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the island and because of its rocky soil, it soon became a necessity to bury the dead at sea. As human bodies will float if not weighed down those charged with burying the deceased had to bind rocks to the corpses to prevent them form floating back to the surface. More than 5,000 Serbs were buried in such a manner in what became known as the Blue
Graveyard (
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during World War II that saw
British, Belgium, and French forces successfully withdrawn with minimal losses – have proven to be spectacular successes due to the ability of the force in question to redeploy in a meaningful way after disengaging. Conversely, other withdrawals and retreats – such as the
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to prevent epidemics, while the main camps of the recuperating
Serbian Army were on the island of Corfu itself. In spite of Allied material help, the conditions of both the improvised medical facilities and many of the patients on the island resulted in a high fatality rate. Due to the small area of
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Approximately five weeks after the
Kingdom of Bulgaria aligned itself with the Central Powers and subsequently declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia, the combined might of the German, Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian militaries combined with the losses that the Serbians had already suffered during the
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while simultaneously taxing the already severely depleted reserves of food and other supplies that were sorely needed for the retreat. The combined military and civilian force successfully managed to cross the
Albanian mountains, frustrating attempts by the invading forces to capture the group, but
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if caught. In the case of mutiny, an even more dangerous risk to a nation emerges if an entire military openly opposes, changes, or overthrows lawful authority to which it is nominally subject. Mutiny has likely been an issue since the first humans took up rocks and sticks to pummel each other, but
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Napolean's retreat from Moscow, following the disastrous invasion of the
Russian Empire by forces of the French Empire. Widely held as one of the worst retreats in history, Napolean's failure to subjugate Russia, coupled with the latter's employment of total war and the brutal winter of 1812, left
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over the years the implications of mutiny has become more and more disturbing as our weapons technology has advanced, although mercifully to date no major military mutiny is known to have occurred with regards to personnel entrusted with protection or use of humanity's currently classified
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In the case of the
Serbian Army's retreat in November, "disaster" ended up being the most accurate description of the process. As well as poor supply and sanitary conditions, which had already had a major impact on the engaged military forces, November leads into the winter season in the
252:, the destination for the retreat. Because of the massive loss of life, the Serbian Army's retreat through Albania is considered by Serbs to be one of the greatest tragedies in their nation's history. The survivors of the retreat were so weakened that thousands of them died from sheer
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serves as a barometer of the general mood of the force in question. When morale is high, forces usually have a gung-ho attitude and are ready to get into the fight, when morale runs low troops are generally bummed. If morale drops low enough two very real threats emerge:
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Historically, there are many examples of military forces that have for one reason or another been compelled to withdraw or retreat. Most are characterized as either organized or disorganized, based on several factors. Some examples – such as the
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the circumstances of the retreat as a whole were disastrous. During the journey, approximately 200,000 Serbs perished in the
Albanian mountains and thousands more died once they arrived on the Greek island of
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Along with the
Serbian Army, a sizable number of Serbian civilians began to withdraw with the military along the affected roads. This had the inadvertent effect of compelling the Serbian Army to protect its
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course of World War I led to the collapse of the
Serbian Army. The collapse of the Serbian Army officially started on 25 November 1915 when then Marshal Radomir Putnik, commander of the Serbian Army,
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Along with the physical stress that comes with a withdrawal or retreat comes the mental stress from the demands placed upon a force involved in withdrawal or retreat, for which
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of the forces that had been fighting the newest invasion force sent against it. The ordered retreat would take the Serbian Army to what was at the time the
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In the aftermath of the retreat's completion, a contingent of the Serbian Army was sent to
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