Battle of Sorovich
The Battle of Sorovich (Greek: Μάχη του Σόροβιτς, Turkish: Soroviç Muharebesi) took place between 21–24 October 1912 (O.S.). It was fought between Greek and Ottoman forces during the First Balkan War, and revolved around the Sorovich (Amyntaio) area. The 5th Greek Division which had been advancing through western Macedonia separately from the bulk of the Greek Army of Thessaly, was attacked outside the village of Lofoi and fell back to Sorovich. It found itself to be heavily outnumbered by an opposing Ottoman force.
After withstanding repeated attacks between 22 and 23 October, the division was routed on the early morning of 24 October after Ottoman machine gunners struck its flank in an early morning surprise attack. The Greek defeat at Sorovich resulted in the Serbian capture of the contested city of Monastir (Bitola).
Background[edit]
The disastrous Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 exposed major flaws in the Hellenic Army's organization, training and logistics. Georgios Theotokis was the first post-war Greek prime minister to focus his attention on strengthening the army. He established the National Defense Fund which financed the purchase of large quantities of ammunition. In addition a new table of organization was introduced for the country's navy and army, the latter being augmented by numerous artillery batteries. Theotokis' resignation in January 1909 and the perceived neglect of the armed forces by his successor resulted in the Goudi coup seven months later. Rather than taking power for themselves, the putschists invited Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos to rule the country.[2] Venizelos followed in Theotokis' footsteps by re-arming and re-training the military, including extensive fortification and infrastructure works, purchase of new weapons, and the recall of reserve classes for training. The climax of this effort was the invitation in 1911 of a British naval mission and a French military mission.[3]
After being informed of a Serbo-Bulgarian alliance, Venizelos ordered his ambassador in Sofia to prepare a Greco-Bulgarian defense agreement by 14 April 1912, fearing that should Greece fail to participate in a future war against the Ottomans, it would be unable to capture the Greek majority areas of Macedonia. The treaty was signed on 15 July 1912, with the two countries agreeing to assist each other in case of a defensive war and to safeguard the rights of Christian populations in Ottoman held Macedonia, thus joining the loose Balkan League alliance with Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Fearing a new war in the Balkans, the Ottomans declared mobilization on 14 September and began transferring units to Thrace; the Balkan League responded in kind.[4] On 30 September, the League presented the Ottomans with a list of demands regarding the rights of its Christian population. The Ottoman Empire rebuffed the demands, recalled its ambassadors in Sofia, Belgrade and Athens and expelled the League's negotiators on 4 October, with the League declaring war against the Ottomans. Montenegro had already begun military operations on 25 September.[5]
Aftermath[edit]
The commander of the Kozani garrison assembled a force of 300 soldiers and 400 armed civilians who managed contain most of the soldiers fleeing from Sorovich in the city. The remnants of the 5th Greek Division regrouped and repulsed an attack on Kozani by Ottoman armed civilians on the morning of 26 October.[25] Greek casualties in the battle of Sorovich numbered 211 killed, 320 wounded, 22 missing in action and 10 prisoners of war.[26][27] Although the Greek victory at Yenidje overshadowed the defeat at Sorovich, it perplexed Greek Crown Prince Constantine, making him hesitate just as the city of Thessaloniki, the most important city in Macedonia, seemed to be within his grasp.[28] It also led to a stabilization of the front line in Macedonia north-west of Kozani.[29] On 29 October, Constantine allocated the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Divisions and a cavalry brigade for the capture of Monastir. Those forces assembled at Edessa on 2 November and were eventually able to seize Florina, yet Monastir fell into Serbian hands after the conclusion of the eponymous battle.[1]
By May 1913, the numerically inferior Ottomans had suffered a series of serious defeats to the League's armies on all fronts. The League had captured most of the Ottoman Empire's European territories and was rapidly approaching Constantinople. On 30 May, the two sides signed the Treaty of London which solidified the League's territorial ambitions, granting its members all Ottoman lands west of a line stretching from Enos on the Aegean Sea to north of Midia on the Black Sea, as well as Crete. The fate of Albania and the pre-war Ottoman Aegean islands was to be determined by the Great Powers.[30]