Battle of Shipka Pass
Battle of Shipka Pass | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) | |||||||
The Defence of the Eagle's Nest, Alexey Popov, 1893 | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Bulgarian Legion | Ottoman Empire | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Nikolay Svyatopolk-Mirsky[1] Iosif Gurko[2] Fyodor Radetsky[1]
(2nd Stage[3]) |
(4th Stage) | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
I stage: 5,000[7] |
I stage: 4,000[7] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
I stage: 150[1] or 211[8] |
I stage: unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Shipka Pass consisted of four battles that were fought between the
In July 1877, four Russian corps crossed the
The pass itself crosses the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains near the village of Shipka. It is a part of the main road from North to South, leading from Zistovi by Tirnovo and Eski Zagra to Adrianople.
First battle
At the beginning of the war, Shipka Pass was held by an Ottoman garrison of 4,000 soldiers and 12 guns. It was ordered Nikolay Svyatopolk-Mirsky and Iosif Gurko to attack the positions simultaneously. On 17th July, Mirsky and his 2,000 men of the 36th Orlovsky Infantry Regiment plus Cossacks and artillery was ready to act. However, while advancing from South, Gurko's men skirmished with some Ottoman troops so they approached the pass in delay.[1]
Mirsky attacked the same day but Turks repulsed this very first assault. Gurko arrived the next day with two infantry battalions and two companies of Cossacks and also attacked the pass. This second attack also failed. Despite beating back two Russian attacks, the Ottoman commanders at the Shipka Pass realized that they could not withstand the offensive. On the morning of 19th July, while pretending to consider the terms of surrender, the Ottoman garrison slipped away to the west in small groups, leaving behind a large cache of explosives, ammunition, and artillery. The strong position was finally occupied by the Russians.
Second battle
The Second Battle of Shipka Pass took place in August 1877. After taking the pass in July 1877, the Russian forces built up a defensive position there. The Ottoman Tuna Army was effectively cut in half by the Balkan Mountain range.[10] It was thought that if Pleven could be defended, the Russian Army would not move south without taking it.
General Gurko had been resting about the Shipka Pass with 5,000 men, including five battalions of Bulgarians.[2] They were placed on three positions at St. Nicholas (today: Peak Stoletov), Central Hill and the reserves in between these two points.
On August 21, the Ottoman forces bombarded Russian positions and then made an attack against St. Nicholas. The attack was repulsed and the Ottoman forces dug in 100 yards (91 m) away. As the desperate fight raged, a regiment arrived from Selvi (now Sevlievo) to increase the defenders to 7,500.[2] The next day the Ottoman forces moved their artillery up the mountainside and bombarded the pass while the infantry moved around the Russian flank.
On August 23, the Ottoman forces attacked all Russian positions, with the main effort again at St. Nicholas where most of the defenders were Bulgarian volunteers. The Ottoman forces thought that the volunteer positions would be easy to capture, but this turned out to be a miscalculation. Instead, the first unit to begin to retreat were the Russians on Central Hill. However, they rallied when the 4th Rifle Brigade, commanded by General Fyodor Ratetsky, arrived and all Ottoman attacks were repulsed.[1]
On the 26th, an Ottoman attack on St. Nicholas (a position referred to as "the Eagle's Nest") reached the Russian trenches but was repulsed again by a Bulgarian bayonet charge. More Russian reinforcements arrived the same day and an attack was made against the Ottoman position but driven back to Central Hill. This ended the battle for all practical purposes. Suleiman entrenched himself in the position he then occupied, in a semi-circle round the southern end of the Russian position.[7]
In these attacks, the Russians lost close on 4,000 men,[2] while Süleyman losses approached 10,000 killed or wounded.[1] The Bulgarians and Russians had made a gallant stand. Near the end of the fighting, having run out of ammunition, they threw rocks and bodies of fallen comrades to repulse the Ottoman attacks.[12][13][14]
Third battle
In September 1877, Suleiman Pasha made another attempt to retake the Shipka Pass from the Russians after the failed attempt in August. The Russian defenses had continually been improved since August but reinforcements were limited due to the
Fourth battle
The Fourth Battle of Shipka Pass took place January 5–9 1878. It was the final battle for Shipka Pass and a crushing Ottoman defeat.
Background
In December 1877, the fortress of Pleven surrendered to the Russian Army, freeing a significant number of Russian troops. General Gourko now had as many as 65,000 soldiers to contend with the Ottomans. Gourko forced the Araba Konak Pass and took Sofia. From Sofia, he moved south through the Balkan Mountains to cut off Ottoman access to Shipka Pass.
The battle
General
Aftermath
The defensive victory at the Shipka Pass had strategic importance for the progress of the war. Had the Ottomans been able to take the pass, they would have been in a position to threaten the supply lines of the Russian and Romanian forces in Northern Bulgaria, and organize an operation to relieve the major fortress at Pleven which was under siege at that time. The war would have then been fought effectively only in northern Bulgaria from that point on, which would have led to a stalemate, which would have created a major advantage for the Ottoman Empire in peace negotiations.
The
The victory at Shipka Pass ensured
With this victory and the conquest of Pleven at the end of 1877, the path towards Sofia was opened, and with it the path to victory in the war and a chance for Russia to gain an upper hand in the "Great Game" by establishing a sphere of influence in the Eastern Balkans.
Suleiman Pasha was later court-martialed due to the colossal failure at Shipka, even though the pass was already lost when he had arrived. His failure to seek alternatives, wasting of men and material that would have been essential later in the campaign, and his failure to secure his remaining troops were too blatant to forgive. He was initially sentenced to death but then commuted by Sultan
Today the Shipka Pass is in the Bulgarka Nature Park and is home to a monument commemorating the warriors who died in the battle.
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Mark Simner. Shipka Pass. Pressreader.com. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/history-of-war/20200416/281681141993811 Accessed 7 June 2023
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Crowe, John Henry Verinder (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 932–935. . In
- ^ a b c d "ШИПКИ ОБОРОНА 1877 • Great Russian Encyclopedia – Electronic version". old.bigenc.ru. 2017. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
- ^ a b "ШИПКИ ОБОРОНА 1877 • Great Russian Encyclopedia – Electronic version". old.bigenc.ru. 2017. Retrieved 2023-09-22 – See Battle of Shipka-Sheynovo
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dragomirov, Michael Ivanovich". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 466. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Kutlu, Rus Kaynaklara Göre 1877-1878 Osmanlı Rus Harbi, p.158-167
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Crowe, John Henry Verinder (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 981–982. . In
- ^ a b Francis Vinton Greene,Report on the Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878. D. Appleton and Company. 1879. p. 213 and 356.
- ^ Francis Vinton Greene,Report on the Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878. D. Appleton and Company. 1879. p. 356.
- ^ The Russian Army and Its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878 Yazar: F. V. Greene.
- ^ "Şıpka Geçidi (1877 Osmanlı – Rus Harbi)".
- ASIN B002PX9OLG. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
- ^ "Bulgarian British Review". 99–138. Council of the Bulgarian-British Association. 1937. Retrieved 15 November 2012.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Reminiscence from Days of Liberation*". Novinite. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
- Russian Warrior.com Sword of the Motherland
- Compton's Home Library: Battles of the World CD-ROM
See also
- Battles of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
- Epic of the Forgotten by Ivan Vazov
- Shipka Memorial