Macedonian Front (World War I) - 1917

1917

By the spring of this year, General Sarrail's Armee d' Orient had been reinforced to the point that he had 24 divisions: 6 French, 6 Serbian, 7 British, 1 Italian, 3 Greek and 2 Russian brigades. An offensive was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with major losses and the offensive was called off on May 21.

Subsequently the Allies, wishing to exert more pressure on Athens, occupied Thessaly, which had been evacuated by the royalist Greek Army, and the Isthmus of Corinth, practically severing the country in two. After an attempt to occupy Athens by force that caused the reaction of the local Greek forces and ended in an ignominious fiasco in December (see Noemvriana), the Allies established a naval blockade around southern Greece which was still loyal to the king causing extreme hardship to the people in those areas. Six months later in June, they presented a final ultimatum resulting in the exile of the Greek king (on June 14, his son Alexander becoming king) and the reunification of the country under Prime Minister Venizelos, supported by Allied bayonets. The new government immediately declared war on the Central Powers and started to create a new Army. Despite this favourable outcome, the new French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau recalled General Sarrail in November and put a much more diplomatic French General, Adolphe Guillaumat, in his place.