery or supplies, covered Serbia’s western flank in the Sandžak and on the Drina. From the Lovćen massif, which rises directly above the Bay of Kotor, the Montenegrins could shell the Austro-Hungarian naval port. In the autumn of 1914 the French hauled their guns up there, but the artillery of the ships and forts forced them to withdraw. From the beginning of the war Vienna regarded the capture of the Lovćen as a necessity, because without it the base at Kotor was defenceless from the landward side. In June 1915 the Montenegrins, against the wishes of their allies, occupied northern Albania with Scutari, which the Entente received with displeasure.

In the autumn of 1915 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria occupied Serbia. The main Serbian forces retreated through Montenegrin Peć and Andrijevica to Scutari, where the Serbian government and supreme command settled. The Montenegrins covered this retreat from the north, on the Tara river and around Berane. From 1915 the staff of their army was directed by the Serbian General Petar Pešić. They had less and less food, because Austro-Hungarian warships hunted the ships carrying supplies to Bar and San Giovanni di Medua.

According to the Austrian official history, on 22 November 1915 Conrad decided to prepare the capture of the Lovćen, and over the following weeks the plan grew into an intention to defeat the whole of Montenegro and occupy northern Albania. The chief of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, considered the Balkan campaign over and wanted to move forces elsewhere. The dispute between the two chiefs of staff was so bitter that for several weeks they hardly corresponded at all. On 20 December Conrad, against the wishes of the Germans, removed Kövess’s Third Army from the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen and placed it directly under himself. He was concerned not only with Kotor. He also wanted to push the Italians out of the Albanian ports of Durrës and Vlorë, and to prevent the Bulgarians from establishing themselves in northern Albania.

Forces

Kövess divided his forces into three groups, which were to close Montenegro in a pincer. In the west, between Trebinje and Kotor, command was held by General of Infantry Stjepan Sarkotić, commander of the troops in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. The main attack on the Lovćen was to be made by Feldmarschalleutnant Ignaz Trollmann’s XIX Corps, supported by several hundred guns and by the ships of the 5th Division of the fleet lying in the Bay of Kotor. A separate group under Feldmarschalleutnant Braun was to advance from Herzegovina on Nikšić. In the north, on the Tara, stood the 62nd Infantry Division, and in the east, in the Sandžak, VIII Corps with several mountain brigades, which was to take Berane and advance on Podgorica. From the direction of Kosovo came the 57th Infantry Division, which was to move on Scutari. Most of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers belonged to Landsturm formations, that is older age groups, often without winter equipment. The biggest problem was supply. On the icy mountain roads the supply columns had to cover as much as two hundred kilometres, and beyond Peć there was no longer any road fit for wagons.

The Montenegrin army was divided into several groups. In the north and east, in the so-called Sandžak army, command was held by Serdar Janko Vukotić. According to the Austrian official history the group defending Mojkovac numbered 6,500 rifles and 25 guns, and the group facing VIII Corps 4,600 rifles and 14 guns. In the Lovćen area and on the coast the commanders included the King’s son, Prince Peter. The soldiers were hungry and badly clothed, had little ammunition, and few of their rifles had bayonets. A few Serbian units still stood on the border, but the Montenegrin authorities complained of the requisitions and looting committed by Serbian soldiers, and Montenegrin soldiers threatened to leave the front to defend their homes. On 4 January 1916, at King Nicholas’s request, the Serbian council of ministers withdrew the last Serbian combat units from Montenegro to Scutari. The fight against the Austrians was thus left almost entirely to the Montenegrins. Two days later, on 6 January, the voyage of the Italian ship Brindisi, which was carrying several hundred Montenegrin volunteers from North America from Italy, ended in a Montenegrin tragedy. The ship struck a mine near San Giovanni di Medua and sank within a quarter of an hour or so. About 400 people died.

Course

The northern and eastern front (5–10 January). On 5 January the brigades of VIII Corps set out across the snow-covered mountains from Rožaje towards Berane. On 6 and 7 January General Wilhelm von Reinöhl’s Landsturm units attacked the Montenegrins near the small town of Mojkovac on the Tara. In fierce fighting in snow and fog the Montenegrins repelled the attacks and themselves went over to counter-attacks. They did not break the enemy’s front, but they held Mojkovac and the line of the Tara. In Montenegrin and Serbian tradition the Battle of Mojkovac is regarded as the greatest victory of the Montenegrin army in this war. In the east VIII Corps advanced slowly, in deep snow and with no visibility, but on 10 January its 59th Division broke the last resistance on the hills before Berane, and its forward units crossed the burning bridge over the Lim and took the town. Further on, towards Andrijevica and Plav, the Montenegrins went on defending the passes for many more days.

The Lovćen (8–11 January). On the morning of 8 January the land artillery and the ships in the Bay of Kotor opened fire on the Montenegrin positions on the Lovćen. The Montenegrin artillery replied, and some ships had to change their anchorages, but by noon its batteries had fallen silent. The Austro-Hungarian riflemen began to climb the bare karst rocks, which rise almost a thousand metres above the bay. Instead of taking the shortest route through the Krstac pass, the main forces of XIX Corps attacked Solar hill, while smaller groups went round the massif on both sides. On 9 January the Austrians took Solar, and a hit on the ammunition dumps near Kuk broke the defenders’ spirit. On 10 January they broke through the last positions, and at dusk fires on the summit announced that the Lovćen, the holy mountain of the Montenegrins, was in their hands. According to the Austrian official history, the Montenegrin units, hungry, “naked and barefoot”, refused to carry out an order for a night counter-attack despite the appeals of the King’s sons, Princes Mirko and Peter. At the same time Braun’s group, after heavy fighting, broke the resistance on the Herzegovinian border.

The request for an armistice and the fall of Cetinje (11–13 January). On the evening of 10 January the Montenegrin government proposed to the King that an armistice be concluded. According to the Austrian official history, Nicholas at first refused, counting on the help promised by the Tsar. On the morning of 11 January, when his appeals to the retreating troops had produced no effect, he gave way. Envoys of Prime Minister Lazar Mijušković handed the Austrian advance guards a request for a six-day armistice and the opening of peace negotiations. The Austro-Hungarian supreme command at Teschen replied that it would halt the fighting only after the unconditional laying down of arms by the whole Montenegrin army and the surrender of the Serbian soldiers still in the country. The offensive went on. The carriages of the royal family and the foreign envoys hurriedly left the capital. On the afternoon of 13 January a small reconnaissance detachment of the Austrian 14th Mountain Brigade entered Cetinje without a fight.

Negotiations, the King’s departure and the laying down of arms (14–25 January). On the evening of 13 January the Montenegrin government renewed its request for peace, and the King wrote to Emperor Franz Joseph asking for an “honourable peace”. Vienna replied that talks could begin only once the terms had been met. On 16 January the Montenegrin government accepted in a note that the army was to surrender, and the next day the Austro-Hungarian supreme command informed the Third Army how the disarmament was to proceed and ordered hostilities to be halted. The same day the Montenegrin negotiators unexpectedly left, and Prime Minister Mijušković, according to some sources, left the country. On 19 January the King, under pressure from the Entente representatives, left Montenegro for Scutari, and from there crossed the Adriatic to Italy. According to the Austrian official history, on 20 January he landed at Brindisi and declared there that he rejected the terms and would fight on. Prince Mirko and some of the ministers remained in the country. On 21 January General Vukotić, who a few days earlier had replaced Pešić as head of the staff, disbanded the army by Order No. 128, to save the soldiers from internment. The Austrians threatened to resume operations on 21 and then on 22 January. On 23 January they agreed with the Montenegrin representatives who had remained in the country the terms for laying down arms, which were signed on 25 January. In those days they occupied Podgorica, Bar, Nikšić and Albanian Scutari without a fight. The inhabitants of Nikšić received them with hostility. According to the Serbian historian Andrej Mitrović, the Montenegrins abandoned Mojkovac and the line of the Tara on 18 January.

Losses

The overall losses of the two sides cannot be given. The campaign was short, and most Montenegrin soldiers were not taken prisoner but dispersed to their homes. The Austro-Hungarians lost many men to the frost. In just one battalion of the group that fought on the northern flank of XIX Corps, the Austrian official history records 327 cases of frostbite. At Mojkovac, according to the same source, the Landsturm units lost more than 700 men, including 224 killed, and the Austrians buried 205 dead on the battlefield abandoned by the Montenegrins. Some Montenegrin officers and soldiers, including General Vukotić, were interned by the Austrians in camps in Hungary and Austria.

Significance

In Montenegro Austria-Hungary won one of the few victories it achieved on its own, without German help. The Lovćen ceased to threaten Kotor, which until the end of the war was an important base for light cruisers and submarines, including German ones, operating in the Mediterranean. Sarkotić later received the title of baron “von Lovćen”, and Trollmann and the commander of the 47th Division, Viktor Weber, were awarded the Military Order of Maria Theresa. From 1 March 1916 the country was ruled by an Austro-Hungarian military governor-general in Cetinje. Austria-Hungary also opened the way to Albania for itself. It threatened the Italian bridgeheads at Durrës and Vlorë and hastened the evacuation of the Serbian army to Corfu.

Politically Montenegro found itself in a strange position. Its army had ceased to exist, but the King and the Prime Minister in exile never signed a capitulation or a peace. The government in exile settled in France and formally remained in the Entente camp. The swift fall of the Lovćen and the King’s ambiguous conduct during the negotiations, however, aroused suspicion. In Serbia and in part of the Allied press Nicholas was accused of collusion with Vienna, which historians generally do not confirm, and in Montenegro itself the dispute over responsibility for the defeat went on throughout the interwar period. The weakening of the dynasty’s authority made it easier for the supporters of union with Serbia to remove the King from power. In November 1918 an assembly in Podgorica proclaimed his deposition and the union of Montenegro with Serbia.