Europe's Most Savage War.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 5, 1912:
Turkish Brutality Almost Incredible — Correspondents Not Safe.
    LONDON, Tuesday, Nov. 5.— While the number of troops engaged in the series of battles fought between the Turkish and Bulgarian Armies in Thrace in the last fortnight was not so large as that of the armies who fought in the Russo-Japanese war, yet this will probably be the most savage and bloody war ever fought in Europe.
    The fighting is followed by many massacres by the Turkish soldiery, whose brutality is hardly believable. The reports issued by the Bulgarians are probably exaggerated, but the accounts of independent witnesses show that the situation in this respect is very bad.
    One of the railway officials who escaped from Lule-Burgas describes how he saw the bodies of two Bulgars of Turkish citizenship who had been done to death with bayonets. He said:
    "Not a single inch of white skin was visible on their bodies, which were covered with a crust of blood. I could not look at food for days after I had seen them, and this is only one incident of the atrocities committed."
    Asked as to the position of war correspondents with the Turkish Army, he said:
    "I should not give much for their chances, as it will go hard with any Christians who fall into the hands of the Turkish irregulars. These are entirely beyond the control of their officers, and they have been perpetrating wanton acts of cruelty all along the line of retreat."
    The losses of the two armies thus far are not known, and the estimates given are mere guesswork, but that they have been extremely heavy goes without saying, and it is probable that the Bulgars who attacked fortified positions lost even more than the Turks.
    One correspondent says that 40,000 Turks have fallen since the battle of Kirk-Kilisseh, and another that they lost 20,000 at Lule-Burgas.
    At the Bulgarian Ministry of War, according to a dispatch from Sofia, the names of 4,000 dead Bulgarian soldiers have been listed, and it is known that in the last few days 20,000 Bulgarians were wounded, half of them seriously.
    Nowhere on the scene of operations have there been adequate hospital facilities, and from all accounts those on the Turkish side are almost useless.
    A correspondent retreating with the Turkish Army telegraphs that for thirty miles he passed wounded men either lying on the ground or being transported on bullock carts, while others painfully dragged themselves along. They had no food, and there was not a habitation within twenty miles.
    The Turkish hospitals consist chiefly of bearer companies, and the transport wagons carry no nourishment for the wounded.
    The arrival of foreign warships at Salonika and the approach of the Greek Army to that town have had a tranquilizing effect on the population.
    At Stambul more patrols have been placed on the streets, and every preparation is being made to try to prevent the threatened massacre of Christians. Besides a warship, Great Britain is retaining two steamers at Constantinople to assure the safety of refugees.