| Battle of Pirot | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Serbo-Bulgarian War | |||||||
|
The Bulgarian army enters Pirot. |
|||||||
|
|||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Principality of Bulgaria | Kingdom of Serbia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lt.Col. Danail Nikolaev | Milan I | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 42,000 80 guns |
65,000 84 guns |
||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1,050 killed and wounded | 700 killed 560 wounded |
||||||
The Battle of Pirot (Bulgarian: Битка при Пирот or Пиротско сражение) was a battle between the Bulgarian Western Corps and the Serbian Nishava Army during the Serbo-Bulgarian War. The battle took place on 14 and 15 November 1885[a] and ended with a Bulgarian victory.
Contents |
After the successful three-day battle of Slivnitsa on 5-7 November 1885 the Bulgarian army counter-attacked. The Bulgarian troops defeated the Serbs at Gurgulyat (7 November) and Dragoman (10 November) and reached Pirot[1] where the Serbian Nishava army took defensive positions on the heights to the east of the town.
On 14 November the Bulgarians defeated the Serbian cover forces along the border and moved on to Pirot. At around 15:00 on the same day the Bulgarian advanced guard engaged the enemy. The Bulgarians first achieved success on the left flank after the detachment of Captain Popov took over the heights of Divan and Cherni Vrah. On the right flank the 10th Regiment of the Serbian Shumadia Division was crushed and retreated followed by the two battalions sent to defend Pirot. During the fights on the left flank the Bulgarians had 48 killed, 136 wounded and 27 missing while the Serbian casualties were 67 killed, 134 wounded and 85 captured.
In the night of 15 November the Serbs regrouped. In the morning the Bulgarians continued the advance. The column of Major Gudzhev attacked the Shumadia Division and despite outnumbered (9 battalions against 16 battalions for the Serbs) the Bulgarians pushed them to the river Temska. The retreat of the Shumadia Division made the Drina Division to pull back as well and the Bulgarians started to chase them. On the left flank the Bulgarians were also successful and the Serbs were defeated.
A day after the victory the Bulgarian army prepared to attack Niš but the Austrians made ultimatum that if the Bulgarian advance continued they would encounter the Austro-Hungarian army which ended the war. On 16 Bulgaria and Serbia agreed to sign cease-fire.