Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
The effect of leaving Adrianople in the hands of the enemy was that
supplies for the army in the field coming from Bulgaria could travel by
one of two routes. They could come through Yamboli to Kirk Kilisse, or
they could come through Novi Zagora to Mustapha Pasha by railway, and
then to Kirk Kilisse around Adrianople. From Kirk Kilisse to the
rail-head at Seleniki, close to Chatalja, they could come not by
railway, but by a tramway, a very limited railway. If Adrianople had
fallen, the railway would have been open. The Bulgarian railway services
had, I think, something over 100 powerful locomotives at the outset of
the war, and whilst it was a single line in places, it was an effective
line right down to as near Constantinople as they could get.
But, Adrianople being in the hands of the enemy, supplies coming from
Yamboli had to travel to Kirk Kilisse by track, mostly by bullock wagon,
and that journey took five, six, or seven days. The British Army Medical
Detachment, travelling over that road, took seven days. If one took the
other road you got to Mustapha Pasha comfortably by railway. And then it
was necessary to use bullock or horse transport from Mustapha Pasha to
Kirk Kilisse. That journey I took twice; once with an ox wagon, and
afterwards with a set of fast horses, and the least period for that
journey was five days. From Kirk Kilisse there was a line of light
railway joining the main line. But on that line the Bulgarians had only
six engines, and, I think, thirty-two carriages; so that, for practical
purposes, the railway was of very little use indeed past Mustapha Pasha.
Whilst Adrianople was in the hands of the enemy, the Bulgarians had
practically no line of communication.
My reason for believing that it was not the original plan of the
generals to leave Adrianople "masked" is, that in the first instance I
have a high opinion of the generals, and I do not think they could have
designed that; but think rather it was forced upon them by the
politicians saying, "We must hurry through, we must attempt something,
no matter how desperate it is, something decisive." In the second
instance, after Adrianople had been attacked in a very half-hearted way,
and after the main Bulgarian army had pushed on to the lines of
Chatalja, the Bulgarians called in the aid of a Serbian division to help
them against Adrianople. I am sure they would not have done that if it
had not been their wish to subdue Adrianople. To be forced to invoke
Serbian aid was a serious wound to their vanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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