Serbs repel the Bulgarians at Kačanik

On 8 November 1915, in the mountains on the southern edge of Kosovo, the Serbs halted the Bulgarian advance on Kosovo Field. Two days earlier the northern group of the Bulgarian Second Army had been ordered to strike through the gorge at Kačanik and from Gnjilane towards Priština and to trap the retreating Serbian army in the basin. The British chronology of the war ends the “Battle of Kačanik” on this day. In reality the fighting for the gorge went on, with interruptions, for almost two more weeks.

According to the Austrian official history, which at this point drew on the Serbian staff history, the Serbian Bregalnica and Vardar Divisions, reinforced by the Morava Division of the first levy sent from the north, defended themselves on 8 and 9 November “with lion-hearted courage”. They were mostly weak units made up of recruits and older reservists. Nevertheless they not only held their positions but on 10 November went over to the attack themselves and forced the Bulgarians onto the defensive. Bulgarian studies confirm that the attack on the Gnjilane–Kačanik line met stubborn resistance and was halted.

The Bulgarian command had to retrieve the situation. From near Leskovac, where it had been covering the flank of the Bulgarian First Army, the group of General Nikola Ribarov from the 3rd Division was transferred south. Ribarov took command of the whole northern group of the Second Army, which stood at Kačanik and Gnjilane. In these days the Bulgarian command was also worried about southern Macedonia. The French of General Maurice Sarrail had been attacking on the Vardar since 5 November and had taken Gradsko station and villages on the left bank of the Crna. Their attack, however, soon stalled, and the Bulgarians brought up reinforcements against them.

The success at Kačanik gave the Serbs a moment’s respite, but it did not change their situation. From the north German and Austro-Hungarian troops were attacking them, from the east the Bulgarian First Army, and there was no longer any hope of help from the French. A few days later Vojvoda Radomir Putnik decided to gather all the armies on Kosovo Field and break through the Kačanik gorge to Skopje with his own forces. This last attempt, undertaken in the snow by an exhausted army, collapsed on 21 November.