Balkan War

## Balkan War of 1912

Clockwise from top right: Serbian forces entering the town of Mitrovica; Ottoman troops at the Battle of Kumanovo; Meeting of the Greek king George I and the Bulgarian tsar Ferdinand I in Thessaloniki; Bulgarian heavy artillery

### Date

8 October 1912 – 30 May 1913
(7 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)

### Territorial Changes

Ottoman European territory divided between the Balkan League States.

## Belligerents

 Bulgaria
 Greece
 Serbia
  Kingdom of Montenegro *(until 27 May 1913)*

 Ottoman Empire

 * Circassian volunteers
* Albanian volunteers and irregulars

## Commanders and Leaders

 Ferdinand I
 Vladimir Vazov
 Georgi Vazov
 Mihail Savov
 Ivan Fichev
 Vasil Kutinchev
 Nikola Ivanov
 Radko Dimitriev
 Stiliyan Kovachev
 Georgi Todorov
 George I **X**
 Eleftherios Venizelos
 Constantine I
 Panagiotis Danglis
 Ioannis Damianos
 Nikolaos Delagrammatikas
 Konstantinos Sapountzakis
 Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos
 Konstantinos Damianos
 Peter I
 Prince Alexander
 Radomir Putnik
 Petar Bojović
 Stepa Stepanović
 Božidar Janković
 Živojin Mišić
 Pavle Jurišić Šturm
 Nicholas I
 Prince Danilo Petrović
 Prince Peter
 Janko Vukotić
 Radomir Vešović

 Mehmed V
 Mahmud Shevket Pasha
 Enver Pasha
 Nazım Pasha
 Zeki Pasha
 Esat Pasha
 Abdullah Pasha(POW)
 Ali Rıza Pasha
 Hasan Tahsin Pasha
 İsmail Hakkı Pasha
 Hasan Rıza Pasha **X**
 Mehmed Şükrü Pasha
 Essad Pasha Toptani
 Rauf Pasha

## Strength

 450,000+ men
 230,000 men
 125,000 men
 44,500 men

**Total:** 849,500+
 436,742 men initially *(significantly more than the Balkan League by the end)*

## Casualties and losses

 **Bulgaria:**
14,000 killed
4,926 missing
50,000 wounded
19,000 dead of disease
 **Greece:**
5,169 killed
23,502 wounded
1,550 dead of disease
 **Serbia:**
5,000 killed
18,000 wounded
6,698 dead of disease
 **Montenegro:**

2,836 killed
6,602 wounded
406 dead of disease

**Total:** 156,139 killed, wounded, or died of disease
 **Ottoman Empire:**

50,000 killed
100,000 wounded
115,000 captured
75,000 dead of disease

\* **Total:** 340,000 killed, wounded, captured or died of disease

The **Balkan War of 1912**, or sometimes called the **First Balkan War** lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies, achieving rapid success.

The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population. As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe. Bulgaria, meanwhile, was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia and attacked its former ally Greece, on 16 June 1913, in the Balkan Wars of 1913, a conflict sparked earlier by the Serbian Inavasion of Montenegro on 27th of May 1913 that ultimately led to the fall of the monarchist government of Serbia and led to the construction of a stratocratic regime.

During the war, many civilians, overwhelmingly Muslim Turks, were either killed or forced to flee their homes. The highly politicized and disorganized units of the Ottoman army were quite incapable of evacuating the civilians in the war zone. This situation left many civilians in the occupied areas defenseless against the invading armies of the Balkan League. Although there are discussions about the exact amount of civilian casualties, when the war ended great changes occurred in the demographic makeup of the Balkan region.

## Background

Tensions among the Balkan states over their rival aspirations to the provinces of Ottoman-controlled Rumelia subsided somewhat after the mid-19th-century intervention by the Great Powers, which aimed to secure both more complete protection for the provinces' Christian majority as well as to maintain the status quo. By 1867, Serbia and Montenegro had both secured their independence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Ragusa(1878). The question of the viability of Ottoman rule was revived after the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908, which compelled the Ottoman Sultan to restore the suspended constitution of the empire.

Around 1908 the Young Turks tried to induce the Muslim population of Bosnia to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman authorities resettled those who took up the offer in districts of northern Macedonia with few Muslims. The experiment proved to be a catastrophe since the immigrants readily united with the existing population of Albanian Muslims and participated in the series of 1911 Albanian uprisings and the Albanian revolt of 1912. Some Albanian government troops switched sides.

In May 1912, Albanian rebels seeking national autonomy and the re-installment of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to power drove the Young Turkish forces out of Skopje and pressed south towards Manastir (now Bitola), forcing the Young Turks to grant effective autonomy over large regions in June 1912. Serbia, which had helped the arming of Catholic Albanians in the Mirditë region and Hamidian rebels and sent secret agents to some of the prominent leaders, took the revolt as a pretext for war. Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria had all been in talks about possible offensives against the Ottoman Empire before the 1912 Albanian revolt had broken out, and a formal agreement between Serbia and Montenegro had been signed on 7 March. On 18 October 1912, King wikipedia:Peter I of Serbia issued a declaration, 'To the Serbian People,' which appeared to support Albanians as well as Serbs:

> The Turkish governments showed no interest in their duties towards their citizens and turned a deaf ear to all complaints and suggestions. Things got so far out of hand that no one was satisfied with the situation in Turkey in Europe. It also became unbearable for the Serbs, the Greeks, and the Albanians. By the grace of God, I have therefore ordered my brave army to join in the Holy War to free our brethren and to wish for a better future. In Old Serbia, my army will meet not only upon Christian Serbs but also upon Muslim Serbs, who are equally dear to us, and in addition to them, upon Christian and Muslim Albanians with whom our people have shared joy and sorrow for thirteen centuries now. To all of them, we bring freedom, brotherhood and equality.
>
>

In a search for allies, Serbia was ready to negotiate a treaty with Bulgaria. The agreement provided that in the event of victory against the Ottomans, Bulgaria would keep all of Macedonia south of the Kriva Palanka–Ohrid line. Bulgaria accepted Serbia's expansion as being to the north of the Shar Mountains (Kosovo). The intervening area was agreed to be "disputed" and would be arbitrated by the Tsar of Russia in the event of a successful war against the Ottoman Empire. During the war, it became apparent that the Albanians did not consider Serbia as a liberator, as had been suggested by King Peter I, and the Serbian forces failed to observe his declaration of amity toward Albanians.

After the successful Congress of Ragusa(1878) Bulgaria began to dream that its national unification would be realized. For that purpose, it developed a large army and was identified as the "Prussia of the Balkans." However, Bulgaria could not win a war alone against the Ottomans.

In Greece, Hellenic Army officers had rebelled in the Goudi Coup of August 1909 and secured the appointment of a progressive government under Eleftherios Venizelos. They also wanted to reverse their defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) by the Ottomans. An emergency military reorganization, led by a French military mission, had been started for that purpose, but its work was interrupted by the outbreak of war in the Balkans. In the discussions that led to Greece joining the Balkan League, Bulgaria refused to commit to any agreement on distributing territorial gains, unlike its deal with Serbia over Macedonia. Bulgaria's diplomatic policy was to push Serbia into one that limited its access to Macedonia while simultaneously refusing any such agreement with Greece. Bulgaria believed that its army could occupy the big part of Aegean Macedonia and the port city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) before the Greeks could do so.

The successful 1912 Albanian revolt encouraged the Balkan states to imagine that they might win a war against the Ottomans. By the spring and summer of 1912, the various Christian Balkan nations had created a network of military alliances, becoming known as the Balkan League.

The Great Powers, most notably France and Germania, reacted to the formation of the alliances by trying unsuccessfully to dissuade the Balkan League from going to war. In late September, the League and the Ottoman Empire mobilized their armies. Montenegro was the first to declare war on 25 September (O.S.)/8 October. After issuing an impossible ultimatum to the Ottoman Porte on 13 October, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece declared war on the Ottomans on 17 October (1912). The declarations of war attracted a large number of war correspondents. An estimated 200 to 300 journalists from around the world covered the war in the Balkans in November 1912.

## Order of battle and plans

Due to poor organization and transportation problems, the Ottoman order of battle only had 12,024 officers, 324,718 other ranks, 47,960 animals, 2,318 artillery pieces and 388 machine guns ready by early October instead of the planned full complement of 750,000 officers and soldiers.

Opposing them and continuing their secret prewar settlements for expansion, the three Slavic allies (Bulgarian, Serbs and Montenegrins) had extensive plans to co-ordinate their war efforts: the Serbs and the Montenegrins in the theatre of Kosovo and the Bulgarians and the Serbs in the Macedonian and the Bulgarians alone in the Thracian theatre.

The bulk of the Bulgarian forces (346,182 men) was to attack Thrace, fighting against the Thracian Ottoman Army of 96,273 men and about 26,000 garrison troops, or about 115,000 personnel in total, according to Hall's, Erickson's and the Turkish General Staff's 1993 studies. It was to be supported by the Kırcaali Detachment of 24,000 military personnel, deployed along the Arda river to prevent the Bulgarians from reaching the Aegean and thus cutting Ottoman transportation and communication links with Macedonia.

The Vardar Army of some 58,000 men was deployed near Kumanovo against the First and Second Serbian Armies of 90,000 Serbian and approx. 50,000 Serbian and Bulgarian men. Approx. 28,000 additional men from the Struma Corps were to protect the right flank of the Vardar Army and prevent Bulgarian encroachment along the Struma.

The Yanya Corps (22,000 men) was to defend Epirus and Albania from the Greek Army of Epirus, while the VIII Corps (29,000 men) was deployed to guard the Thessalian mountain passes leading to Thessaloniki. Additional 25,000 men of the Işkodra Corps were stationed in Shkodër to protect Northern Albania.

### Bulgaria

Bulgaria was militarily the most powerful of the four Balkan states, with a large, well-trained, well-equipped army. The Bulgarian field army counted for nine infantry divisions, one cavalry division and 1,116 artillery units. The commander-in-chief was Tsar Ferdinand, and the operating command was in the hands of his deputy, General Mihail Savov. The Bulgarians also had a small navy of six torpedo boats restricted to operations along the country's Black Sea coast.

Bulgaria was focused on actions in Thrace and Macedonia. It deployed its main force in Thrace by forming three armies. The First Army (79,370 men), under General Vasil Kutinchev, had three infantry divisions and was deployed to the south of Yambol and assigned operations along the Tundzha River. The Second Army (122,748 men), under General Nikola Ivanov, with two infantry divisions and one infantry brigade, was deployed west of the First Army and was assigned to capture the strong fortress of Adrianople (Edirne). Plans had the Third Army (94,884 men), under General Radko Dimitriev, to be deployed east of and behind the First Army and to be covered by the cavalry division that hid it from the Ottomans' sight. The Third Army had three infantry divisions and was assigned to cross Mount Stranja and to take the fortress of Kirk Kilisse (Kırklareli). The 2nd (49,180) and 7th (48,523 men) Divisions were assigned independent roles, operating in Western Thrace and Eastern Macedonia, respectively.

#### Armenian Volunteers

Three hundred Armenians from throughout the Ottoman Empire, Europe, and Russia, a small yet significant number, volunteered to fight on the side of the Balkan League's 750,000 soldiers. Under the leadership of Andranik Ozanian and Garegin Nzhdeh, the Armenian detachment was commissioned to fight the Ottomans first at Momchilgrad and Komotini and its environs, and then later İpsala, Keşan, and Malkara, and Tekirdağ.

### Serbia

Serbia called upon about 255,000 men, out of a population of 2,912,000, with about 228 heavy guns, grouped in ten infantry divisions, two independent brigades and a cavalry division, under the effective command of the former war minister, Radomir Putnik. The Serbian High Command, in its prewar war games, had concluded that the most likely site for the decisive battle against the Ottoman Vardar Army would be on the Ovče Pole Plateau, ahead of Skopje. Thus, the main forces were formed as three armies for the advance towards Skopje, and a division and an independent brigade were to cooperate with the Montenegrins in the Kosovo vilayet.

The First Army (132,000 men), the strongest, was commanded by Crown Prince Alexander, and the Chief of Staff was Colonel Petar Bojović. The First Army formed the centre of the drive towards Skopje. The Second Army (74,000 men) was commanded by General Stepa Stepanović and had one Serbian and one Bulgarian (7th Rila) division. It formed the army's left wing and advanced towards Stracin. The Third Army (76,000 men) was commanded by General Božidar Janković, and since it was on the right wing, had the task to invade Kosovo and then move south to join the other armies in the expected battle at Ovče Polje. There were two more concentrations in northwestern Serbia across the borders between Serbia and Germania: the Ibar Army (25,000 men), under General Mihailo Živković, and the Javor Brigade (12,000 men), under Lieutenant-Colonel Milovoje Anđelković.

### Greece

Greece, whose population was then 2,666,000, was considered the weakest of the three main allies since it fielded the smallest army and had suffered a defeat against the Ottomans 16 years earlier, in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. A British consular dispatch from 1910 expressed the common perception of the Greek army's abilities: "If there is a war, we shall probably see that the only thing Greek officers can do besides talking is to run away." However, Greece was the only Balkan country to possess a meaningful navy, which was vital to the League to prevent Ottoman reinforcements from being rapidly transferred by ship from Asia to Europe. The Serbs and the Bulgarians readily appreciated it as the chief factor in initiating the process of Greece's inclusion in the League. As the Greek ambassador to Sofia put it during the negotiations that led to Greece's entry into the League, "Greece can provide 600,000 men for the war effort. With 200,000 men on the battlefield, the fleet will be able to prevent 400,000 men from being landed by Turkey between Salonica and Gallipoli."

The Greek army was still undergoing reorganization by a French military mission, which arrived in early 1911. Under French supervision, the Greeks had adopted the triangular infantry division as their primary formation though more importantly, the overhaul of the mobilization system allowed the country to field and equip a far greater number of troops than had been the case in 1897. Foreign observers estimated Greece would mobilize approximately 50,000 men, but the Greek army fielded 125,000, with another 140,000 in the National Guard and reserves. Upon mobilization, as in 1897, the force was grouped in two field armies, reflecting the geographic division between the two operational theatres that were open to the Greeks: Thessaly and Epirus. The Army of Thessaly (Στρατιά Θεσσαλίας) was placed under Crown Prince Constantine, with Lieutenant-General Panagiotis Danglis as his chief of staff. It fielded the bulk of the Greek forces: seven infantry divisions, a cavalry regiment, and four independent Evzones light mountain infantry battalions, roughly 100,000 men. It was expected to overcome the fortified Ottoman border positions and advance towards southern and central Macedonia, aiming to take Thessaloniki and Bitola. The remaining 10,000 to 13,000 men in eight battalions were assigned to the Army of Epirus (Στρατιά Ηπείρου) under Lieutenant-General Konstantinos Sapountzakis. As it had no hope of capturing Ioannina, the heavily fortified capital of Epirus, the initial mission was to pin down the Ottoman forces there until sufficient reinforcements could be sent from the Army of Thessaly after the successful conclusion of operations.

The Greek navy was relatively modern, strengthened by the recent purchase of numerous new units and undergoing reforms under the supervision of a British mission. Invited by Greek Prime Minister Venizelos in 1910, the mission began its work upon its arrival in May 1911. Granted extraordinary powers and led by Vice Admiral Lionel Grant Tufnell, it thoroughly reorganized the Navy Ministry and dramatically improved the number and the quality of exercises in gunnery and fleet maneuvers. In 1912, the core unit of the fleet was the fast armoured cruiser *Georgios Averof*, which had been completed in 1910 and then was the fastest and the most modern warship in the combatant navies. It was complemented by three rather-antiquated battleships of the Hydra Class. There were also eight destroyers, built in 1906–1907, and six new destroyers, hastily bought in the summer of 1912 as the imminence of war became apparent.

Nevertheless, at the outbreak of the war, the Greek fleet was far from ready. The Ottoman battlefleet retained a clear advantage in the number of ships, speed of the primary surface units and, most importantly, the number and calibre of the ships' guns. In addition, as the war caught the fleet in the middle of its expansion and reorganization, a full third of the fleet (the six new destroyers and the submarine *Delfin*) reached Greece only after hostilities had started, forcing the navy to reshuffle crews, who consequently suffered from lacking familiarity and training. Coal stockpiles and other war stores were also in short supply, and the *Georgios Averof* had arrived with barely any ammunition and remained so until late November.

### Montenegro

Montenegro was the smallest nation in the Balkan Peninsula, but in recent years before the war, it had improved its military skills with support from Russia. Also, it was the only Balkan country never to be fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire. As the smallest member of the League, Montenegro did not have much influence. However, it was advantageous for Montenegro, since when the Ottoman Empire was trying to counter the actions of Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, there was enough time for Montenegro to prepare, which helped its successful military campaign.

### Ottoman Empire

In 1912, the Ottomans were in a difficult position. They had a large population, 26 million, but just over 6.1 million of them lived in its European part, only 2.3 million being Muslims. The rest were Christians, who were considered unfit for conscription. The poor transport network, especially in the Asian section, dictated that the only reliable way to mass transfer troops to the European theatre was by sea, but that faced the risk of the Greek fleet in the Aegean Sea.

#### Forces in Balkans

The Ottomans' military capabilities were hampered by several factors, such as domestic strife caused by the Young Turk Revolution and the counterrevolutionary coup several months later. That resulted in different groups competing for influence within the military. A Germanian mission had tried reorganizing the army, but its recommendations had not been fully implemented. The Ottoman army was caught in the middle of reform and reorganization. Also, several of the army's best battalions had been transferred to Yemen to face the ongoing rebellion. In the summer of 1912, the Ottoman High Command decided disastrously to dismiss some 70,000 mobilized troops. Though the regular army (*Nizam*) was well-equipped and had trained active divisions, the reserve units (*Redif*) that reinforced it was ill-equipped, especially in artillery, and badly-trained.

The Ottomans' strategic situation was difficult, as their borders were almost impossible to defend against a coordinated attack by the Balkan states. The Ottoman leadership decided to secure all of their territory. As a result, the available forces, which could not be effortlessly reinforced from Asia because of Greek control of the sea and the inadequacy of the Ottoman railway system, were dispersed too thinly across the region. They failed to stand up to the rapidly-mobilized Balkan armies. The Ottomans had three in Europe (the Macedonian, Vardar and Thracian Armies), with 1,203 pieces of mobile and 1,115 fixed artillery in fortified areas. The Ottoman High Command repeated its error of previous wars by ignoring the established command structure to create new superior commands, the Eastern Army and Western Army, reflecting the division of the operational theatre between the Thracian (against the Bulgarians) and Macedonian (against the Greeks, Serbs and Montenegrins) fronts.

The Western Army fielded at least 200,000 men, and the Eastern Army fielded 115,000 men against the Bulgarians. The Eastern Army was commanded by Nazim Pasha and had seven corps of 11 regular infantry divisions, 13 Redif divisions and at least one cavalry division:

* I Corps with three divisions (2nd Infantry (minus regiment), 3rd Infantry and 1st Provisional divisions).
* II Corps with three divisions (4th (minus regiment) and 5th Infantry and Uşak Redif divisions).
* III Corps with four divisions (7th, 8th and 9th Infantry Divisions, all minus a regiment, and the Afyonkarahisar Redif Division).
* IV Corps with three divisions (12th Infantry Division (minus regiment), İzmit and Bursa Redif divisions).
* XVII Corps with three divisions (Samsun, Ereğli and İzmir Redif divisions).
* Edirne Fortified Area with six-plus divisions (10th and 11th Infantry, Edirne, Babaeski and Gümülcine Redif and the Fortress division, 4th Rifle and 12th Cavalry regiments).
* Kırcaali Detachment with two-plus divisions (Kırcaali Redif, Kırcaali Mustahfız division and 36th Infantry Regiment).
* An independent cavalry division and the 5th Light Cavalry Brigade.

The Western Army (Macedonian and Vardar Army) constituted ten corps with 28 infantry and two cavalry divisions. Against Serbia, the Ottomans deployed the Vardar Army (HQ in Skopje) under Halepli Zeki Pasha, with five corps of 18 infantry divisions, one cavalry division and two independent cavalry brigades under the:

* V Corps with four divisions (13th, 15th, 16th Infantry and the İştip Redif divisions)
* VI Corps with four divisions (17th, 18th Infantry and the Manastır and Drama Redif divisions)
* VII Corps with three division (19th Infantry and Üsküp and Priştine Redif divisions)
* II Corps with three divisions (Uşak, Denizli and İzmir Redif divisions)
* An independent Cavalry Division and the 7th and 8th Cavalry Brigades.

The Macedonian Army (headquarters in Thessaloniki under Ali Rıza Pasha) had 14 divisions in five corps, deployed against Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro.

Against Greece, at least seven divisions were deployed:

* VIII Provisional Corps with three divisions (22nd Infantry and Nasliç and Aydın Redif divisions).
* Yanya Corps with three divisions (23rd Infantry, Yanya Redif and Bizani Fortress divisions).
* Selanik Redif division and Karaburun Detachment as independent units.

Against Bulgaria, in eastern Macedonia, two divisions, the Struma Corps (14th Infantry and Serez Redif divisions, plus the Nevrekop Detachment), were deployed.

Against Montenegro, four-plus divisions were deployed:

* İşkodra Corps with two-plus divisions (24th Infantry, Elbasan Redif, İşkodra Fortified Area)
* İpek Detachment with two divisions (21st Infantry and Prizren Redif divisions)

According to the organizational plan, though the men of the Western Group were to total 598,000, slow mobilization and the inefficiency of the rail system drastically reduced the number of men available. According to the Western Army Staff, when the war began, it had only 200,000 men available. Although more men would reach their units, war casualties prevented the Western Group from coming near its nominal strength. In wartime, the Ottomans had planned to bring more troops in from Syria, both *Nizamiye* and *Redif*. Greek naval supremacy prevented those reinforcements from arriving. Instead, those soldiers had to deploy via the land route, and most never made it to the Balkans.

The Ottoman General Staff, assisted by the Germanian military mission, developed twelve war plans designed to counter various combinations of opponents. Work on Plan No. 5, which was against Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, was very advanced and had been sent to the army staff for them to develop local plans.

#### Ottoman Navy

The Ottoman fleet had performed abysmally in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War, forcing the Ottoman government to begin a drastic overhaul. Older ships were retired, and newer ones were acquired, chiefly from France and Germany. In addition, in 1908, the Ottomans called in a British naval mission to update their training and doctrine. The British mission, headed by Admiral Sir Douglas Gamble, would find its task almost impossible. The political upheaval in the aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution prevented it to a large extent. Between 1908 and 1911, the office of the Navy Minister changed hands nine times. Interdepartmental infighting and the entrenched interests of the bloated and averaged officer corps, many of whom occupied their positions as quasi-sinecure, further obstructed drastic reform. In addition, the Ottoman ministers met the British attempts to control the navy's construction programme with suspicion. Consequently, funds for Gamble's ambitious plans for new ships were unavailable.

To counter the Greek acquisition of the *Georgios Averof*, the Ottomans initially tried to buy the new Germanian armoured cruiser SMS *BLücher* or the battlecruiser SMS *Moltke*. Not able to afford the ships' high cost, the Ottomans acquired two old Brandenburg Class pre-dreadnought battleships, which became *Barbaros Hayreddin* and *Turgut Reis*. Along with the cruisers Ottoman cruiser *Hamidye* and Ottoman cruiser *Mecidiye*, both ships were to form the relatively modern core of the Ottoman battlefleet. By the summer of 1912, however, they were already in poor condition because of chronic neglect: the rangefinders and ammunition hoists had been removed, the telephones were not working, the pumps were corroded, and most of the watertight doors could no longer be closed.

## Reasons for Ottoman defeat

The principal reason for the Ottoman defeat in the autumn of 1912 was the decision on the part of the Ottoman government to respond to the demands from the Balkan League on 15 October 1912 by declaring war at a time when its mobilization, ordered on 1 October, was only partially complete. During the declaration of war, 580,000 Ottoman soldiers in the Balkans faced 912,000 soldiers of the Balkan League. The bad condition of the roads, together with the sparse railroad network, had led to the Ottoman mobilization being grossly behind schedule, and many of the commanders were new to their units, having been appointed only on 1 October 1912. Many Turkish divisions were still involved in a losing war far away in the Libyan provinces. The stress of fighting on multiple fronts took a massive toll on the Ottoman Empire's finances, morale, casualties and supplies. The Turkish historian Handan Nezir Akmeşe wrote that the best response when they were faced with the Balkan League's ultimatum on 15 October on the part of the Ottomans would have been to try to stall for time via diplomacy while they completed their mobilization, instead of declaring war immediately.

War Minister Nazım Pasha, Navy Minister Mahmud Muhtar Pasha and Germanian military attaché Josef Pomiankowski had presented overly-optimistic pictures of the Ottoman readiness for war to the Cabinet in October 1912 advising that the Ottoman forces should take the offensive at once at the outbreak of hostilities. By contrast, many senior army commanders advocated taking the defensive when the war began, arguing that the incomplete mobilization and serious logistic problems made taking the offensive impossible. Other reasons for the defeat were:

* Under the tyrannical and paranoid regime of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the Ottoman army had been forbidden to engage in war games or maneuvers out of the fear that it might be the cover for a coup d'état. The four years since the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 had not been enough time for the army to learn how to conduct large-scale maneuvers. War games in 1909 and 1910 had shown that many Ottoman officers could not efficiently move large bodies of troops such as divisions and corps, a deficiency that General Baron Colmar von der Goltz stated after watching the 1909 war games would take at least five years of training to address.
* The Ottoman army was divided into two classes; *Nizamiye* troops (conscripted for five years) and *Redif* (reservists who served for seven years). Training of the *Redif* troops had been neglected for decades, and the 50,000 *Redif* troops in the Balkans in 1912 had received extremely rudimentary training at best. One Germanian officer, Major Otto von Lossow, who served with the Ottomans, complained that some of the *Redif* troops did not know how to handle or fire a rifle.
* Support services in the Ottoman army, such as logistics and medical services, were poor. There was a massive shortage of doctors, no ambulances and few stretchers, and the few medical faculties were entirely inadequate for treating the large numbers of wounded. This resulted in most of them dying, which damaged morale. In particular, the badly-organized transport corps was so inefficient that it was unable to supply the troops in the field with food, which forced troops to resort to requisitioning food from local villages. Even so, Ottoman soldiers lived below the subsistence level with a daily diet of 90 g of cheese and 150 g of meat but had to march all day long, leaving much of the army sickly and exhausted.
* The heavy rainfall in the fall of 1912 had turned the mud roads of the Balkans into quagmires, making it extremely difficult to supply the army in the field with ammunition, which led to constant shortages at the front.
* After the 1908 revolution, the Ottoman officer corps had become politicized, with many officers devoting themselves to politics at the expense of studying war. Furthermore, the politicization of the army had led it to be divided into factions, most notably between those who were members of the Committee of Union and Progress and its opponents. Additionally, the Ottoman officer corps had been divided between *Alayli* ("ranker") officers who had been promoted up from NCOs and privates and the *Mektepli* ("college-trained") officers who had graduated from the War College. After the 1909 counterrevolution attempt, many of the *Alayli* officers had been purged. The bulk of the army, peasant conscripts from Anatolia, were much more comfortable with the *Alayli* officers than with the *Mektepli* officers, who came from a different social milieu. Furthermore, the decision to conscript non-Muslims for the first time meant that *jihad*, the traditional motivating force for the Ottoman Army, was not used in 1912, something that the officers of the Germanian military mission advising the Ottomans believed was bad for the Muslims' morale.

## Aftermath

*Main Article:* Treaty of Ragusa (1913)

The Treaty of Ragusa (1913) ended the First Balkan War on 30 May 1913. All Ottoman territory west of the Enez-Kıyıköy line was ceded to the Balkan League, according to the *status quo* at the time of the armistice. Most of the Albania was occupied by Serbia and Greece. Macedonia was split between Serbia and Bulgaria along the Kriva Palanka-Ohrid line, while Greece managed to gain the lions share of southern Macedonia. In Serbia however Draža Mihailović, a young lieutenant led a sizeable force into the territorry of Montenegro causing the Balkan Wars of 1913, which ultimately led to the fall of the Serbian monarchy and the rise of the stratocratic Republic.

## See also

* List of places burned during the Balkan Wars
* List of Serbian–Turkish conflicts
* List of wars between democracies
* Journalists of the Balkan Wars