300 Turks Executed.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 31, 1912:
For Fleeing at Kirk-Kilisseh — Commanders Shot Many.
    CONSTANTINOPLE, Oct. 30 (By wireless to Kustendji, Roumania).— Three hundred Turkish officers and men have been executed in connection with the panic among the Turkish troops at the taking of Kirk-Kilisseh by the Bulgarians.
    According to the narratives told by refugees from that city, the troops at Kirk-Kilisseh were composed almost entirely of reservists. They were under-officered, ill-trained, and badly fed. Several of the regiments at the time of the fighting had been without rations for forty-eight hours.
    A night attack upon the Bulgarian advance guard was ordered by the Turkish commander, but the energetic defense offered by the Bulgarians disconcerted the Turkish troops, and a panic set in. The troops dispersed, abandoning in their flight their guns, rifles, and ammunition.
    Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha tried to stem the panic by shooting several fleeing soldiers with his revolver. Prince Aziz Pasha joined in the flight.
    After a consultation by telegraph with Abdullah Pasha, the commander of the Turkish troops at Adrianople, Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha ordered a general retreat.
    Hilmi Pasha refused to join in the retreat, fearing that it would end in a general rout. With part of his division he took a position on the fortifications to the northwest of Kirk-Kilisseh in order to cover the retreat of the rest of the army. Some of his troops broke into panic and refused to stay with him. Himli Pasha shot a number of them down with his revolver. After that, by coolness and energy, he succeeded in retiring with the greater part of his division.
    The other divisions of the Turkish Army retreated in the greatest disorder. The main body retired toward Visa, where the divisions commanded by Fahri Pasha and Djemal Pasha stopped the rout and restored some semblance of order Fahri Pasha held the Bulgarians temporarily in check and recaptured four of the guns they had taken from the Turks.
    By Sunday order among the Turkish troops had been completely restoreed, and they then resumed the offensive cautiously pending the arrival of reinforcements. Within four days four divisions of Turkish troops have been dispatched from Constantinople in the direction of Kirk-Kilisseh, while others have been ordered to proceed by land and sea.