-
6. The Erosion of the Bulgarian Army
- Indiana University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
At the beginning of the war Bulgarian morale was largely positive. While the Bulgarians were not enthusiastic to be at war again so soon after the Balkan Wars, they were grimly determined to rectify the injustices they perceived to be the consequence of the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest. Nevertheless , after a year of military success the mood in Bulgaria remained fairly good. A German report from June 1916 noted: Undoubtedly public opinion in Bulgaria, which at the beginning of the war was for the most part pro-Russian, has changed. It has become clear to countless observers, who over the past two years here from informal conversations with all strata of people, from soldiers’ letters, from political literature indicate that the majority of the people are convinced of the correctness of the policies of the Central Powers.1 Even so there was dissension in the Bulgarian ranks from the start. At the beginning of the war several instances of antiwar activity had occurred 6 THE EROSION OF THE BULGARIAN ARMY 101 the Erosion of the Bulgarian army within the army, and a military court sentenced at least seventeen soldiers to death.2 From the beginning of 1916 to 1 July 1917 the Entente command in Salonika counted 11,370 deserters from all the Central Powers forces on the Macedonian Front, including Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians, Germans , and Turks.3 Bulgarians undoubtedly were the majority of these soldiers . Probably many of these Bulgarians were from the mixed ethnic areas overrun the during the autumn 1915 campaign. This meant they were from Macedonia, but had been drafted into the Bulgarian Army after 1915. For many of these soldiers national identity had little to do with their efforts to escape the fighting. 1918 opened on a positive note with the signing of the protocol for peace at Brest-Litovsk. An “optimistic” Radoslavov told the German ambassador in Sofia, Alfred von Oberndorff, that the news caused war weariness among Bulgarian officers to vanish. The ambassador expressed some concern, however, that peace with Russia could lead to a rapprochement between Bulgaria and Russia.4 In that case, the German position of primacy in Bulgarian affairs would greatly diminish. The earlier conclusion of the armistice with Romania on 6 December 1917 had already allowed the Bulgarians to transfer some of the units of the Third Army, then in Dobrudzha, to Macedonia. The Macedonian Front remained quiet through the spring of 1918. Meanwhile the morale of the Bulgarian soldiers there continued to erode. In the early summer of 1918 Zhekov visited the front to ascertain the situation . Upon his return to headquarters in Kyustendil, Zhekov reported to Tsar Ferdinand on 12 June 1918, “Today it is impossible to have any illusions , that the spirit of the soldiers is the same as at the beginning of the war, or even of last year.”5 The general recognized that the Bulgarian army faced a serious morale problem in the summer of 1918. Up until then, the Bulgarians had achieved some success in the World War. They had participated in the campaign against Serbia in 1915, overrunning and occupying the major Bulgarian war objective, Macedonia, and pushing British and French expeditionary forces back to the Greek frontier. Since the 1915 defeat of the Serbs, the Bulgarian army had held its own against the larger and better-equipped Entente forces established in southern Macedonia. In 1916 and 1917, Bulgarian forces had participated in the Central Powers’ conquest of Romania. By the summer of 1918, however, these victories were no longer sufficient to sustain the army physically or emotionally. Concerns [54.81.33.119] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:40 GMT) Balkan breakthrough 102 about the situation at home, severe food and material shortages, as well as growing suspicions about Central Powers allies, seriously undermined the morale of the Bulgarian army. This situation was especially worrisome to the Bulgarian command because five years earlier during the Balkan Wars, the Bulgarian army had undergone a similar crisis of morale. The morale problem in the spring and summer of 1913 had been an important factor in precipitating the catastrophic Second Balkan War. Then disorders in the ranks arose from a variety of resentments, mainly war weariness.6 The military command ordered disastrous attacks on Serbian positions to focus the energies of the army and to prevent the Bulgarian morale from further deterioration. These attacks provoked strong Greek and Serbian counterattacks. Soon afterward, Ottoman and Romanian forces invaded Bulgaria. The Bulgarian army was overwhelmed, and...