Battle of Kosturino
Battle of Kosturino | |||||||
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Part of Balkans Theatre of World War I | |||||||
French soldiers resting in Thessaloniki, 1915 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Bulgaria | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Georgi Todorov | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
1 army | 2 divisions | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
400+ killed |
The Battle of Kosturino was a
Prelude
The 28 June 1914,
After the victory of the Serbian army in the Battle of Kolubara in December 1914, the Serbian front saw a lull until the early autumn of 1915. Under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, the German 11th Army and river flotillas on the Danube and the Sava began an offensive on 6 October 1915, the largest offensive against Serbia. By September 1915, despite the extreme sacrifice of the Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, having crossed the rivers Sava and Drina and the German 11th Army after crossing the Danube, occupied Belgrade, Smederevo, Požarevac and Golubac, creating a vast bridgehead south of the Sava and Danube rivers, and forcing Serbian forces to withdraw to southern Serbia. On 15 October 1915, two Bulgarian armies attacked, overrunning Serbian units, penetrating the valley of the South Morava river near Vranje up to 22 October 1915. The Bulgarian forces occupied Kumanovo, Štip, and Skopje and prevented the withdrawal of the Serbian army to the Greek border and Salonika.[5]
The Allies had repeatedly promised to send military forces to Serbia, but nothing had materialized for a year. But with Bulgaria's mobilization to its south, the situation for Serbia became desperate. Though the developments finally forced the French and the British to send a small expedition force of two divisions to help Serbia, even these arrived too late in the Greek port of Salonika to impact the operations. The main reason for the delay was the lack of available Allied forces due to the critical situation in the Western Front. The Entente used Greek neutrality as an excuse, although they could have used the Albanian coast to rapidly deploy reinforcements and equipment during the first 14 months of the war. (As the Serbian Marshal Putnik had suggested, the Montenegrin army gave adequate cover to the Albanian coast from the north—at a safe distance from any Bulgarian advance in the south in the event of a Bulgarian intervention.) The Entente was also delayed due to protracted secret negotiations to bring Bulgaria into the Allied camp, which would have alleviated Serbia's need for Franco-British help.[6]
In the event, the lack of Allied support sealed the fate of the Serbian Army. Against Serbia, the Central Powers marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a
Marshal Putnik ordered a full Serbian retreat, southwards and westwards through Montenegro and into Albania. The Serbs faced great difficulties: terrible weather, poor roads and the need for the army to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. Only c. 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the Adriatic coast and embarked on Italian transport ships that carried the army to Corfu and other Greek islands before it travelled on to Thessaloniki. Marshal Putnik had to be carried around during the entire retreat, dying just over a year later in a French hospital.[7]
The French and British divisions marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the joint command of French General
The British forces had, in the meantime, only encountered small bands of Bulgarian deserters, who informed them that the
Battle
On 4 December 1915, Bulgaria commenced an artillery barrage on British positions along the Kosturino ridge. The artillery preparation continued until 6 December, when it was augmented. The bombardment reached its peak at 2:30 p.m., while concentrating on the Rocky Peak position south of Ormanli, which was held by the Connaught Rangers. Half an hour later, small bands of Bulgarian troops attempted to make their way down the ridge in front of the British trench before being stopped at 60 yards (55 m) from the wire. The Bulgarians briefly overran Rocky Peak before the Royal Irish Fusiliers drove them back in hand-to-hand fighting. At dusk, the Rocky Peak was reinforced by half a company and a single machine gun. The 6th Royal Dublin Fusiliers were transferred to Kajali, with three more companies heading towards Hasanli.[13]
Before the dawn of 7 December, the Bulgarians utilized the heavy fog that covered the battlefield, sneaking up to Rocky Peak and engaging their adversaries with bayonets. Unable to distinguish the similar uniforms, the defenders fought their way back the slope. A machine gun was quickly brought up upon the peak, targeting the
On the morning of 8 December, French mountain artillery broke up a Bulgarian attack on the junction between the 156th French Division and the British positions. At 11:00 a.m., Bulgaria resumed its assault on Crete Rivet ahead of Crete Simonet, where two subsequent attacks were fended off. However, the three companies holding the position had to withdraw after losing 64 men. At 3:30 p.m., the British command received a report indicating that Bulgarian troops had infiltrated the Memesli ravine in an attempt to strike the right flank of the 31st British Brigade, while also seeping through between the 5th and 6th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the center. The 31st and 30th British Brigades were immediately ordered to fall back to Causli and Dedeli, respectively. At 5:45 p.m., the Bulgarian army overtook Crete Simonet seizing ten artillery pieces and celebrating their victory by blowing bugles and launching flares. At 2:00 a.m. on 9 December, the 156th French Division plodded to Bajimia after repulsing a Bulgarian attack that left 400 Bulgarians dead no fighting took place during the rest of the day. On 10 December, minor clashes continued as Bulgarian raiding parties harassed the retreating Allies.[15][16]
At 1:00 p.m. on 11 December, the 11th Bulgarian division seized Bogdanci, cutting the local telephone line and capturing an ammunition depot. The Allies had now selected the Doiran train station as their new target in preparation for a complete evacuation toward Salonika. However, the 9th King's Own Royal Regiment remained isolated from the rest of the Allies, only beginning its withdrawal at 12:45 a.m. on 12 December. An hour later, the regiment encountered a battalion of soldiers resting by the roadside, belatedly realizing they belonged to the enemy. The resulting bayonet charge led to the death or capture of 122 British soldiers. By the evening of the same day, the evacuation of the Entente troops into Greece had been complete, with the 10th British and the 57th, 122nd and 156th French Divisions crossing the border. Greek border guards assured the Allies they would oppose any Bulgarian attempt to cross the frontier. An Allied spy later confirmed that Bulgaria had no intention of breaching the border, halting 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from it instead.[17][18]
The battle at Kosturino and the subsequent evacuation of the Allies resulted in 1,209 British casualties, including 99 killed, 386 wounded, 724 missing and ten artillery pieces. French casualties amounted to 1,804 killed, wounded or missing, along with 12 machine guns and 36 ammunition wagons. The number of Bulgarian losses during the battle is estimated to be much greater than that of the Allies, with at least 400 killed on 9 December.[19][20]
Aftermath
This resulted in a clear, albeit incomplete, victory for the Central Powers. This resulted in them opening the railway line from
Following the failure of the
See also
Citations
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 1–22.
- ^ Albertini 1953, p. 36.
- ^ Fischer 1967, p. 73.
- ^ Willmott 2003, pp. 11–15.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 22–39.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 31–32, 42–50.
- ^ a b Falls 1933, pp. 33–37.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 57–63.
- ^ Villari 1922, pp. 25–27.
- ^ Gordon-Smith 1920, pp. 230–233.
- ^ Villari 1922, pp. 27–29.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 64–68.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 69–71, 74.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 71–75.
- ^ Korsun 1939, pp. 55.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 75–79.
- ^ Korsun 1939, pp. 54–56.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 81–82.
- ^ Bernede 1998, pp. 46–47.
- ^ Falls 1933, pp. 85–103.
- ^ Wahlert 2008, p. 26.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, pp. 244–245.
- ^ Carlyon 2001, p. 515.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, p. 188.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, p. 191.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, p. 254.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, p. 260.
- ^ Travers 2001, p. 208.
- ^ Broadbent 2005, p. 266.
- ^ Nicholson 2007, p. 480.
Sources
- OCLC 168712.
- Bernede, Alain (1998). "The Gardeners of Salonika: The Lines of Communication and the Logistics of the French Army of the East, October 1915–November 1918". War & Society. 16 (1): 43–59. .
- ISBN 978-0-670-04085-8.
- ISBN 978-0-7329-1089-1.
- DiNardo, Richard L. (2015). Invasion: The Conquest of Serbia, 1915. Santa Barbara: Praeger. ISBN 9781440800924.
- Falls, C. (1996) [1933]. Military Operations Macedonia: From the Outbreak of War to the Spring of 1917. History of the Great War Based on Official Documents by Direction of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Vol. I (Imperial War Museum and Battery Press ed.). London: ISBN 978-0-89839-242-5.
- Fischer, Fritz (1967). Germany's Aims in the First World War. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-09798-6.
- Gordon-Smith, Gordon (1920). From Serbia to Yugoslavia Serbia's Victories, Reverses and Final Triumph, 1914–1918. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 978-5519466608. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-7735-3206-9.
- Korsun, Nikolay (1939). Балканский фронт мировой войны 1914–1918 гг [Balkan Front of the World War 1914–1918] (in Russian). Moscow: Boenizdat. OCLC 7970969.
- Travers, Tim (2001). Gallipoli 1915. Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 978-0-7524-2551-1.
- Villari, Luigi (1922). The Macedonian Campaign. London: T. Fisher Unwin. OCLC 6388448. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
- Wahlert, Glenn (2008). Exploring Gallipoli: An Australian Army Battlefield Guide. Australian Army Campaign Series. Vol. 4. Canberra: Army History Unit. ISBN 978-0-9804753-5-7.
- Willmott, H.P. (2003). World War I. New York: Dorling Kindersley. OCLC 52541937.