The autumn of this year saw important happenings on the Balkan front also.  This theater of the war had been uneventful for a long time.  The battle line extended from the Adriatic Sea to the AEgean, and was held by a mixed army of Serbians, Greeks, Italians, British, and French, under the command of General D’Esperey (des-pr[=a]’), with headquarters at Salonica.  Opposed to these troops were armies of Bulgarians and Austrians, together with a considerable number of Germans.  Encouraged by the German defeats in the west, which had forced the withdrawal of large numbers of German troops from eastern Europe, the Allies launched a strong offensive on the Balkan front in the middle of September.  Day after day their advance continued, resulting in the capture of many thousands of prisoners and the reoccupation of many miles of Albanian and Serbian territory.  The campaign was one of the most successful of the whole war.  Within two weeks the Bulgarians asked for an armistice, accepted the terms that were demanded, and on September 30 definitely withdrew from the war.  Their surrender broke the lines of communication between the Central Powers and Turkey and at one blow destroyed Teutonic supremacy in the Balkans.  An even more important consequence was the moral effect on the general public in Germany, Austria, and Turkey, where it was taken by many as a sign that surrender of the Central Powers could only be a question of time.

Meanwhile, events of almost equal importance were taking place in Palestine and Syria.  General Allenby had taken Jerusalem in December, 1917.  In the fall of 1918 new and important advances were made in this region, Arab forces east of the Jordan cooeperating with the British armies.  By the close of September more than 50,000 Turkish soldiers and hundreds of guns had been captured.  In October General Allenby’s men took the important cities of Damascus and Aleppo, and in Mesopotamia also the British began a new advance.  Turkey was already asking for an armistice, and now accepted terms that were virtually a complete surrender (October 31).

By this time Austria-Hungary was in the throes of dissolution; independent republics were being set up by the Czechs, the Hungarians, the Jugo-Slavs, and even the German Austrians.  These revolutions were hastened by the overwhelming victory of the Italians in the second battle of the Piave.  Their attack began October 24 on the mountain front, but soon the Allied forces under General Diaz (dee’ahss) crossed the river and cut through the lines of the fleeing Austrians.  In the capture of large numbers of prisoners and guns the Italians took full vengeance for their defeat of the preceding year.  So hopeless, indeed, was the situation for the Austrians that they too accepted an armistice that was practically a surrender (November 4).