page_title: Radomir Putnik
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Radomir Putnik / Biography / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Radomir Putnik.
context_page_description: Field Marshal Radomir Putnik was the first Serbian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian army in the Balkan Wars and in the First World War. He served in every war in which Serbia fought from 1876 to 1917.
context_section_description: Caught in Budapest when Austria-Hungary declared war upon his country, Field Marshal Putnik was allowed safe passage back to Serbia in a chivalrous and possibly self-defeating gesture by the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Josef. After a troublesome trip, Putnik returned to Serbia and offered his resignation to King Peter I of Serbia on the grounds of age and ill health.  It was rejected, the king insisting that Field Marshal Putnik take command over the army, if only in a strategic sense, while younger generals, such as Stepa Stepanović, Živojin Mišić and Petar Bojović would take over operational duties. Putnik had to spend most of his time in a well-heated room. However, his impaired health did not prevent him from successfully organizing the campaign. Serbia defeated the Austro-Hungarian Army's offensives in August and September 1914 (battles of Cer and Kolubara), driving it out of Serbia by December 1914.
  In early 1915, Prince Alexander insisted upon assuming direct command of the army from Putnik. Putnik refused to abide by request, arguing that it was unconstitutional and that a monarch could not assume such a responsibility.
  The Serbian front then remained relatively quiet until autumn 1915, when joint Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian forces, led by German Field Marshal August von Mackensen, began a large offensive against Serbia with more than 300,000 soldiers. Before the joint attack, Putnik warned the Serbian government that Bulgaria was concentrating her troops at the eastern Serbian borders and that a preventive attack on Bulgaria was the only chance for Serbia to avoid fighting on two fronts. His demand was rejected due to the wishes of the Allies, who were still hoping to isolate Bulgaria from joining the Triple Alliance. Despite heroic resistance, the Serbian troops were obliged to retreat towards Kosovo. On 31 October, Putnik ordered a general retreat onto Kragujevac, attempting to keep his exhausted army together as it sought to escape into friendly territory. Many of Putnik's soldiers were farmers, who occasionally slipped away from the retiring army to resume their rural lives. Putnik's rapidly declining forces continued their withdrawal towards Albania during the first week of November 1915, a process aided by the fact that the Germans, Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians were reluctant to pursue Serbian troops through the highlands of Albania. The Germans felt that the war against Serbia was won, with most of the nation under the control of the Central Powers. Regarding the Russian Empire as the main threat in the East, Mackensen was eager to move his forces back to the Russian front. The Bulgarians were satisfied with their territorial gains in Macedonia and southeast Serbia, while the Austro-Hungarians were equally content with the notion that the Bulgarians were not moving to establish a Greater Bulgaria.
  The final confrontation occurred in Kosovo, the Field of the Blackbirds, between 19 and 24 November 1915. The Serbs were afflicted by a new outbreak of typhus, while food and ammunition was in extremely short supply. Facing inevitable defeat Putnik made his last and most painful order on 25 November — full retreat, southwards and westwards through Montenegro and into Albania. His goal was to reach allied ships that would, he hoped, transport the core of the army to the safety of the Ionian islands. Many of the fleeing soldiers and civilians died during the retreat to the coast -  lost to hunger, disease, attacks by enemy forces and Albanian tribal bands. The circumstances of the retreat were disastrous, and all told, some 155,000 Serbs, out of 250,000 mostly soldiers, eventually reached the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and embarked on Allied transport ships that carried the army to various Greek islands (many to Corfu) before being deployed at the Salonika front in April 1916. In worsening health, Putnik had to be carried in a sedan chair during the retreat through snowy mountains of Albania, exhausted by the effort and episodes of bronchitis, influenza and pneumonia. Putnik was met by allied for
caption: Radomir Putnik in his office
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