My Italy

Chapter 527 The Balkan War breaks out

The exchange of fire between Bulgaria and the Ottomans on the border immediately attracted the attention of all countries. The Balkans are a sensitive region, and Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany all have interests here. Therefore, every move in the Balkans is of particular concern.

The sudden exchange of fire between Bulgaria and the Ottomans on the border made Carlo prioritize asking about the attitude of his allies. After all, this place attracts too much attention, and no one is sure whether a certain ally is instigating it behind the scenes.

But soon, Carlo no longer had this doubt, because both Berlin and Vienna sent telegrams of inquiries, and it was obvious that they did not know anything about it.

Since no one knows about it, this matter becomes a bit interesting.

For the sake of conservatism, Carlo ordered the Italian troops in Albania and Kosovo to stop taking leave and be on full alert. In addition, for the sake of safety, the Army also dropped two divisions from the mainland and temporarily entered these two provinces.

As for the dispute between Bulgaria and the Ottomans, we can only wait and see how it changes.

At present, European countries are very similar to Italy regarding the dispute between Bulgaria and the Ottomans. They are not busy for now and will wait and see how the situation develops next.

The onlookers did not disappoint. After the border exchange between Bulgaria and the Ottomans, both countries mobilized troops to the border. The two sides refused to give in and wanted to fight.

Of course, the calls for peace from various governments still need to be made, and several ambassadors even called on the two countries to calm down. Appeals are appeals, what the actual situation is like is not what the people at the bottom know.

When Bulgaria and the Ottomans were at odds with each other, and all countries thought that a war was about to break out between the two parties, suddenly a country came into the eyes of all countries.

This country is Greece. The Greeks claim that the Greeks in South Macedonia are oppressed by the Ottoman government and demand that the Ottoman Empire withdraw from South Macedonia and hand it over to Greek supervision. After a year, the people of South Macedonia can decide their own ownership.

The sudden appearance of the Greeks made all countries immediately feel that Bulgaria and Greece must have reached some kind of agreement, at least on the issue of the Ottomans.

While various countries are thinking about this, it is of course impossible for the Ottomans, who are targeted, to accept Greece's demands.

One more thing to say here is that there is currently a drought in the Ottoman Empire. In the winter last year, there was little rain in the Ottoman Empire, and when spring came, there was no rain at all.

As we all know, the grain-producing areas in Ottoman have a Mediterranean climate. The lack of rain in winter will lead to a reduction in grain production, not to mention that there is still no rain in spring and there is basically no rain in summer, which also leads to the outbreak of drought in Ottoman.

The outbreak of drought plunged the Ottomans into internal troubles, and Bulgaria and Greece saw this opportunity and prepared to compete with the Ottomans for South Macedonia and Thrace.

Faced with the pressing pressure of Bulgaria and the Greeks, the Ottomans did not intend to give up. The decline of the Ottomans in these years resulted in the loss of a large amount of territory, which had long aroused dissatisfaction among the Ottoman people. Prior to this, the rise of Türkiye's al-Shabaab party was a manifestation of this dissatisfaction.

Although Al-Shabaab was pushed out of power by other political parties due to its political immaturity, everyone knows that Al-Shabaab has now become a force that cannot be ignored in the Ottoman political arena.

Therefore, no one in the Ottoman Empire dared to accept such a condition of ceding territory. After learning about the unreasonable demands of the Greeks, Al-Shabaab encouraged the people to defend the Ottoman Empire.

After Ottoman rejected his request, Greece immediately declared war on Ottoman. The day after Greece declared war on the Ottomans, Bulgaria also declared war on the Ottomans.

At this point, the Balkan War broke out, and Bulgaria and Greece jointly launched an attack on the Ottomans.

The key point of this war was Adrianople, located at the confluence of the Maritsa and Densa rivers.

This is the current Ottoman military center and the last solid line of defense for the Ottoman capital Istanbul. Before that, Italy and Bulgaria had joined forces to capture the city.

However, due to various reasons, Adrianople returned to the arms of the Ottomans. After being lost and recovered, the Ottomans, under the guidance of German military advisers, further built and strengthened the fortress city. Among them, the fortress built on Mount Aidouar in the north formed a diagonal relationship with Adrianople in the south, stabilizing the Ottoman advantage in the city.

The first battle of this war took place in this area. The Bulgarian First Army repulsed the Ottoman 10th Division defending the Maritsa River and arrived around Adrianople.

Rather than repelling the Ottoman army, the Bulgarians retreated to Adrianople with a little resistance. Here, the Ottomans gathered an army of 178,000 men. Among them, 94,000 are new troops trained with the help of German military advisers. Their equipment and training levels are among the top in the Ottoman army.

There are currently only 161,000 troops in the Ottoman army trained by German advisers. Except for those stationed in the capital Istanbul (43,000) and South Macedonia (23,000), they are all here.

Facing the elite troops gathered by the Ottomans, Bulgaria was not bad either. After the war broke out, Bulgaria formed three armies with a total strength of 217,000 troops. Except for the Third Army's personnel and poor equipment who stayed at home (29,000 people), the other two armies were on the Adrianople front. However, in view of Adrianople's strong fortifications, the Bulgarians did not take action immediately. They needed to remove the surrounding strongholds first.

Therefore, the two armies of Paul and Austria were engaged in a not fierce but extremely bloody battle in Adrianople.

While the battle was going on in Adrianople, Greece, as an ally of Bulgaria, also took action against South Macedonia. A 94,000-strong Greek army, led by Crown Prince Constantine, launched an attack on the Ottoman army in South Macedonia. There are currently only more than 50,000 Ottoman troops stationed in South Macedonia. Facing the Greek offensive, they can only choose to stand firm.

This time the Greek army avenged its humiliation. After a month of fighting, the Greek army defeated the Ottoman army and captured Thessaloniki, Veria, Edessa, Kavala and other southern Macedonia and Thrace from them. Some cities.

In addition to the battles on land, the sea also did not fall.

The Greek Navy also engaged in naval battles with the Ottoman Navy in the Aegean Sea. After a hard battle, the Greek Navy successfully repelled the Ottoman Navy. Subsequently, the Greek Navy successfully blocked the Dardanelles Strait, the outlet of the Ottoman Navy, and locked the Ottoman Navy in the Black Sea.

From the beginning, the Ottomans fell into a passive position on both the sea and land fronts. The high fighting spirit between Bulgaria and the Greeks in this war surprised observers from all over the world. As for the Ottoman army, although there are many more troops trained by German advisers than before, their fighting will is not as good as their opponents. Not to mention that the performance of those troops that had not been trained was somewhat disappointing.

Faced with such a situation, the Ottomans did not sit still and wait for death. In addition to constantly mobilizing troops to fight between the two countries, the Ottomans also set their sights on other countries.

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like