Siege of Adrianople 1912/13

 I was in Edirne (Adrianople) yesterday. First, I went out to see the likely site of the Battle of Adrianople. The AD378 version was when the Goths destroyed a Roman army led by Emperor Valens. You have to use a bit of imagination for this one, not to mention the possible site includes the local rubbish tip!

The main event was a visit to the newly restored bastion which houses the Balkan Wars Museum. This was one of many bastions that defended Adrianople and was the HQ of the Ottoman commander, Mehmed Şükrü Pasha. After the Ottoman defeat to the Bulgarians at Kirk Kilisse and Lule Burgas, Adrianople was surrounded by Bulgarian and later Serbian troops. It was an epic siege lasting from 3 November 1912 to 26 March 1913, when the Ottomans surrendered.

Kandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

All of this is covered in great detail in the magnificently restored fortress, and I will do a longer article for the website when I get back. 

This is a model of the bastion from the entrance.

This is the entrance.

This photo gives some idea of how deep the bastion goes. They even do cannon sound effects!

There are literally dozens of side room displays. This is the Pasha at his desk.

And each gun position has been restored.

Edirne is a bit of a trek (about two and a half hours from Istanbul). But it can be done as a day trip. I would highly recommend it.

Zooming Bloody Big Balkan Battles

This week's wargame with Zoom was the Battle of Doiran. Not the better known First World War epic, but the earlier clash in the Second Balkan War on 6 July 1913, fought between the Bulgarians and Greeks. The rules are Bloody Big Battles and the scenario comes from the Balkan Wars supplement written by Konstantinos Travlos. The figures are 15mm.

This is the smallest of the scenarios in the book in terms of army size, picked to make it easier to play over Zoom. The Bulgarians hold the Doiran hills on the left, which are rugged steep terrain, and the Greeks have to fight their way over to reach the objectives - towns on the other side. The Bulgarian troops were similar in numbers but the Greeks were better armed and higher quality, including three regiments of Evzones.

The tabletop (picture is West to East with Lake Doiran at the top) uses my Spearhead hills which show the levels well but don't really give an impression of how difficult the terrain was for the Greeks. So, here is a picture of the hills from the British cemetery (Greek direction) taken on my last visit to the battlefield. Today the battlefield is on the Greek/North Macedonian border.

My plan, playing the Greeks, was to attack both flanks, concentrating my artillery there. The first picture is on the right flank heading for Doiran, and the second is the left flank.

The Evzones quickly captured the first spur but then struggled to get moving again after sustaining casualties. More success on the left flank, although again it took too long.

As nightfall came, the Greeks had captured the high ground above Doiran but had been repulsed twice by the dwindling Bulgars in the centre.

Victory for the Bulgars as the Greeks failed to capture any objectives. The Greek spin doctor claims we would have captured Doiran next morning! But time ran out.

This is another set of rules I should play more often. They work well over Zoom as the mechanisms are simple, if frustrating. Dicing for movement is a pig when you are in a position to exploit a good tactical position. This scenario would also work as a solo game with just a few card draw options for the Bulgarian passive side.

The Greeks did better historically than me. They succeeded in capturing the Bulgarian positions opening the way for an invasion of old Bulgaria. συγνώμη σύντροφοι (Sorry comrades!).

As an aside, the author of this supplement also does a good YouTube series on the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-22. Well worth a listen while doing some lockdown painting.

Bloody Big Balkan Battles

My wife looked at my computer screen as I opened my review copy of this book and said, 'Did they write that just for you!'. The author's Konstantinos Travlos and Chris Pringle didn't, but I get her point - few titles are more likely to get my attention.

Bloody Big Balkan Battles is a set of wargame scenarios for the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, published by Brigade Games. They are written for Chris Pringle's rule set Bloody Big Battles (BBB) but can easily be adapted for other systems. If you are not familiar with these rules, they are designed for late 19th century conflicts that were often fought on a vast scale. Armies of 100,000 men on a battlefield ten miles wide are not easily accommodated on a standard wargame table. So, Chris not just scaled down the size of units but stripped out unnecessary details into a simple, yet elegant, set of game mechanics. The basic element is a base representing 1000 to 1500 men and 1" on the table represents 150-250 metres.

I first played Chris' Warring Empires rules many years ago, and the fundamental mechanisms were adapted into Principles of War (PoW), which I played extensively. They allow games up to about Corps size, but no larger. Most of my 15mm figures for the 19th century are based for PoW, although I initially used Spearhead for the Balkan Wars. 30mm square bases work very well for BBB.

This new scenario book covers the First and Second Balkan wars, a conflict overshadowed by the First World War, yet it had an enormous significance for the Balkans - redrawing many borders and tragic consequences for whole swathes of the population. Sadly, many of the tactical lessons were not learned by the Generals who commanded armies in the early period of the Great War.

The war was started by the Balkan League, a loose alliance of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and later Greece. The Ottoman Empire had been weakened by the war with Italy, internal revolts and the coup d'etat in 1912. The League took the opportunity to attack the Ottomans in Albania, Greece and Thrace. The Ottomans were defeated on all fronts, pushing them back to the lines of Chataldja, just 30kms from Istanbul. The peace treaty confirmed the Balkan League gains, but long-standing disputes over Macedonia resulted in a falling out, and Bulgaria attacked both Serbia and Greece. They failed to knock Serbia out of the war and interventions by Romania, and the Ottomans forced them to abandon the fight. I would recommend Richard Hall's book, The Balkan Wars, for a good overview of the conflict and Edward Ericksson, Defeat in Detail, for the Ottoman perspective.

The scenario book covers 14 of the critical battles of both wars. Each one describes the strategic and grand tactical situation, together with orbats and scenario rules. There is a map of each battle, which very clearly highlights the difficult nature of the terrain. The book concludes with a historical overview, profiles of the commanders and sources of further information and wargame figures.

Part of the battlefield from near Lahana

To test the scenarios, I decided on Kilkis-Lahana, a Second Balkan War battle between the Greek and Bulgarian armies. Not least because I have visited the battlefield, which has a small museum and a significant memorial. By visit, I mean driven around - walking is not really an option for warfare on this scale.

The Bulgarians are heavily outnumbered but hold entrenched positions. Kilkis is represented by the large church on the river nearest the camera. Lahanas is at the top of the table. I dusted down my old Spearhead hills, which show the different levels well.

This is the Greek attack on the Bulgarian right flank around Kilkis. 

And this is the attack on the other flank at Lahanas.

The Bulgarians made progress at Kilkis on the first day, but no breakthrough. Numbers told on Day 2, as they flanked the entrenched Bulgarian positions and forced them over the river.

The Bulgarian lines at Lahanas held on both days, but with their right flank exposed, General Ivanov decided to withdraw to fight another day.

The game played pretty much as I expected and the scenarios work very well. Highly recommended, not least because it reminded me what a very good set of rules these are. Now, where are those Russo-Japanese War figures?

Battle of Kilkis-Lachanas June 1913

Yesterday I visited the site of the Battle of Kilkis-Lachanas, fought between Greek and Bulgarian armies over three days in June 1913. 

This was the 2nd Balkan War, in which former allies, after defeating the Turks, fell out over the spoils. The Bulgarian 2nd Army commanded by General Nicolai Ivanov, had advanced into Macedonia in May and held the line between Kilkis and Lahanas with around 70,000 men. He faced a much stronger Greek army, commanded by King Constantine, totalling around 117,000 men.

Despite being outnumbered, Ivanov was relying on his more experienced troops and advanced towards Thessaloniki on 15 June. The offensive came to a halt by 18 June and the Greeks counterattacked. The Greek 10th division advanced toward the heights of Kallinovo north of lake Artzan, the 3rd, 5th, 4th and 2nd divisions attacked Kilkis, the 6th and 1st attacked Lachanas and the 7th the Karakoli saddle and Nigrita.

I visited the site of Lachanas battle that is marked by a fine memorial and a small museum, sadly closed despite published opening hours!

The Bulgarians prepared the area of Lachanas with defensive works, the low lying hills provide excellent fields of fire. The Greek 6th division attacked on 19 June and captured the line Dichalo-Klepe, losing 500 casualties, while the 1st division captured Vertiskos. On 20 June the two Greek divisions linked up near Lachanas. However, the Bulgarians spotted a detachment moving away to support the Kilkis battle and successfully counterattacked it. 

When Kilkis fell, the troop shift was cancelled allowing the two Greek divisions to successfully attack the Bulgarian position capturing 16 guns and 500 prisoners. The Greeks suffered 2,701 killed and wounded at Lachanas. 

The defeat of the 2nd Army was the most serious military disaster suffered by the Bulgarians in the 2nd Balkan war. The Bulgarian army suffered 6,971 casualties and the Greeks suffered 8,828 casualties. However, they succeeded in withdrawing through the Struma Pass before the outflanking Greek units reached them.

 

Drazki - Balkan Wars torpedo-boat

"Drazki", the legedary torpedo-boat that saw service in the Balkan Wars, and one of the most valuable exhibits in the Naval Museum in Varna, could collapse at any moment due to problems with the foundations. The cash strapped defence ministry is unlikely to come to the rescue so the museum has made an appeal to the citizens of Varna.

The "Drazki" was one of six torpedo boats ordered by Bulgaria. They were built in France, and transported overland in sections to Bulgaria, where the final assembly took place. "Drazki" was launched in the autumn of 1907, and commissioned in early 1908. During the Balkan Wars, "Drazki" entered fleet history after successfully, at almost point-blank range, torpedoing the Turkish cruiser Hamidie, and crippling her. "Drazki" is now the only preserved example of this class of ship, worldwide.

No details of how overseas donations can be made, but if I hear anything I will post. The museum is run by a group of enthusiasts who deserve support.