Eyewitness's Story Of Bulgar Repulse.

New York Times 100 years ago today, November 18, 1912:
Correspondent in Trenches with Turks Yesterday Saw Daring Enemy Smashed by Artillery.
WONDERFUL ARTILLERY DUEL
From a Hill He Saw the Guns Flash and the Shells Burst Above the Opposing Positions.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
Dispatch to The London Times.
    TCHATALJA LINES, Nov. 17.— At daybreak to-day the Bulgarians unmasked their artillery positions along the front from the Hamidiyeh forts to Papas Burgas. They have opened a heavy artillery fire in preparation for an infantry advance.
    I have come straight from the Turkish trenches, and the dust of Bulgarian shrapnel is on my coat.
    This is the first real endeavor that the Bulgarians have made against the Turkish lines.
    The position which the Bulgarians selected as their salient is fronted on the left by the Papas Burgas marshes and on the right by the gradual glacis of two Hamidiyeh forts. The latter are supported by the works of Ahmed Pasha and Baghchetsh Tabja, the railway making a loop through the centre of the Turkish position before it reaches the Tchatalja station. ]
    I may now say, as the Bulgarians have unmasked both their own and the Turkish positions, that the Turkish front is connected by trenches, worked into the alignment of the old fortifications. All the permanent works have heavy Krupp guns in emplacement, and other large-calibre guns have been mounted in the recently constructed works facing the Papas Burgas Valley.
    Above these Turkish field artillery batteries are dug in at intervals all along the line, which is a plain series of redans.
    The Turks have also placed trenches low in front of the permanent works, in which infantry forces are disposed.

Saw Flashes of Bulgarian Guns.
    "The Bulgarian artillery positions are not so advantageous, as the Bulgarians have been forced to avail themselves of the under features of the semi-plateaus at the foot of the Tchatalja ridge. Although the Bulgarians dug their trenches under cover of the night, concealment was impossible, as the black background of the Tchatalja scarps disclosed every flash as soon as their batteries were unmasked.
    This was at daybreak to-day, marking the first day of the second month of the war.
    Counting the flashes I made out three batteries in action against the Papas Burgas front, and at least seven in front of the Hamidiyeh group. The latter contained some guns of heavier calibre than the field pieces.

Wonderful Artillery Battle.
    In the early morning there was a dull, misty atmosphere at the opening of the preparatory artillery fire of the Bulgarians and the Turkish reply. It was a wonderful spectacle. The black face of the Bulgarian position sparkled with the flashes of guns and circular shrapnel and common shell bursts of the Turkish reply.
    Some of the Turkish heavy artillery fired black powder, and the bursting of the heavy shells soon raised a curtain of smoke which, mingling with the morning mist, rolled majestically down the valley between the combatants.
    A Turkish warship in the bay joined in the concert, firing its heaviest guns in a broadside and capping the Bulgarian right with great pillars of spurting mud and fire. It was certainly the heaviest artillery combat seen since the Japanese massed a corps of artillery and pounded Gen. Grekoff's devoted rearguard outside of Liao-Yang.
    "I made my way from the rear of Baghchetsh Tabja, where the reserves of the Fourth Crops were massed, to where my friends of the composite army corps were holding the flats just as it seemed, from the opening of a deafening rattle of musketry, that the Bulgarian infantry were advancing in this direction. I worked down the railway toward its most southern loop, and here I shared the shrapnel with the Turkish infantry, who were well ensconced is the renovated earthworks. Saw the Bulgarians Advance.
    "I thanked Providence for my periscopic glasses, as I was right in my surmise that during the night the Bulgarian infantry had pushed down under the cover of the banks of Kara River and were essaying to take possession of the upper loop of the railway and Baghchetsh.
    Small groups of Bulgarians came up out of the shelving banks, dribbled forward, lay down, and dribbled loosely forward again, their advance was very gallant but very slow. Presently the Turkish gunners found them nicely, and the forward movement died out.
    This essay had failed, and the troops were neither reinforced nor retired.
    The whirr of machine guns and the crash of infantry and artillery fire in the direction of the Hamidiyeh forts told of another infantry effort being made there. But as the fire gradually died down and as there was no movement on the part of the Turkish reserves, it is to be presumed that this attempt was likewise a failure.
    All the time the firmament was ringing with the whiplike crack of shrapnel and the dull reverberation of the heavy ordnance. The Bulgarians searched us heavily, but the burst of their shrapnel was too high, and in my part of the field there were but few casualties from this source, although several shells hit the earthworks, smothering us all with mud.
    In my portion of the field the Turkish infantry were very snug. The men, unless ordered to man the works, were cheerfully munching bread, cartloads of which had reached us during the engagement.
    Seeing that on our front the Bulgarian infantry attempt had failed, I withdrew elsewhere in order to gain a comprehensive view of the action and climbed the hill of Karagtch. Here again I had a view of the same wonderful panorama which had been presented in the early morning, although it was more from the flank.
    I could see that the Bulgarians were directing their severest fire against the Hamidiyeh slopes, while the Turks seemed to prefer to search the flats with their fire rather than to deal with the opposing batteries which were posted below Tchatalja under the hill. Hard Position to Take.
    Toward 11 o'clock there was something of a lull, and as I could not make out the slightest movement among the Turkish reserves it seemed to me that the Bulgarians had found their salient to be less easy than had been anticipated.
    It certainly looks to me that if this Turkish position on the left is ever to be taken it will be only by the slow process of stealing positions under the cover of a heavy artillery preparation. But he is a fool who prophesies concerning war.
    As I write the artillery fire still continues, but it is less heavy than it was between 8 and 10 o'clock this morning.