Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/419

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
BALKAN WARS
379


stroyed in a series of " drives " which ended in the relics of this force being surrounded and forced to capitulate at Ferejik (Nov. 27).

(C.F..A.)

IV, Operations in the Spring of IQIJ. The London negotiations of Jan. 1913 were abruptly brought to an end when Enver and the Young Turks, fearing that the Government would, under European

pressure, make peace practically at any cost, carried out the coup d'etat of Jan. 23 (in which the Kiamil Government was overthrown and Nazim Pasha murdered), and denounced the armistice. Hos- tilities began again (with Greece they had never ceased) on Feb. 3 1913. But they entirely lacked the vigour and dramatic interest of the first campaigns. Practically, the story of the second phase is the final instalment of that of the sieges of Yannina, Scutari and Adri- anople. An effort was indeed made by the Turkish field forces in Thrace to debouch from the lines of Bulair and those of Chatalja simultaneously with a view to relieving Adrianople, but after locally heavy fighting the Bulgarians succeeded in holding their own on each of these fronts, and thereafter Adrianople was left to its fate. 1

The fall of Yannina has already been mentioned. The sieges of Scutari and of Adrianople require, however, a rather more detailed account. (C. F. A.)

The Scutari Operations. As has been mentioned already, Monte- negro was the first to declare war. The first objective was the old Turkish frontier fortress of Scutari, situated at the point where the Drinasa river flows into Lake Scutari, and consisting only of a castle and a few field-works on the hills surrounding the town. The perimeter measured some 28 m., and the average distance of the works from the town was about two. The works had no deep ditches or sunk wire entanglements.

1 Shortly before this the only important naval event of the war had occurred. On Jan. 15, the Turkish cruiser " Hamidieh " had slipped out of the Dardanelles, and from that time till the middle of March she cruised in the waters between Malta, Durazzo and the Levant, raiding commerce as opportunity offered.

Meanwhile, the Turkish battle squadron came out of the Straits on Jan. 17, hoping to find the " Averof " absent from the opposing squadron in chase of the " Hamidieh." The Greeks, however, had not committed the expected mistake, and after a long-range duel in which the " Averof " inflicted some damage on the Turkish battle- ships, the latter returned to the Sea of Marmora, where they re- mained to the end.

At the outbreak of the war the Turkish garrison was under Hasan Riza Bey, consisted of about 14,000 men (chiefly of the 24th Div.), to which were added, at the last moment, a reserve division from Elbasan under command of Essad, 10,000 strong.

With a force such as this, containing few active elements, only a purely defensive policy was possible. The fortress artillery was weak in numbers and out of date; it consisted (at a generous esti- mate) of 70 guns (including the divisional field artillery), of which the heaviest were the 12-cm. naval howitzers.

The Montenegrin army stood on Oct. 7, the eve of the declaration of war, as follows: The main body under Crown Prince Danilo (2nd and 3rd ,Divs., less gth Bde., 13,000 men and one battalion 12- cm. siege artillery), near Podgoritsa (Podgorica). The southern detachment under Gen. Martinovic (ist Div., 8,000 men and three battalions, 12-cm. guns, one battalion 15-cm. howitzers and two battalions 2i-cm. howitzers) was near Virpazar and Antivari. The remainder of the army (4th Div. and gth Bde., 10,000 men, and three mountain batteries) was at Andriyevitsa (Andrijevica), ready to advance into the Sanjak of Novipazar. The operations of this force are described elsewhere.

The advance on Scutari began on the morning of Oct. 9. The wide separation of the two Montenegrin columns offered the Turks a tempting opportunity of manoeuvre on interior lines, but, for the reasons given above, Hasan Riza was obliged to refrain, and the Montenegrin northern group broke through a series of passively defended positions one after the other. They were, however, so dis- ordered by their victory that they were compelled to halt and refit. On the igth they recommenced their advance, moving very slowly, and on the 25th halted once more on the Kiri on coming under the fire of the artillery of the fortress. Not until the 28th had they com- pleted their bridging operations; the 2nd and 3rd Bdes. then with- out awaiting the arrival of the main body carried the hill called Great Bardanjolt. A Turkish counter-attack on the 3Oth threw them back, inflicting such heavy losses that the Montenegrins fell back to Vratsa and undertook no further advance till February. The group, which had evidently been clumsily led, took up a posi- tion between the Kiri and the Lake of Scutari, some 3,000 yd. in front of the Turkish defences.

The Montenegrin southern group moved on Oct. 9 with its Ist and 3rd Bdes. from Antivari to Katrkol, and with the 2nd Bde. from Virpazar along the shore of the lake, both columns meeting with practically no opposition. They then prepared to attack the Turkish advanced position on hill 661. Their siege artillery opened fire only on Oct. 22, and the Turkish forward line was stormed next day with heavy loss. The assailants now found themselves close up against the main defensive line. The northern group having at this time just been driven off the Great Bardanjolt, coordinated attack by both groups was no longer to be thought of. The southern group therefore remained waiting in the position it then occupied.

On Nov. 19 Vukotic, his work in Novipazar completed, arrived with 6,000 men to reinforce the besiegers of Scutari. He himself took


over the command of the whole Montenegrin army, his troops being distributed on both fronts.

Soon afterwards the general armistice was concluded ; but Hasan refused to recognize it, as the revictualling of the fortress during the armistice had not been agreed to by the Balkan States. However, only minor skirmishes took place in December and January.

The armistice ended on Feb. 3, and shortly afterwards the attack was renewed in earnest against the Turkish strongholds of Muselimi and the Great Bardanjolt, which had been entrenched and fortified in places by blasting in the rocky soil. The assaulting columns were: (a) three battalions (1,500 men) against Muselimi from the N.; (b) five battalions (2,100 men) from the N. by hill 200 against the northern slope of the Great Bardanjolt; six battalions (2,400 men) from the N.E. against its eastern slope, and seven battalions (2,800