Macedonia

The Balkan front was silent until November 1915 when General von Mackensen led a combined force of Germans, Austrians and Bulgarians in a final invasion of the upstart Serbia. This was a necessary move since Serbia was an obstacle on the road from Germany to Turkey. Short on ammunition and other supplies, General Putnik and his Serbian army were helpless under the Central Powers' onslaught.

On 3 October 1915, the Anglo-French Expeditionary Force consisting of two divisions landed in Salonika with the hope of helping the Serbians. Salonika was a part of neutral Greece, however the Greek government did not do anything other than issuing a protest. Allies hoped that the retreating Serbs could use Salonika as a safe haven, but this was prevented by the intervention of Bulgarians.

After their land route to Salonika was cut, Serbian troops were evacuated from Albanian ports and transported to the Greek port by ferries. By the summer of 1916, the Allied force in Salonika, which was under the command of the French General Sarrail, grew to 350 thousand men and represented a big threat to Central Powers’ interests in the Balkans, especially the railroad linking Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

On 26 May 1916, Bulgarian forces penetrated through the Greek frontier and by August they reached the Struma River in pursuit of the retreating Greek IV Army Corps. Meanwhile, Allied Forces took the initiative and began to march to Monastir.
 
On 12 September 1916, the German High Command asked Enver Paşa to provide additional troops for the Balkan front. On the same day, Enver Paşa gave a positive response to this request and gave his orders.

Immediate Entrainment

The 50th Infantry Division, then resting at Izmit west of Istanbul, was alerted for deployment immediately. They were first taken to Üsküdar (Asian side of Istanbul), crossed Bosphorus by ferry and then they settled at camps in Bakırköy. Their entrainment to the Balkans commenced on 21 September, with one train departing each day, and was completed on 25 October with the arrival of the last troops in the Greek city of Drama and the Bulgarian front at Salonika.

One More Division

Meanwhile there was another campaign going on in Romania and more manpower was needed. Responding positively to a request of Germans, Enver Paşa decided to send the 46th Infantry Division to Macedonia where it would join the 50th Division and the 16th Depot Regiment in order to establish the new XX Army Corps. Brigadier General Abdülkerim Pasha was appointed to the command of this corps, which would fight against the British. In addition, the 177th Infantry Regiment was to be reinforced, renamed as “Rumeli Field Detachment” and deployed in West Macedonia to join the Bulgarians against the French at the Monastir front.

The XX Corps headquarters arrived Drama on 6 December and made contact with the 50th Division and also with the Bulgarian 2nd Army. The 46th Division was to be responsible for the defense of the Serez region, north of the Tahinos Lake, where it would replace the Bulgarian 7th Division. The width of the defensive line was 30 kilometers and therefore it was decided to reinforce it with Bulgarian artillery units and a cavalry squad.

There was not much action in Macedonia in winter 1917. For the next three months, the XX Corps enjoyed a period of quiet and there were only some small sized regimental level fighting. At the same time the Turkish army was suffering in all other fronts. East Anatolia was under Russian occupation, British were marching towards Jerusalem and an elite corps of 29,000 men was waiting in Macedonia doing nothing.
 
Enver Paşa wanted his men back. After a series of requests, the German High Command finally agreed on 10 March 1917, but only for the return of a single division. 46th Division began to leave Drama on 19 March and completed its entrainment in mid-April. The story of the Turkish 46th Division in the Balkan theatre had been nothing but just a “European holiday”. Upon its arrival in Istanbul, the division was deployed to Mesopotamia.

April and May 1917 have been quiet at the banks of Struma River but in Mesopotamia, British troops had entered Baghdad. Enver Paşa established a new army (the Seventh) to save Baghdad and he urgently needed his units in Europe back. After talks with the German High Command, the 50th Division was ordered to leave Macedonia and go directly to Aleppo. After the departure of this division, the only Turkish presence left in the Balkan theatre was the Rumeli Field Detachment, i.e. reinforced 177th Infantry Regiment, which would remain there for another year.

Rumeli Field Detachment

Entrainment of the Rumeli Field Detachment to Macedonia was completed on 29 December 1916 and the troops were assembled in the town of Köprülü, south of Skopje. This was the town where, in 1908, a young Major Enver had delivered the proclamation of independence, revolting against the Sultan. There volunteers were recruited and soon the unit achieved a manpower of 4,300.

There was intense fighting going on between the French who had occupied the town of Monastir and Central Powers’ forces. The Turkish detachment was ordered to position itself 15 kilometers north of the city where it would await the expected French offensive. The French were preparing for attack, however not to north from Monastir, as Germans were expecting them to do, but at the lake region west of the city.

On 13 March 1917, the French offensive commenced, on a 10 kilometer wide and 16 kilometer long corridor between the lakes of Ohrid and Prespa. They had to be stopped because their passage through this corridor would mean jeopardizing the Bulgarian 1st Army and the German 11th Army in the north. The Turkish detachment was ordered on the same day to move to the lake region and join the Bulgarian 2nd Division.

The French 76th Division had a clear superiority in terms of manpower against the Bulgarians and even with the addition of the Turkish troops, there were 15 French battalions against 6 Central Powers battalions in defense. When the Rumeli Field Detachment arrived Hotoshevo, west of Lake Prespa, the French were in pursuit of retreating German and Austrian battalions, which had suffered heavily. 

A sudden Turkish attack supported by Turkish and German machine gun fire caused panic among French lines. After a day long of fighting, French advance was halted but both sides suffered heavy casualties.

Now it was time for the Central Powers’ forces to attack. Bulgarian generals prepared a plan, without consulting the commander of the Rumeli Field Detachment Major Nazım, which implied pushing the French further south inside the corridor and taking the Gorica-Trapezica line. According to the plan, the assault was to be executed by the Turkish detachment alone and if initial success would be achieved the others would follow.

The assault started at 2:00 pm on 1 April 1917 with intense artillery fire. In the evening Turkish infantry managed to take the French entrenchments through bayonet charge. However their losses were high and Major Nazım ordered the battalions to stop advancing and stay in their current positions. Next morning Turkish troops woke up to heavy French artillery fire followed by an infantry attack. Turks had to go back to their starting line.

After losing 712 men in casualties over the first 2 days of April 1917, the rest of the month was spent in quiet. The weather was getting worse and there was snow, which was causing problems in logistics. Turkish troops were, however, enjoying their thick and warm German-made uniforms.

Cold weather was not the reason of unrest among Turkish troops. They had lost nearly one third of their manpower over the first 18 days of their participation in this war theater. German, Austrian and Bulgarian battalions were deployed in regions with much less action, whereas Turkish detachment was not even given the chance to relax after heavy fighting. There was a clear case of double-standards.

After realizing that the French were intending to turn the campaign into trench warfare, Major Nazım cabled the commander of the Bulgarian 22nd Division and also the German regional commander Colonel von Thierry asking them to have his detachment replaced by other battalions and take a rest. There was no reply. Major Nazım was getting anxious and he cabled the commander of German 62nd Corps, telling him about the situation. Again no reply… But Nazım’s last attempt made Colonel von Thierry furious and he sent a complaint about Major Nazım to Enver Paşa.

Enver Paşa asked Major Nazım for a report and after receiving the report, which explained the double-standard in detail, he asked the German High Command for the return of the Rumeli Field Detachment back to Turkey. He was rejected.

Major Nazım was offended. He had done his best but things only got worse. Now it was difficult for Turkish soldiers even to find drinking water. Enver Paşa thought that Nazım was overreacting, but he was not. He resigned on 10 July and was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Ali on 28 July.

After some minor fighting in August, Lieutenant Colonel Ali, asked the command of the German 62nd Corps for an opportunity to rest. He was rejected and instead he was given the duty to take a hill right across the front line with a night attack. This mission was accomplished on 5 September at a cost of 41 Turkish and 2 German dead.

Ali did not give up cabling Istanbul and also the Bulgarian and German commanders about the conditions. On 6 October, Ottoman High Command ordered the Rumeli Field Detachment to prepare to return to Turkey. Soldiers’ joy did not last long. Two days after the above mentioned order was issued, Enver Paşa sent another cable: “Order for your return to Turkey is cancelled.”

The reason of this sudden change is still unknown. It also remains a question why the German High Commander insisted so much for the stay of the Turkish detachment. The only answer we can give is that some political issues were involved.

October and November 1917 were quiet months. Winter conditions were getting tougher and there was no improvement in the conditions in which Turkish troops had to live. Lieutenant Colonel Ali was sending cables to German, Bulgarian and Turkish commands and his efforts bore fruits on 23 November. A telegram from General Ludendorff, then second man in German High Command after Hindenburg, ordered the Rumeli Field Detachment to be replaced by a Bulgarian regiment and move to back front.

The detachment was to have a rest for one month but it stayed in Prilep until 11 February 1918. This time was spent with training and meanwhile Lieutenant Colonel Ali was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Sadık. In February, they returned to the lake region, but the war was nearing end and there was no fighting going on.

In May 1918, the Rumeli Field Detachment was ordered to return to Turkey. At the end of June, troops left from the Romanian port of Costanza by ferry for Batum on the East Black Sea coast. There they would join the Third Army. Turkish presence in Europe during the First World War was over.

Conclusion
 
The XX Army Corps was sent to Macedonia for nothing. In a time when fresh troops were desperately needed in other fronts, 25,000 men spent their time in the Balkans doing nothing. It was a big mistake and an unnecessary waste of manpower.

In contrast with the XX Corps, the Rumeli Field Detachment was very active and also successful against the French in the lake region around Monastir. However the conditions they had to fight in and the double-standard favouring German and Bulgarian units while not even giving the Turkish troops opportunity to have a break is questionable.