Early in September, General Sarrail undertook an action at his extreme left against the Austrians and Bulgarians in Albania, to liberate the road between Florina and Ersek from the menace of hostile attack, and to push on the Pogradetz on the Lake of Ochrida. With this object in view he made up a group consisting of 3 infantry regiments, some mountain artillery and other minor units. The French line just skirted the Lake of Ochrida and then turned sharp to the south, east of the river Cerava, reached Lake Malik near Nishavetz and continued to the south of the lake, almost parallel with the Koritza-Ersek road. On September 7th, a column of the 176th Regiment occupied Placa between the Lakes of Ochrida and Malik, and drove back the enemy beyond the Cerava. On the 8th, another column forced the passage of the Devoli river, west of Lake Malik. On the 9th, Pogradetz was occupied, this being the only place where some resistance was offered, the enemy forces consisting of Bulgarians, Austrians, Albanians in the Austrian service, and some Saxon troops sent over expressly from another sector of the front. The French pushed forward along the west shore of Lake Ochrida as far as Udunista (9 km. north of Pogradetz) and spread westward as far as Hill 1704, whence they hoped to command the Durazzo-Struga road, one of the lines of supply of the extreme right wing of the enemy. At the same time a column composed of French troops and Albanian irregulars advanced along the upper Skumbi, and on the 21st a French detachment delivered a surprise attack on Golik (6 or 7 km. south of the Durazzo-Struga road), capturing 480 prisoners and putting a similar number of the enemy _hors de combat_, with the loss of only 16 men. Altogether the French made about a thousand prisoners in these operations. In October, there was a slight renewal of activity in this area, but the line occupied varied little, and was finally stabilized along the following points: Udunista, Hill 1704, Velichani Mokra, Gora Top, and thence southward. There was not, however, a continuous line, as on the Western fronts or even in other parts of the Macedonian front, but only a series of more or less isolated posts. The troops in this sector were formed into what was called the Provisional Infantry Division, commanded by General Jacquemot. The detachments forming it soon afterwards returned to their respective units, but subsequently, in consequence of information received concerning a probable Bulgarian counter-offensive along the west shore of Lake Ochrida, with the object of recapturing Pogradetz and perhaps again menacing the Santi Quaranta road, the Provisional Division was reconstituted; but the threatened attack never took place.