The role of Italy in saving the Serbian Army and people, 1915-1916

the request of Minister Sonnino for the 21st Battalion to occupy the
triangle Valona-Drač-Elbasan.“ 19 General Cadorna was of the opinion
that there was no possible way to influence the outcome of the war from
Albania, thus every deployment of the army to Albania would mean
unjustified weakening of the forces on other fronts. He persistently re-
peated that the only value Albania has for Italy is in the control of the
Valona Harbour which, like the port at Brindisi, guarantees control of
the entrance to the waters of the Adriatic.
While the defeated army of General Maurice Sarrail was with-
drawing from Macedonia toward Salonika and the Bulgarians had
already entered Bitolj, the first section of the Special Italian Corps in
Albania landed at Valona on December 3, 1915 with precise orders from
General Cadorna: take Valona and Drač with the minimum territory
necessary for their protection and use all the power and resources to
supply the Serbian troops. The next day, on December 4, the Brigade
„Savona“, placed under the command of General Domenico Guerrini,
began the transfer from Valona to Drač. For security reasons, the com-
mander of the Special Italian Corps, General Emilio Bertotti, ordered
that the transfer of the troops be carried out by land, not by sea.
During those days the first groups of the Serbian Army started ar-
riving in Skadar. The situation in the city was extremely confusing and
anarchic and the Serbian ambassador in Rome once again urged the
Italian government to send troops to Albania. On November 18 Nikola
Pašić sent a letter to Minister Sonnino via the Serbian embassy in Rome
in which Italy was invited to intervene in the Balkans with a proposal
that it land its troops at Saranda. 20 Serbia renewed its request on De-
cember 4 pleading with Italy to send to Albania „at least one military
regiment to stop the activities of Albanian bandits, Austrian-Bulgarian
mercenaries“ 21 to which Sonnino explained that „Italy had not commit-
ted itself to any transportation or landing on the Albanian and Monte-
negrin coast. We have done and continue to do everything possible
considering our strategically inferior situation in the Adriatic and all
the forces at our disposal. France recently withdrew 12 counter torpedo
boats which it had committed to merge with our fleet and, only in re-
sponse to our strong pressure, promised to return them.“ 22
At the Second Allied Conference which opened December 6 in
Chantilly [France], Italy expressed its readiness to send one division to
Drač and Valona to help the Serbian Army in its retreat.
On December 10 the Joint Commission, formed November 23 and
comprised of the naval attachés of France, England and Russia, the mil-
itary attaché of Serbia and representatives of the Italian Ministry of the
Navy and War, adopted Italy’s proposal to organize shelter in Valona for
the entire Serbian Army, its prisoners of war and refugees. Supporting
the Serbian request for urgent dispatches of Allied troops to northern
Albania, the Italian ambassador advised his ministry in Rome that he
had the impression that the Serbs were counting almost exclusively on
Italy’s help for the immediate and long term supply of food and pro-
visions as well as for the arrival of powerful Italian troops to Albania.
The Italian Army Corps arrived in Valona December 16 with a
full contingent numbering 20,000 men. About ten days later the Brit-
ish naval attaché and the Serbian military attaché, who had arrived in
Rome from Albania, reported that the transport of food was handled in
a satisfactory manner and 60,000 healthy Serbian soliders had already
assembled between Medovo and Skadar.
The Allies concentrated the food and provisions in Brindisi for
transport and unloading in Drač and Medovo. At the end of Novem-
ber Austrian submarines attacked six Italian sailboats brimming with
food and wheat from France intended for the Serbs and three of the
boats were submerged. A few days later, when another Italian ship en-
countered a mine in the Valona Harbour, most of its sailors were killed.
Here is how the conditions and landing at Medovo are described in the
report of the ship commander responsible for managing the unloading
operation:
„Of the 20 coastal boats used to land from large ships, two are still
overloaded with goods; the landing takes place when the costal boat
approaches something which resembles a harbour dock from where
Serbian and Montenegrin soldiers are unloading [the goods] sack by
sack. On the land and on the piles were all kinds of goods and materi-
als exposed to the elements, theft and every kind of enemy attack. If the
Austrian ships had perchance hit the oil tanks on the beach, Medovo
would have been all in flames. From the coast, the goods are carried to
Skadar on carts pulled by buffalos. Due to poor roads, the transporta-
tion is delayed by hours and it usually takes three days to arrive. No
more than three quintals can be loaded. In such conditions, impeded
by the lack of capable command, constant alarms [due to] enemy at-
tacks and other difficulties, the goods remain in Medovo for weeks.“ 23
The column under the command of General Guerrini arrived in
Drač by land from Valona December 19, almost at the same time as
the first Serbian units. During the march across the Semeni River, they
saw the endless column of captured Austrian soldiers whom the Serbs
were taking to Valona. The first group of 1,500 prisoners of the Serbian
Army entered Drač December 7. However, fearing an uprising of the
people against Essad Pasha and on the recommendation of the local
authorities, it was decided that the prisoners should not be released in
Drač, rather they should first be assembled in Kavaja and then sent on
to Valona.
The Serbs were rushing to Valona knowing that King Petar was al-
ready there. The situation in Valona was described this way in the mil-
itary diary of Italian officer Giuseppe Corni:
„There is no doubt that the presence of King Petar hinders the im-
plementation of our orders. Difficulties emanate from the inability to
enforce taxing rules with regard to the manner, times and routes of
entry into the city because the columns are arriving from all directions
in disarray; the King’s presence is a natural magnet which is attracting
all Serbs and which the Italian Command is trying to avoid in every
possible way.“ 24
The condition of the Serbs and their prisoners was horrible; bodies
of the dead and the dying were lying along the roads. Luigi Romano
Lodi Fe, the Italian consul in Bitolj who escaped to Valona, reported
this to the government:
„Along the road to Valona stretched an endless black mass, a column
of Serbian prisoners – Austrian soldiers. They are approaching slowly,
accompanied by our Bersaglieri. They are moving in groups holding on
to each other. Those are no longer men, but wandering spectres with
madness and death in their eyes. They form a peculiar group. Five or
six of them walk along holding on to some kind of pole which two of
them, less emaciated, hold at the ends; from time to time, one of them
lets go of the pole, falls and doesn’t get up again. Another takes his place
holding on to that pole of agony. Those who are walking behind them
move [aside] so as not to stumble on the one who has fallen and, disin-
terested, they continue to walk attempting, even if in vain, to quicken
their pace in order to arrive sooner at the sea, the gathering place prior
to boarding which they can already see. However, the largest number are
arriving in Valona to die here, for despite the best intentions, the zeal of
the army and the efforts of the doctors, their condition is such that they
cannot save them with the means at their disposal. They are covered
with unimaginable filth. Their feet are bare, deformed, bloodied. On
their heads are shapeless, colourless caps, pieces of some fabric for sacks;
they are dressed in tattered overcoats with nothing else on themselves...
It appears to be certain that the prisoners who are arriving in Medovo
will no longer be able to board there and they will have to go to Drač. But
in Drač it is the same situation; it is also packed and overcrowded there
so that about 40,000 of them will have to continue along their mournful
path of Golgotha – to Valona.“ 25
Other columns are also arriving and bypassing each other. In con-
trast to such a terrible situation, measures taken to erect a quarantine
camp in Arta clearly proved to be insufficient. No option remained
other than to urgently board the ships in order to prevent an epidem-
ic outbreak, but cholera had already broken out on some ships. Before
the next boarding, those ships had to be disinfected which reduced the
number of available transport vessels. On December 16 the first group
of Serbian prisoners of war – Austrian soldiers – left Valona for Asinara
in Sardinia; about 19,000 more were evacuated December 27; and the
________________________
19) Luigi Cadorna, Altre pagine sulla Grande Guerra (Milano: Mondadori,1925).
20) Pasic a Sonnino, of 18.11.1915, (MAE, DDI, Series V 1914-1918,volume IV,doc. 119).
21) Squitti a Sonnino, of 4. 12.1915, (MAE, DDI, Series V 1914-1918,volume IV,doc. 171).
22) Sonnino agli ambasciatori, 1768 of 9. 12.1915, (MAE, DDI, Series V 1914-1918,volume IV, doc. 186).
23) Mario Montanari, Italiani e Serbi in Balcania durante la prima Guerra
Mondiale. Memorie Storiche Militari 1982.(Roma:SME Ufficio Storico,1983).
24) Giuseppe Corni, Riflessi e visioni della grande guerra in Albania: Diario di
un ufficiale (Milano: Alpes, 1928) 21 December 1915.
25) Luigi Romano Lodi Fe' a Sonnino, 16.12.1915, (ASMAE, Series II Personale,M 24).