Battle of Dobro Pole

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Battle of Dobro Pole
Part of the Balkans Theatre (World War I)
Two Pronged Allied Offensive
Date September 15, 1918 Location Dobro Pole, Macedonia Result Decisive Entente Victory, effectively led to Bulgaria signing an armistice and leaving the war
Belligerents
Bulgaria	France Serbia
Commanders
Ferdinand I	Louis Franchet d'Esperey Živojin Mišić
Strength
26 battalions 146 artillery guns at the end	75 battalions 580 artillery guns
Casualties and losses
heavy	Unknown

v • d • e Macedonian Front Krivolak – 1st Doiran – Lerin – Struma – River Cherna – 2nd Doiran – Red Wall – Skra-di-Legen – Dobro Pole – 3rd Doiran

The Battle of Dobro Pole was a World War I battle, fought on September 15, 1918. The battle resulted in a decisive Serbo-French victory, with a defeated Bulgaria left to sign an armistice, which removed it from World War I.

The battle was fought at Dobro Pole, in present day Macedonia, then part of Serbia occupied and claimed by Bulgaria.

Contents 1 Prelude 2 The Battle 3 Revolt 4 Aftermath 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Prelude

Once the Bulgarian advance into Romania and Greece had been halted, conditions at the front deteriorated rapidly and political support for the war began to wane. Bulgaria had now achieved all its war aims, but was compelled to continue fighting in order to assist its Central Powers allies. With little manpower available for farming, serious food shortages affected both civilians and soldiers while rampant inflation damaged the economy. In 1917 food riots broke out and opposition to World War I propaganda became widely circulated.

On June 17, 1917, Greece joined the war on the side of the Entente (having issued a declaration of war on 23 November 1916). In September 1918, the Entente forces launched a two-pronged offensive into Bulgarian-occupied Macedonia.

Bulgaria was able to defeat Britain and Greece at the Battle of Doiran decisively, but Serbo-French forces did not halt their advance, and the two forces finally met at Dobro Pole.

[edit] The Battle

Bulgarian forces met a more powerful and larger army at Dobro Pole. The large majority of the Allied Powers consisted of the Serbian Army (6 divisions) and 122nd French Infantry Division. The battle started at 14th September with great artillery bombardement. Bulgarians prided themselves not losing any battles to this point in the war, and Ferdinand I decided to stay and fight. The machine gun companies, the 2nd and 3rd Bulgarian Infantry Divisions dug in. From 15th September to 21st September, the Bulgarians were surrounded. Being outmanned and strategically inert, the Bulgarians were unable to stop the Allied advance. Even when asked to surrender, as victory was hopeless, the Bulgarians refused to give up, ignoring the Allied requests. The Allies continued to advance, and eventually their flamethrowers inflicted devastating damage upon the Bulgarians, who soon were soundly defeated.

[edit] Revolt

After the defeat at Dobro Pole, other Bulgarian soldiers began to revolt, and the Bulgarian front lines were abandoned. The rebels headed towards Sofia in order to negotiate with the government. When the rebels reached Sofia, they were crushed by Bulgarian loyalists and German troops.

[edit] Aftermath

10 days after the battle, with the front lines abandoned by the Bulgarian Army, the Entente advance in Bulgaria met little resistance. Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allied Powers, officially leaving the war. Immediately after, a peasant-led "Agrarian" government took control.

In November 1919 the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine awarded Thrace to Greece, depriving Bulgaria of access to the Aegean Sea. The newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes took Macedonia and Southern Dobruja was again occupied by Romania. Severe limitations were placed on the size of the Bulgarian Army and enormous war reparations in goods and money were to be paid to the Allies.

[edit] See also

• Armistice with Bulgaria
• Serbian Campaign (World War I)

[edit] References

• Hayles, John (2001-12-13). Republic of Bulgaria National History. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
• Savo Skoko, "Vojvoda Stepa Stepanović", Belgrade 1985.

v • d • e Bulgaria in World War I
Prelude	South-western front: Serbian Campaign, Macedonian front	Romanian front • Outcome • Others	Important persons
Balkan Wars 1912–1913 First Balkan War 1913 Treaty of London Second Balkan War Treaty of Bucharest Treaty of Istanbul Neutrality 1915 Negotiations of Bulgaria with the Central Powers and the Entente Bulgarian-German treaty Secret Bulgarian-German agreement Military convention between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria Bulgarian-Turkish convention Mobilization	Commanders Bulgaria Nikola Zhekov • Kliment Boyadzhiev • Georgi Todorov • Vladimir Vazov Entente: Serbia: Radomir Putnik • Živojin Mišić • Stepa Stepanović • Petar Bojović; France:Maurice Sarrail • Adolphe Guillaumat • Franchet d'Esperey; United Kingdom: George Milne; Greece: Panagiotis Danglis Battles 1915 Battle of Morava • Battle of Ovche Pole • Battle of Kosovo • Battle of Krivolak 1916 First battle of Doiran • Battle of Lerin • Battle of Struma • Battle of the River Cherna 1917 Second battle of Doiran • Battle of the Red Wall 1918 Battle of Dobro Pole • Third battle of Doiran	Commanders Bulgaria Nikola Zhekov • Panteley Kiselov • Stefan Toshev • Todor Kantardzhiev Entente: Romania: Constantin Prezan • Alexandru Averescu; Russia:Andrei Zaionchkovsky Battles 1916 Battle of Turtucaia • Battle of Dobrich • Battle of Kobadin • Advance to Bucharest Outcome 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk • Armistice of Focşani • Treaty of Bucharest • Protocol of Berlin Outcome Armistice of Solun Vladaya revolt Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine Others Bulgarian administration in Kosovo Anti-military propaganda	Ferdinand Aleksandar Protogerov August von Mackensen Boris Draganov Vladimir Vazov Georgi Todorov (general) Ivan Kolev Kliment Boyadzhiev Konstantin Zhostov Krastyu Zlatarev Nikola Zhekov Panteley Kiselov Stefan Toshev Todor Kantardzhiev