Battle of Kresna Gorge The Battle of Kresna Gorge was fought in 1913 between the Greeks and the Bulgarians during the Second Balkan War . It marked the last phase of the Greek advance into Bulgarian territory before the ceasefire and the following peace treaty . Background . After the Serbian front became static , and seeing that the Bulgarian Army in his front had already suffered defeat , King Constantine ordered the Greek Army to march further into Bulgarian territory and take the capital city of Sofia . King Constantine wanted a decisive victory on this war despite the objections of Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos who realized that the Serbs , having won their territorial objectives , were now trying to move the weight of the rest of the war to the Greeks by staying passive . The battle was continued for eleven days , between July 8 – 18 , over a front of 20 km , in a maze of forests and mountains . Conflict . Greek advance and breaking through the Kresna pass . After the victorious Battle of Doiran the Greek forces continued their penetration north . On July 18 , the 1st Greek Division , managed to drive back the Bulgarian rear guard and captured an important foothold at the southern end of the Kresna pass . In the pass , the Greeks were ambushed by the Bulgarian 2nd and 4th Army army which was newly arrived from the Serbian front and had taken up defensive positions there . However , after bitter fighting the Greek side managed to break through the Kresna pass . The Greek advance continued and on July 25 , the village of Krupnik , north of the pass , was captured , forcing the Bulgarian troops to withdraw to Simitli . Simitli was also captured on July 26 , while at the night of July 27 – 28 the Bulgarian forces were pushed north to Gorna Dzhumaya ( Blagoevgrad ) , 76 km south of Sofia . Meanwhile , the Greek forces continued their march inland into western Thrace and on July 26 , entered Xanthi and the next day entered Komotini , without facing opposition . Bulgarian counterattack and armistice . The Greek army was stopped in front of Gorna Dzhumaya by significant Bulgarian resistance . In July 28 , the Greek forces resumed the attack and captured a line stretching from Cherovo to Hill 1378 , southeast of Gorna Dzhumaya . However , on the evening of July 28 , under heavy pressure , the Bulgarian army was forced to abandon the town , while it set fire to a quarter of it during the retreat . On the following day , the counterattacking Bulgarians attempted to encircle the outnumbered Greeks in a Cannae - type battle by applying pressure on their flanks . Nevertheless , the Greeks launched counter - attacks at Mehomia and to the west of Kresna and by July 30 the Bulgarian attacks had subsided somewhat . On the eastern flank , the Greek army launched an counterattack towards Mehomia through the Predela pass . The offensive was stopped by the Bulgarian army on the eastern side of the pass and fighting ground to a stalemate . On the western flank , an offensive was launched against Charevo Selo with the objection of reaching the Serbian lines . This failed and the Bulgarian army continued advancing , especially in the south , where by the 29th of July the Bulgarian forces had cut the Greek line of retreat through Berovo and Strumitsa , leaving the Greek army with only one route of retreat . However , after a three days fighting at the sectors of Pehchevo and Mahomia , the Greek forces retained their positions . On July 30 , the Greek headquarters planned to launch a new attack in order to advance towards the sector of Gorna Dzhumaya . On that day hostilities continued with the Bulgarian forces deployed on strategic positions north and northeast of the town . Meanwhile , king Constantine , who had neglected the initial Bulgarian requests for truce , now informed Venizelos , that his army was " " physically and morally exhausted " " and urged him to seek cessation of hostilities through Romanian mediation . The resulted general armistice , signed on in Bucharest , ended one of the bloodiest battles of the Second Balkan War . Legacy . Armistice left both parties claiming victory . From the Greek point of view , after 11 days of attack the Bulgarians had clearly failed to turn the Greek army ' s flanks , and consequently they consider the battle a defensive victory . To the Bulgarians , the battle was a victory since their attack successfully stopped the Greek Army ' s advance towards Sofia and thus induced the Greeks to accept the proposed armistice . This view is supported by the opinion held by some historians that although the battle was ended inconclusively by the armistice , by the end of the war the Greek army was threatened by encirclement and annihilation . The Greek side on the other claims that during the prolonged battle , the Bulgarians had progressively involved all available forces , and lacked the additional manpower to complete the encirclement of the Greek forces .