Second Balkan War

During the First Balkan War, which began in October 1912, the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece) succeeded in driving out the Ottoman Empire from its European provinces (Albania, Macedonia, Sandžak and Thrace), leaving the Ottomans with only East Thrace. The Treaty of London, signed on 30 May 1913, which ended the war, acknowledged the Balkan states' gains west of the Enos–Midia line, drawn from Midia (Kıyıköy) on the Black Sea coast to Enos (Enez) on the Aegean Sea coast, on an uti possidetis basis, and created an independent Albania.

However, the relations between the victorious Balkan allies quickly soured over the division of the spoils, specifically in Macedonia. During the prewar negotiations that resulted in the Balkan League's establishment, a secret agreement on 13 March 1912 was signed by Serbia and Bulgaria, which determined their future boundaries, effectively sharing northern Macedonia. In case of a postwar disagreement, the area to the north of the Kriva Palanka–Ohrid line (with both cities going to the Bulgarians) had been designated as a "disputed zone" under Russian arbitration, with the area to the south of this line assigned to Bulgaria. 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 advanced north, occupying Thessaloniki shortly before the Bulgarians arrived and establishing a common Greek border with Serbia.

The Serbian-Bulgarian pre-war division of Macedonia, including the contested area

When Bulgarian delegates in London bluntly warned the Serbs that they must not expect Bulgarian support on their Adriatic claims, the Serbs angrily replied that that was a blatant withdrawal from the prewar agreement of mutual understanding according to the Kriva Palanka-Adriatic line of expansion. The Bulgarians insisted that the Vardar Macedonian part of the agreement remained active, and the Serbs were still obliged to surrender the area as agreed. The Serbs responded by accusing the Bulgarians of maximalism, pointing out that if they lost both northern Albania and Vardar Macedonia, their participation in the common war would have been virtually for nothing.

When Bulgaria called upon Serbia to honour the prewar agreement over northern Macedonia, the Serbs, displeased at the Great Powers' requiring them to give up their gains in north Albania, adamantly refused to evacuate any more territory. The developments ended the Serbo-Bulgarian alliance and made a future war between the two countries inevitable. Soon, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupation zones with the Bulgarians against 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.

The territorial gains of the Balkan states after the First Balkan War and the line of expansion according to the pre-war secret agreement between Serbia and Bulgaria

On 19 May/1 June 1913, two days after the signing of the Treaty of London and just 28 days before the Bulgarian attack, Greece and Serbia signed a secret defensive alliance, 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 from Austria-Hungary. 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.[12] In an attempt to halt the Serbo-Greek rapprochement, Bulgarian Prime Minister Geshov signed a protocol with Greece on 21 May, agreeing on a permanent boundary between their respective forces, effectively accepting Greek control over southern Macedonia. However, his later dismissal ended the diplomatic targeting of Serbia.

Another point of friction arose: Bulgaria's refusal to cede the fortress of Silistra to Romania. When Romania demanded its cession after the First Balkan War, 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 Bulgarian territory by force, but a Russian proposal for arbitration prevented hostilities. In the resulting Protocol of St. Petersburg of 9 May 1913, Bulgaria agreed to give up Silistra. The resulting agreement was a compromise between the Romanian demands for the city, two triangles at the Bulgaria–Romania border and Balchik and the land between it and Romania and the Bulgarian refusal to accept any 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.[13] The Bulgarian behaviour also had a long-term impact on Russo-Bulgarian relations. The uncompromising Bulgarian position to review the prewar agreement with Serbia during a second Russian initiative for arbitration finally led Russia to cancel its alliance with Bulgaria. Both acts made conflict with Romania and Serbia inevitable.

Initial Bulgarian plan of operations

The primary Bulgarian attack was planned against the Serbs with their 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th Armies, while the 2nd army was tasked with an attack toward 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 a 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 Kilkis and Struma river. The plan to rapidly destroy the Serbian army in central Macedonia by concentrated attack turned out to be unrealistic, with the Bulgarian army starting to retreat even before Romanian intervention, and the Greek advance necessitated the disengagement of forces to defend Sofia.

The Bulgarian 2nd army in southern Macedonia, commanded by General Ivanov, held a line from Dojran Lake southeast 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 Edirne in the First Balkan War. Though 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 weakened, a detailed analysis concerning his units contradicted him. Ivanov's 2nd army consisted of the 3rd division minus one brigade with four regiments of four battalions (a total of 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 Seres 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. In total, Ivanov's force comprised 232 companies in 58 infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment (14 companies) with 175 artillery guns, numbering between 80,000 (official Bulgarian source) and 108,000 (official Greek source according to the official Bulgarian history of the war before 1932).[23] All modern historians agree that Ivanov underestimated the number of his soldiers, but the Greek army still had a numerical superiority.[2] The Greek Headquarters also estimated the numbers of their opponents from 80,000 to 105,000 men.[24] A large part of Ivanov's forces, and especially the Drama Brigade and the Seres Brigade, were composed of completely untrained local recruits.[24]

Greek lithograph of the battle of Lachanas

The Greek army, commanded by King Constantine I, had eight divisions and a cavalry brigade (117,861 men) with 176 artillery guns[25] in a line extending from the Gulf of Orphanos to the Gevgelija area. Since the Greek headquarters did not know where the Bulgarian attack would occur, the Bulgarians would have temporary local superiority in the location 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 29 June, an order for a general counterattack was issued. At Kilkis, the Bulgarians had constructed strong defences, 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. The Greek Army suffered heavy casualties but carried the trenches by the next day. On the Bulgarian left, the Greek 7th Division captured Serres and the 1st and 6th divisions captured Lachanas. The defeat of the 2nd army by the Greeks was the most serious military disaster suffered by the Bulgarians in the Second Balkan War. Bulgarian sources give 6,971 casualties, over 6,000 prisoners, and over 130 artillery pieces captured by the Greeks, who suffered 8,700 casualties.[26] On 28 June, the retreating Bulgarian army and irregulars burned down the major city of Serres (a predominantly Greek town surrounded by both Bulgarian – to the north and west – and Greek – to the east and south – villages[27]), and the towns of Nigrita, Doxato and Demir Hisar,[28] ostensibly as a retaliation for the burning of the Bulgarian town of Kilkis by the Greeks, which had taken place after the named battle, as well as the destruction of many Bulgarian villages in the region.[29] On the Bulgarian right, Greek Evzones captured Gevgelija and the heights of Matsikovo. Consequentially, the Bulgarian line of retreat through Dojran was threatened, and Ivanov's army began a desperate retreat, threatening at times to become a rout. Reinforcements from the 14th division came too late, joining the retreat towards Strumica and the Bulgarian border. The Greeks captured Dojran 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 up the Struma River. Meanwhile, the Greek forces, with the support of their navy, landed in Kavala and then penetrated inland to western Thrace. On 19 July, the Greeks captured Nevrokop, and on 25 July, in another amphibious operation, entered Dedeagac (today Alexandroupoli), thus cutting off the Bulgarians completely from the Aegean sea.[30]

Serbian troops with wireless field telegraph station during the Second Balkan War, in June 1913.

The 4th Bulgarian army held the most important position in the attempted conquest of Serbian Macedonia.[31] 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.[31] Internal confusion led to heavy Bulgarian losses in 1–3 July.[31] The Serbs captured the whole 7th Division of the 4th Bulgarian Army, without any fight.[31] By 8 July, the Bulgarian army had been severely defeated.[32]

On the north, the Bulgarians started to advance towards the Serbian border town of Pirot 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 13 July 1913, General Mihail Savov assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies.[33] The Bulgarians dug into strong positions around the village of Kalimantsi, at the Bregalnica river in the northeastern Macedonia region.[33] On 18 July, the Serbian 3rd army attacked, closing in on Bulgarian positions.[33] The Bulgarians held firm, and the artillery successfully broke up the Serb attacks.[33] If the Serbs had broken through the Bulgarian defences, they might have doomed the 2nd Bulgarian Army and driven the Bulgarians entirely out of Macedonia.[33] The defensive victory, along with the successes to the north of the 1st and 3rd armies, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion.[34] Although this boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the Greek Army.[34]

Greek troops advancing in the Kresna Gorge

The Serbian front had become static. Seeing that the Bulgarian Army in front of him had already been defeated, King Constantine 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 his Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, who realized that the Serbs, having won their territorial objectives, now adopted a passive stance and shifted the weight of carrying 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 4th armies, which had newly arrived from the Serbian front and had taken defensive positions there. By 21 July, the Greek army was outnumbered by the now counterattacking Bulgarians, and the Bulgarian General Staff, attempting to encircle the Greeks in a Cannae-type battle, was applying pressure on their flanks.[34] However, after bitter fighting, the Greek side managed to break through the Kresna pass and captured Simitli on 26 July,[35] while at the night of 27–28 July, the Bulgarian forces were pushed north to Gorna Dzhumaya (Blagoevgrad), 76 km south of Sofia.[36] Meanwhile, the Greek forces continued their march inland into western Thrace, on 26 July, they entered Xanthi and the next day Komotini.[36] On 28 July, the Bulgarian army, under heavy pressure, was forced to abandon Gorna Dzhumaya.[37]

The Greek army was exhausted and faced logistical difficulties, but resisted strenuously and launched local counterattacks. By 30 July, the Bulgarian army downscaled its attacks, having to repulse Greek counterattacks on both sides. On the eastern flank, the Greek army launched a counterattack towards Mehomia through the Predela pass. The offensive was stopped by the Bulgarians on the eastern side of the pass and fighting ground to a stalemate. On the western flank, an offensive was launched against Tsarevo Selo to reach the Serbian lines. This failed, and the Bulgarian army continued advancing, especially in the south. However, after three days of fighting at the sectors of Pehchevo and Mahomia, the Greek forces retained their positions.[38]

Romania mobilized its army on 5 July 1913, intending to seize Southern Dobruja, and declared war on Bulgaria on 10 July.[2] In a diplomatic circular that said, "Romania does not intend either to subjugate the polity nor defeat the army of Bulgaria," the Romanian government endeavoured to allay international concerns about its motives and about increased bloodshed.[2] According to Richard Hall, "[t]he entrance of Romania into the conflict made the Bulgarian situation untenable [and t]he Romanian thrust across the Danube was the decisive military act of the Second Balkan War."[39]

On the day of Romania's declaration, 80,000 men of the 5th Corps under General Ioan Culcer invaded Dobruja, occupying a front from Tutrakan to Balchik.[2] The corps cavalry occupied the port city of Varna until it was clear that there would be no Bulgarian resistance.[2] On the night of 14–15 July, the Danube Army under Prince Ferdinand crossed into Bulgaria at Oryahovo, Gigen and Nikopol.[2] The initial occupation completed, Romanian forces were divided into two groups: one advanced westward, towards Ferdinand (now Montana), and the other advanced southwestward, towards Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, everywhere preceded by a wide fan of cavalry troops in reconnaissance.[40]

On 18 July, Romania took Ferdinand, and on 20 July, they occupied Vratsa, 116 km north of Sofia. On 23 July, advanced cavalry forces had entered Vrazhdebna, a suburb only 7 miles (11 km) from Sofia.[40] The Romanians and Serbs linked up at Belogradchik on 25 July, isolating the important city of Vidin. The Bulgarian rear was entirely exposed, no resistance had been offered, the capital was open to the invader, and the country's northwestern corner was cut off and surrounded.[40] During the invasion, the fledgling Romanian Air Corps performed photoreconnaissance and propaganda leaflet drops. Sofia became the first capital city in the world to be overflown by enemy aircraft.[40]

Romania did not count any combat casualties during its brief war. Its forces were struck by an outbreak of cholera, which cut down 1,600 men.[5][6][7]

Ahmed Izzet Pasha in uniform (c. 1913)

The lack of resistance to the Romanian invasion convinced the Ottomans to invade the territories just ceded to Bulgaria. The main object of the invasion was the recovery of Edirne (Adrianople), which was held by Major General Vulko Velchev with a mere 4,000 troops.[9] Most Bulgarian forces occupying East Thrace had been withdrawn to face the Serbo-Greek attack earlier in the year. On 12 July, Ottoman troops garrisoning Çatalca and Gelibolu reached the Enos–Midia line and on 20 July 1913 crossed the line and invaded Bulgaria.[9] The entire Ottoman invasion force contained between 200,000 and 250,000 men under the command of Ahmed Izzet Pasha. The 1st Army was stationed at the eastern (Midia) end of the line. From east to west it was followed by the 2nd Army, 3rd Army and 4th Army, which was stationed at Gelibolu.[9]

In the face of the advancing Ottomans, the outnumbered Bulgarian forces retreated to the prewar border. Edirne was abandoned on 19 July, but, since the Ottomans did not occupy it immediately, the Bulgarians re-occupied it the next day (20 July). Since it was apparent that the Ottomans were not stopping, it was abandoned a second time on 21 July and occupied by the Ottomans on 23 July.[9] Edirne had been conquered by Sultan Murad I in the 1360s and had served as the first European capital of the Empire before the capture of Constantinople in 1453. Minister of War Enver Pasha called himself the "Second Conqueror of Edirne," although the conquering forces had met no resistance on the way to Edirne.[9]

The Ottoman armies did not stop at the old border but crossed into Bulgarian territory. A cavalry unit advanced on Yambol and captured it on 25 July.[9] The Ottoman invasion, more than the Romanian, incited panic among the peasantry, many of whom fled to the mountains. Among the leadership, it was recognized as a complete reversal of fortune. In the words of historian Richard Hall, "[t]he battlefields of eastern Thrace, where so many Bulgarian soldiers had died to win the First Balkan War, were again under Ottoman control."[9] Like the Romanians, the Ottomans suffered no combat casualties but lost 4,000 soldiers to cholera.[9] Some 8000 Armenians fighting for the Ottomans were wounded. The sacrifice of these Armenians was praised greatly in Turkish papers.[41]

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.

According to the 1918 book Destruction of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913, Ottoman forces perpetrated atrocities against the Bulgarians in Eastern Thrace during the invasion and aftermath.

The Second Balkan War made Serbia the most militarily powerful state south of the Danube.[48] Years of military investment financed by French loans borne fruit. Central Vardar and the eastern half of the Sanjak of Novi Pazar were acquired. Its territory grew in extent from 18,650 to 33,891 square miles, and its population grew by more than one and a half million. The aftermath brought harassment and oppression for many in the newly conquered lands. The freedom of association, assembly and the press guaranteed under the Serbian constitution of 1903 was not introduced into the new territories. The inhabitants were denied voting rights, ostensibly because the cultural level was considered too low, in reality, to keep the non-Serbs, who made up the majority in many areas, out of national politics. Opposition newspapers like Radicke Novine remarked that the 'new Serbs' had better political rights under the Turks.[49] There was a destruction of Turkish buildings, schools, baths, mosques. In October and November 1913, British vice-consuls reported systematic intimidation, arbitrary detentions, beatings, rapes, village burnings and massacres by Serbs in the annexed areas. The Serbian government showed no interest in preventing further outrages or investigating those that had happened. When the Carnegie Commission, composed of an international team of experts selected for their impartiality, arrived in the Balkans, they received virtually no assistance from Belgrade.[50]

The treaties forced the Greek Army to evacuate Western Thrace and Pirin Macedonia, which it had occupied during operations. The retreat from the areas that had to be ceded to Bulgaria, together with the loss of Northern Epirus to Albania, was not well received in Greece; from the areas occupied during the war, Greece succeeded in gaining only the territories of Serres and Kavala after 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 excuse of the Balkan wars to keep the Dodecanese islands in the Aegean, which it had occupied during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 over Libya, despite the agreement that ended that war in 1912.

At the strong insistence of Austria-Hungary and Italy, both hoping to control for themselves the state and thus the Otranto Straits in Adriatic, Albania acquired officially its independence according to the terms of the Treaty of London. With the delineation of the exact boundaries of the new state under the Protocol of Florence (17 December 1913), the Serbs lost their outlet to the Adriatic and the Greeks in 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.[51]

After its defeat, Bulgaria became a revanchist local power looking for a second opportunity to fulfill its national aspirations. After Bucharest, the head of the Bulgarian delegation, Tonchev, remarked that "[e]ither the Powers will change [the territorial settlement], or we will destroy it."[48] To this end, it participated in the First World War on the side of the Central Powers since its Balkan enemies (Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Romania) were pro-Entente (see articles on the Serbian Campaign and the Macedonian front of World War I). The resulting enormous sacrifices during World War I and renewed defeat caused Bulgaria a national trauma and new territorial losses.

• Bataković, Dušan T., ed. (2005). Histoire du peuple serbe [History of the Serbian People] (in French). Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme. ISBN 978-2825119587.
• Ćirković, Sima (2004). The Serbs. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1405142915.
• Jelavich, Barbara (1983). History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521274593.

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• Hall, Richard C.: Balkan Wars 1912–1913 , in: 1914–1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.