Battle of Tashkese
The Russians conquer the Balkan Pass.
| date | December 31, 1877 |
|---|---|
| place | Tashkese , Ottoman Empire , today Saranzi , Bulgaria |
| output | Russian victory |
| Territorial changes | Balkan Mountains |
| consequences | However, the Ottoman army can successfully manage the withdrawal |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 30 battalions infantry 17 cannons |
2000 infantry 2 squadrons, cavalry 7 cannons |
| losses | |
|
2000 |
1000 |
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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
The Battle of Tashkesen , ( Turkish: Taşkesen Muharebesi ), was a battle in the Russo-Ottoman War . It took place on December 31, 1877 near the present-day village of Saranzi (then Tashkese), Sofia Oblast , Bulgaria . The Russian victory played an important role in the liberation of Sofia and paved the way to Istanbul .
prehistory
The Turkish army under Osman Pasha surrendered on December 10 after heroic resistance in the Plevna area to the main Russian army, in the central Balkan mountains the Ottoman occupation still held out against the Russian VIII Army Corps (Lieutenant General Fyodor Radezki ) at the Schipka Pass . In the west, troops of the newly formed Russian Western Army (83 infantry battalions, 59 squadrons, 206 cannons) under General Gurko with around 71,000 men began their second march across the Balkan Mountains, which led to the breakthrough to Sofia and bypassing the Ottoman troops under Mehemed Ali Pasha aspired to opposing Arabakonak position.
Gurko were for his second Balkan crossing in addition to his three guard divisions, the IX that had become free before Plewna. Corps (5th and 31st Divisions) under General Krüdener. The new advance took place in three columns: The main column in the middle, which gathered in Vraces, commanded Lieutenant General Shuvalov (1st and 3rd Guard Divisions under Generals Rauch and Katalei ). The right column under Lieutenant General Veljaminov (31st Division) advanced over the Umurgas Pass to Curjak. The left column, formed by the 2nd Guards Division, which was now led by Lieutenant General Dandeville, had to advance on the west side of the mountains at Baba-Gora on Bunovo. In the snow-covered Balkan Mountains , Gurko's three columns marching separately made slow progress. Chilled and emaciated, they approached the Orhanje pass ( Botevgrad ) on narrow paths, some of which had to be widened for the guns.
The Ottoman Western Army of Sakir Pasha , around 14,000 men, was retreating from the village of Kamrli to Sofia, 37 kilometers away . Sakir's troops saw themselves threatened on the left flank via Vracses and Orhanje by 30,000 Russians under Gurko and frontally threatened by another 22,000 Russians advancing on Etropole . In Sofia itself panic grew among the Turkish troops, after the Turkish city commander had expelled the entire Bulgarian population, he only had 4,000 soldiers (8 infantry battalions, 4 squadrons and 8 cannons) around the threatened northeastern apron of Sofia in front of the western column Defend Gurkos. In order to protect the Arabakonak position, Sakir Pasha decided to transfer all available reserves to his deputy Baker Pasha in order to occupy the fortification line near the village of Tashkisen, which had been built in the war of 1828-1829.
To cover the left wing and Sofia, Sakir Pasha had left some of his troops under Baker Pasha on the pass near the village of Tashkesen. The Ottoman troops dug in and awaited the Russian attack. Opposite the north-facing Arabakonak position, Lieutenant General Krüdener von Gurko had received command and began to bombard the Ottoman position and, through his actions, divert attention from the right bypass column under Lieutenant General Katalai, which with the Guard Brigades under General Rauch, Kurlow and Filosofov advance towards Baker Pasha's positions. On the far right, a brigade of the Russian 31st Division under Lieutenant General Veljaminow and the 5th Division (General von Schildner-Schuldner ) made their way to Sofia.
The battle
On the evening of December 30th, General Gurko personally carried out the reconnaissance in front of the Turkish positions in front of Tashkese. When Gurko realized that a frontal attack from these positions, like the one against the Arabakonak position, would lead to heavy losses, he ordered his troops to the west to be divided up into three columns. At 10 p.m. an attack by Russian troops began on the Turkish position near Tashkese. Major General Kurlow's division was to lead the frontal attack anticipated by the Turks, which in reality soon turned out to be a distracting maneuver. At the same time, Russian guard units under General Shuvalov and Major General Rauch attacked the Turks on the right flank and Guard cavalry under Major General Klot. The Turks, who viewed the diverting attack by Kurlov's division as the main anticipated attack on the main Russian forces, opened a heavy fire that killed 562 Russian soldiers and officers. The well-prepared Ottomans were able to repel the first attacks by the Russians and hold their positions for over ten hours.
While the Turks were able to stop the attack by Kurlow's division, Shuvalov's and Rauch's troops on the flanks were already setting out to push into the rear of the army territory of the Ottoman Arabakonak position with the intention of simultaneously rolling up the Turkish position in front of Tashkisen from the north. In the middle of the battle, Kurlow's artillery, firing in support of their advancing forces, hit the ammunition depot of a Turkish redoubt, causing it to explode, destroying the main Turkish fortification. During the night of December 31st, panic broke out among the Ottomans and they began to withdraw, leaving their wounded behind. All attempts by Turkish officers and British military advisers to stop the withdrawal failed. The Bulgarian residents of Malkocevo took the opportunity and killed many of the Ottoman wounded lying around.
consequences
On December 31, Gurko's troops forced the breakthrough at Tashkese, while General Krüdener at Etropole fought for the march through to the Arabakonak position on the Slatitza pass. Sakir Pascha had been able to strengthen himself during his retreat from the Arabakonak position near Mirkovo after joining a brigade under Mustafa Ramsi Pascha. He had already learned that Iskender Baker Pasha had returned with his remaining troops from Zlatica to Avratalan and continued his own retreat to Petrič .
Gurko's western column under Lieutenant General Veljaminov united on December 2 with the 1st Guard Division under General Rauch and was able to enter Sofia without a fight on January 4, 1878 after the garrison had withdrawn under Osman Nuri Pasha. The last Ottoman army under Mehmed Ali Pasha was harassed from three sides after the Russian breakthrough at the Shipka Pass. To avoid the danger of being encircled, he had to withdraw his troops in a south-westerly direction on Küstendil .
See also
literature
- Thilo von Trotha, The Operations in the Etropol Balkans: A Contribution to the History of the Russo-Turkic War, 1877–1878; War history study, Verlag Helwing'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1887
- George Bruce . Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1981, ISBN 978-0-442-22336-6 .
- Frederick Gustavus Burnaby . On Horseback Through Asia Minor . Cosimo, 2007 (originally published 1878), ISBN 978-1-60206-341-9 .
Web links
- Gurkos crossing the Balkans
- The conquest of Turkey, or, The decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, 1877-8, Linus Pierpont ve Porter C. Brockett, 1878, Philadelphia
Individual evidence
- ↑ On Horseback Through Asia Minor, Frederick Burnaby, 2007, p. xxxv
- ↑ On Horseback Through Asia Minor, Frederick Burnaby, 2007, p. xxxv
- ↑ On Horseback Through Asia Minor, Frederick Burnaby, 2007, p. xxxv
- ^ Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from ..., by Tony Jaques, page 1000, 2007