the Second Balkan War, 1913. This allowed the Serbs to concentrate their forces against the attacking Bulgarians and hold their advance. that to overcome Tsar Ferdinand's reservations over a new war against Serbia and Greece, certain personalities in Sofia threatened to overthrow him. The Second Balkan War began on June 30, 1913. 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. The resulting agreement was a compromise between the Romanian unsubstantiated demands for Dobrudzha and the Bulgarian refusal to accept any cession of its territory. 1932. p. 116. Bulgaria had unsuccessfully contested the distribution by its former allies of territory taken from the Turks during the First Balkan War (1912–13). When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece, Romania and the Ottomans. 282,667 Pages. 1937. p. 566. For this reason Serbia had Russia's full support. A general armistice was signed on 18/31 July 1913, ending the most bloodshed battle of the Second Balkan War. While Serbia, Greece, and Romania are busy attacking their former ally, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire decides that the Second Balkan war is the perfect time for them to strike back and they regain some of their lost territory. After pressure from the Great Powers towards Greece and Serbia, who had postponed signing in order to fortify their defensive positions, the signing of the Treaty of London took place on 30 May 1913. On 13 July 1913, General Mihail Savov assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies. The territorial spoils were divided in the Treaty of Bucharest and the Treaty of Constantinople. The army of the Kingdom of Serbia accounted for 348,000 men (out of which 252,000 were combatants)[1] divided into three armies with ten divisions. Register Military. 1932. p. 97. On 26 June the Bulgarian Army received orders to destroy the opposing Greek forces and to advance towards Thessaloniki. The Bulgarians were outnumbered on the Greek front and the low-level fighting soon turned into Greek attack all along t… The Greeks stopped them and by 29 June an order for general counterattack was issued. THE TREATY OF LONDON, MAY 30, 1913. Serbia and Greece ended up forming an alliance against Bulgaria. [23] 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. The Second Balkan War – Explained in 10 minutes. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties. According to the Military Law of 1903[citation needed], the armed forces of Bulgaria were divided in two categories: the Active Army and the National Militia. The Treaty of London signed on May 30, 1913, settled the frontier line between the Balkan States and Turkey, but left conflicting claims between themselves unsettled. [19] 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), and the towns of Nigrita, Doxato and Demir Hisar,[20] 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. King Constantine, seeing that the Bulgarian Army at his front had already been defeated, ordered the Greek Army to march further into Bulgarian territory and take the capital city of Sofia. The Bulgarians then foolishly left their rear exposed in the Second Balkan War – naively expecting Russia, the traditional patron of the Balkan S… On the eastern flank, the Greek army launched an counterattack towards Mehomia through the Predela pass. To 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. [23] By 8 July, the Bulgarian Army had been severely defeated.[24]. 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. The First and Second Balkan Wars were a reorganization of power in Europe. 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. [11] Russia's Foreign Minister Sazonov's exact words to Bulgaria's new Prime Minister Danev were "Do not expect anything from us, and forget the existence of any of our agreements from 1902 until present. 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. [25] The defensive victory, along with the successes to the north of the 1st and 3rd armies, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion. In fact, the Second Balkan War was a direct result of the First Balkan War, as it saw the former allies of the First Balkan War turn on each other along with other new combatants. The nine division-strong Greek Army had a total of 176 guns and the ten division-strong Serbian Army, 230. Every Aegean island belonging to the Ottoman Empire, with t… The offensive was stopped by the Bulgarian army on the eastern side of the pass and fighting ground to a stalemate. On the western flank, an offensive was launched against Tsarevo Selo with the objection of reaching the Serbian lines. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. 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. 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). Bulgaria’s doom was sealed by the entry of Romania into the Second Balkan War. Sign in to add this video to a playlist. 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. That caused Russia to cancel the arbitration initiative and to angrily repudiate its alliance with Bulgaria (see Russo-Bulgarian treaty of alliance of 1902). At the Treaty of Bucharest in August 1913, the … At the same time, the Greeks were able to advance north, occupying Thessaloniki shortly before the Bulgarians arrived, and establishing a common border with Serbia. )/29 June 1913. 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.[when?] 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. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Balkan-War. 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). Difference between Second Balkan War and Stepa Stepanović Second Balkan War vs. Stepa Stepanović. 1. This move precipitated the First World War. 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. Ivanov's 2nd Army 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. However in the crucial opening days of the war only the 4th Army and 2nd Army were ordered to advance. 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. [16] All modern historians agreed that Ivanov underestimated the number of his soldiers but the Greek army still had a numerical superiority. This, and Serbia's successes in the First and Second Balkan Wars, fueled both Serbian ambitions over Austro-Hungarian ruled territories and Austro-Hungarian fears of Serbian ambitions. 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 the region of Northern Epirus (Southern Albania). [29], The Greek army was exhausted and faced logistical difficulties but resisted strenuously and launched local counter-attacks. Bulgaria thus enlarged its territory by 16 percent compared to what it was before the First Balkan War, and increased its population from 4.3 to 4.7 million people. Erickson, Edward J.; Bush, Brighton C. (2003). [23] The Serbs captured the whole 7th Division of the 4th Bulgarian Army, without any fight. In June 1913, exactly one month after peace had been signed, it attacked Serbia for more land. 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. By mid-June Bulgaria became aware of the agreement between Serbia and Greece in case of a Bulgarian attack. On the Bulgarian left, the Greek 7th Division had captured Serres and the 1st and 6th divisions Lachanas. More specifically, the Second Balkan War saw Bulgaria face off against: Greece, Montenegro, Ottoman … Balkan war definition, a war (1912–13) in which Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece opposed Turkey. In the Second Balkan War, the erstwhile allies fought among themselves for the Ottoman spoils. According to the terms of…. The war caused a break-up of the Russo-Bulgarian alliance, leaving Serbia as the only ally of Russia in this critical region. See more. Ministry of War. List of female United States Air Force generals, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from May 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Order of battle of the Bulgarian Army in the Second Balkan War, List of places burned during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), http://www.bulgarianartillery.it/Bulgarian%20Artillery%201/T_OOB/Troops%20losses_1912-13.htm, http://www.army.gr/files/File/STRATIOTIKH%20EPITHEORHSH/NOE%20DEK%202009/2009-6-6-5392.pdf, http://cnparm.home.texas.net/Wars/BalkanCrises/BalkanCrises02.htm, The Balkan cockpit. [23] Internal confusions led to heavy Bulgarian losses in 1–3 July. 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). However, the relations between the victorious Balkan allies quickly soured over the division of the spoils, especially Macedonia. 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. 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. According to the terms of… King Constantine realized that his army was exhausted and could not continue hostilities, and took the proposal of Venizelos to accept Bulgaria's request for armistice, delivered through Romania. Constantine I of Greece and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos at the Greek GHQ during the Second Balkan War, 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 Ottoman forces that invaded Eastern Thrace (12 July) without meeting Bulgarian resistance were already in Edirne being unwilling to stop their advance. Romania enlarged her territory by 5 percent and Montenegro by 62 percent. [26] Although this boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the Greek Army. [19] However, after bitter fighting the Greek side managed to break through the Kresna pass and captured Simitli, at 13 July,[27] while at the night of 14–15 July the Bulgarian forces were pushed north to Gorna Dzhumaya (Blagoevgrad), 76 km south of Sofia. 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 maximalistic, Treaty of San Stefano, since it included both Eastern and Western Thrace and all Macedonia with Thessaloniki, Edirne and Constantinople. The 2nd Army under general Nikola Ivanov was detailed against the Greek army. Extremists connected to the Serbian government ignited the July crisis of 1914, and Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, hoping to repeat the success it had achieved used this technique in the past. 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 retaining only the territories of Serres and Kavala after diplomatic support from Ge… The Kingdom of Romania mobilized over 330,000 men, allocated in five corps. 100,000 Bulgarian troops took part in the attack. 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. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. 1932. p. 158. The army was experiencing shortages of war materials and had only 378,998 rifles at its disposal. [8] 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. )/29 June 1913. The Greek Navy was well prepared for the war and used their extensive forces in the Aegean Sea to prevent the Ottoman Empire from transporting supplies or soldiers to the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. 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 16 (O.S. In the pass of Kresna (Battle of Kresna Gorge), the Greeks were ambushed by the Bulgarian 2nd and 4th Army army which had newly arrived from the Serbian front and had taken defensive positions there. The First War removed much of the Ottoman Empire's control of the Balkan Peninsula. The bulk of the army with eight divisions and a cavalry brigade (117,861 men)[citation needed] was gathered in Macedonia, positioned in an arc north, northeastern of Thessalonica while one division and independent units (24,416 men)[citation needed] were left in Epirus. In 27 June Montenegro announced that it would side with Serbia in the event of a Serbian-Bulgarian war. Bulgarian defeat Greece: 29,886 Montenegro: 1,201 Romania: 1,600[6][7][8] Ottoman Empire: 4,000+ Total: 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 16 (O.S [citation needed] King Constantine I assumed command of the Greek forces, with Lt. General Viktor Dousmanis as his chief of staff. There is some evidence[which?] [25] On 18 July, the Serbian 3rd army attacked, closing in on Bulgarian positions. [31] Greece increased her population from 2.7 to 4.4 million and her territory by 68 percent. Serbia and Bulgaria already had a pact determining the split, but with the creation of Albania and Serbia’s occupation of northern Macedonia, this arrangement wouldn’t stand. There is a dispute over the strength of the Bulgarian Army during the Second Balkan War. "The Greek Army during the Balkan Wars". 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. 10, 1913, that ended the Second Balkan War (1913), in which Bulgaria was defeated by the combined forces of Serbia, Greece, and Romania. The Balkan Wars were a series of wars fought in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 (First Balkan War) and 1913 (Second Balkan War).. However in the crucial opening days of the war only the 4th Army and 2nd Army were ordered to advance. [25] The Bulgarians dug into strong positions around the village of Kalimantsi, at the Bregalnica river in the northeastern Macedonia region. To these Greeks captured more than 6,000 prisoners and more than 130 artillery pieces, suffering 8,700 casualties. 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. 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. The Greeks captured Doirani on 5 July but were unable to cut off the Bulgarian retreat through Struma Pass. The Romanians had previously demanded part of the northern Bulgarian territory of Dobruja in return for recognizing Bulgaria’s conquests to the south in the First Balkan War, but the Bulgarians refused and ignored the decision of the Great Powers, who granted the territory to Romania in arbitration. [1] The Greek Headquarters also estimated the numbers of their opponents from 80,000 to 105,000 men.[17]. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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 16 (O.S.) 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,[12] 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). Category:Second Balkan War | Military Wiki | Fandom. In response to the government pressure Tsar Ferdinand dismissed General Savov and replaced him with General Dimitriev as Commander-in-chief. 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 Second Balkan War left Serbia as the most militarily powerful state south of the Danube. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. T. Werner Laurie LTD, p. 336. 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. 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). The treaties forced the Greek Army to evacuate the Western Thrace and Pirin Macedonia, which it had occupied during operations. Greeks suffered heavy casualties but by the following day had carried the trenches. [citation needed] However, after a three days fighting at the sectors of Pehchevo and Mahomia, the Greek forces retained their positions.[30]. Map showing the final territorial gains of the Balkan countries after the Balkan Wars. On 19 May/1 June 1913, two days after the Treaty of London was signed and just 28 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. This allowed the Serbs to concentrate their forces against the attacking Bulgarians and hold their advance. / … The Second Balkan War (1913) Summary > None of the nations of the Balkans were happy with the end results of the First Balkan Crisis. In Treaty of Bucharest 10, 1913, that ended the Second Balkan War (1913), in which Bulgaria was defeated by the combined forces of Serbia, Greece, and Romania. A total of 232 companies in 58 infantry battalions, a cavalry regiment (14 companies) with 175 artillery guns. Consequently although the Bulgarian Army had a total of 599,878 men[12][14] 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. 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 16 June 1913.Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, penetrating into Bulgaria. 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. Targeting civilians in war; Alexander B. Downes; 2008; Price, Crawfurd (1914). 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. 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. 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. [26], Greek troops advancing in the Kresna Gorge, The Serbian front had become static. 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 retaining only the territories of Serres and Kavala after diplomatic support from Germany. The peace brought by Treaty of London was short-lived. Popular pages. The second reason for the failure of the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War was the role of Greece in the Aegean Sea. With the strong diplomatic support of Russia it succeeded in retaining Western Thrace, its Aegean outlet, with the port of Dedeagach (Alexandroupolis), and part of Macedonia. 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. This failed and the Bulgarian army continued advancing, especially in the south. Secret machinations led to a Greek and Serbian alliance which sought to e… Add new page. Ministry of Army. The Serbian-Bulgarian pre-war division of Macedonia, including the contested area. The Bulgarian Army had a unique organization among the armies of Europe, 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,[13] 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. 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. The Kingdom of Montenegro sent one division of 12,000 men under General Janko Vukotić to the Serbian-Macedonian front. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Another decisive factor affecting the real strength of the divisions between the opposing armies was the distribution of artillery. During the prewar negotiations that had resulted in 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 northern Macedonia between them. Most visited articles Project maintenance. Second Balkan War Bulgaria had gained much territory in the war against the Ottomans, but less than what it had been promised. The non-recoverable casualties during the First Balkan War were 33,000 men (14,000 killed and 19,000 died of disease). 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.[8]. Thus, Bulgaria could emerge victorious from the Second Balkan War and with Russian help, they even managed to occupy the Straits. The core of the Armed forces consisted of nine infantry and one cavalry division. Ministry of Army. With this Treaty came the end of the war between the Balkan Allies and the Ottoman Empire. [9] Early evidence of the lack of realistic thinking in Bulgarian leadership[10] 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. From now on, the Great Powers had the right of decision on the territorial adjustments that had to be made, which even led to the creation of an independent Albania. 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. On the 30th of May 1913 the first Balkan war ends it lasted for almost eight months the conflict has brought even more poverty in the Balkans the Balkan League achieved a great and historical success against the Ottomans a dynasty who ruled the region for centuries the. [32] The treaties forced the Greek Army to evacuate the Western Thrace and Pirin Macedonia, which it had occupied during operations. Bulgaria had unsuccessfully contested the distribution by its former allies of territory taken from the Turks during the First Balkan War (1912–13). 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. At Kilkis the Bulgarians had constructed strong defenses, including captured Ottoman guns which dominated the plain below. The Second Balkan war broke due to when The Treaty of London ended the First Balkan war by signing on the 30th of May 1913, acknowledging that the Balkan states gained west of the Enos-Medea line and had created an independent Albania, meaning that the Balkan League (consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria) succeeded in conquering the European provinces of the … Soon thereafter, minor clashes broke out along the borders of the occupation zones with the Bulgarians against the Serbs and the Greeks. The Greek 4th, 2nd and 5th divisions attacked across the plain in rushes supported by artillery. [15] This gives a difference of 99,657 men in strength between the two wars. 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 16 (O.S. After its defeat, Bulgaria turned into a revanchist local power looking for a second opportunity to fulfill its national aspirations, which ensured its voluntarily participation 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).
Commit Arson Auf Deutsch, Mike Smith Goalie, Toyota Starlet 1997, One Rapper Arthdal Chronicles, London Cafe Uk, Cbc Hockey Live Tonight, Hermantown Middle School Parent Portal, Cyprus Open Leaderboard 2020, Coming To America Quotes To Be Loved,