New York Times 100 years ago today, July 3, 1913:
Defeated in What Is Described as Bloodiest Battle in Balkan Campaigns.
OVER 5,000 ARE CAPTURED
Thousands Killed and Wounded — Servians' Losses Are Also Very Heavy.
GREEK KING'S STATEMENT
He Says the Bulgars Have Violated Agreements, Burned Villages, and Massacred the Inhabitants.
BELGRADE, July 2.— The new war is on in deadly earnest in the Balkans. For two days a battle, which is said to have been the worst ever fought in this part of the world, has been raging between the Bulgarians and the Servians. At some points the latter were supported by the Greeks. One report has it the King of Greece has already gone to the front to lead the Greek Army.
The Bulgarians, according to reports received here, have been defeated with terrible loss. At least 5,000 of them have been captured by the Servians, and thousands have been killed or wounded. The losses on the Servian side have also been very heavy.
Since early morning there has been a renewed bloody fight along the entire front, which includes Retkibukwe, Zletovo, Kotchana, and Istil. The Bulgarians opened the attack and many hand-to-hand encounters took place. Both sides lost heavily. One Servian division captured an entire detachment of Bulgarian infantry of over 1,000 men and 150 officers, with ten guns.
According to the latest advices, the Bulgarians have been entirely driven off the territory which they occupied when they took the Servians unawares.
Press dispatches report that sanguinary fighting occurred at Ovtchepolye, where the Bulgarian losses were enormous, and 4,000 Bulgarians surrendered. In this engagement 2,000 Servians were killed or wounded.
According to the best information to be obtained at the Servian capital, the battle line extended from Kotchana, Istib, and Strumitza toward Guevgheli, and thence onward to the Gulf of Orfani.
The Bulgarians delivered their heaviest blows at Guevgheli, where they severed the Greco-Servian line, and at Istib. They were eventually driven from Istib with heavy losses toward Ovtchepolye, where the Servian Army was massed. The Servian supporting forces, coming up in time, met the Bulgarians at Dermak and Petrishino, behind Kotchana, where a fierce fight ensued. The Bulgarians suffered heavily, the Servians capturing an important height near Osigovtt, called Retkibukwe.
On the other side of Guevgheli the Greek armies are concentrated, and the Bulgarians risk getting caught between two fires.
Unconfirmed dispatches to-night report further heavy fighting in the Istib district, in which the Servians were compelled to abandon their fortified positions at the town of Istib and leave behind their wounded.
Fifty-four officers, including four Colonels, were among the killed, while the losses on both sides numbered several thousand.
Although the war has now raged for sixty hours, the Bulgarian Minister and his staff are still here. Telephonic communication between Belgrade and Sofia has ceased.
LONDON, Thursday, July 3.— A Belgrade dispatch to The Daily Telegraph reports that the Greeks went to the assistance of the Servians, and, after heavy fighting, recaptured Guevgheli.
The Bulgarians, it is added, met with real disaster, when, in an attack on the Servian position at Retkibukwe, on the bank of the Zletovo River, they attempted desperate assaults with the bayonet. These failed and the Bulgarians left behind 1,000 dead and wounded.
A telegram from Belgrade to the Exchange Telegraph Company reports that the Servian troops are pursuing the fleeing Bulgarians along the whole line in Macedonia.
According to other Servian advices, the King of Greece with his staff has left Salonika for the front to direct the operations personally.
Any remaining hope of averting a Balkan war is rapidly disappearing. Bulgaria has sent warning notes to Servia and Greece, demanding a cessation of all aggressive movements within twenty-four hours. These notes are regarded as tantamount to an ultimatum.
A Belgrade dispatch, via Paris, last night announced that the King of Servia was presiding at a council which would, it was expected, decide to declare war on Bulgaria.
Greece in notes to Bulgaria and the powers justifying her action, accuses Bulgaria of treacherously attacking the Greeks and Servians in order to seize important territories and so place herself in an advantageous position in the coming negotiations for a settlement of the Balkan differences.
The representatives of the powers at all the Balkan capitals are urgently pressing the respective Governments not to allow unfortunate occurrences to drag them into war.
COLOGNE, July 2.— The situation in the Balkans is regarded as so critical that an order for the mobilization of the Rumanian army is expected to-day, according to a dispatch from Bucharest to The Cologne Gazette.
BRINDISI, July 2.— Essad Pasha, the former Commandant of the fortress of Scutari, accompanied by a number of Albanian notables, arrived here to-day.
Essad expressed his intention to work in. agreement with the Italian Government for a satisfactory and definite settlement of the Albanian question, especially in view of the complications which have occurred among the former Balkan allies.
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