Battle of Dobro Pole

Battle of Dobro Pole
Part of the Balkans Theatre (World War I)
Two Pronged Allied Offensive
Date 15 September 1918 Location Dobro Pole (present day Republic of Macedonia) Result Decisive Entente victory[1]
Belligerents
Bulgaria  German Empire	France  Serbia
Commanders and leaders
Georgi Todorov Friedrich von Scholtz Kuno von Steuben	Louis Franchet d'Esperey Živojin Mišić
Strength
26 battalions 11,600 rifleman with 245 machine guns, 146 artillery pieces and 24 airplanes	75 battalions 36,500 rifleman with 756 machine guns, 580 artillery pieces and 81 airplanes
Casualties and losses
3,000 men and 50 guns captured[2]	2,020 killed or wounded[2] unknown

The Battle of Dobro Pole was a World War I battle, fought on 15 September 1918. The battle resulted in a decisive Entente victory, with a defeated Bulgaria left to sign an armistice, which removed it from World War I.

The battle was fought at Dobro Pole ("good field"), at the time part of Kingdom of Serbia (present day Republic of Macedonia), the region was claimed by Bulgaria and had been under Bulgarian occupation since 1915.

Battle

The Bulgarian forces met a more powerful and larger army at Dobro Pole. The large majority of the Allied Powers consisted of 122nd French Infantry Division, 17th French Infantry Colonial Division and the Serb Shumadia Division in the first echelon and two Serbian divisions in the second echelon (Timok and Yugoslav). The battle started on 14 September with heavy artillery bombardment. Until then, the Bulgarians prided themselves at not having lost during the war, and Ferdinand I decided to keep the troops there and fight. The machine gun companies, the 2nd and 3rd Bulgarian Infantry Divisions dug in. From 15 to 19 September, the Bulgarians were surrounded. Outmanned and strategically inert, the Bulgarians were unable to stop the Allied advance. Even when asked to surrender, as victory was hopeless, the Bulgarians refused to give up, ignoring the Allied requests.

Revolt

After the defeat at Dobro Pole, other Bulgarian soldiers began to revolt, and the Bulgarian front lines were abandoned. The rebels headed towards Sofia in order to negotiate with the government. When the rebels reached Sofia, they were crushed by Bulgarian loyalists and German troops.

Aftermath

Allied advance 15-29 September 1918

The battle was lost because the morale of the troops was low and they were significantly outnumbered. After this victory, the Entente army continued to liberated Serbia. On 21 September Demir Kapija was liberated, on the 23rd Prilep, on the 25th Kruševo, on the 26th Veles and finally on the 29th Skopje. The German 11th Army fled towards the north-west in the direction of Tetovo, while the Bulgarian First Army fell back on Sofia.^[2]

On 19 September, the British and Greek armies were defeated at the 3rd battle of Doiran and Bulgarians avoided occupation, when it signed the Armistice of Thessalonica on September 29, 1918. In November 1919 the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine awarded Thrace to Greece, depriving Bulgaria of access to the Aegean Sea. The newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes reclaimed Vardarska Macedonia. Southern Dobruja was again occupied by Romania. Severe limitations were placed on the size of the Bulgarian Army and enormous war reparations in goods and money were to be paid to the Allies.

See also

• Armistice with Bulgaria
• Serbian Campaign (World War I)
• Vardar Offensive

Notes

References

• Richard Hall, Balkan Breakthrough: The Battle of Dobro Pole 1918, Indiana University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-253-35452-5
• Hayles, John (13 December 2001). "Republic of Bulgaria National History". Retrieved 20 January 2007. 
• Savo Skoko, "Vojvoda Stepa Stepanović", Belgrade 1985.

Bulgaria in World War I
Prelude	South-western front: Serbian Campaign, Macedonian front	Romanian front • Outcome • Others	Important persons
Balkan Wars 1912–1913 First Balkan War 1913 Treaty of London Second Balkan War Treaty of Bucharest Treaty of Istanbul Neutrality 1914 Ottoman–Bulgarian alliance 1915 Negotiations of Bulgaria with the Central Powers and the Entente Bulgarian-German treaty Secret Bulgarian-German agreement Military convention between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria Bulgarian-Turkish convention Mobilization	Commanders  Bulgaria Nikola Zhekov • Kliment Boyadzhiev • Georgi Todorov• Stefan Nerezov • Vladimir Vazov Entente:  Serbia: Radomir Putnik • Živojin Mišić • Stepa Stepanović • Petar Bojović;  France: Maurice Sarrail • Adolphe Guillaumat • Franchet d'Esperey;  United Kingdom: George Milne;  Greece: Panagiotis Danglis Field Armies + Eleventh Army First Army Second Army Fourth Army Battles 1915 Morava Offensive • Ovche Pole Offensive • Kosovo Offensive (1915) • Battle of Krivolak 1916 First battle of Doiran • Battle of Lerin • Battle of Struma • Monastir Offensive 1917 Second battle of Doiran • 2nd Cerna Bend • Second battle of Monastir 1918 Battle of Skra-di-Legen • Battle of Dobro Pole • Third battle of Doiran	Commanders  Bulgaria Nikola Zhekov • Panteley Kiselov • Stefan Toshev • Todor Kantardzhiev • Ivan Kolev Entente:  Romania: Constantin Prezan • Alexandru Averescu;  Russia: Andrei Zaionchkovsky • Vladimir Sakharov Field Armies Third Army Battles 1916 Battle of Turtucaia • Battle of Dobrich • First Cobadin • Flămânda Offensive • Second Cobadin • Battle of Bucharest Outcome 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk • Armistice of Focşani • Treaty of Bucharest • Protocol of Berlin Outcome Armistice of Salonica Vladaya revolt Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine Others Bulgarian administration in Kosovo Anti-military propaganda	Ferdinand Vasil Radoslavov Alexander Malinov Aleksandar Stamboliyski Aleksandar Protogerov August von Mackensen Boris Drangov Vladimir Vazov Georgi Todorov (general) Ivan Kolev Kliment Boyadzhiev Konstantin Zhostov Krastyu Zlatarev Nikola Zhekov Panteley Kiselov Stefan Toshev Stefan Nerezov Todor Kantardzhiev

Coordinates: 41°03′N 21°53′E / 41.050°N 21.883°E / 41.050; 21.883