Siege of Plevna

Siege of Plevna
Part of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
Grivita 1877.jpg
Date July 20–December 10, 1877
Location Plevne, Ottoman Empire
(now Pleven, Bulgaria)
Result Russian/Romanian victory
Belligerents
 Russian Empire
Romania Romania
Bulgaria Bulgarian volunteers		  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Russian Empire Grand Duke Nicholas
Romania Prince Carol I of Romania
Russian Empire Nikolai Kridener		 Turkey Osman Pasha
Strength
150,000 40,000
Casualties and losses
40,000 killed or wounded 25,000 killed or wounded
40,000 captured
 

Kızıl-Tepe – Simnitza – Svistov – Nikopol – 1st Shipka Pass – 2nd Shipka Pass – Lovcha – 3rd Shipka Pass – Gorni-Dubnik – Kars – Plevna – Tashkessen – 4th Shipka Pass – Philippopolis
Map

The Siege of Plevna or Siege of Pleven during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), saw a major struggle between the joint army of Russia and Romania and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman defense held up the main Russian advance southwards into Bulgaria, ensuring other great powers of the time to actively support the Ottoman cause. Eventually, superior Russian and Romanian numbers forced the garrison to capitulate.

Contents

Background

In July 1877, the Russian Army, under the command of Grand Duke Nicholas, moved toward the Danube River virtually unopposed, since the Ottomans had no sizable force in the area. The Ottoman high command sent an army to reinforce the city of Nikopol under the command of Osman Pasha. Before Osman reached Nikopol, the Russian vanguard easily took the city in the Battle of Nikopol (16 July 1877) and Osman settled on Plevna, a town among vineyards in a deep rocky valley some twenty miles to the south of Nikopol. He created a strong military fortress, raising earthworks with redoubts, digging trenches and quarrying out gun emplacements. From Plevne (Plevna) Osman's army dominated the main strategic routes into the heart of Bulgaria. Hours after Osman constructed fortifications, Russian forces began to arrive.

The Siege

First Battle

General Schilder-Schuldner, commanding the Russian 5th Division, IX Corps, received orders to simply occupy Plevna. Schilder-Schuldner arrived outside the city on July 19 and began to bombard the Ottoman defenses but made no attack. The next day, Schilder-Schuldner attacked and succeeded in driving the Ottoman forces from some of the outer defenses. Osman brought up reinforcements and launched a series of counter-attacks which drove the Russians from the captured trenches, inflicting 2,800 casualties at a cost of 2,000.

Second Battle

Osman Pasha strengthened his defences and built more redoubts while the Russians sought and obtained reinforcements from the army of Prince Carol of Romania (later king Carol I of Romania), who made the condition that he should be given command of the joint besieging force. General Nikolai Kridener arrived with the entire Russian IX Corps and Osman's forces grew to 20,000. On July 31, Russian headquarters ordered Kridener to assault the city, which took place from three sides , with every expectation of a Russo-Romanian triumph. Kridener had a cavalry division under General Schakofsky and an infantry division under General Mikhail Skobelev. Schakofsky attacked the eastern redoubts and Skobelev assailed the Grivitsa redoubt to the north. Schakofsky managed to take two redoubts, but by the end of the day, the Ottoman forces succeeded in repulsing all the attacks and retaking lost ground. Russian losses amounted to 7,300 and the Ottomans lost 2,000.

Third Battle

After repulsing the Russian attacks, Osman failed to press his advantage and possibly to drive off the besiegers. He did however make a cavalry sortie on August 31 that cost the Russian 1,300 casualties and the Ottomans 1,000. The Russians continued to send reinforcements to Plevna, and their army reached 100,000 men, now personally led by the Grand Duke. On September 3, Skobelev reduced the garrison at Lovech guarding the Ottoman supply-lines before Osman could move out to relieve it. see main article: Battle of Lovcha. The Ottoman army organized the survivors of Lovech into 3 battalions for the Plevna defenses. Osman received an additional 13 battalions, bringing his total strength to 30,000; the highest it would reach during the siege.

On September 11, the Russians made a large-scale assault on Plevna. The Ottoman forces were dug in and were equipped with Krupp manufactured steel breech-loading artillery and American manufactured Winchester repeaters[1] and Peabody-Martini rifles. For three hours they poured murderous fire into the waves of advancing Russians.[2] Alexander II of Russia, the Czar, and his brother the Grand Duke Nicolas watched from a pavilion built on a hillside out of the line of fire.[3] Skobelev took two southern redoubts and a Romanian division took the Grivitsa redoubt. The next day the Turks retook the southern redoubts, but could not dislodge the Romanians. From the beginning of September, Russian losses had amounted to roughly 20,000, while the Ottomans lost 5,000.

Plevna Chapel on St Elijah's Square in Moscow, opened in 1882, commemorates the Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Plevna.

Fourth Battle

Growing Russian casualties put a halt to frontal assaults. General Eduard Ivanovich Todleben arrived to oversee the conduct of the siege as the army chief of staff. Todleben had proven command experience in siege warfare: he had previously gained renown for his defense of Sevastopol (1854–1855) during the Crimean War. He decided on a complete encirclement of the city and of its defenders and by October 24 the Russians and Romanians had completely surrounded Plevna. Osman requested permission to abandon Plevna and retreat, but the Ottoman high command did not allow him to do so. Supplies began to run low in the city and Osman finally made an attempt to break the Russian siege in the direction of Opanets. On December 9, the Ottoman forces silently emerged, at dead of night, threw bridges over and crossed the Vit River, attacked on a 2-mile front and broke through the first line of Russian trenches. Here they fought hand to hand and bayonet to bayonet, with little advantage to either side. Outnumbering the Ottoman forces almost 5 to 1, the Russians drove the Ottoman forces back across the Vit and wounded Osman in the process. Osman Pasha was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet, which killed his horse beneath him. Rumours of his own death created panic. Making a brief stand, the Ottoman forces eventually found themselves driven back into the city, losing 5,000 men to the Russians' 2,000. The next day, Osman surrendered the city, the garrison and his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Cerchez. He was treated honorably, but his troops perished in the snows by the thousand as they straggled off into captivity.

Results

Sword surrendered by Edhem Pasha after the defeat at Plevna.

The siege had held up the main Russian advance into Bulgaria and captured the world's admiration, thus paving the way for the sympathetic treatment of the Ottoman Empire with the Congress of Berlin. The fall of Plevna freed up Russian reinforcements, which were sent to Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko, who then decisively defeated the Ottoman forces in the fourth battle of Shipka Pass.

Legacy

In popular culture

The monument 2008

Notes

  1. ↑ M1866 Turkish Contract Winchester (.44 Henry Rimfire)
  2. ↑ "The Plevna Delay: Winchesters and Peabody-Martinis in the Russo-Turkish War: A small Turkish army is trapped, but with the help of surprising firepower, they hold up the entire Russian Campaign for over five months." by Richard T. Trenk, Sr. originally published in Man At Arms Magazine, Volume 19, Number Four, August, 1997
  3. ↑ Page 107 and 108, Virginia Cowles, The Russian Dagger: Cold War in the Days of the Czars, Harper & Row (1969), hardcover, 352 pages
  4. ↑ http://www2.finlayson.fi/finlayson-en/history (see year 1877)
  5. ↑ www.davidkidd.net/20Plevna.html.

References

See also