Order of battle of the Bulgarian Army in the First Balkan War (1913)

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Bulgarian military operations during the First Balkan War Bulgarian Army FBW.JPG
Bulgarian military operations during the First Balkan War

The following is the Bulgarian Order of Battle at the beginning of the second phase of the First Balkan War as of January 21, 1913. This order of battle includes all combat units, including engineer and artillery units, but not medical, supply, signal and border guard units.

First Balkan War 1910s war between the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire

The First Balkan War, lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and comprised actions of 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.

In modern use, the order of battle of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign shows the hierarchical organization, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel, and equipment of units and formations of the armed force. Various abbreviations are in use, including OOB, O/B, or OB, while ORBAT remains the most common in the United Kingdom. An order of battle should be distinguished from a table of organisation, which is the intended composition of a given unit or formation according to the military doctrine of its armed force. As combat operations develop during a campaign, orders of battle may be revised and altered in response to the military needs and challenges. Also the known details of an order of battle may change during the course of executing the commanders' after action reports and/or other accounting methods as combat assessment is conducted.

Artillery class of weapons which fires munitions beyond the range and power of personal weapons

Artillery is a class of heavy military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry's small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls, and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the large share of an army's total firepower.

Contents

Background

After the First Battle of Çatalca the Bulgarian and Ottoman governments concluded an armistice on 3 December [ O.S. 20 November] 1912 and agreed to attend a peace conference in London. For almost a month the talks at St. James's Palace achieved very little when on 10 January [ O.S. 23 January] 1913 the Young Turks, led by Enver Bey staged a coup and seized power in Constantinople. [1] The new government was determined to hold on to Adrianople at all costs, a position which Bulgaria viewed as unacceptable and led to the denouncement of the armistice on 16 of January 1913. [1] With the initiative in their hands and with a renewed sense of confidence in their war leaders and in their ability to successfully fight the Bulgarians, the Ottomans decided to execute an offensive plan that was devised in mid December 1912. Leaving their small remaining forces in Epirus and Albania on their own the Ottomans focused entirely on the Thracian Theater where they planned a full-scale, corps level, amphibious invasion on the western shore of the Sea of Marmara was to be attempted with simultaneous attacks by the provisional corps on the Gallipoli Peninsula and the Çatalca Army, while the Adrianople garrison and conducted diversionary attacks. [2]

First Battle of Çatalca

The First Battle of Çatalca was one of the heaviest battles of the First Balkan War fought between 17 and 18 November [O.S. 4–5 November] 1912. It was initiated as an attempt of the combined Bulgarian First and Third armies, under the overall command of lieutenant general Radko Dimitriev, to defeat the Ottoman Çatalca Army and break through the last defensive line before the capital Constantinople. The high casualties however forced the Bulgarians to call off the attack and allow their adversary to claim victory. This was the greatest military success of the Ottoman Army for the entire duration of the war and the first major defeat of the Bulgarian Army since its establishment in 1878.

Old Style and New Style dates 16th-century changes in calendar conventions

Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) are terms sometimes used with dates to indicate that the calendar convention used at the time described is different from that in use at the time the document was being written. There were two calendar changes in Great Britain and its colonies, which may sometimes complicate matters: the first was to change the start of the year from Lady Day to 1 January; the second was to discard the Julian calendar in favour of the Gregorian calendar. Closely related is the custom of dual dating, where writers gave two consecutive years to reflect differences in the starting date of the year, or to include both the Julian and Gregorian dates.

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

Bulgarian preparations

During the armistice the Bulgarians took several important measures to improve their strategic and tactical situation in Thrace. As early as December 1912 they realized that the rear of their Second Army at Adrianople or of their First and Third Armies could have easily been threatened by a large Ottoman offensive using the Gallipoli Peninsula as its staging point. To counter this threat the Bulgarian high command decided to transfer all its forces that were previously fighting on the Western Theater as they had fulfilled their objectives there and on 15 of December 1912 formed the new Fourth Army. [3] It was a powerful force of 93,389 men under the command of Major General Stiliyan Kovachev. [4] Meanwhile at Adrianople the formation of a new 11th Infantry Division and the arrival of two Serbian infantry divisions allowed the Bulgarians to divert additional forces to support the armies on the Chataldzha line. In general the Bulgarians had the capture of Adrianople as their priority while the remaining three field armies of some 284,121 men were to assume a defensive stance and repel the Ottoman offensive. [5]

Thrace kingdom of Thracians

Thrace is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south and the Black Sea to the east. It comprises southeastern Bulgaria, northeastern Greece and the European part of Turkey.

Stiliyan Kovachev was a Bulgarian general. During the First Balkan War he commanded the Rodopi Detachment and later 4th Army. He was a Minister of Defense for short time in the beginning of the Second Balkan War in the government of Stoyan Danev (1913).

Chataldzha Line

First Army was commanded by Lieutenant-General Vasil Kutinchev, who was also appointed commander of the combined First and Third armies.

The Bulgarian First Army was a Bulgarian field army during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World War II.

Vasil Kutinchev Bulgarian general

Vasil Ivanov Kutinchev was a Bulgarian officer. He began his military career in 1879 after graduating from the Military School in Sofia. On 13 September 1885 he was made commander of the 1st battalion of the 5th "Dunav" infantry regiment.

Stefan Toshev Bulgarian general

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 (1877–1878) and later served as a translator. On 10 May 1879, he graduated from the Military School in Sofia in its first year. Then he served in the Police force of Eastern Rumelia.

Third Army was commanded by Lieutenant-General Radko Dimitriev.

Gallipoli Peninsula

Fourth Army was commanded by Major-General Stiliyan Kovachev.

Adrianople

Second Army was commanded by lieutenant-general Nikola Ivanov.

Notes

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Quick-firing field artillery regiment (QF FAR), mountain artillery regiment (MAR).
Citations
  1. 1 2 Hall (2000),p. 78-79
  2. ↑ Erickson (2003), p.253.
  3. ↑ Erickson (2003), p.255.
  4. ↑ Министерство на войната (1933),p. 518
  5. ↑ Министерство на войната (1933), p. 171,p. 518

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