THE THREE THEATRES OF WAR Owing to the geographical situation, there were bound to be three practically distinct main theatres of war when the struggle began, viz.: on the Turko-Bulgarian frontier of Thrace, on the frontier between Macedonia and the allied Powers, Bulgaria and Serbia, and on the frontier between Greece and Turkey. Under a military understanding between Bulgaria and Serbia, six of the nine Bulgarian regular divisions were to have been allotted to the eastern theatre of war, while the remaining three co-operated with the Serbian Army in operations directed against Macedonia. But Bulgaria altered this arrangement at the last moment, retaining eight divisions for the east and employing only the remaining one in the western theatre, and this, moreover, as it turned out, moved independently toward Salonika. It was, from the purely military point of view, a sound decision, as the Turks could not be rein forced in Macedonia from Anatolia, whereas they could be so reinforced in Thrace; but the action of Bulgaria in the matter tended to cause somewhat strained relations between that kingdom and Serbia at the very start.
Adrianople was a great entrenched camp, composed of many forts and works, fairly well armed ; Kirk Kilisse was also provided with some works, but they were not of an efficient character. The 2nd Army advanced against Adrianople and to the west of it, with a view to investment, while the 1st Army followed a line more to the east and from the 22nd to the 24th was engaged with the enemy about Seliolu, the battle ending in its complete victory. On that same day the 3rd Army entered Kirk Kilisse, after some severe fighting, capturing an immense booty. The Turkish field forces had originally been formed up about the Ergene ; but they had been ordered north to take the offensive, and had thus brought on the encounter battles at Seliolu and Kirk Kilisse, in which they were heavily defeated. They retreated in confusion to the line Lule Burgas—Bunar Hisar, the victorious Bulgarians, owing to having outrun supplies, losing touch with them and therefore giving them time to reorganize to some extent.
On discovering the direction of their opponents' retreat, the Bulgarian 1st and 3rd Armies found themselves, in the first in stance, called upon to make a wheel to the left. Severe fighting took place on the 28th, 29th, and 3oth in the country between Lule Burgas and Viza in which both sides suffered heavily and which ended in the Turkish right near Viza becoming seriously endangered; Nazim Pasha, the Ottoman commander-in-chief, thereupon ordered a general retreat, and his troops fell back to the Chatalja lines, covering Constantinople. The victors were too exhausted to pursue, so that all touch with the defeated army was lost for the moment. In the meantime, the Bulgarian 2nd Army had invested Adrianople, and some troops were pushed on to Dimotika and to Dedeagach on the Aegean sea.
After a few days, the 1st and 3rd Bulgarian armies, being re inforced and having their lines of communications in working order, advanced towards the Chatalja lines and after a brief pause delivered an assault upon them on Nov. 17. The attack was re pulsed at all points with heavy loss, and the Bulgarian command, sobered by this untoward experience, refrained from making a second attempt. The remains of the Ottoman field forces in the country to the west of the lower Maritsa had in the meantime been surrounded and compelled to surrender at Ferejik. Opera tions in Thrace now came to a standstill for a fortnight, and then, on Dec. 3, an armistice was signed between Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro on the one hand, and Turkey on the other, Greece being no party to it for reasons which will appear later. The Bulgarian campaign in Thrace had been brilliantly successful, although Adrianople remained in Ottoman hands ; but the opera tions of the allies in the west had been no less triumphant.
All three Serbian armies crossed the Ottoman frontier on Oct. 1g and 20 through the mountains, meeting with slight resistance. The Turkish forces were necessarily much dispersed in view of the vast area of the territory to be guarded ; but an army of five weak divisions in the Vardar valley had been moving northwards to wards the Serbian frontier, and most of it reached Kumanovo on the 22nd. The head of the Serbian ist Army had arrived within a few miles of that place on the same day and had taken up a position, where it was attacked by the Turks on the following day but succeeded in holding its ground. The remainder of the i st Army came up on the 24th and a general action ensued in which the Ottoman troops were signally defeated. They fled southwards, evacuating Uskiib and withdrawing the detachments posted further to the north-west which had been opposing the advance of the 3rd Serbian Army from about Pristina. The victors, however, hardly realized how complete had been their success and, hampered as they were by the difficulties of the country and the delays in bringing up their impedimenta from beyond the frontier, they failed to take full advantage of it. It was not till the 29th that their three armies had joined hands and were prepared for further advance.
The disorganized Turks had for the most part withdrawn partly down the Vardar, and partly from Veles by Prilep towards Mona stir; and on becoming aware of this the Serbian staff made an entirely new disposition of available forces. The 2nd Army was sent off eastwards to aid the Bulgarians before Adrianople ; part of the 3rd Army moved westwards into Albania; the ist Army, reinforced, moved southwards to co-operate with the Greeks in disposing of the Turks known to be gathered about Salonika and Monastir. The sanjak of Novi Pazar had in the meantime been occupied by Serbian and Montenegrin detachments, and Monte negrin forces had advanced against Scutari, but they had failed to make any impression on its defences. Although some unim portant Ottoman detachments were still to be found in northern Albania, the whole of that portion of Turkey in Europe lying north of a line stretching from about Stip on the east, to just north of Scutari on the west, was by the end of October, for all practical purposes, in the hands of the allies, while the 7th Bulgarian Division was moving down the Struma valley and approaching Demir Hisar.
The Ottoman military authorities had only told off four weak divi sions, partly regular and partly reserve, to guard against hostile invasion in this southern theatre of war, and the task of the Greek troops in the region immediately north of Thessaly, at the out set, proved a simple one. The Crown Prince crossed the frontier on Oct. 18, occupied Elasson next day, and on the 23rd routed the Turks a little further to the north, his left occupying Kozani on the 25th. His right advanced at the same time, and on the 28th occupied Katerina on the shores of the Gulf of Salonika, where an advanced maritime base was established.
The Turkish forces defeated near Elasson had for the most part retired on Monastir, where there was a considerable concentration of troops, owing to the army which had been defeated by the Serbs at Kumanovo having for the most part fallen back over the mountains towards this town. But Constantine, aware that the Bulgarians were on the move for Salonika, and determined for political reasons to get to that city first, merely pushed out one division north-westwards to guard his left flank, while with the bulk of his troops he advanced to Vodena. His position there was not wholly comfortable, for the Serbian forces were still a long way from Monastir and a Turkish army of three or four divisions had taken up position at Yenije Vardar so as to cover Salonika against hostile advance from the west. He attacked this position on Nov. 2 and 3, but was repulsed, and his flank guard was at the same time defeated at Banitsa and Kastoria by Ottoman troops that had been pushed south from Monastir. Two days later, however, a fresh attack upon Yenije Vardar proved successful, whereupon the Turks opposed to him there retired into Salonika, which he occupied on Nov. g, 29,000 of the enemy laying down their arms.
On the following day the Bulgarian 7th Division arrived and claimed the city for Bulgaria; but an agreement on the subject was patched up and the Crown Prince now divided his army in two, half remaining east of the Vardar, and the remainder moving westwards to co-operate with the Serbian forces in dealing with the enemy forces gathered about Monastir.