Battle of Kresna Gorge

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Battle of Kresna Gorge
Part of Second Balkan War
Date 8 July–18 July 1913 Location Kresna Gorge, Ottoman Empire (present-day Bulgaria) Result Stalemate [1]
Belligerents
Bulgaria	Greece
Commanders
Gen. Mihail Savov Gen. Nikola Ivanov	King Constantine I
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Light	10,000

v • d • e Second Balkan War Kilkis-Lahanas - Doiran - Bregalnica - Kalimantsi - Kresna Gorge

The Battle of Kresna Gorge was fought between the Greeks and the Bulgarians during the Second Balkan War. The battle went for ten days and took place between the 29th July and the 7th August 1913. The defensive victories against the Serbs enabled Bulgarians to carry out a counter-attack against the Greek forces. Although retreating the Bulgarian general Savov planned his counter-attack to take place in the area of Kresna Gorge at the river Struma near the present-day city of Blagoevgrad. The landscape offered great advantage to the defenders. By the last week of July the Greek advance had stalled and the Greek soldiers exhausted and at the end of their logistical capabilities. The result of the battle is disputed: Bulgarian and neutral scholars^[1] claim that their army effectively stopped the Greek progress, managed to encircle the Greek army and maintained their blockade for four days; a complete disaster for the Greek army was prevented by the initiation of the peace talks and the signing of the Bucharest Peace Treaty. Greek historians see the battle of Kresna as a victory during which all Bulgarian attacks were repulsed, with the Greek army eventually dominating the battlefield.

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