1914_0812_01: The Balkan Expedition (1st Invasion) - FWWC 03 Serbia '14

Macva Peninsula, Serbia, 12th August 1914:

Following the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, FZM Oskar Potiorek, Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the man directly responsible for the Archduke's safety while in Sarajevo, was given command of Austro-Hungarian forces in the Balkans (Balkanstreitkräfte). Since war had broken out with Russia, Plan "Fall R" was in effect, meaning that the Austro-Hungarian forces in the Balkans should have went on the defensive and eventually be withdrawn to Galicia. However, Fieldmarshall Franz Conrad, the overall commander of the k.u.k. Army, and Potiorek wanted to knock Serbia out of the war quickly. Thus, a hasty and poorly conceived plan of invasion was drawn up with an intent on invading Serbia even though Austro-Hungarian dedicated Balkan forces were in poor positions for an offensive. Also, since "Fall R" was in effect, this meant that Potiorek could not rely on the full support of Staffel B's 2.Armee north of the Sava due to it being in the process of withdrawing to Galicia and because of this, 5.Armee had to force march into position in order to start the attack before 2.Armee withdrew, so that elements of the 2.Armee could assist.

The overall invasion plan called for an attack across the Drina in northwest Serbia, which was the direction in which the 5. and 6.Armee had formed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Drina River border was an area that the Serbians weakly defended because they felt it was not a viable avenue of advance, and for good reason as the terrain in the region was rough and slow going. While Potiorek did have the advantage of surprise in that regard, his invasion plan was based on pre-war wargames that surprisingly had not taken the terrain into account.

Potierek's plan of attack called for GdI Liborius Ritter von Frank's 5.Armee to advance and take Valjevo and, amazingly, until that happened Potiorek's 6.Armee would mostly remain in place and continue to form up to the south in the area of Visegrad, fighting only minor actions against a smaller force of Serbians and Montenegrins. In reality this simply allowed the Serbians to commit their full weight to counter the lone 5.Armee. The Austro-Hungarians would pay dearly for this faulty plan.

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*See the notes document for information on scenario design decisions and historical notes.