I do not own anything, I've just made the subtitles.
Follow the artists for more : [ Ссылка ]
Lyrics :
Two soldiers are marching in a formation,
a father, and his son, what a touching sight,
They went through all the mountains of Albania*,
and finally reached the Ionian sea,
out there, in the land of pomegranates and lilies,
the father lost his only son.
Chorus : (x2)
As Field-Marshal Stepa rides on his horse,
the enemy starts waving the white flag
Once Serbs breached the Thessaloniki front,
none of the enemy's cannons could hit the father,
But in the hills of Kajmakčalan,
he got grievously wounded in his leg,
" cut it out brothers, for God's sake "
" I've lost my son, what do I need a leg for ? "
Chorus: (x2)
As Field-Marshal Stepa rides on his horse,
the enemy starts waving the white flag
They brought the father in ox wagon,
to a building which used to be a school once,
Once a school, now a hospital, of a
torched and destroyed, city of Pirot
A soldier without a rank, sends a dispatch,
" Dear wife, You don't have to wait for me and my son anymore. "
Chorus: (x2)
As Field-Marshal Stepa rides on his horse,
the enemy starts waving the white flag
References :
mountains of Albania - reference to forced retreat of the entire Serbian army, civilians, king, prime minister and the entire government through the ice-covered mountains of Metohija and Albania, and malaria-ridden coast of Albania all the way to the Greek island of Corfu,
the main route went from: Prizren (Kosmet) to Ljum (Lojme) (Albania) to Preškup (Preshkopi) (Albania) to Debar (FYROM) to Struga (FYROM) to Elbasan (Albania) to Drač (Durrës) (Albania) long over 383 kilometers, in period from 24th of Novemeber 1915. - 23rd of January 1916.
till this point it is estimated that around 72.000 people died of exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, freezing to death, hungry wolves, and various diseases like typhus, tuberculosis, and other.
After finally reaching the Drač port, they waited for days for the allied ships to arrive, only to realize there is no help coming the Entente (allies) weren't even sure if "helping almost dead people to recover". Things changed after the Russian tsar Nikolaj (Nicholas) II Romanov
gave ultimatum to the Entente (allies) saying : "If you don't rescue Serbian troops in Albania at once , Russia will leave the alliance and sign a separate-peace treaty with Germany" - after this ultimatum,the French took initiative and started sending supplies to Italian port Brindisi,
after which Italians started sending food supply ships, but because Austria-Hungary's submarines sank one Italian ship with food, Italians refused to send any more ships.
After that French made a decision to start evacuating at port Valona (Vlöre)m which meant yet another march to the South for another 200 kilometers along the Albanian malaria-ridden coast to the port of Valona, this lead to more deaths along the way - more than 1.000 people drowned during the crossing the Mace river alone,
Further retreat wasn't allowed by Italians, due to their fear of infectous diseases, saying : "Serbs mustn't cross the Škumba (Shkumbin) river and must avoid encountering Italian troops there" - this lead to yet another 10 days of people dying of hunger waiting , right outside of Valona which was supplied with fresh food from French.
More than 400 people died just during those 10 days of waiting, after the French intervention, the Italians finally let them pass and the evacuation started on 28th January, during this march tehre was around 5.000 dead people, most of which were those from the age of 10-25.
After reaching Corfu, they opened a hospital for treating people on a nearby island Vido, where about 3.700 more people were burried, after which there was no more space for mass-graveyards, so they started throwing the dead into the sea, or "The blue grave" as one of the poets said - over 5.400 more people were thrown in the sea.
The overall result was - over 243.877 people died or disappeared without a trace during this march.
[ Ссылка ]
Thessaloniki - after recovering on the Corfu island, the Serbian troops were sent to the Thessaloniki front : [ Ссылка ]
Kajmakčalan - the place of a bloody battle with Bulgarians : [ Ссылка ]
Pirot - a city in Serbia : [ Ссылка ]
Ещё видео!