THE BALKAN WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 306, 19 May 1913, Page 5

THE BALKAN WAR

BULGARIAN CONCENTRATION. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. j Received 18, 5.5 p.m. i Salonika, Ma,y 17. There is a large concentration of Bui- ] garians in the direction of >Seres. Many anti-Greek demonstrations have occurred. THE FATE OF TRAITORS. Athens, May 16. At Janina a court-martial passed the death sentence on two Greek military chauffeurs for having deserted with a motorcar to the Turks during the cam--1 paign. BULGARIANS' WILD CHARGES. CONTEMPT OF DEATH. According to Lieutenant Wagner—and his testimony is supported by. all reliable eye-witnesses —the Bulgarians in actual fight displayed a contempt for death or danger that made their wild charges quite irresistible. "The dash displayed by the Bulgarian infantry was something extraordinary and went far beyond all that had hitherto been regarded as possible by tacticians in their deductions from earlier events." ■ As soon as they got within reach of the enemy, the Bulgarian infantry • raised their wild battle-cry, "With the knife,"; and hurled themselves in a mas# upon the foe. "Four hundred paces and even' more in front of the enemy's position whole regiments in the firing line would rise up and hur'. themselves upon the Turks in one irresistible rush, without pausing, without firing, and disdaining all cover." The officers found themselves quite unable to control the men. "Even a regiment that had not yet been sent into the firing-line, but was following in support, would raise iliis. « id battle cry, url hurl i!se'f mon tl> enemy, perhaps »t iiie ca". of oii-s of its sergeants, taking ni r,otijj oi liii ■ ers' orders to iv.i.t and .ia do'vn." Ti.e officers, howevi". fndin* they could not check these fierce outbursts, had the good judgment to utilise the ferocity of their troops to the best possible advantage; and the outcome of all this was that the Bulgarian armies within three weeks changed the course of the destinies of Europe. Their great victories were won at a fearful cost; but Lieutenant Wagner argues that the Allies would never have' completed their work so speedily with-, out these terriltle sacrifices, and that their one hope cf success from the first, lay in speed. The Turks were badly; trained; their commissariat and trans-; port services were poorly organised;' their army was undermined by sedition and corruption; they had invited 1 disaster by compelling Christians to serve; •with them; the military resources of the country were exhausted by the Italian J •war and the 1 Albanian revolution. But,. in spite of all these advantages, the Bui- ; garians could not have succeeded without ! expending all their energies in a desperate onslaught, which paralysed the strength of their opponents almost at a blow. That they were able to achieve their object in so short a time is a remarkable proof of what careful organisation and patriotic enthusiasm combined can do for even a small country and a poor arid uneducated people, and the, chief lesson to be learned from Lieiitenant, Wagner's book should not be lost upon the rest of the world to-day. i