The Italians next turned their at tention to their right or Isonzo front in order to take Goritz and open the way to the capture of the Austrian port of Trieste. This front had not changed in any degree since hostilities opened. On Aug. 4, 1916, the Italians first assailed the mountain strongholds that protected Goritz, which is situated twenty-two miles N. W. of Trieste. They soon gained the Goritz bridgehead on the river Ison zo, which led directly to the city, the Austrians showing only weak resistance. The bridge was stormed, and on August 9 Goritz fell. The Doberdo and Carso plateaus had now to be crossed to reach Trieste. Many engagements took place on the new front during the autumn and early winter, but while the Italians made some headway Trieste remained at a safe distance as the year closed.
In the Balkans the situation that de veloped during 1916 was as follows: Germany had withdrawn most of her troops from this sector, the Serbians having been driven out of the last corner of their native land by Von Mackensen's sweep in the fall of 1915. She had ac complished her object of establishing railroad communication between Berlin and Constantinople, via Bulgaria, and left Austria to deal with Montenegro, and Bulgaria with Macedonia. With the opening of 1916 the Austrians attacked the Montenegrins from the E. on the rivers Tara, Lim and Ibar, while war ships in the Gulf of Cattaro opened heavy fire on Montenegro's dominating peak, Mount Lovcen, which was garrisoned. The little state was unable to resist Aus tria's massed assault. The Montenegrin fighting force had been reduced to 20, 000, and not only lacked guns and am munition but all kinds of supplies, even food. Mount Lovcen was captured, and with this commanding position in enemy hands, the capital, Cettinje, could not be retained, and it was occupied by the Austrians. The back of the remaining Montenegrin strength was thus broken. Peace negotiations were entered into with Austria, and King Nicholas fled.
The Austrians continued their advance into Albania, where many Montenegrins had flocked, following the remnant of the routed Serbian army. Albania at this time was untenable by the Allied forces. The Austrians were at San Gi ovanni di Medua, a seaport in northern Albania, by the close of January, and Bulgarians were in the S. Meantime, Essad Pasha, the Albanian leader, who supported the Allies, was also menaced by an Austrian and Bulgarian force marching N. W. from Berat, while an other enemy column was heading to ward Italian forces which occupied Avlona, a seaport in the S. Adriatic. The situation forced the Allies to get the helpless Serbians out of Albania. Some 75,000 were hastily transported by Allied ships to Corfu, others were taken to Tunis and Italy. The Austrians moved S. and the Bulgarians N. toward Du razzo, the Albanian capital. Italian and Albanian forces under Essad Pasha yielded before them, and Durazzo was taken on February 28. The Italian troops meantime covered the evacuation of the Montenegrins, Albanians and the remaining Serbians to Avlona, the only important point in Albania uncaptured. Allied assistance to Serbia, and inci dentally to Montenegro, came too late. An Anglo-French army under General Serrail had been assembled on the Greek front about Saloniki, and from there they attempted to advance through Ser bia, but were balked by the Bulgarians S. of Uskub. The Bulgarians, having driven the Serbians out of Macedonia, then attacked the Serrail forces, which fell back to their original line. By March,
1916, the Austrians and Bulgarians were in complete possession of the central Balkan area. The latter hesitated to push their lines across the Greek fron tier by further attacking the Allied forces, though they did not hesitate to do so elsewhere against Greek defenders. The Saloniki region was a part of Mace donia that was essentially Bulgarian in population. The Allies, however, had the better military position, being drawn in close to their base, with short interior tentions of Greece at their rear, daily augmented and strengthened their posi tion by re-enforcements of men and equipment, so that in August, 1916, it numbered, with Serbian and pro-Ally Greek accessions, nearly 500,000.
The Balkan situation was complicated by the wavering attitude of the govern ment of Greece, due to the monarch's leaning toward Germany. In the fall of 1916 the relations between the Allies and that country became very strained and occasioned a crisis on account of the danger to the Allies' Saloniki front and their naval communications by pos sible Greek activities on behalf of the Central Powers. The Allies were forced to regard Greece as a menace to their rear. As a precautionary measure they compelled the Greek Government to sur render its entire fleet and the Pirwus railroad and to dismantle all its shore batteries. Greece complied under force majeure. Hostile demonstrations in communications, while the Bulgarians had to spread round the wide semi circle formed by the Anglo-French forces. On the other hand, the latter were not prepared to start an offensive against the Bulgarians. Consequently there was a stalemate on this front which lasted for two years except for a sporadic offensive the Serbians, assisted by the French, made against the Bulgarians in September, 1916, when they regained a piece of their lost territory, including Monastir, and cap tured 6,000 prisoners. However, the in active Allies army, to guard against eventualities, especially the uncertain in Athens followed, the Greeks themselves being divided between royalists and pro Allies, and a force of French marines had to be landed, who occupied a num ber of public buildings and covered the streets with a number of machine guns. The Allies also demanded the withdrawal of Greek troops which had been con centrating near Larissa and in Corinth. The internal situation in Greece between the royalists and pro-Ally insurgents under Venizelos became such that a pro visional government of the latter was in stalled to checkmate King Constantine's pro-German tendencies and declared war on the Central Powers. Pro-Ally Greek forces were thereupon mobilized. This step followed the King's refusal to recognize the results of the elections, which were overwhelmingly in favor of Venizelos' pro-Ally policy. The royal army became more than ever a menace, and in November the Allies through the French Admiral Fournier demanded that it surrender all arms and munitions and guns except 50,000 rifles. The de mand was refused, whereupon French troops were landed at Pirceus. The Royal Palace was bombarded, and there was serious fighting, pro-Ally Greeks siding with the French, and an Allied blockade on all Greek shipping was declared. Finally Greece on December 16 unre servedly accepted the conditions of the Allies.