The times., 1897-05-30
THE TAKING or LAR|ssA
Rank COwardice the Cause of the
Greek Retreat.
STAINING OF HISTORIC FIELDS
Interesting Description and AnaIy-
sis of What Should Have Been a
Great Battle, But Was Not-The
Greeks Badly Trained and Led
To No Purpose.

The collapse was 20 sudden, so complete,
so inexplicable, that TO this day nobody in
the army seems quite to have realized /
On Friday evening we were i'll position to
fight a great battle for Thessaiy
Today, or Tuesday evening, We are prac-
] tically its masters, and we have moi lost
half dozen zen between thenandnow.
How in the world did il all come about?
ThessaIy was not won by fighting for
there was no lighting To speak Of. II can
| hardly be an exaggeration that over 11O,-
| 900 have been engaged in this campaign,
| and / am pretty sure that the total killed
| OF both sides is well under thousand Nor
| was Thessaly won because of the intel!i
| gcnce or Greeks who calmly decided th1t
it was impossible to hold it. They had e
| solved to hold it they had selected sheir
positions with caie, an d fortified them iI-
| dust .ioasly There is only cne answer 10
| the question now Thessaly was lost by
| cowar!ice-rank oowardice The Gis.ess
| had wished to hold it, and they were not
| fought out oft They lost heaTta and boite'i.
! The collapse began on Friday. That day
| the position was exactly what IL had been
| all the week since the close of the battle
| OF Meluua, on the second evening Of the
! war on Easter Sunday evening the
| Turks won the neck of low hills, and by
/ consequence drove tue Greeks from the
! narrow end Of the V-shaped plain below.
| The left of our position rested in the
| village of Karatsali, secured by the hills
| above; its right extended over the plain TO
/ where we held the hills on the other side
| also. The Greek right faced cur left in
| the village of Deliler long, stragg.ing
| group of stone and mud cot IA ges, nOini-
| nally two villages, really one Thence
| their batteries stretched across the plain
| to little round hill, and thence ou again
| 10 Turnavo, on the right. Above Turnavo
| they held the Formidable mountain of
| Kritiri -Losphaki, the Turks call 1.-THE
| highest point OF the frontier range, dlmcst
| perpendicular, apprOachahle only in front
| hy a stony ravine, defended by glnls and
! tier on tier of escarpment and stone wall
! Between the armies lay fields of harley,
! already waist high and in ear, dry faiIows
/ where every shell and ballet, hoof OF
foot, kicked up clouds of dust, with crate
| full patches of thick wood. All that on
saw from the Col of Meluna No troups
could cross the brown without showing
dust storms ON it; none could cross the
| green without showing black lines tor
infantry, black and brown and white lines
lOi Va al i'icNN biOtS " iiA oAli' sPidth
/ satellites grouped around them for guns.
You could see every move IN /. chesShoard
hundred square miles in size, with eighty
| thousand men for pieces, and the fate OF
| two nations for the stake
| 1t was the finest place 20 see a battle
one could imagine e-oniy-only there was
1 no battle to see.
| Of course, we had the advantage in
4 hut adj bp
| Of position Tie Greeks may have num-
/ bered 10000: tile correspondent on the
1 other side can tell more about that We
had in front a division and half-say
| 10000: two divisions ON the right. and
another expected from Karya on the left
| Altogether we'll over 10000 men against
| 10000 Only of the 10000, % 900 or So
were ncHtralized by the position Of Kritiri.
or had tried in vain three days to take it,
| and thought they We're which came TO the
same thing. and 5000 or so had not ar
| rived The Greeks might lave fought
I'VE fear God, but nobody else in lh.,
world remarked the Athens Star a day
| or two before. Butevents proved that they
also feared the Turks.
On Friday there Were operations on the
left with view to facilitating the june
ture with Hanid Pasha when he came Up
His division had taken five days to clear
its front of the determined attack made
at Karya But when he came the Greeks
wo;ld be outflanked on their left: unless
they beat him or us they must fall back,
leaving TUnayo and KritiIi. and letting
in the divisions OF Neshat PasiIa and Hairi
Pasha on their right flank also. On FRI
day, therefore. Edhem PasIa directed an
attack on Deliler
Ii began with the artillery and with the
artillery, rs it turned out, il practically
ended. II began in the center with smart
cannonale from either side Both shot
wild at first, the Turkish shrapnel burstin
little white balloons the height of Nelson S
column above the Greek batteries, the
salvos from the Greek batteries raised six
separate whirls of earthly cloud, now in
the plough between the Turks, now in the
the plough behind them, but on them never.
But presently the Turks began to diop shells
right into the little black swarning MT
hills that stood for Greek guns; the Greeks
went on banging away no W short now over,
irnpartially the whole afternoon
Meanwhile the main attack was develop
ing two miles to the left. Here also the
Turkish artillery was putting in splendid
work. A vast plowed field perhaps
half mile, perhaps a mile, across. lies be-
fore the village of Deliler; a its tight hand
top corner is q big square, many windowe,l,
gray-trOwn house on little knoll; ii may
be a convent, it may be private house,
but it looks like a furniture repository.
To the right the knoll slopes down among
trees to a little ininaret: this point was the
fulcrum of the defense.
Ali Ria Pasha, enjoying himself thor
oughly, as alwa Us whe his daring guns are
IN action, moved three batteries nearly up
to I he edge of the plowed field, well under
the fire of the Greek skirnishers, and
plugged round after round plump on to the
knoll. The infantry, meanwhile, was steal
ing round on the right. Covered by trees,
the black dots strolle,i lesureIy forward
From above theydid not seem to move; they
locked like pieces on board worked auto
matically by some great player behind
They established themselves on the right
of the minaret, and the carling blue smoke
showed they were making good use of the
position The Greeks knew it, too; they
advanced a battery on the right and fired
at the Ria s guns. They shot mserably as
ever, and RiZa took no notice They
advanced half the battery ..earer still;
Riza still took 10 notice.
And now was come the moment for the
main attack-infantry across the great
faIlow. Little dots of skrmishers, little
clumps Of main body, black Jumps of sup
ports began to dapple the brown Slowly,
slowly they moved-but they moved. The
field began to be full of them. Itbeganto be