First Army was tasked with defence of the western border of Serbia (along the river Drina). It faced mostly units of Austro-Hungarian Third Army and was mostly under less pressure then other Serbian units facing Germans or Bulgarians. Perhaps as a consequence of this Mišić was in favor of halting and making a final stand against the Central Powers forces when the High Command ordered retreat across Montenegro and Albania to Italian-held Durrës and Vlorë (at the time Serbian Army was defending itself in Kosovo from three sides and was in danger of becoming surrounded). However, he was overruled by other army commanders at their meetings at Peć, who decided to carry on the order of High Command. Retreat The First Army took part in the epic retreat of the Serbian Army through the Albanian mountains during the winter of 1915 and 1916, during which it suffered heavy casualties due to hunger, frostbite, attack from Albanian bands (Albania officially supported the Entente) and exhaustion. From the Italian-held ports the Serbian Army was transported by Allied ships to Corfu, and a smaller part to French-held Bizerte to recuperate and reorganise. During the retreat of the Serbian army (along with civilians) a few Serbian soldiers would be assigned to "guard" large groups of civilians of 300 to 500 persons. Vardar Offensive Mišić was recalled to command the First Army in September 1916 initially at Monastir and then at Thessaloniki. The First Army (again commanded by Bojović) took part in the Allied Vardar Offensive of 1918 that effectively knocked Bulgaria out of the war. During this offensive, this army advanced far ahead of the Allies and performed a maneuver near Niš which broke the last serious German attempt to halt the offensive by superior numbers. For his merit in this feat, Gen. Bojović was promoted to Vojvoda. This army liberated Belgrade, and subsequently crossed into Vojvodina and advanced as far as present-day border between Serbia and Hungary by the time of the Armistice. Army composition The numerical strength and unit composition of all Serbian armies varied greatly during the war not only because of the heavy casualties, but also because of the very flexibile strategy employed by the Serbian High command, with armies often trading regiments and even divisions if needed. Serbian unit organisation did not include brigades and corps. The regiments directly formed the divisions (mostly four), and divisions formed the armies.