Battle of Sarantaporo The Battle of Sarantaporo , variously also transliterated as ' Sarantaporon or Sarandaporon ( ) took place on October 9 – 10 ( O . S . ) , 1912 . It was the first major battle fought between the Greek and Ottoman armies in the First Balkan War , and resulted in a Greek victory . Background . During the course of 1912 , tensions grew in the Balkans between the Christian Balkan states , allied in the Balkan League , and the Ottoman Empire . From mid - September , both sides started mobilizing . Bulgaria and Serbia mobilized on September 16 , Greece followed on September 17 . On September 25 , Montenegro declared war , followed on October 4 by Bulgaria and Serbia . Opposing forces . The Greek Army of Thessaly , under Crown Prince Constantine ( with General Panagiotis Danglis as his chief of staff ) consisted of six divisions ( 1st - 6th ) , with the 7th Division forming at Larissa , a cavalry brigade and four independent Evzones battalions . Against the Greek army , the Ottomans deployed their VIII Corps under General Hasan Tahsin Pasha , with three divisions : the regular 22nd Division at Kozani and two reserve divisions . The Ottoman force totaled 14 infantry battalions , with further 11 in reserve , supported by 24 artillery pieces and three machine - gun companies . However , the Ottoman formations were up to 25 % under strength , since the Ottomans had demobilized large parts of their army in August . The Ottomans hoped to hold the naturally strong position of the Sarantaporon passes , which had been extensively fortified under the supervision of a German military mission before the war . The battle . The Greek army crossed the border on October 5 . The 1st and 2nd Divisions engaged the 1 , 500 Ottoman covering forces , occupied Elassona and Deskati , and reached the Sarantaporo passes on October 7 . Hopelessly outnumbered , the Ottoman forces withdrew to Sarantaporo . The Greek offensive against the Ottoman position began on 9 October , with the 1st , 2nd and 3rd Divisions attacking the Ottoman main line frontally , the 4th Division attempting a flanking move to the west to bypass the fortifications and thence occupy the Porta pass , in the rear of the Ottoman positions , while the 5th Division was ordered to execute an even wider manoeuvre to the west . The advance of the Greek troops on open terrain , under Ottoman artillery fire , caused many casualties , but by night , the three Greek divisions had established contact with the main Ottoman line . The 5th Division ran into stiff resistance , but the 4th Division managed to push back the Ottoman flank and to occupy its designated objective . During the night , the Ottoman forces , after becoming aware of the 4th Division ' s move , retreated in good order under the cover of the darkness and the heavy rain to avoid being completely encircled . The battle was of major significance to the war . The Greek soldiers performed well , and the victory helped expunge the stain of the defeat in the Greco - Turkish War of 1897 . Furthermore , the Sarantaporo passes were the only positions where the numerically inferior Ottoman forces had any hope of stopping the Greek army . Field Marshal von der Goltz had confidently proclaimed that the passes would prove to be " the graveyard of the Greek Army " .