When Petroc fired the first shot of the war, Serbian troops who were awakened rushed into the trenches one after another, preparing to resist the Bulgarian invasion.
Seeing that their surprise attack had been discovered, the Bulgarian Fourth Division also rushed towards the Serbian front-line position. When a large number of Serbian troops arrived, they were already within fifty meters of the position. After suffering a wave of casualties, the Fourth Division rushed towards
Entering the trenches, they fought together with the Serbian 6th Division. The Bulgarian artillery cluster with 453 cannons also began blocking bombardment at this time. The reinforcements of the 6th Division were completely unable to intercept with such powerful firepower.
Seeing that the reinforcements he sent were blocked by artillery fire, Bodonovic, the commander of the Serbian Sixth Division, was worried in his heart.
Colonel Devanath, commander of the Sixth Brigade of the Third Division who had just arrived with reinforcements today, saw the helpless Commander of the Sixth Division and said loudly, "General, the enemy's artillery is too fierce now. Our reinforcements cannot get up. The front-line position is probably very difficult."
We will soon be unable to hold it, so why don't we hold on to the second line and defend it layer by layer."
After hearing the suggestion of Colonel Devanat to reinforce him, Major General Bodonovich realized that he was too impatient and called a messenger to tell him, "Call back the reinforcements of the 12th Brigade to strengthen the second-line position.
"
Seeing the messenger leaving, Major General Bodonovich was secretly saddened by his 11th Brigade on the front line. Without reinforcements, it was unknown how many members of the 11th Brigade would be able to escape.
In fact, the 11th Brigade on the front-line position was almost unable to withstand it. The culprit that caused their inability to resist was the large number of Madsen machine guns of the Bulgarian Fourth Division. Under the suppression of this machine gun, the 11th Brigade's massive
All the soldiers fell under its muzzle, and many of them would have fled if the shelling behind them hadn't been too violent.
In the city of Ohrid, Marshal Putnik (who was only promoted from general to marshal on June 15 in recognition of his merits in the battle against the Ottomans) had just been awakened by a telegram that the Sixth Division was under attack. He was wearing only the
The old marshal picked up a shirt and took the telegram from the Sixth Division handed to him by a staff officer.
In the telegram, the Sixth Division stated that it had been violently attacked by the Bulgarian army and hoped to receive reinforcements. After reading the telegram, Marshal Putnik issued an order to the staff waiting for a reply. "Let the Third Division and the First Division stationed outside the city
The division quickly reinforces the 6th Division's defense line, and lets the 7th and 10th Divisions be ready to reinforce at dawn."
After finishing speaking, he felt that he had said something less. After thinking about it carefully, he continued to say to the staff officer. "Let the second division in the city prepare to garrison the fortifications, and at the same time be prepared to attack."
"As you command, Your Excellency Marshal."
After receiving the order, the staff officer replied to him and immediately went out to send telegrams to the Third Division and the First Division.
Marshal Putnik couldn't sleep even after giving the order to his staff. He walked back and forth in the room thinking about whether there were loopholes in his deployment. Marshal Putnik had been prepared for Bulgaria to launch an attack before and considered all situations.
Here we are, now we just need to implement it according to the previously planned plan. After thinking for a while, he came to the hall of the headquarters, intending to wait for news from the front line. He saw that under the bright lights, the staff were busy working on
The work inside filled the hall with a tense atmosphere of the approaching war.
Marshal Putnik came to the front of the hall, looked at a huge high-scale military map hanging on the wall and began to think deeply.
Seeing the Marshal standing in front of the map meditating, the staff's voices became much quieter. After about fifteen minutes, a staff officer's expression changed greatly when he looked at the telegram he had just received, walked to Marshal Putnik and said
Arrive. "Marshal has just sent a telegram from the Sixth Division. The first line position has been lost. They are fighting hard on the second line position."
"What? Show it to me."
Marshal Putnik couldn't believe his eyes when he heard the latest information on the battlefield. In his opinion, the 6th Division's defense line could be defended for at least half a day, and the reinforcements would only take an hour and a half to arrive. At present, it seems
The 6th Division probably wouldn't be able to withstand an hour and a half, but now due to darkness, the reinforcement time is expected to be delayed by two hours. How could this not surprise Marshal Putnik?
Marshal Putnik took the telegram from his staff and looked at it. The commander of the Sixth Division, Bodonovich, described in detail the entire process of being attacked. Seeing that the Bulgarian army had increased all its heavy firepower to the vanguard, this
This was the reason why the Sixth Division was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.
Marshal Putnik was very surprised by this. He found it incredible that this completely subverted military common sense. But now he could not afford to lose his composure. He needed to come up with a reliable way to solve the problem. After thinking for a while, he made an arrangement.
to resist the attack of the Bulgarian army.
"Send a telegram to the Seventh Division and the Tenth Division and ask them to immediately reinforce the Sixth Division's position."
After hearing that the marshal had made two decisions to increase troops within an hour, the staff officer immediately replied, "Yes, Your Excellency, marshal."
When Marshal Putnik made the decision to fight Bulgaria, the second line of defense of the Sixth Division was also attacked by fierce artillery. The first line of defense had been lost before, and the remnants of the 11th Brigade were picked up by them. Looking at the front
The 11th Brigade has less than 3,000 people. General Bodonovich's heart is bleeding. You must know that the 11th Brigade previously had more than 7,000 people. With the machine guns and small artillery that he supplemented for them, it reaches 8,000.
People. Now he can only move the remnants of the 11th Brigade to the third line of defense.
The fierce Bulgarian bombardment ended in only fifteen minutes. Then the soldiers of the Bulgarian Fourth Division appeared in front of them. The remaining soldiers of the Sixth Division and the reinforced Sixth Brigade of the Third Division began to launch a fierce counterattack. One side relied on its own fortifications.
To resist, one side relied on its own fierce firepower, and the battle became extremely fierce. After more than ten minutes, Bulgaria pushed up the small artillery. Faced with the tactics of the Bulgarian artillery with bayonets, the Serbian Sixth Division gradually arrived and struggled.
One after another, the supporting firepower was broken through by Bulgaria's tactics, which greatly increased the pressure on the defending Sixth Division. The Fourth Division finally used the cover of night to successfully break into the Sixth Division's position, and the Serbs who were fighting for a while were defeated step by step. In the fourth division
The Third Army behind the Fourth Division also sent two divisions forward for reinforcements. In the end, the Sixth Division failed to withstand the Bulgarian attack and withdrew from the second and third line positions one after another.
However, the Bulgarian army could not let go of their plan. The Bulgarian Fourth Division, reinforced by two divisions of the Third Army, followed the attack all the way. This completely destroyed the Sixth Division and the Sixth Brigade of the Third Division. The soldiers
They all rushed to Ohrid in the rear. The reinforcements of the 3rd Division and the 1st Division were caught off guard and were defeated by three divisions of Bulgarian troops one after another while on the march. This also affected the second batch of reinforcements.
The 7th and 10th Divisions were also defeated by three divisions of the Bulgarian army. It was not until the next morning that these divisions recovered, which Marshal Putnik did not expect at all.
In order to avoid being surrounded by the Bulgarian army, Marshal Putnik could only lead his troops to retreat to Myako, thirty kilometers away in the rear, intending to continue the fight after regrouping.
In this battle, the Serbian army lost about 30,000 people. Among them, 6,158 were killed, 4,315 were injured, and 18,417 were captured. Most of them were captured after being lost on the battlefield. Bulgaria lost 11,000 people, of whom 11,000 were killed in action.
5,719 people, 5,134 injured. The economic losses were small, but the Bulgarian machine guns consumed a lot of bullets. The Fourth Division, the main force in the raid, had more than 50 rounds of ammunition left on average for each Madsen machine gun, which was not enough for two magazines. You need to know
Bulgaria has supplied half of the Madsen machine gun cartridges in stock to the Fourth Division. Now there are less than two magazines left, which shows the intensity of the battle.
On another battlefield, the Serbian army in Bitola was unable to withstand the Bulgarian surprise attack and was defeated, handing over the occupied Bitola area to the Bulgarian First Army. The Serbian army of more than 70,000 people also retreated only 5
Of about 20,000 people, 20,000 were left in the area. The First Army also suffered considerable losses, with just over 80,000 troops remaining, with 70,000 left.
The same was true in the Salonika area. The Bulgarian Second Army launched a surprise attack on the defending Greek army. Despite the stubborn resistance of the Greek army, the Bulgarian army still retreated in the face of the increased firepower and lack of ammunition. The 70,000 defending troops retreated.
Only about 60,000 Greek troops returned alive to a small town called Dambia on the border. The Bulgarian Second Army also suffered losses of almost 10,000.
The results of the battle between the Bulgarian and Serbian armies surprised the European powers. For a time, Bulgaria was the Balkan Prussia.
