Battle for Bergama

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Battle of Bergama
View of Bergama
View of Bergama
date June 15 to June 20, 1919
place Bergama , Turkey Coordinates: 39 ° 6 ′ 36 ″  N , 27 ° 10 ′ 12 ″  EWorld icon
output Greek victory
Parties to the conflict

Kingdom of GreeceKingdom of Greece Greece

TurkeyTurkey Turkish national movement

Commander

Major Apostolos Sermakezis
Colonel Charalambos Tseroulis
Colonel Mavroudis

Omar Kemal Bey

Troop strength
June 12,
800 infantrymen, 80 cavalrymen.
June 18–20 : 3,000 infantrymen 		500 soldiers and irregulars
losses

10 dead, 9 wounded, 86 missing (mostly dead)

unknown

The Battle of Bergama took place in June 1919 during the Greco-Turkish War near Bergama in the province of Izmir . The armed forces of the Turkish national movement ( Kuvayı Milliye ) expelled the Greek army from the city on June 15, 1919, but had to withdraw again on June 22.

background

According to the decisions of the Allied Supreme War Council , the Greek army occupied the city of Izmir (then Smyrna) on May 14, 1919 . In the following weeks the army gradually occupied the surrounding area. The Greeks immediately met with armed resistance from irregular forces of the Turkish national movement, and politics and administration also offered resistance: Since the Smyrna region was still officially Ottoman territory, Turkish officials in civil administration as well as in telegraphy and the railroad remained in office. No censorship was imposed and so the free dissemination of the Turkish national movement's propaganda was not prevented. Disarming the civilian population (including demobilized Ottoman soldiers) was banned by the Allies. This enabled the Turks to collect weapons and ammunition, forming armed groups, often led by discharged officers from the Ottoman army.

Bergama is located around 90 km northeast of Izmir in the valley of the Bakırçay River . On June 12, 1919, the city was occupied by Major Apostolos Sermakezis by the 1st Battalion of the 8th Cretan Regiment (mountain artillery) and half a company of cavalry. The Kaymakam protested because the occupation of the city was not part of the agreement between the Ottoman government and the allies of the First World War. The next day 110 men were transferred to the port city of Dikili to ensure supplies for the Greek troops. On the same day, Major Sermakezis informed his superiors from the 1st Infantry Division in Smyrna under Colonel Nikolaos Zafeiriou that Turkish forces were gathering around Bergama to attack his position.

The Turkish forces around Bergama were commanded by Omer Kemal Bey, the commander of Soma . They consisted of irregular and a few regular troops from Soma, Kınık , Balıkesir , Kaşıkçı , Turanlı, Ayvalık and Kozak. The Greeks had two and a half infantry companies, three machine gun squadrons, two mountain guns and half a cavalry company in the city. The Greeks occupy the hills around the city as well as the bridge and aqueduct over the Bakırçay.

course

The Turkish attack began on June 15 at 10 a.m. with an attack on the Greek defensive ring. That same morning, the guard on the river bridge and a supply column heading for Dikili were attacked by irregular Turkish troops. At the same time the telegraph lines were cut. When the news of the attack reached Smyrna, Colonel Zafeiriou ordered the 6th Archipelago Regiment, led by Colonel Charalambos Tseroulis, on a ship to Dikili to help the Greek garrison in Bergama. The regiment embarked at midnight and reached Dikili the next morning.

Turkish troops captured the city

In the meantime, the Turkish forces attacking Bergama had steadily gained ground, using the area's hills and forests as cover. By 11.00 a.m., strong Turkish forces had approached the city about 6 km east, 4 km south and a few hundred meters north. By 11.30 a.m. the northern advance had come to a halt, but the Greek positions were attacked by armed locals. A Greek patrol was shot at from civilian buildings in the city. Sermakezis decided to leave only a few men to guard the barracks in the city and used all his strength to hold the city's defensive ring. He sent his cavalry troops to reinforce the position at the bridge and a detachment of 45 men who blocked the road to Menemen . The capture of the hill of Pergamon in the afternoon put the Greek positions in grave danger and their commanding officer decided to withdraw under cover of night.

The retreat began at 9:30 p.m. and initially went smoothly until the Turks heard the sounds of the pack animals and began firing in the direction of the Greek column. This caused panic among the Greek troops and the column fled without the heavy equipment. This detachment soon arrived at the bridge, where it was joined with the cavalry and set off towards the Menemen around midnight. Halfway to Menemen at around 11.30 a.m. in the village of Ali Agha, the retreating detachment met reinforcements from Menemen (1 infantry and 1 machine gun company and the 8th company of the Cretan regiment). After leaving two companies behind as security, the detachment continued its retreat to Menemen. The Greek troops advancing from Dikili towards Bergama also withdrew when the abandonment of the city became known.

The Greek detachment had lost one officer and 9 soldiers, one officer and 8 soldiers had been wounded and 86 soldiers were still missing. When Greek troops returned to the area, they found the majority of the missing soldiers dead in the outskirts of Bergama.

Recapture by the Greeks

The retreating Greek troops from Bergama arrived in Menemen at 10 p.m. on June 16. During the retreat, they lost most of the pack animals and their supplies and were regularly attacked by Turkish cavalrymen and armed farmers. In memenia, the troops faced armed resistance from the Ottoman authorities, which led to a retaliatory massacre against the local civilian population .

The events in Bergama came as a surprise to the Greek command and showed that the Turkish forces were capable of coordinated operations. General Konstantinos Nider ordered the 6th Archipelago Regiment from Dikili and a detachment from Menemen under the direction of Colonel Mavroudis with forces from the 5th Archipelago Regiment, a cavalry battalion and artillery to Bergama. After landing in Dikili on June 16, the 6th regiment marched towards Bergama on June 18 and set up a camp after the first attacks by the Turkish resistance. At 4:00 a.m. on June 19, both Greek columns began the advance on Bergama.

At around 6:15 a.m., the 6th regiment encountered the first Turkish resistance and was involved in fighting until 2:00 p.m. In the meantime, Colonel Tseroulis had sent another column to capture the bridge over the Bakırçay, which met the Turks around noon. Two more companies were sent to take the road to Soma. These troops became involved in a heavy gun battle after 10:00 a.m. Nevertheless, Tseroulis managed to take the heights in the north of the city at around 1 p.m., and when the Menemen column under Mavroudis arrived at the bridge at 2 p.m., they united with the men of Tseroulis fighting there.

After realizing that they did not have enough men, weapons and ammunition, the Turks decided to give up Bergama and withdraw from the city. A small Turkish group of 56 men, armed with a machine gun and commanded by Sabri Bey, were assigned to secure the retreat. They managed to hold up the Greek troops for a whole day until all the remaining Turkish troops had left Bergama. The Greek troops marched into the city on June 20, 1919.

consequences

Fearing reprisals by Greek troops, 80,000 to 100,000 Turkish civilians fled the Bergama area in the following days.

literature

  • Efi Allamani, Krista Panagiotopoulou: Ἡ Μικρασιατικὴ ἐκστρατεία ἁπὸ τὸ Μάιο τοῡ 1919 ὣς τὸ Νοέμβριο τοῡ 1920 , pp 116-144 In: Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΕ ': Νεώτερος ἑλληνισμός ἀπὸ τὸ 1913 ὥς τὸ 1941 . Ekdotiki Athinon, Athens 1978
  • Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς εἰς Μικράν Ἀσίαν Ἐκστρατείας 1919–1922 . Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού, Athens 1967
  • Πέργαμος . In: Μεγάλη Στρατιωτικὴ καὶ Ναυτικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία , Volume 5, pp. 294-296

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ İlhan Tekeli, Selim İlkin: Ege'deki sivil direnişten kurtuluş Uşak heyet-i merkeziyesi ve Ibrahim [Tahtakılıç] Bey , Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1989, ISBN 9751601657 , page 116
  2. ↑ a b c Hasan İzzettin Dinamo: Kutsal isyan: Milli Kurtuluş savaşı'nın gerçek hikâyesi, Cilt 2 , Tekin yayınevi, 1986, p. 274 f.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Μεγάλη Στρατιωτικὴ καὶ Ναυτικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία , p. 295
  4. ↑ Allamani, Panagiotopoulou, (1978), p. 121
  5. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , pp. 12-14
  6. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , 1967, pp. 15-20
  7. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , pp. 21-24
  8. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , pp. 21, 24
  9. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 25
  10. ↑ a b c d Μεγάλη Στρατιωτικὴ καὶ Ναυτικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία , p. 294
  11. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 25
  12. ↑ Μεγάλη Στρατιωτικὴ καὶ Ναυτικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία , p. 295 (footnote 1)
  13. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας . P. 25
  14. ↑ Μεγάλη Στρατιωτικὴ καὶ Ναυτικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία , p. 94
  15. ↑ Allamani, Panagiotopoulou (1978), p. 121
  16. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 25
  17. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 25
  18. ↑ Allamani, Panagiotopoulou (1978), p. 121
  19. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 26
  20. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 25 f.
  21. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 26
  22. ↑ Ἐπίτομος ἱστορία τῆς Μικρασιατικῆς Ἐκστρατείας , p. 26
  23. ↑ Dinamo (1986) p. 275
  24. ↑ Dinamo (1986), p. 275
  25. ↑ Turgut Özakman: Vahdeddin, M. Kemal ve milli mücadele: yalanlar, yanlışlar, yutturmacalar , Bilgi Yayınevi, 1997, ISBN 9754946698 , p.219