Battle of Lule Burgas

Battle of Lule Burgas
Part of the First Balkan War
Date28 October – 2 November 1912
Location
Burgos, Kirk Kilise District, Adrianople Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
(present-day Lüleburgaz-Bunarhisar, Turkey)
41°24′20″N 27°21′25″E / 41.40556°N 27.35694°E / 41.40556; 27.35694
Result Bulgarian victory[1]
Belligerents
Bulgaria Bulgaria  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Bulgaria Gen. Radko Dimitriev
Bulgaria Gen. Ivan Fichev
Bulgaria Gen. Vasil Kutinchev
Bulgaria Gen. Kliment Boyadzhiev
Bulgaria Gen. Pavel Hristov
Bulgaria Gen. Pravoslav Tenev
Bulgaria Gen. Stoyu Bradistilov		 Abdullah Pasha
Mahmud Muhtar Pasha
Strength
108,000
116 machine guns; 360 guns[2]		 130,000
300 guns[3]
Casualties and losses
20,000 killed and wounded[4] 22,000 killed and wounded[5]
2,800 captured[6]
50 guns captured[7]

The Battle of Lule Burgas (Turkish: Lüleburgaz Muharebesi) or Battle of Luleburgas – Bunarhisar (Bulgarian: Битка при Люлебургас – Бунархисар, Turkish: Lüleburgaz – Pınarhisar Muharebesi) took place between the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire and was the bloodiest battle of the First Balkan War. The battle took place from 28 October to 2 November 1912. The outnumbered Bulgarian forces made the Ottomans retreat to Çatalca line, 30 km from the Ottoman capital Constantinople. In terms of forces engaged it was the largest battle fought in Europe between the end of the Franco-Prussian War and the beginning of the First World War.[8]

  1. ^ Mitrany, David, The Balkans – A History of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Rumania, Turkey, (Aristophanes Press, 2008), 75.
  2. ^ Фичев, И. Българското командъване през Балканската война 1912–1913, с. 136
  3. ^ ЦВА, ф.40, оп. 2, а.е. 126, л. 34
  4. ^ Войната между България и Турция 1912–1913. 1, с. 236
  5. ^ Necdet Hayta, Togay S. Birbudak, Balkan Savaşları’nda Edirne, Genelkurmay Basımevi, Ankara, 2010, p. 23.
  6. ^ Димитриев, P., цит. съч., с. 293, 296—298; Държавен вестник, № 242. 25. Х. 1912.
  7. ^ ЦВА, ф.40, оп. 2, а.е. 126, 135
  8. ^ Erickson (2003), p. 102.