Battle of Kalimanci

The Battle of Kalimanci (Bulgarian: Битка при Калиманци, Serbian: Битка код Калиманција) was fought between Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Bulgaria during the Second Balkan War. The battle started on the 18th and ended on the 19th of July 1913.^[1] The Bulgarian Army halted the Serbian Army from pushing them out of Macedonia and joining up the Greek Army at the downstreams of the Struma. The battle ended in an important Bulgarian defensive victory.^[2]

Background

At the Battle of Bregalnica, fought June 30 – July 8, 1913, the Bulgarian army was decisively defeated by the Serbian Army.^[3]

Battle

On July 13, 1913, General Mihail Savov assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies.^[1] The Bulgarians dug into strong positions around the village of Kalimantsi, at the Bregalnitsa river in the northeastern Macedonia region.^[1]

On July 18, the Serbian 3rd army attacked, closing in on Bulgarian positions.^[1] The Serbs threw hand grenades in an attempt to dislodge the Bulgarians, who were sheltered 40 feet away.^[1] The Bulgarians held firm, on several occasions they allowed the Serbs to advance, and when they were within 200 yards from the trenches, the Bulgarians charged with fixed bayonets and threw them back.^[1] The Bulgarian artillery was very successful in breaking up the Serb attacks.^[1] The Bulgarian lines held, as an invasion against their homeland was struck, their morale grew considerably.^[1]

If the Serbs had broken through the Bulgarian defences, they might have doomed the 2nd Bulgarian Army and driven out the Bulgarians entirely out of Macedonia.^[1] The defensive victory, along with the successes to the north of the 1st and 3rd armies, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion.^[2] Although this boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the Greek Army.^[2]

References

Sources

• Hall, R. The Balkan Wars 1912-1913. Prelude to the First World War. London and New York, Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0-415-22946-4.