ASPECTE ALE COLABORĂRII MILITARE ROMÂNO-SÂRBE ÎN A DOUA JUMĂTATE A ANULUI 1916
FACETS OF THE MILITARY COLLABORATION BETWEEN ROMANIA AND SERBIA IN THE SECOND HALF OF 1916

Summary/Abstract: As part of the Allied Army, Serbian military forces fought on the Thessaloniki front together with French, Italian and Russian forces against the armies of Germany and Bulgaria. As a condition for its participation in the war against the Central Powers, Romania required to open up an Allied front at Thessaloniki. Between August and December, 1916, the Serbian Army, reduced to a contingent of 36.000 soldiers, fiercely fought the common enemies of Serbia and Romania, in order to free its homeland from foreign occupation. In December, Serbian divisions nearly broke through the enemy lines at Thessaloniki, but failed to receive any more support from the Allied forces who, by then decided to halt the offensive, as a result of conceding heavy losses at the onset of the battle. Therefore, the Allied offensive of Thessaloniki, supported only by the Serbian Army, succeeded in hindering the full-fledged advance of the armies of Germany and Bulgaria into Romania, in the autumn of 1916. On the Dobrujan front, Romanian and Russian forces were assisted by a division of Serbian volunteers, in their fight against the armies of Bulgaria and Germany. The volunteers gained a temporary advantage at Bazargic end Cocargea, in Constanța County. Furthermore, during the retreat of the Allied forces toward the north of Dobruja, the Serbian volunteers were the last to cross the Cernavodă-Constanța railroad, where they managed to halt the enemy advance after succeeding to repel the coordinated offensive of three much larger Bulgarian and German divisions. The heroism of the Serbian volunteers stopped the rapid advance of the German and Bulgarian forces toward the Cernavodă-Constanța railroad, which resulted in the crisis of the 3rd Bulgarian army on three separate occasions. As a result, the Romanian Army was rescued from the imminent threat of being surrounded by the enemy in the Wallachian Plain. Among the 18.000 Serbian volunteers, more than 5.000 were from the region of Banat. During the military campaign in Dobruja, approximately 8.500 Serbian volunteers have died for the common (Romanian and Serbian) cause. After the war, in 1926, an obelisk was erected in Medgidia in memory of the heroic contribution of Serbian volunteers that fought for the freedom of the two neighboring nations and historical friends – Romania and Serbia.

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