. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . Fig. 161 —Italian military road leading up to the pass giving access into theChimara basin (see Fig. IS3). The mountains shown here form the natural defensesof the Valona region on the east and south. cavalry swept around through the plain, passed west of the ridge,and captured part of the Semeni plain on the north. Findingthemselves attacked in the rear, the Austrians abandoned thewhole ridge and fled precipitately northward. So sudden was theirflight that six Austrian airplanes, returning from a sco
. Battlefields of the World War, western and southern fronts; a study in military geography . Fig. 161 —Italian military road leading up to the pass giving access into theChimara basin (see Fig. IS3). The mountains shown here form the natural defensesof the Valona region on the east and south. cavalry swept around through the plain, passed west of the ridge,and captured part of the Semeni plain on the north. Findingthemselves attacked in the rear, the Austrians abandoned thewhole ridge and fled precipitately northward. So sudden was theirflight that six Austrian airplanes, returning from a scouting expe-dition, landed on their home field to find themselves in the Italianlims. The Italian front was now reinforced with another strongposition, but in a later attack the Austrians recovered part of theimportant ground they had lost in the Battle of Malakastra Ridge. 622 BATTLEFIELD OF THE BALKANS. >> « > s •d < ,§ LOCAL COMBATS 623 Among the local struggles on the Balkan front in 1917 and 1918should be noted a series of combats on the important Gyevgyeliplateau sector, between Lake Doiran and the Vardar (Fig. 159).Here the Bulgars held most of the high ridge west of the lake,and so commanded the British positions on the plateau fartherwest. In April and May the British troops made determinedefforts to drive the Bulgars from the dominating height. Someground was gained, but from the ravines descending the flanks ofthe ridge the enemy met every advance with a murderous firewhich brought the operation to a halt. In the following spring,and again during the great Battle of Moglenitsa in September,1918, the British assailed the Bulgarians natural stronghold withlittle success, until the final collapse of the Bulgarian centeropened the way to a general advance northward. Other local combats of greater or lesser importance interruptedonly to a limited degree the genera
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectworldwar19141918
