French abandon Krivolak

The British chronology of the war records under 2 December 1915 that the French began their retreat from Serbia to Salonika and abandoned Krivolak on the Vardar. For more than five weeks two divisions of the French Army of the Orient, the 57th and 122nd, had held bridgeheads here on the Vardar and the Crna Reka, waiting to link up with the Serbian army. When the Serbs lost the Babuna Pass and Prilep and their attack towards Skopje failed, waiting no longer made sense. General Maurice Sarrail ordered preparations for the retreat as early as 22 November. Sources, however, date its actual start differently. The regimental history of the 2nd Marching Regiment of Africa counts the first stage of the retreat from 2 December, the British official history says the retreat lasted from 3 December, and the Austrian official history and the French historian Jacques Ancel state that the troops left their positions on the night of 3–4 December. The date of 2 December therefore corresponds to the start of the retreat rather than to the moment the last soldier left the trenches above Krivolak.

The retreat plan

During the last ten days of November the French removed the equipment gathered in the loop of the Vardar and Crna Reka. They had only a single railway track to Salonika at their disposal, and there were so few trains that the infantry had to go on foot. The transport and most of the field artillery went by rail. Sarrail laid out the retreat in advance, stage by stage. According to Ancel, the troops were to fall back in four bounds: to the Vardar gorge at Demir Kapija, to Strumica station, behind the Anska (Bajimia) river and finally to the Greek frontier. The most important thing was not to alert the Bulgarians. One of the French commanders compared it to drinking an egg: you have to suck out the contents and leave the shell, and break it only when it is empty. Both divisions were commanded during the retreat by General Paul Leblois. The British official historian Cyril Falls praised him for conducting the retreat exactly according to Sarrail’s plan and with remarkable calm.

The conditions were terrible. From 25 November thick snow fell, burying paths and ravines. According to Ancel, the temperature dropped to minus 17, and on some nights to minus 20 degrees. In the morning the soldiers’ low tents were buried under several dozen centimetres of snow, and the gunners had to dig a way for the guns with shovels. Only around 3 December, according to Falls, did it become warmer, but then a thaw began in the mountains and the paths turned to mud.

Slipping away from the Bulgarians

Meanwhile the Bulgarians were preparing to attack. According to the Austrian official history, the attack on Sarrail’s troops was to begin on 5 December. The commander of the Bulgarian Second Army, General Georgi Todorov, wanted the 7th Division to cross the lower Crna Reka and strike east, towards Demir Kapija, cutting off the French line of retreat. The French, however, slipped away before the Bulgarians had completed their concentration. According to Ancel, on 3 December the Bulgarians tried to cross the Crna Reka by the bridge at Vozarci and the ford at Brušani, and the next day at Rosoman and Sivec, but each time they were driven back by the fire of French guns and machine guns. In the trenches above Krivolak, in places 150 metres from the Bulgarian ones, burning fires were left behind. On the night of 3–4 December the units left their positions, blowing up a tunnel and railway bridges behind them as they went.

On the morning of 4 December the Bulgarians threw trestle bridges across the Crna Reka and set off after the French in four columns. But they were already too late. According to Ancel, on the evening of 4 December, after a march of 20–30 kilometres, the troops halted behind the bridgehead at Demir Kapija, and at roll call not a single man was missing. The third French division, the 156th, was still holding its positions further east, next to the British 10th (Irish) Division, in the mountains above Kosturino.

The retreating troops now had to pass through the narrow Vardar gorge at Demir Kapija. There, and then in the mountains around Dojran, the Bulgarians caught up with them in the following days. The French still had about 50 kilometres to go along the Vardar to the Greek frontier.