The French had thus obtained some not indifferent territorial advantages by means of this very well conducted operation. But they now found themselves with an extended front and their left flank in the air, a situation which, in the face of an enterprising enemy, might have been very dangerous, all the more so as their supplies had to be transported on mule-back over very difficult country. But neither the Bulgarians nor the Austrians were then in a position to attempt operations in that area, which was as arduous for them as for the French. During the month of November, in consequence of the terrible disaster of Caporetto, there were persistent rumours from various sources of an imminent enemy offensive on the Macedonian and Albanian fronts. The landing of several German divisions at Durazzo and the arrival of numerous reinforcements on the Macedonian front from Roumania were reported, chiefly from neutral countries (Spain and Switzerland). The Austro-German victory on the Italian front was enthusiastically fêted by the enemy forces in the Balkans, and a vigorous propaganda was conducted, especially among the Serbs, by means of grandiloquent proclamations and invitations to make a separate peace, dropped into the Allied lines. General Sarrail did not believe in this offensive, and as things turned out his scepticism proved well founded. All that actually did happen was a slight increase in the enemy’s battalion strength. The number of enemy battalions, which had risen from 239 in February to 267 in May, and had fallen to 237 in August, again rose to 285 in November. These battalions were nearly all Bulgarian, save for a variable but ever-decreasing number of German battalions--they were then eight or nine--and the 177th Turkish Regiment, the last remnant of the 2 Turkish divisions which had been formerly on the Macedonian front; even this was soon afterwards withdrawn. It appears, however, that the actual strength of the battalions had been progressively weakened, so that the increase was more apparent than real.