Battle of the Shipka Pass
| date | Summer-Winter 1878 |
|---|---|
| place | Shipka Pass , then the Ottoman Empire , now Bulgaria |
| output | Russian victory |
| Territorial changes | Balkan Mountains, Schipka Pass |
| consequences | Advance of General Josef Gurko to Rumelia and Edirne |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Commander | |
|
Josef Gurko (1st battle) |
Süleiman Pascha (1st – 3rd battle) |
| Troop strength | |
| 5000 (1st battle) 7500 (2nd battle) 8000 (3rd battle) 66,000 (4th battle) |
30,000 (1st battle) 30,000 (2nd battle) 25,000 (3rd battle) 40,000 (4th battle) |
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Zimnicea - Nikopol - 1st Shipka Pass - Elena - 2nd Shipka Pass - Pleven - Lovech - 3rd Shipka Pass - Kızıl Tepe - Alaja - Gorni-Dubnik - Kars - Tashkesen - 4th Shipka Pass - Plovdiv
As Battle of Shipka Pass , also Battle of Shipka called several battles be referred to that between summer 1877 and spring 1878 as part of the Ottoman Russian War of 1877-1878 were conducted. The battles took place at the Shipka Pass of the same name , in the central part of the Balkan Mountains not far from the city of Shipka in today's Bulgaria .
location
The Balkan Mountains extend over 600 km in an east-west direction through what is now Bulgaria and Serbia . For a campaign against the capital of the Ottoman Empire , the Russian troops had to cross the Balkan passes.
The Shipka Pass is a crossroads between North and South Bulgaria at the border of the regions of Lovech and Kaschkowo or the towns of Gabrovo in northern Bulgaria and Kazanlak in southern Bulgaria. Kazanlak was even founded specifically to protect the pass in the 14th century. The road running over the pass was laid out in earlier millennia and connects Thrace with the Danube plain.
Today the European route 85 runs in the immediate vicinity of the Schipka Pass and branches off the traffic routes leading to Pleven , Lovetsch , Sevlievo , Russe via Veliko Tarnowo and Shumen to Edirne (today Turkey). The relatively well-developed pass road is easily passable and of great strategic importance in terms of traffic, but above all militarily.
prehistory
In the course of the Russo-Ottoman War (1877-1878) succeeded the foremost Russian troops, led by General Gurko, on July 7, 1877 to take the city of Veliko Tarnovo on the north side of the Balkan Mountains. The city has a key strategic position as it was located in the central part of northern Bulgaria (then Vilayet Tuna ) and north of the Balkan Mountains near several passes of the central Balkan Mountains. In this way Gurko secured an important base for his troops (around 12,500 soldiers with 40 guns, supported by Bulgarian volunteers) for further attacks on the south side of the mountains towards Thrace. However, all the larger and more important passes of the Balkan Mountains were guarded by Ottoman troops. Therefore Gurko decided to continue his advance to Stara Sagora and over the smaller, unguarded Balkan pass Chainboas .
Course of the battle
First battle
Gurko bypassed the central Balkan Road by his troops advancing through the Hainkoi pass over the mountains from July 13th and, after several skirmishes, occupied Kazanlak in the broad Tschundschatal on July 17th. From here, with the support of General VF Deroschinski, who was approaching from the Grabowo area, he attacked the Turkish defense at the Shipka Pass from the north and south at the same time. With the help of Bulgarian volunteers, Gurko's troops were able to occupy the Shipka Pass between July 17 and 19, 1877 and fortify the southern exit.
The defense of the Shipka Pass was entrusted to Major General NG Stoletov , who received supplies and reinforcements from the Russian VIII Army Corps under General Fyodor Radezki, which was still concentrated in Veliko Tarnovo . The pass was initially defended by only 10 companies of the 36th Orlovsky Infantry Regiment, 4 Cossack hundreds and the first 5 companies of the Bulgarian Volunteer Corps. On the Russian side, this resulted in about 7,500 men (5,500 of them Bulgarians) and 25 cannons. During the whole of the subsequent defense at the Shipka Pass, the small town of Gabrovo was overrun by Russian and supporting Bulgarian militia forces. The streets were full of wagons, and shelters were being dug and hospitals set up on the outskirts.
On July 22nd, General Gurko and his troops took Stara Sagora, creating another bridgehead over the Balkan Mountains. However, after heavy, bloody fighting, the city was recaptured on July 31st by the Turks under the Turkish general Suleyman Pascha . The Turks pursued the defeated troops of Gurko, who had to retreat through the Hainkioi pass to Tarnowo by August 8th.
The great second battle
After the withdrawal of Kazanlak and the village of Shipka on August 19, the Turkish troops of Süleiman Pasha turned to the strategically important Shipka Pass, five kilometers away, to cross the Balkan Mountains to the north and come to the aid of the encircled troops of Osman Pasha near Pleven . When General Radezki learned of the advance of strong Turkish forces on August 20, he set out with his entire corps to support Stoletov. On August 21, 1877, the Turkish attack on the Russian defensive positions began. Shakir-Pasha troops came from the south, while Rejab-Pasha units attacked from the east. Suleyman Pascha did not expect any major resistance and wanted to take the highest points of the Schipka pass, the summits Sweti Nikola (1,327 m), Schipka (1,335 m) and Orlowo gnesdo . He deployed 49 battalions, 1,300 cavalry and 2 mountain batteries against the defenders of the pass. The Turkish side had around 27,000 men and 60 cannons and also had the more modern weapons. Twelve unsuccessful attacks had been carried out by the evening.
On August 22nd, Suleyman Pasha tried to bypass the Russian positions. But the attacks that followed were unsuccessful for the Turks. On the second day, the Russians were reinforced by troops from the 35th Brjansk Infantry Regiment. On August 23, Suleyman Pasha let the storm blow, threw all his reserves into battle and ordered uninterrupted attacks that lasted into the night. Defenders' attention should be diverted by mock attacks. The defenders held out in bitter and costly battles, although they had neither ammunition nor water supplies. Around 5 p.m., a battalion arrived on the Russian side for reinforcement.
The following night, August 24, marked the turning point of the battle, the reserves of the VIII Corps reached the pass via Grabowo. On the morning of August 24th General Dragomirov appeared with the leading regiment (No. 56) of his 14th Infantry Division, which had carried out a forced march the day before. A battalion was immediately sent to the western sector to reinforce the lines there.
Third battle
A second attack by the Turks to capture the Schipka Pass took place after four days of bombardment on September 17, 1877 and also failed. The Turks had to limit themselves to the observation and occasional cannonade of the Russian position until the Russians started the attack again in early January 1878.
Fourth battle
The leading central group under Lieutenant General Radezki began the attack on January 5, 1878. The arrival of General Skobelev with the 16th and 30th Divisions and the 3rd and 4th Rifle Brigades near Gabrowa at the beginning of January had strengthened General Radezki to 74 battalions with around 56,000 men. The position held by the Turks had a circumference of about 7.5 km and consisted of 14 redoubts, with well-developed infantry trenches in between. From January 5th to 9th, 1878 there was the last battle, which brought the Ottomans another crushing defeat. The Shipka Pass, where the Russians had been stuck for over five months, should finally fall. The Russian Western Army under General Gurko, advancing in the rear of the Turkish defense, forced the position to be abandoned. By January 9, after a fierce battle, the entire Turkish army (32,000 men) under Vessel Pasha was captured and the Russians continued their advance towards Constantinople (Istanbul).
consequences
The battles at the Shipka Pass were militarily less important than the Battle of Pleven , but they stopped the attempt of the Ottomans to come to the aid of the encircled troops at Pleven. After Pleven fell into Russian hands at the beginning of December 1877, the Russians were able to use their main forces at the Shipka Pass (January 5–9 , 1878) and in the Battle of Scheinowo (January 8–9, 1878) and continue their advance towards Thrace. The August battle in particular has remained deeply anchored in the Bulgarian national consciousness as the decisive struggle for the liberation of Bulgaria from the “Turkish yoke”, also because of the participation of the Bulgarian volunteer corps.
media
Filmography
- There is a four-part film made for the Soviet film company in 1954, which glorifies the battles on the Shipka Pass in a film plot, after all , the Russians played an important role here in the liberation of Eastern Europe from Turkish rule: The Heroes of the Shipka Pass ( Геройте на шипка ) ;
- Another film, entitled Decision at Shipka Pass , was shot as a co-production between Bulgaria and the Soviet Union in 1978.
- About the heroic victory, the song How we stood in the clouds near Shipka (Russian. Как мы стояли у Шипки в облаках), on Youtube
Fiction
- Adda von Liliencron : Wera Paulowna or the decision in the Shipka pass. Christian magazine publisher, Berlin 1896.
- Iwan Wasow : The Landwehr soldiers on Shipka in the poem Epopoe of the Forgotten
See also
literature
- Volksblatt. A weekly magazine with pictures. No. 2 of January 13, 1878 full text at Wikisource
- Christian von Sarauw: The Russo-Turkish War, 1877 to 1878. Based on the published official Russian reports. Schlicke, Leipzig 1878 (reprinted by Adamant Media Corporation, 2005. ISBN 0-543-88544-5 ).
- G. Schröder: The Schipka Pass in 1877. Its fortification and the fighting over it. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1881.
- Сб. материалов по Русско-турецкой войне 1877–1878 г.г. на Балканском полуострове. Вып. 36, СПб., 1902.
- Walter Görlitz : Decision at the Schipka pass. The Russo-Turkish War broke out 100 years ago. In: Die Welt , April 23, 1977.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Shipka Pass . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 24 : Sainte-Claire Deville - Shuttle . London 1911, p. 981 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
- ^ Russo-Turkish Wars . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 23 : Refectory - Sainte-Beuve . London 1911, p. 931 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
- ^ On Winter Warfare, Department of the Navy, George K. Swinzow - 1982, Crossing the Shipka Pass