Yugoslav Ruling Of Rijeka (Fiume) in 1918, Seen by Stanislaw Krakow

Abstract

G Franchet d’Espèrey, the third and last commander of L’Armée d’Orient, came to Thessaloniki in June 1918. Unlike his predecessors, Generals Maurice Sarrail and Adolphe Guillaumat, d’Espèrey immediately decided to change the existing war strategy. Instead of sending armies into smaller attacks, he pooled his resources into one large strike targeting a penetration of the frontline. Along with other allied commanders, he assessed that continuing the previous tactic of local attacks was and will be counterproductive because “causes for the bravest getting killed and a huge amount of ammunition is going to waste”.1 The other characteristic that distinguished d’Espèrey from Sarrail and Guillaumat was his trust in the Serbian army. From first sight he recognized that Serbs have the most motivation in the ongoing war since only victory will bring them back to their homeland. After noting this, d’Espèrey trusted them to lead the entire Allied army into a final breakthrough. He needed only a few meetings with Serbian Regent Alexandre Karadjordjević and Chief of General Staff Živojin Mišić to reach an agreement and all three together drafted the final strategy.2 From the military point of view, the plan was ready at the beginning of July but from the point