Balkan Armies Invade turkey

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 18, 1912:
Bulgaria Hurls Huge Force in Three Sections Toward Adrianople.
TURKS INTRENCH TO FIGHT
Servians Cross Border in Four Divisions — Greece Sends Forth Her War Fleet.
ALLIES EXPLAIN TO POWERS
A War for Civilization, Declares Greece, as She Joins the Conflict Against the Moslems.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Saturday, Oct. 10.— The armies in the Balkans are in touch all along the line, and heavy fighting is reported from some points.
    Turkey is acting on the offensive in Thrace, and the Bulgarian advance guard has retreated, destroying two bridges. This news is offset, however, by a report that the Bulgarians have occupied Kourtkala, a point of some strategic importance near Mustapha Pasha, on the road to Adrianople, and by accounts of an engagement near Kirk-Kilisseh to the east of Adrianople. According to a report from Nish, a Servian division has crossed the frontier and penetrated as far as Pristina, occupying the town, which dominates the railway line and thus isolating the Turkish troops in Northern Albania and the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar.
    In the south Greek troops have seized strategic points on the Thessalian frontier and occupied Meluna Pass, Damsei, and other points in Turkish territory.
    News upon which to base any judgment as to the progress of the initial stage of the campaign is still lacking, though such reports as are at hand lead a well-known military correspondent of The Times to believe that the Bulgarian commanders are possibly incapable of manipulating deftly such large masses as are under their orders.
    Bulgaria is reported to have mobilized 400,000 men and estimating the field army, south of Stara-Zagora, King Ferdinand's headquarters, at 250,000, with some 50,000 Servians acting in conjunction, the main army of the allies massed for the invasion of Thrace totals 300,000.
    Few military leaders in Europe are capable of handling such numbers of men and they are only kept up to the mark by constant practice, which the Bulgarian commanders have not enjoyed.
    Facing the allied army the Turks are believed to have 200,000 men and in some quarters it is believed that Nazim Pasha may elect to offer battle without awaiting further reinforcements, which are being hurried up from Constantinople.
    Not for a century has Europe seen half a million men concentrating for one pitched battle and definite news that the issue has been joined is awaited with the keenest expectancy.