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Invasion: The Conquest of Serbia, 1915 By Richard L. DiNardo Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger/ ABC-CLIO, 2015 212 pages $60.00
This book is a major contribution to understanding one of the lesser-known and under-studied campaigns of the First World War still dominated by the Western Front. It is part of the publisher's "War, Technology, and History Series" whose editor highlights the challenge to analyze "the precise role of technology." This work is a case study from the principal Central Powers' perspective. The author has made extensive use of German and Austrian sources.
The introduction articulates the book's scope and context clearly and succinctly. It juxtaposes this final invasion of Serbia with the Central Powers' previous, combined operation against Russia earlier in the year, the stunning victory at Gorlice-Tarnów, which the author covered in an earlier book in the same series. The latter was a high-water mark of German and Austro-Hungarian cooperation, liberating Austrian Galicia and conquering Russian Poland in May-July 1915. The invasion of Serbia in September-November 1915 was the last for the "military marriage" of August von Mackensen as commander and Hans von Seeckt as his Chief of Staff.
The first chapter is a whirlwind review of nineteenth-century European history, national developments, diplomacy, and conflicts. The start of the twentieth century saw increasing German...