Second Balkan War
Encyclopedia
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria
, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War
, attacked its former allies, Serbia
and Greece
, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia
. But Serbia, displeased at being forced by the Great Powers to evacuate Albania
, refused to give up any more territory. Bulgaria then declared war on Serbia. Very soon, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupied zones between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. Serbia started negotiations with Greece, which was also concerned about Bulgaria's intentions. Serbian and Greek armies failed to repel the Bulgarian offensive. Romania
also attacked Bulgaria, on the pretext of their previous territorial boundaries. The Ottoman Empire
also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territory from the previous war.
After much violent fighting with almost equally numerous casualties on both sides, the Serbian front calmed down. King Constantine of Greece, believing that Bulgaria had been defeated, ordered the Greek army to march further into Bulgarian territory and take the capital Sofia
. Constantine wanted a decisive victory, despite the objections of Eleftherios Venizelos
. When the Greek army marched in without precautions it was ambushed at Kresna by the Bulgarian 1st and 2nd Armies which had already taken defensive positions there. The Greeks and Bulgarians were in stalemate
and had sustained heavy casualties during the previous days of fighting. At the end, both the Bulgarian and Greek governments wanted peace, and ended the fighting. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia
, Bulgaria asked for an armistice. Romania accepted the truce and the war ended. A general armistice was agreed to on 18/31 July 1913, and the territorial spoils divided in the Treaty of Bucharest and the Treaty of Constantinople
.
With the strong diplomatic support of Russia
, Bulgaria succeeded in retaining Western Thrace
, its outlet to the Aegean Sea
, with the port of Dedeagach (Alexandroupolis), and part of Macedonia. Thus, Bulgaria enlarged its territory by 16% compared to before the First Balkan War
, and increased its population from 4.3 million to 4.7 million people. Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War, including the southern Dobrudja (to Romania), most of Macedonia, and Eastern Thrace (to the Ottomans). Serbia made gains in northern Macedonia, while Greece gained the region’s southern half. The boundary settlements of the Treaties of Bucharest and Constantinople were only temporary; 10 months later, fighting renewed with the start of World War I. The Second Balkan War also caused a break-up of the Russo-Bulgarian alliance, and thus left Serbia as the only ally of Russia in this critical region. For this reason, Serbia had Russia's full support. This allowed Serbia to ignite the July crisis of 1914, and later to maintain an uncompromising position against Austria-Hungary
that led (through the existing European chains of alliances
) to World War I
.
, the Balkan League
, composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria, had succeeded in driving out the Ottoman Empire from its European provinces (Albania
, Macedonia
, the Sandžak
and Thrace
), leaving the Ottomans with only the Çatalca
and Gallipoli
peninsulas. The Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913, which ended the war, acknowledged the Balkan states' gains west of the Midia-Enos line that was the boundary line between the Ottoman Empire and the allies drawn from Midia (Kıyıköy
) to Enos (Enez
), on an uti possidetis
basis, and created an independent Albania.
However, the relations between the victorious Balkan allies became quickly strained over the division of the spoils, especially Macedonia. During the prewar negotiations that had led to the establishment of the Balkan League, Serbia and Bulgaria signed a secret agreement on 13 March 1912 which determined their future boundaries, in effect sharing north Macedonia between them along the Kriva Palanka
–Ohrid
line (with both cities going to the Bulgarians). This left the bulk of Vardar Macedonia
in Bulgarian hands. In case of a post-war disagreement, the northern part had been assigned as a "disputed zone" under Russian arbitration and the southern part under Bulgarian control. Bulgaria's policy was to use the agreement to limit Serbia's access to Macedonia, while at the same time denying any such agreement with Greece, believing that its army would be able to occupy the larger part of south Macedonia and the important port city of Thessaloniki
before the Greeks. In the event, during the war, the Serbs succeeded in capturing an area far south of the agreed border, down to the Bitola
–Gevgelija
line (both in Serbian hands). At the same time, the Greeks were able to advance north, occupying Thessaloniki shortly before the Bulgarians arrived, and establishing a common border with the Serbs.
When Bulgaria called upon Serbia to honor their prewar agreement over northern Macedonia, the Serbs, displeased at being forced by the Great Powers to evacuate Albania
, adamantly refused to give up any more territory. Very soon, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupation zones between the Bulgarians, the Serbs and the Greeks. Responding to the perceived Bulgarian threat, Serbia started negotiations with Greece, which also had reasons to be concerned about Bulgarian intentions. Only a few years before, the Greeks and Bulgarians had fought a vicious guerrilla war
in the area, and a Bulgarian regiment, which had been allowed to enter Thessaloniki eight months before, ostensibly for recuperation, had remained there ever since.
On 19 May/1 June 1913, a day after the Treaty of London was signed and just 16 days before the Bulgarian attack, a secret Serbian-Greek defensive alliance
was signed, confirming the current demarcation line between the two occupation zones as their mutual border and concluding an alliance in case of an attack from Bulgaria or Austria-Hungary. During the negotiations Serbia preferred not to explain the roots of its dispute with Bulgaria, failing to notify the Greeks about their prewar settlements with Bulgaria over Macedonia. With this agreement, Serbia succeeded in making Greece a part of its dispute over northern Macedonia, since Greece had guaranteed Serbia's current (and disputed) occupation zone in Macedonia. Bulgarian diplomacy, under Prime Minister Geshov, in an attempt to halt the Serbo-Greek rapprochement, signed a protocol with Greece on 21 May agreeing on a permanent demarcation line between their respective forces, in effect unofficially accepting Greek's control over southern Macedonia. But his later dismissal ended his Serbia-targeting diplomacy.
Another point of friction was Bulgaria's refusal to cede the fortress of Silistra
to Romania as promised before the war in exchange for Romanian neutrality. When Romania after the (First Balkan) war demanded its cession, Bulgaria's foreign minister offered instead some minor border changes, which excluded Silistra, and assurances for the rights of the Kutzovlachs
in Macedonia. Romania threatened to occupy the promised territory by force, but a Russian proposal for arbitration
prevented hostilities. In the resulting Protocol of St. Petersburg of 8 May 1913, Bulgaria agreed to give Silistra but not the area of Dobrudzha. Under Russian pressure Romania finally agreed. The resulting agreement was a compromise between the Romanian demands for Dobrudzha and the Bulgarian refusal to accept any meaningful cession of its territory. However the fact that Russia failed to protect the territorial integrity of Bulgaria made the Bulgarians uncertain of the reliability of the expected Russian arbitration of the dispute with Serbia. The Bulgarian behavior had also a long termed consequence over the Russo-Bulgarian relations as together with the uncompromising Bulgarian position tο review the prewar agreement with Serbia during a second Russian initiative for arbitration between them, finally led Russia to cancel its alliance with Bulgaria. Both acts were making a conflict with Romania and Serbia inevitable.
In 1912 Bulgaria's national aspiration, as this had been expressed through Tsar Ferdinand and the military leadership around him, exceeded the provisions of what was considered in 1878 as maximalist
ic, Treaty of San Stefano
, since it included both Eastern and Western Thrace and all Macedonia with Thessaloniki, Edirne and Constantinople. An early evidence of the lack of realistic thinking in Bulgarian leadership was that although Russia had sent clear warnings expressed for the first time in 5 November 1912 (well before the first battle of Çatalca) that if the Bulgarian Army occupied Constantinople they would attack it, they continued and tried to take the city.
Although the Bulgarian Army succeeded in capturing Edirne (with the help of the Serbian Army), Tsar Ferdinand's ambition in crowning himself an Emperor in Constantinople proved also unrealistic when the Bulgarian Army failed to capture the city in the battle of Çatalca. Even worse, the effort in capturing Thrace
and Constantinople ultimately caused the loss of the major part of Macedonia including Thessaloniki and that could not be easily accepted, leading the Bulgarian military leadership around Tsar Ferdinand to decide upon a war against its former allies. However, with the Ottomans unwilling to definitely accept the loss of Thrace in the east, and an enraged Romania (on the north), the decision to open a war against both Greece (to the south) and Serbia (to the west), was a rather adventurous one, since in May the Ottoman Empire had urgently requested a German mission to reorganize the Ottoman army. By mid June Bulgaria became aware of the agreement between Serbia and Greece in case of a Bulgarian attack. In 27 June Montenegro announced that it would side with Serbia in the event of a Serbian-Bulgarian war, on 5 February Romania settled her differences over Transylvania
with Austro-Hungary signing a military alliance and on 28 June officially warned Bulgaria that it would not remain neutral in a new Balkan war.
As skirmishing continued in Macedonia, mainly between Serbian and Bulgarian troops, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
tried to stop the upcoming conflict, since Russia didn't wish to lose either of its Slavic
allies in the Balkans. On 8 June, he sent an identical personal message to the Kings of Bulgaria and Serbia, offering to act as arbitrator according to the provisions of the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. Serbia was asking for a revision of the original treaty, since it had already lost north Albania due to the Great Powers' decision to establish the state of Albania, an area that had been recognized as a Serbian territory of expansion under the prewar Serbo-Bulgarian treaty, in exchange for the Bulgarian territory of expansion in northern Macedonia. The Bulgarian reply to the Russian invitation contained so many conditions that it amounted to an ultimatum
, leading Russian diplomats to realize the Bulgarians had already decided to go to a war with Serbia. That caused Russia to cancel the arbitration initiative and to angrily repudiate its alliance with Bulgaria (see Russo-Bulgarian treaty of alliance of 1902). Bulgaria was shattering the Balkan league, Russia's best defense against Austria-Hungarian expansionism, a structure that had cost Russia so much blood, money and diplomatic capital during the last 35 years. Sazonov's exact words to Danev
were "Do not expect anything from us, and forget the existence of any of our agreements from 1902 until present." Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was already angry with Bulgaria because of the later's denial to honor its recently signed agreement with Romania over Silistra succeeded only after Russian arbitration. Then Serbia and Greece proposed that each of the three countries reduce its army by one fourth, as a first step to facilitate a peaceful solution, but Bulgaria rejected it.
Bulgaria was already on the track to war, since a new cabinet had been formed in Bulgaria where the pacifist M. Geshov
was replaced by the hardliner and head of a russophil party Dr. Danev as premier. There is some evidence that to overcome Tsar Ferdinand's reservations over a new war against Serbia and Greece, certain personalities in Sofia threatened to overthrow him. In any case on 16 June, the Bulgarian high command, under the direct control of Tsar Ferdinand and without notifying the government, ordered Bulgarian troops to start a surprise attack simultaneously against both the Serbian and Greek positions, without declaring war and to dismiss any orders contradicting the attack order. The next day the government put pressure on the General Staff to order the army to cease hostilities which caused confusion and loss of initiative and failed to remedy the state of undeclared war. In response to the government pressure Tsar Ferdinand dismissed General Savov and replaced him with General Dimitriev as Commander-in-chief.
Bulgaria's intention was to defeat Serbs and Greeks and to occupy areas as large as possible before the Great Powers interfered to stop the hostilities. In order to provide the necessary superiority in arms, the entire Bulgarian army was committed to these operations. No provisions were made in case of a (officially declared) Romanian intervention or an Ottoman counterattack, strangely assuming that Russia would assure that no attack would come from those directions, even though on 9 June Russia had angrily repudiated its Bulgarian alliance and shifted its diplomacy towards Romania (Russia already had named Romania's King Carol an honorary Russian Field Marshal, as a clear warning in shifting its policy towards Sofia in December 1912). The plan was for a concentrated attack against the Serbian army across the Vardar plain to neutralize it and to capture north Macedonia, together with a less concentrated one against the Greek Army near Thessaloniki, which had approximately half the size of the Serbian in order to capture the city and south Macedonia. The Bulgarian high command was not sure whether their forces were enough to defeat the Greek Army, but they thought them enough for defending the south front as a worst case scenario, until the arrival of additional forces after defeating the Serbian Army to the north.
, since each infantry division had three brigades of two regiments, composed of four battalions of six heavy companies of 250 men each, plus an independent battalion, two large artillery regiments and one cavalry regiment, giving a grand total of 25 very heavy infantry battalions and 16 cavalry companies per division, which was more than the equivalent of two nine-battalion divisions, the standard divisional structure in most contemporary armies, as was also the case with the Greek and Serbian armies in 1913. Consequently although the Bulgarian Army had a total of 599,878 men mobilized in the beginning of the First Balkan War
, there were only 9 organizational divisions, giving a divisional strength closer to an Army Corps
than to a Division. Tactical necessities during and after the First Balkan War modified this original structure: a new 10th division was formed using two brigades from the 1st and 6th divisions, and an additional three independent brigades were formed from new recruits. Nevertheless, the heavy structure generally remained. By contrast, the Greek Army of Macedonia had also 9 Divisions but the total number of men under arms was only 118,000. Another decisive factor affecting the real strength of the divisions between the opposing armies was the distribution of artillery. The nine division-strong Greek Army had a total of 176 guns and the ten division-strong Serbian Army, 230. The Bulgarians had 1,116, a ratio of 6:1 against the Greeks and 5:1 against the Serbian Army.
There is a dispute over the strength of the Bulgarian Army during the Second Balkan War. At the outbreak of the First Balkan War
, Bulgaria mobilized a total of 599,878 men (366,209 in the Active Army; 53,927 in the supplementing units; 53,983 in the National Militia; 94,526 from the 1912 and 1913 levies; 14,204 volunteers; 14,424 in the border guards). The non-recoverable casualties during the First Balkan War were 33,000 men (14,000 killed and 19,000 died of disease). To replace these casualties Bulgaria conscripted 60,000 men between the two wars, mainly from the newly occupied areas, using 21,000 of them to form the Seres, Drama and Odrin independent brigades. It is known that there were no demobilized men. According to the Bulgarian command the Army had 7,693 officers and 492,528 soldiers in its ranks on the 16th of June (including the above mentioned three brigades). This gives a difference of 99,657 men in strength between the two wars. In comparison, subtracting the actual number of casualties including wounded and adding the newly conscripted men produces a total of no less than 576,878 men. The army was experiencing shortages of war materials and had only 378,998 rifles at its disposal.
The 1st and 3rd
armies (under generals Vasil Kutinchev
and Radko Dimitriev
respectively) were deployed along the old Serbian-Bulgarian borders, with the 5th
Army under general Stefan Toshev
around Kyustendil
, and the 4th
Army under general Stiliyan Kovachev
in the Kočani
-Radoviš
area. The 2nd Army under general Nikola Ivanov
was detailed against the Greek army.
The army of the Kingdom of Serbia
accounted for 348,000 men (out of which 252,000 were combatants) divided into three armies with 10 divisions. Its main force was deployed on the Macedonian front along the Vardar
river and near Skopje
. Its nominal commander-in-chief was King Peter I, with Radomir Putnik
as his chief of staff and effective field commander.
By early June, the army of the Kingdom of Greece
had a grand total of some 142,000 armed men with nine infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade. The bulk of the army with eight divisions and a cavalry brigate (117,861 men) was gathered in Macedonia, positioned in an arc north, northeastern of Thessalonica while one division and independent units (24,416 men) were left in Epirus. With the outbreak of hostilities, the 8th division (stationed in Epirus
) was transferred to the front, and with the arrival of new recruits, the army's strength in the Macedonian theater increased eventually to some 145,000 men with 176 guns. King Constantine I
assumed command of the Greek forces, with Lt. General Viktor Dousmanis
as his chief of staff but as in the First Balkan War
the organizational and strategic mind behind the scene was Major (later Lt. General) Ioannis Metaxas
.
The Kingdom of Montenegro
sent one division of 12,000 men under General Janko Vukotić
to the Serbian-Macedonian front.
The Kingdom of Romania
mobilized over 330,000 men, allocated in five corps. Some 80,000 of them were assembled to occupy the Southern Dobrudja, while an army of 250,000 was assembled to carry the main offensive into Bulgaria.
The Ottoman Empire
entered the war with an army of 255,000 men.
and Struma
river. The plan to quickly destroy the Serbian army in central Macedonia by concentrated attack turned out to be unrealistic and the Bulgarian Army started to retreat even before Romanian intervention and the Greek advance necessitated disengagement of forces in order to defend Sofia.
The Bulgarian 2nd Army
in southern Macedonia commanded by General Ivanov held a line from Dojran Lake
south east to Kilkis
, Lachanas
, Serres
and then across the Pangaion Hills
to the Aegean Sea
. The army had been in place since May, and was considered a veteran force, having fought at the siege of Adrianople in the First Balkan War
. General Ivanov, possibly to avoid any responsibility for his crushing defeat, claimed after the war that his Army consisted of only 36,000 men and that many of his units were understrength, but a detailed analysis of his units contradicted him. Ivanov's 2nd Army was consisted of the 3rd Division minus one brigade with four regiments of four battalions (total 16 battalions plus the divisional artillery), the I/X brigade with the 16th and 25th regiments (total of eight battalions plus artillery), the Drama Brigade with the 69th, 75th and 7th regiments (total of 12 battalions), the Serres Brigade with 67th and 68th regiments (total of 8 battalions), the 11th Division with the 55th, 56th and 57th regiments (total of 12 battalions plus the divisional artillery), the 5th border battalion, the 10th independent battalion and the 10th Cavalry Regiment of seven mounted and seven infantry companies. A total of 232 companies in 58 infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment (14 companies) with 175 artillery guns. That gives a total between 80,000 (official Bulgarian source) and 108,000 (official Greek source according to the official Bulgarian history of the war before 1932). All modern historians agreed that Ivanov underestimated the number of his soldiers but the Greek army still had a numerical superiority. The Greek Headquarters also estimated the numbers of their opponents from 80,000 to 105,000 men.
The Greek army, commanded by King Constantine I
, had eight divisions and a cavalry brigade (117,861 men) with 176 artillery guns in a line extending from the Gulf of Orphano to the Djevjeli area. Since the Greek headquarters did not know where the Bulgarian attack would take place, the Bulgarian Army would have temporary local superiority in the area chosen for the attack.
On 26 June the Bulgarian Army received orders to destroy the opposing Greek forces and to advance towards Thessaloniki
. The Greeks stopped them and by June 29 an order for general counterattack was issued. At Kilkis
the Bulgarians had constructed strong defenses, including captured Ottoman guns which dominated the plain below. The Greek 4th, 2nd and 5th divisions attacked across the plain in rushes supported by artillery. Greeks suffered heavy casualties but by the following day had carried the trenches. On the Bulgarian left, the Greek 7th Division had captured Serres
and the 1st and 6th divisions Lachanas
. The defeat of the 2nd Army by the Greeks was the most serious military disaster suffered by the Bulgarians in the 2nd Balkan war. Bulgarian sources are giving a total of 6,971 casualties. To these Greeks captured more than 6,000 prisoners and more than 130 artillery pieces, suffering 8,700 casualties. On 28 June, the retreating Bulgarian army and irregulars burned down the major city of Serres
(a predominantly Greek town surrounded by a largely Bulgarian hinterland), ostensibly as a retaliation for the burning of the Bulgarian town of Kilkis
by the Greeks, which had taken place after the named battle. On the Bulgarian right Evzones
captured Gevgelija
and the heights of Matsikovo. As a consequence, the Bulgarian line of retreat through Doiran was threatened and Ivanov's army began a desperate retreat which at times threatened to become a rout. Reinforcements in the form of the 14th Division came too late and joined the retreat towards Strumica and the Bulgarian border. The Greeks captured Doirani
on 5 July but were unable to cut off the Bulgarian retreat through Struma
pass. On 11 July the Greeks came in contact with the Serbs and then pushed on up the Struma River
until they reached Kresna Gorge
on 24 July. At this point the exhausted Greeks had overstretched their supply lines, and were forced to halt.
The 4th Bulgarian Army held the most important position for the conquest of Serbian Macedonia. The fighting began on 29–30 June 1913, between the 4th Bulgarian Army and the 1st and 3rd Serbian armies, first along the Zletovska and then after a Bulgarian retreat, along the Bregalnica. Internal confusions led to heavy Bulgarian losses in 1–3 July. The Serbs captured the whole 7th Division of the 4th Bulgarian Army, without any fight. By July 8, the Bulgarian Army had been severely defeated.
On the north the Bulgarians started to advance towards the Serbian town of Pirot
(near the Serbian - Bulgarian border) and forced Serbian Command to send reinforcements to the 2nd Army defending Pirot and Niš
. This enabled Bulgarians to stop the Serbian offensive in Macedonia at Kalimanci on 18 July.
On July 13, 1913, General Mihailo Savov assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies. The Bulgarians dug into strong positions around the village of Kalimantsi, at the Bregalnica
river in the northeastern Macedonia region. On July 18, the Serbian 3rd army attacked, closing in on Bulgarian positions. The Bulgarians held firm, the artillery was very successfull in breaking up the Serb attacks. If the Serbs had broken through the Bulgarian defences, they might have doomed the 2nd Bulgarian Army and driven out the Bulgarians entirely out of Macedonia. The defensive victory, along with the successes to the north of the 1st and 3rd armies, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion. Although this boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the Greek Army.
The Serbian front had became static. King Constantine, seeing that the Bulgarian Army at his front had been already defeated, ordered the Greek Army to march further into Bulgarian territory and take the capital city of Sofia. Constantine wanted a decisive victory despite objections by Eleftherios Venizelos, who realized that Serbs, having won their territorial objectives, now wanted to stay passive and move the weight of the rest of the war to the Greeks. In the pass of Kresna (Battle of Kresna Gorge
), the Greeks were ambushed by the Bulgarian 2nd and 1st Army who had newly arrived from the Serbian front and had taken defensive positions there. By 8 July, the Greek army was outnumbered by the now counterattacking Bulgarian armies, and the Bulgarian General Staff, attempting to encircle the Greeks in a Cannae
-type battle was applying pressure on their flanks. The Greek army resisted successfully however, and even launched local counter-attacks. After committing all available forces to the attack without succeeding to penetrate, by 17 July, Bulgarian Armies reduced their attack activity having to repulse Greek counterattacks on both sides. To the western flank, the Greek Army occupied Berovo, and on the eastern front it occupied Mehomia. By then, news came that the Romanians were about to capture Sofia. Romania had entered the war due to a dispute over Silistra
. King Constantine realized that continuing the attack would be pointless, and took the proposal of Venizelos to accept Bulgaria's request for armistice, delivered through Romania. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties. A general armistice was signed on 18/31 July 1913, ending the most bloodshed battle of the Second Balkan War. At the day of the armistice, the Romanian forces had reached Vrazhdebna, just seven miles from Sofia.
When the Romanian army closed in on Sofia, Bulgaria asked Russia to arbitrate. The Ottoman forces that invaded Eastern Thrace (12 July) without meeting Bulgarian resistance were already in Edirne
being unwilling to stop their advance. To help Bulgaria repulse the rapid Ottoman advance in Thrace, Russia threatened to attack the Ottoman Empire through the Caucasus, and send its Black Sea Fleet to Constantinople; this caused Britain to intervene.
The territorial spoils were divided in the Treaty of Bucharest and the Treaty of Constantinople
. Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War
, including southern Dobrudja (to Romania
), most of Macedonia
and Eastern Thrace (to the Ottomans
). With the strong diplomatic support of Russia, it succeeded in retaining Western Thrace
, its outlet to the Aegean sea, with the port of Dedeagach (Alexandroupolis), and part of Macedonia. Bulgaria thus enlarged its territory by 16% compared to before the First Balkan War
, and increased its population from 4.3 million to 4.7 million people. Romania enlarged its territory by 5% and Montenegro by 62%. Greece increased its population from 2.7 million to 4.4 million and its territory by 68%. Serbia almost doubled its territory and enlarged its population from 2.9 million to 4.5 million. The treaties forced the Greek Army to evacuate the Western Thrace
and Pirin Macedonia, which it had occupied during operations. The ceding of those areas to Bulgaria, and the loss of Northern Epirus
to Albania
, was unpopular in Greece; from the areas occupied during the war, Greece retained only the regions of Serres
and Kavala
after a diplomatic support from Germany. Serbia
made additional gains in northern Macedonia and having fulfilled its aspirations to the south, turned its attention to the north where its rivalry with Austro-Hungary over Bosnia-Herzegovina led the two countries to war a year later, igniting the First World War. Italy
used the Balkan wars as a pretext to keep the Dodecanese
islands in the Aegean which it had occupied during the Italo-Turkish War
over Libya
, despite the agreement that ended that war in 1912.
Albania officially gained its independence according to the terms of the Treaty of London. This was achieved thanks to the strong insistence of Austro-Hungary and Italy, who hoped to control Albania and thus the Strait of Otranto
in the Adriatic Sea
. With the delineation of the exact boundaries of the new state under the Protocol of Florence (17 December 1913), Serbia lost its outlet to the Adriatic, and Greece lost the region of Northern Epirus
(Southern Albania). This was highly unpopular with the local Greek population, who, after a revolt, managed to acquire local autonomy
under the terms of the Protocol of Corfu
.
Although Bulgaria received part of Macedonia, which was one of the main reasons for declaring war, the minor Bulgarian gains were at a greater cost than all other participants in the Balkan league and Bulgaria lost additional territories. The war is often called the First national catastrophe in Bulgaria due to its disastrous results. Hoping to fulfill its national aspirations, Bulgaria voluntarily entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers
against its Balkan neighbors Serbia, Greece and Romania, who were pro-Entente
(see the Serbian Campaign
, the Macedonian Front and the Romanian Campaign of World War I). The resulting enormous sacrifices during World War I and the new treaty caused Bulgaria a new national trauma and with new territorial losses
.
Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established as an independent state when the Principality of Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal, officially proclaimed itself independent on October 5, 1908 . This move also formalised the annexation of the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which had been under the control...
, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, attacked its former allies, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, on 29 June 1913. Bulgaria had a prewar agreement about the division of region of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
. But Serbia, displeased at being forced by the Great Powers to evacuate Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, refused to give up any more territory. Bulgaria then declared war on Serbia. Very soon, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupied zones between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. Serbia started negotiations with Greece, which was also concerned about Bulgaria's intentions. Serbian and Greek armies failed to repel the Bulgarian offensive. Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
also attacked Bulgaria, on the pretext of their previous territorial boundaries. The Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territory from the previous war.
After much violent fighting with almost equally numerous casualties on both sides, the Serbian front calmed down. King Constantine of Greece, believing that Bulgaria had been defeated, ordered the Greek army to march further into Bulgarian territory and take the capital Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
. Constantine wanted a decisive victory, despite the objections of Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
. When the Greek army marched in without precautions it was ambushed at Kresna by the Bulgarian 1st and 2nd Armies which had already taken defensive positions there. The Greeks and Bulgarians were in stalemate
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal moves. A stalemate ends the game in a draw. Stalemate is covered in the rules of chess....
and had sustained heavy casualties during the previous days of fighting. At the end, both the Bulgarian and Greek governments wanted peace, and ended the fighting. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...
, Bulgaria asked for an armistice. Romania accepted the truce and the war ended. A general armistice was agreed to on 18/31 July 1913, and the territorial spoils divided in the Treaty of Bucharest and the Treaty of Constantinople
Treaty of Constantinople (1913)
The Treaty of Constantinople was a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria signed on 29 September 1913 after the Second Balkan War at the Ottoman capital İstanbul.- Background :...
.
With the strong diplomatic support of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Bulgaria succeeded in retaining Western Thrace
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...
, its outlet to the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, with the port of Dedeagach (Alexandroupolis), and part of Macedonia. Thus, Bulgaria enlarged its territory by 16% compared to before the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, and increased its population from 4.3 million to 4.7 million people. Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War, including the southern Dobrudja (to Romania), most of Macedonia, and Eastern Thrace (to the Ottomans). Serbia made gains in northern Macedonia, while Greece gained the region’s southern half. The boundary settlements of the Treaties of Bucharest and Constantinople were only temporary; 10 months later, fighting renewed with the start of World War I. The Second Balkan War also caused a break-up of the Russo-Bulgarian alliance, and thus left Serbia as the only ally of Russia in this critical region. For this reason, Serbia had Russia's full support. This allowed Serbia to ignite the July crisis of 1914, and later to maintain an uncompromising position against Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
that led (through the existing European chains of alliances
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
) to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
First Balkan War
During the First Balkan WarFirst Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, the Balkan League
Balkan League
The Balkan League was an alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Balkan states of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the time still controlled much of the Balkan peninsula...
, composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria, had succeeded in driving out the Ottoman Empire from its European provinces (Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
, the Sandžak
Sandžak
Sandžak also known as Raška is a historical region lying along the border between Serbia and Montenegro...
and Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
), leaving the Ottomans with only the Çatalca
Çatalca
Çatalca is a city and a rural district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is in Thrace, on the ridge between the Marmara and the Black Sea. Most people living in Çatalca are either farmers or those visiting vacation homes. Many families from Istanbul come to Çatalca during weekends to hike in the forests or...
and Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
peninsulas. The Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913, which ended the war, acknowledged the Balkan states' gains west of the Midia-Enos line that was the boundary line between the Ottoman Empire and the allies drawn from Midia (Kıyıköy
Kiyiköy
Kıyıköy, formerly Midye, ancient/medieval Medea , is a town of the district of Vize in Kırklareli Province in northwestern Turkey. It is situated on the coast of the Black Sea. It became a municipality in 1987. The population of the town is 2,443 according to the 2000 National Census.Fishing and...
) to Enos (Enez
Enez
Enez is a district of Edirne Province, Turkey, as well as the name of the center-town of the district. Its ancient name was Aenus. The mayor is Ahmet Çayır . The population is 3,826 as of 2010....
), on an uti possidetis
Uti possidetis
Uti possidetis is a principle in international law that territory and other property remains with its possessor at the end of a conflict, unless otherwise provided for by treaty; if such a treaty doesn't include conditions regarding the possession of property and territory taken during the war,...
basis, and created an independent Albania.
However, the relations between the victorious Balkan allies became quickly strained over the division of the spoils, especially Macedonia. During the prewar negotiations that had led to the establishment of the Balkan League, Serbia and Bulgaria signed a secret agreement on 13 March 1912 which determined their future boundaries, in effect sharing north Macedonia between them along the Kriva Palanka
Kriva Palanka
Kriva Palanka is a town located in the northeastern part of the Republic of Macedonia. It has 14.558 inhabitants. The town of Kriva Palanka is the seat of Kriva Palanka Municipality which has almost 21.000 inhabitants....
–Ohrid
Ohrid
Ohrid is a city on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid in the Republic of Macedonia. It has about 42,000 inhabitants, making it the seventh largest city in the country. The city is the seat of Ohrid Municipality. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year and has...
line (with both cities going to the Bulgarians). This left the bulk of Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia
Vardar Macedonia is an area in the north of the Macedonia . The borders of the area are those of the Republic of Macedonia. It covers an area of...
in Bulgarian hands. In case of a post-war disagreement, the northern part had been assigned as a "disputed zone" under Russian arbitration and the southern part under Bulgarian control. Bulgaria's policy was to use the agreement to limit Serbia's access to Macedonia, while at the same time denying any such agreement with Greece, believing that its army would be able to occupy the larger part of south Macedonia and the important port city of Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
before the Greeks. In the event, during the war, the Serbs succeeded in capturing an area far south of the agreed border, down to the Bitola
Bitola
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...
–Gevgelija
Gevgelija
Gevgelija is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the Republic of Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece , the point which links the motorway from Skopje and three other former Yugoslav capitals with...
line (both in Serbian hands). At the same time, the Greeks were able to advance north, occupying Thessaloniki shortly before the Bulgarians arrived, and establishing a common border with the Serbs.
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, adamantly refused to give up any more territory. Very soon, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupation zones between the Bulgarians, the Serbs and the Greeks. Responding to the perceived Bulgarian threat, Serbia started negotiations with Greece, which also had reasons to be concerned about Bulgarian intentions. Only a few years before, the Greeks and Bulgarians had fought a vicious guerrilla war
Greek Struggle for Macedonia
The Macedonian Struggle was a series of social, political, cultural and military conflicts between Greeks and Bulgarians in the region of Ottoman Macedonia between 1904 and 1908...
in the area, and a Bulgarian regiment, which had been allowed to enter Thessaloniki eight months before, ostensibly for recuperation, had remained there ever since.
Greek-Serbian Alliance of 1913
The Greek-Serbian Alliance of 1913 was signed at Thessaloniki on 1 June 1913, in the aftermath of the First Balkan War, when both countries wanted to preserve their gains in Macedonia from Bulgarian expansionism...
was signed, confirming the current demarcation line between the two occupation zones as their mutual border and concluding an alliance in case of an attack from Bulgaria or Austria-Hungary. During the negotiations Serbia preferred not to explain the roots of its dispute with Bulgaria, failing to notify the Greeks about their prewar settlements with Bulgaria over Macedonia. With this agreement, Serbia succeeded in making Greece a part of its dispute over northern Macedonia, since Greece had guaranteed Serbia's current (and disputed) occupation zone in Macedonia. Bulgarian diplomacy, under Prime Minister Geshov, in an attempt to halt the Serbo-Greek rapprochement, signed a protocol with Greece on 21 May agreeing on a permanent demarcation line between their respective forces, in effect unofficially accepting Greek's control over southern Macedonia. But his later dismissal ended his Serbia-targeting diplomacy.
Another point of friction was Bulgaria's refusal to cede the fortress of Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
to Romania as promised before the war in exchange for Romanian neutrality. When Romania after the (First Balkan) war demanded its cession, Bulgaria's foreign minister offered instead some minor border changes, which excluded Silistra, and assurances for the rights of the Kutzovlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
in Macedonia. Romania threatened to occupy the promised territory by force, but a Russian proposal for arbitration
Arbitration
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...
prevented hostilities. In the resulting Protocol of St. Petersburg of 8 May 1913, Bulgaria agreed to give Silistra but not the area of Dobrudzha. Under Russian pressure Romania finally agreed. The resulting agreement was a compromise between the Romanian demands for Dobrudzha and the Bulgarian refusal to accept any meaningful cession of its territory. However the fact that Russia failed to protect the territorial integrity of Bulgaria made the Bulgarians uncertain of the reliability of the expected Russian arbitration of the dispute with Serbia. The Bulgarian behavior had also a long termed consequence over the Russo-Bulgarian relations as together with the uncompromising Bulgarian position tο review the prewar agreement with Serbia during a second Russian initiative for arbitration between them, finally led Russia to cancel its alliance with Bulgaria. Both acts were making a conflict with Romania and Serbia inevitable.
Bulgarian plans for war
Maximalist
Maximalist is a quality of excessive redundancy oft exhibited by way of the overt accumulation of appurtenances that reflect current society. In other references the term refers to either the ostentatious displays of the extensive possessions of the super-rich or the obsessive collecting as...
ic, Treaty of San Stefano
Treaty of San Stefano
The Preliminary Treaty of San Stefano was a treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire signed at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78...
, since it included both Eastern and Western Thrace and all Macedonia with Thessaloniki, Edirne and Constantinople. An early evidence of the lack of realistic thinking in Bulgarian leadership was that although Russia had sent clear warnings expressed for the first time in 5 November 1912 (well before the first battle of Çatalca) that if the Bulgarian Army occupied Constantinople they would attack it, they continued and tried to take the city.
Although the Bulgarian Army succeeded in capturing Edirne (with the help of the Serbian Army), Tsar Ferdinand's ambition in crowning himself an Emperor in Constantinople proved also unrealistic when the Bulgarian Army failed to capture the city in the battle of Çatalca. Even worse, the effort in capturing Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
and Constantinople ultimately caused the loss of the major part of Macedonia including Thessaloniki and that could not be easily accepted, leading the Bulgarian military leadership around Tsar Ferdinand to decide upon a war against its former allies. However, with the Ottomans unwilling to definitely accept the loss of Thrace in the east, and an enraged Romania (on the north), the decision to open a war against both Greece (to the south) and Serbia (to the west), was a rather adventurous one, since in May the Ottoman Empire had urgently requested a German mission to reorganize the Ottoman army. By mid June Bulgaria became aware of the agreement between Serbia and Greece in case of a Bulgarian attack. In 27 June Montenegro announced that it would side with Serbia in the event of a Serbian-Bulgarian war, on 5 February Romania settled her differences over Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
with Austro-Hungary signing a military alliance and on 28 June officially warned Bulgaria that it would not remain neutral in a new Balkan war.
As skirmishing continued in Macedonia, mainly between Serbian and Bulgarian troops, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
tried to stop the upcoming conflict, since Russia didn't wish to lose either of its Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
allies in the Balkans. On 8 June, he sent an identical personal message to the Kings of Bulgaria and Serbia, offering to act as arbitrator according to the provisions of the 1912 Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. Serbia was asking for a revision of the original treaty, since it had already lost north Albania due to the Great Powers' decision to establish the state of Albania, an area that had been recognized as a Serbian territory of expansion under the prewar Serbo-Bulgarian treaty, in exchange for the Bulgarian territory of expansion in northern Macedonia. The Bulgarian reply to the Russian invitation contained so many conditions that it amounted to an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
, leading Russian diplomats to realize the Bulgarians had already decided to go to a war with Serbia. That caused Russia to cancel the arbitration initiative and to angrily repudiate its alliance with Bulgaria (see Russo-Bulgarian treaty of alliance of 1902). Bulgaria was shattering the Balkan league, Russia's best defense against Austria-Hungarian expansionism, a structure that had cost Russia so much blood, money and diplomatic capital during the last 35 years. Sazonov's exact words to Danev
Stoyan Danev
Stoyan Petrov Danev was a leading Bulgarian liberal politician and twice Prime Minister.A legal graduate of both the University of Heidelberg and the University of Paris, Danev served in a number of Ministerial roles, including Foreign Minister, and became known as a strong supporter of Imperial...
were "Do not expect anything from us, and forget the existence of any of our agreements from 1902 until present." Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was already angry with Bulgaria because of the later's denial to honor its recently signed agreement with Romania over Silistra succeeded only after Russian arbitration. Then Serbia and Greece proposed that each of the three countries reduce its army by one fourth, as a first step to facilitate a peaceful solution, but Bulgaria rejected it.
Ivan Evstratiev Geshov
Ivan Evstratiev Geshov was a Bulgarian politician who served as Prime Minister.Born in Plovdiv to a family originally from Karlovo, Geshov was educated at various Greek and Protestant institutions, as well as Owens College in Manchester...
was replaced by the hardliner and head of a russophil party Dr. Danev as premier. There is some evidence that to overcome Tsar Ferdinand's reservations over a new war against Serbia and Greece, certain personalities in Sofia threatened to overthrow him. In any case on 16 June, the Bulgarian high command, under the direct control of Tsar Ferdinand and without notifying the government, ordered Bulgarian troops to start a surprise attack simultaneously against both the Serbian and Greek positions, without declaring war and to dismiss any orders contradicting the attack order. The next day the government put pressure on the General Staff to order the army to cease hostilities which caused confusion and loss of initiative and failed to remedy the state of undeclared war. In response to the government pressure Tsar Ferdinand dismissed General Savov and replaced him with General Dimitriev as Commander-in-chief.
Opposing forces
According to the Military Law of 1903, the armed forces of Bulgaria were divided in two categories: the Active Army and the National Militia. The core of the Armed forces consisted of nine infantry and one cavalry division. The Bulgarian Army had a unique organization among the armies of EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, since each infantry division had three brigades of two regiments, composed of four battalions of six heavy companies of 250 men each, plus an independent battalion, two large artillery regiments and one cavalry regiment, giving a grand total of 25 very heavy infantry battalions and 16 cavalry companies per division, which was more than the equivalent of two nine-battalion divisions, the standard divisional structure in most contemporary armies, as was also the case with the Greek and Serbian armies in 1913. Consequently although the Bulgarian Army had a total of 599,878 men mobilized in the beginning of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, there were only 9 organizational divisions, giving a divisional strength closer to an Army Corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
than to a Division. Tactical necessities during and after the First Balkan War modified this original structure: a new 10th division was formed using two brigades from the 1st and 6th divisions, and an additional three independent brigades were formed from new recruits. Nevertheless, the heavy structure generally remained. By contrast, the Greek Army of Macedonia had also 9 Divisions but the total number of men under arms was only 118,000. Another decisive factor affecting the real strength of the divisions between the opposing armies was the distribution of artillery. The nine division-strong Greek Army had a total of 176 guns and the ten division-strong Serbian Army, 230. The Bulgarians had 1,116, a ratio of 6:1 against the Greeks and 5:1 against the Serbian Army.
There is a dispute over the strength of the Bulgarian Army during the Second Balkan War. At the outbreak of the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, Bulgaria mobilized a total of 599,878 men (366,209 in the Active Army; 53,927 in the supplementing units; 53,983 in the National Militia; 94,526 from the 1912 and 1913 levies; 14,204 volunteers; 14,424 in the border guards). The non-recoverable casualties during the First Balkan War were 33,000 men (14,000 killed and 19,000 died of disease). To replace these casualties Bulgaria conscripted 60,000 men between the two wars, mainly from the newly occupied areas, using 21,000 of them to form the Seres, Drama and Odrin independent brigades. It is known that there were no demobilized men. According to the Bulgarian command the Army had 7,693 officers and 492,528 soldiers in its ranks on the 16th of June (including the above mentioned three brigades). This gives a difference of 99,657 men in strength between the two wars. In comparison, subtracting the actual number of casualties including wounded and adding the newly conscripted men produces a total of no less than 576,878 men. The army was experiencing shortages of war materials and had only 378,998 rifles at its disposal.
The 1st and 3rd
Third Army(Bulgaria)
The Bulgarian Third Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II.-Balkan Wars:After 1907, during times of peace, the territory of Bulgaria was divided into three army inspectorates, each one comprising three divisional district. During war they formed three...
armies (under generals Vasil Kutinchev
Vasil Kutinchev
Vasil Ivanov Kutinchev was a Bulgarian officer. He began his military career in 1879 after graduating from the Military School in Sofia...
and Radko Dimitriev
Radko Dimitriev
Radko Dimitriev was a Bulgarian General, Head of the General Staff of the Bulgarian Army from 1 January 1904 to 28 March 1907.-Biography:...
respectively) were deployed along the old Serbian-Bulgarian borders, with the 5th
Fifth Army (Bulgaria)
The Bulgarian Fifth Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Second Balkan War and World War II....
Army under general Stefan Toshev
Stefan Toshev
Stefan Toshev was a Bulgarian General, from World War I. His mother was a teacher from the period of the National Revival. He volunteered in the Bulgarian Opalchentsi Corps during the Russo-Turkish War and later served as a translator. On 10 May 1879 he graduated the Military School in Sofia in...
around Kyustendil
Kyustendil
Kyustendil is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of Kyustendil Province, with a population of 44 416 . Kyustendil is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, 90 km southwest of Sofia...
, and the 4th
Fourth Army (Bulgaria)
The Bulgarian Fourth Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II....
Army under general Stiliyan Kovachev
Stiliyan Kovachev
Stiliyan Kovachev was a Bulgarian General. During the First Balkan War he commanded the Rodopi Detachment and later 4th Army...
in the Kočani
Kocani
Kočani is a town away from Skopje, situated in the Eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia, with population of 28 330. The town of Kočani is the seat of Kočani Municipality.-Geography and population:...
-Radoviš
Radoviš
Radoviš is a city positioned in the southeastern part of the Republic of Macedonia. It is the second largest city in the southeastern region. The city is the seat of Radoviš Municipality, which is spread on the bottom of Plačkovica Mountain and the northern part of the Radoviš-Strumica valley. The...
area. The 2nd Army under general Nikola Ivanov
Nikola Ivanov
Nikola Ivanov was a Bulgarian general, Chief of the Headquarters of the Bulgarian Army between 10 May 1894 and 29 November 1896, Minister of war between 29 November 1896 - 30 January 1899...
was detailed against the Greek army.
The army of the Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
accounted for 348,000 men (out of which 252,000 were combatants) divided into three armies with 10 divisions. Its main force was deployed on the Macedonian front along the Vardar
Vardar
The Vardar or Axios is the longest and major river in the Republic of Macedonia and also a major river of Greece. It is long, and drains an area of around . The maximum depth of river is ....
river and near Skopje
Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Macedonia with about a third of the total population. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre...
. Its nominal commander-in-chief was King Peter I, with Radomir Putnik
Radomir Putnik
Radomir Putnik, also known as Vojvoda Putnik, OSS OCT OKS GCMG was a Serbian Field Marshal and Chief of General Staff in the Balkan Wars and World War I, and took part in all wars that Serbia waged from 1876 to 1917.-Biography:...
as his chief of staff and effective field commander.
By early June, the army of the Kingdom of Greece
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
had a grand total of some 142,000 armed men with nine infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade. The bulk of the army with eight divisions and a cavalry brigate (117,861 men) was gathered in Macedonia, positioned in an arc north, northeastern of Thessalonica while one division and independent units (24,416 men) were left in Epirus. With the outbreak of hostilities, the 8th division (stationed in Epirus
Epirus
The name Epirus, from the Greek "Ήπειρος" meaning continent may refer to:-Geographical:* Epirus - a historical and geographical region of the southwestern Balkans, straddling modern Greece and Albania...
) was transferred to the front, and with the arrival of new recruits, the army's strength in the Macedonian theater increased eventually to some 145,000 men with 176 guns. King Constantine I
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
assumed command of the Greek forces, with Lt. General Viktor Dousmanis
Viktor Dousmanis
Viktor Dousmanis was a Greek military officer, who rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. He distinguished himself as a staff officer during the Balkan Wars and became a leading royalst during the National Schism, serving three terms as Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff.- Life :A...
as his chief of staff but as in the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
the organizational and strategic mind behind the scene was Major (later Lt. General) Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas
Ioannis Metaxas was a Greek general, politician, and dictator, serving as Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941...
.
The Kingdom of Montenegro
Kingdom of Montenegro
The Kingdom of Montenegro was a monarchy in southeastern Europe during the tumultuous years on the Balkan Peninsula leading up to and during World War I. Legally it was a constitutional monarchy, but absolutist in practice...
sent one division of 12,000 men under General Janko Vukotić
Janko Vukotic
Janko Vukotić, was a Serbian General, Serdar and Voivode from Montenegro in the Balkan Wars and World War I. He served as Montenegro's Minister of Defence in periods 1905-1907, 1911–1912 and 1913–1915 and as the Prime Minister of Montenegro 1913-1915...
to the Serbian-Macedonian front.
The Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
mobilized over 330,000 men, allocated in five corps. Some 80,000 of them were assembled to occupy the Southern Dobrudja, while an army of 250,000 was assembled to carry the main offensive into Bulgaria.
The Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
entered the war with an army of 255,000 men.
Outbreak of the war
The main Bulgarian attack was planned against the Serbs with their 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th Armies, while the 2nd Army was tasked with an attack towards Greek positions around Thessaloniki. However in the crucial opening days of the war only the 4th Army and 2nd Army were ordered to advance. This allowed the Serbs to concentrate their forces against the attacking Bulgarians and hold their advance. The Bulgarians were outnumbered on the Greek front and the low-level fighting soon turned into Greek attack all along the line on 19 June. The Bulgarian forces were forced to withdraw from their positions north of Thessaloniki (except the isolated battalion stationed in the city itself which was quickly overrun) to defensive positions between KilkisKilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
and Struma
Struma
The Struma was a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine during World War II. On February 23, 1942, with its engine inoperable and its refugee passengers aboard, Turkish authorities towed the ship from Istanbul harbor through the Bosphorus...
river. The plan to quickly destroy the Serbian army in central Macedonia by concentrated attack turned out to be unrealistic and the Bulgarian Army started to retreat even before Romanian intervention and the Greek advance necessitated disengagement of forces in order to defend Sofia.
Battle of Kilkis-Lachanas
Second Army (Bulgaria)
The Bulgarian Second Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II.-History:After 1907, during times of peace, the territory of Bulgaria was divided in three army inspectorates , each one comprising three divisional district. During war they formed three...
in southern Macedonia commanded by General Ivanov held a line from Dojran Lake
Dojran Lake
Dojran Lake is a lake with an area of 43.1 km² shared between the Republic of Macedonia and West Macedonia within Greek Macedonia, Greece . To the west is the city of Nov Dojran , to the east the village of Mouries, to the north the mountain Belasica/Beles and to the south the Greek town of...
south east to Kilkis
Kilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
, Lachanas
Lachanas
Lachanas is a village and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lagkadas, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 3,779 . The seat of the municipality was in Xylopoli....
, Serres
Serres
Serres is a city in Greece, seat of the Serres prefecture.Serres may also refer to:Places:* Serres, Germany, a part of Wiernsheim in Baden-WürttembergIn France:* Serres, Aude in the Aude département...
and then across the Pangaion Hills
Pangaion hills
The Pangaion Hills , ancient forms: Pangaeon, Pangaeum, Homeric name: Nysa are a mountain range in Greece, approximately 40 km from Kavala. The highest elevation is 1,956 m and the mountaintop name is Koutra...
to the Aegean Sea
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
. The army had been in place since May, and was considered a veteran force, having fought at the siege of Adrianople in the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
. General Ivanov, possibly to avoid any responsibility for his crushing defeat, claimed after the war that his Army consisted of only 36,000 men and that many of his units were understrength, but a detailed analysis of his units contradicted him. Ivanov's 2nd Army was consisted of the 3rd Division minus one brigade with four regiments of four battalions (total 16 battalions plus the divisional artillery), the I/X brigade with the 16th and 25th regiments (total of eight battalions plus artillery), the Drama Brigade with the 69th, 75th and 7th regiments (total of 12 battalions), the Serres Brigade with 67th and 68th regiments (total of 8 battalions), the 11th Division with the 55th, 56th and 57th regiments (total of 12 battalions plus the divisional artillery), the 5th border battalion, the 10th independent battalion and the 10th Cavalry Regiment of seven mounted and seven infantry companies. A total of 232 companies in 58 infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment (14 companies) with 175 artillery guns. That gives a total between 80,000 (official Bulgarian source) and 108,000 (official Greek source according to the official Bulgarian history of the war before 1932). All modern historians agreed that Ivanov underestimated the number of his soldiers but the Greek army still had a numerical superiority. The Greek Headquarters also estimated the numbers of their opponents from 80,000 to 105,000 men.
The Greek army, commanded by King Constantine I
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
, had eight divisions and a cavalry brigade (117,861 men) with 176 artillery guns in a line extending from the Gulf of Orphano to the Djevjeli area. Since the Greek headquarters did not know where the Bulgarian attack would take place, the Bulgarian Army would have temporary local superiority in the area chosen for the attack.
On 26 June the Bulgarian Army received orders to destroy the opposing Greek forces and to advance towards Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
. The Greeks stopped them and by June 29 an order for general counterattack was issued. At Kilkis
Kilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
the Bulgarians had constructed strong defenses, including captured Ottoman guns which dominated the plain below. The Greek 4th, 2nd and 5th divisions attacked across the plain in rushes supported by artillery. Greeks suffered heavy casualties but by the following day had carried the trenches. On the Bulgarian left, the Greek 7th Division had captured Serres
Serres
Serres is a city in Greece, seat of the Serres prefecture.Serres may also refer to:Places:* Serres, Germany, a part of Wiernsheim in Baden-WürttembergIn France:* Serres, Aude in the Aude département...
and the 1st and 6th divisions Lachanas
Lachanas
Lachanas is a village and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lagkadas, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 3,779 . The seat of the municipality was in Xylopoli....
. The defeat of the 2nd Army by the Greeks was the most serious military disaster suffered by the Bulgarians in the 2nd Balkan war. Bulgarian sources are giving a total of 6,971 casualties. To these Greeks captured more than 6,000 prisoners and more than 130 artillery pieces, suffering 8,700 casualties. On 28 June, the retreating Bulgarian army and irregulars burned down the major city of Serres
Serres
Serres is a city in Greece, seat of the Serres prefecture.Serres may also refer to:Places:* Serres, Germany, a part of Wiernsheim in Baden-WürttembergIn France:* Serres, Aude in the Aude département...
(a predominantly Greek town surrounded by a largely Bulgarian hinterland), ostensibly as a retaliation for the burning of the Bulgarian town of Kilkis
Kilkis
Kilkis is an industrial city in Central Macedonia, Greece. As of 2001 there were 17,430 people living in the city proper, 24,812 people living in the municipal unit, and 56,336 in the municipality of Kilkis. It is also the capital city of the regional unit of Kilkis.-Name:Kilkis is located in a...
by the Greeks, which had taken place after the named battle. On the Bulgarian right Evzones
Evzones
The Evzones, or Evzoni, is the name of several historical elite light infantry and mountain units of the Greek Army. Today, it refers to the members of the Proedriki Froura , an elite ceremonial unit that guards the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier , the Hellenic Parliament and the Presidential...
captured Gevgelija
Gevgelija
Gevgelija is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the Republic of Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece , the point which links the motorway from Skopje and three other former Yugoslav capitals with...
and the heights of Matsikovo. As a consequence, the Bulgarian line of retreat through Doiran was threatened and Ivanov's army began a desperate retreat which at times threatened to become a rout. Reinforcements in the form of the 14th Division came too late and joined the retreat towards Strumica and the Bulgarian border. The Greeks captured Doirani
Battle of Doiran (1913)
The Battle of Doiran was a battle of the Second Balkan War between the Bulgarian and the Greek army. The battle took place in June 1913.The Greek armed forces after the victory at Kilkis-Lachanas, continued their advance north and successfully engaged the Bulgarians at lake Doiran...
on 5 July but were unable to cut off the Bulgarian retreat through Struma
Struma
The Struma was a ship chartered to carry Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-controlled Palestine during World War II. On February 23, 1942, with its engine inoperable and its refugee passengers aboard, Turkish authorities towed the ship from Istanbul harbor through the Bosphorus...
pass. On 11 July the Greeks came in contact with the Serbs and then pushed on up the Struma River
Struma River
The Struma or Strymónas is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. Its ancient name was Strymōn . Its catchment area is 10,800 km²...
until they reached Kresna Gorge
Kresna Gorge
The Kresna Gorge is a stunning steep valley in southwestern Bulgaria. The Struma River, which stems off of Vitosha mountains, is what formed this spectacular site. The gorge is rich in biodiversity, which may be in danger of the project to build the Struma Motorway, which is part of Trans European...
on 24 July. At this point the exhausted Greeks had overstretched their supply lines, and were forced to halt.
Battles of Bregalnica and Kalimanci
On the north the Bulgarians started to advance towards the Serbian town of Pirot
Pirot
Pirot is a town and municipality located in south-eastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 38,432, while the population of the municipality is 57,911...
(near the Serbian - Bulgarian border) and forced Serbian Command to send reinforcements to the 2nd Army defending Pirot and Niš
Niš
Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...
. This enabled Bulgarians to stop the Serbian offensive in Macedonia at Kalimanci on 18 July.
On July 13, 1913, General Mihailo Savov assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies. The Bulgarians dug into strong positions around the village of Kalimantsi, at the Bregalnica
Bregalnica
Bregalnica is the second largest river in the Republic of Macedonia. It starts as a spring near the mountain city of Berovo and it passes near the cities of Makedonska Kamenica, Kočani, Vinica and Štip, before joining the river Vardar on its way to the Aegean Sea...
river in the northeastern Macedonia region. On July 18, the Serbian 3rd army attacked, closing in on Bulgarian positions. The Bulgarians held firm, the artillery was very successfull in breaking up the Serb attacks. If the Serbs had broken through the Bulgarian defences, they might have doomed the 2nd Bulgarian Army and driven out the Bulgarians entirely out of Macedonia. The defensive victory, along with the successes to the north of the 1st and 3rd armies, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion. Although this boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the Greek Army.
Battle of Kresna and armistice
Battle of Kresna Gorge
The Battle of Kresna Gorge was fought in 1913 between the Greeks and the Bulgarians during the Second Balkan War.After the Serbian front became static, and seeing that the Bulgarian Army in his front had already suffered defeat, King Constantine ordered the Greek Army to march further into...
), the Greeks were ambushed by the Bulgarian 2nd and 1st Army who had newly arrived from the Serbian front and had taken defensive positions there. By 8 July, the Greek army was outnumbered by the now counterattacking Bulgarian armies, and the Bulgarian General Staff, attempting to encircle the Greeks in a Cannae
Battle of Cannae
The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...
-type battle was applying pressure on their flanks. The Greek army resisted successfully however, and even launched local counter-attacks. After committing all available forces to the attack without succeeding to penetrate, by 17 July, Bulgarian Armies reduced their attack activity having to repulse Greek counterattacks on both sides. To the western flank, the Greek Army occupied Berovo, and on the eastern front it occupied Mehomia. By then, news came that the Romanians were about to capture Sofia. Romania had entered the war due to a dispute over Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
. King Constantine realized that continuing the attack would be pointless, and took the proposal of Venizelos to accept Bulgaria's request for armistice, delivered through Romania. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties. A general armistice was signed on 18/31 July 1913, ending the most bloodshed battle of the Second Balkan War. At the day of the armistice, the Romanian forces had reached Vrazhdebna, just seven miles from Sofia.
When the Romanian army closed in on Sofia, Bulgaria asked Russia to arbitrate. The Ottoman forces that invaded Eastern Thrace (12 July) without meeting Bulgarian resistance were already in Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
being unwilling to stop their advance. To help Bulgaria repulse the rapid Ottoman advance in Thrace, Russia threatened to attack the Ottoman Empire through the Caucasus, and send its Black Sea Fleet to Constantinople; this caused Britain to intervene.
| Battles of the Second Balkan War | ||||||
| Name | Defending | Commander | Attacking | Commander | Date | Victor |
| Kilkis-Lachanas Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas The Battle of Kilkis–Lahanas took place during the Second Balkan War between Greece and Bulgaria for the town of Kilkis in Macedonia. The battle lasted three days from 19 to 21 June 1913 and ended with a Greek victory.-Background:... |
Bulgaria | Nikola Ivanov Nikola Ivanov Nikola Ivanov was a Bulgarian general, Chief of the Headquarters of the Bulgarian Army between 10 May 1894 and 29 November 1896, Minister of war between 29 November 1896 - 30 January 1899... |
Greece | Constantine I Constantine I of Greece Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in... |
19–21 June 1913 (O.S.) | Greece |
| Doiran Battle of Doiran (1913) The Battle of Doiran was a battle of the Second Balkan War between the Bulgarian and the Greek army. The battle took place in June 1913.The Greek armed forces after the victory at Kilkis-Lachanas, continued their advance north and successfully engaged the Bulgarians at lake Doiran... |
Bulgaria | Nikola Ivanov | Greece | Constantine I | 22–23 June 1913 (O.S.) | Greece |
| Bregalnica Battle of Bregalnica The Battle of Bregalnica was fought between the Kingdom of Bulgaria army and the Kingdom of Serbia during the Second Balkan War. Serbian forces came out victorious.... |
Serbia | Bulgaria | 17–25 June 1913 (O.S.) | Serbia | ||
| Demir Hisar | Bulgaria | Greece | Constantine I | 27 June 1913 (O.S.) | Greece | |
| Kalimanci | Bulgaria | Serbia | 15–18 July 1913 (O.S.) | Bulgaria | ||
| Kresna Gorge Battle of Kresna Gorge The Battle of Kresna Gorge was fought in 1913 between the Greeks and the Bulgarians during the Second Balkan War.After the Serbian front became static, and seeing that the Bulgarian Army in his front had already suffered defeat, King Constantine ordered the Greek Army to march further into... |
Bulgaria | Mihail Savov Mihail Savov Mihail Savov was a Bulgarian general, twice Minister of Defence , second in command of the Bulgarian army during the Balkan Wars.... Nikola Ivanov |
Greece | Constantine I | 8–18 July 1913 (O.S.) | Stalemate (Truce) |
| Vidin Battle of Vidin The Siege of Vidin was an attempt of the Serbian army to seize the Bulgarian city of Vidin during the Second Balkan War. The siege took place between the 12th and 18 July 1913.-References:... |
Bulgaria | Serbia | 14–18 July 1913 (O.S.) | Stalemate (Truce) |
Peace treaty and aftermath
Treaty of Constantinople (1913)
The Treaty of Constantinople was a treaty between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria signed on 29 September 1913 after the Second Balkan War at the Ottoman capital İstanbul.- Background :...
. Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, including southern Dobrudja (to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
), most of Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
and Eastern Thrace (to the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
). With the strong diplomatic support of Russia, it succeeded in retaining Western Thrace
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...
, its outlet to the Aegean sea, with the port of Dedeagach (Alexandroupolis), and part of Macedonia. Bulgaria thus enlarged its territory by 16% compared to before the First Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, and increased its population from 4.3 million to 4.7 million people. Romania enlarged its territory by 5% and Montenegro by 62%. Greece increased its population from 2.7 million to 4.4 million and its territory by 68%. Serbia almost doubled its territory and enlarged its population from 2.9 million to 4.5 million. The treaties forced the Greek Army to evacuate the Western Thrace
Western Thrace
Western Thrace or simply Thrace is a geographic and historical region of Greece, located between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country. Together with the regions of Macedonia and Epirus, it is often referred to informally as northern Greece...
and Pirin Macedonia, which it had occupied during operations. The ceding of those areas to Bulgaria, and the loss of Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus is a term used to refer to those parts of the historical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans, that are part of the modern Albania. The term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek population in the region...
to Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
, was unpopular in Greece; from the areas occupied during the war, Greece retained only the regions of Serres
Serres
Serres is a city in Greece, seat of the Serres prefecture.Serres may also refer to:Places:* Serres, Germany, a part of Wiernsheim in Baden-WürttembergIn France:* Serres, Aude in the Aude département...
and Kavala
Kavala
Kavala , is the second largest city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala peripheral unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos...
after a diplomatic support from Germany. Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
made additional gains in northern Macedonia and having fulfilled its aspirations to the south, turned its attention to the north where its rivalry with Austro-Hungary over Bosnia-Herzegovina led the two countries to war a year later, igniting the First World War. Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
used the Balkan wars as a pretext to keep the Dodecanese
Dodecanese
The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the eastern limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the Southern Sporades island group...
islands in the Aegean which it had occupied during the Italo-Turkish War
Italo-Turkish War
The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912.As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and...
over Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, despite the agreement that ended that war in 1912.
Albania officially gained its independence according to the terms of the Treaty of London. This was achieved thanks to the strong insistence of Austro-Hungary and Italy, who hoped to control Albania and thus the Strait of Otranto
Strait of Otranto
The Strait of Otranto connects the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea and separates Italy from Albania. Its width at Punta Palascìa, east of Salento is less than . The strait is named after the Italian city of Otranto.- History :...
in the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
. With the delineation of the exact boundaries of the new state under the Protocol of Florence (17 December 1913), Serbia lost its outlet to the Adriatic, and Greece lost the region of Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus is a term used to refer to those parts of the historical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans, that are part of the modern Albania. The term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek population in the region...
(Southern Albania). This was highly unpopular with the local Greek population, who, after a revolt, managed to acquire local autonomy
Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus
The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was a short-lived, self-governing entity founded on February 28, 1914, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, by the Greeks living in southern Albania ....
under the terms of the Protocol of Corfu
Protocol of Corfu
The Protocol of Corfu , signed on May 17, 1914, was an agreement between representatives of the Albanian Government and the Provisional Government of Northern Epirus, which officially recognized the area of Northern Epirus as an autonomous region within the Albanian state...
.
Although Bulgaria received part of Macedonia, which was one of the main reasons for declaring war, the minor Bulgarian gains were at a greater cost than all other participants in the Balkan league and Bulgaria lost additional territories. The war is often called the First national catastrophe in Bulgaria due to its disastrous results. Hoping to fulfill its national aspirations, Bulgaria voluntarily entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
against its Balkan neighbors Serbia, Greece and Romania, who were pro-Entente
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
(see the Serbian Campaign
Serbian Campaign (World War I)
The Serbian Campaign was fought from late July 1914, when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia at the outset of the First World War, until late 1915, when the Macedonian Front was formed...
, the Macedonian Front and the Romanian Campaign of World War I). The resulting enormous sacrifices during World War I and the new treaty caused Bulgaria a new national trauma and with new territorial losses
Treaty of Neuilly
The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, dealing with Bulgaria for its role as one of the Central Powers in World War I, was signed on 27 November 1919 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France....
.