The Battle of Kalimanci ( bg, Битка при Калиманци, sr, Битка код Калиманаца) was a battle fought between the

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Prin ...

and the

Kingdom of Bulgaria The Tsardom of Bulgaria ( bg, Царство България, translit=Tsarstvo Balgariya), also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom ( bg, Трето Българско Царство, translit=Treto Balgarsko Tsarstvo, links=no), someti ...

during the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies ...

. The battle started on the 18th and ended on the 19th of July 1913. The Bulgarian Army stopped the Serbian Army from pushing them out of Macedonia and joining up with the Greek Army downstream of the river Struma. The battle ended in an important Bulgarian defensive victory.

Background

At the

Battle of Bregalnica The Battle of Bregalnica was fought between the Kingdom of Bulgaria army and the Kingdom of Serbia during the Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of th ...

, fought 30 June – 8 July 1913, the Bulgarian army was decisively defeated by the Serbian Army.

Battle

On 13 July 1913, General

Mihail Savov Mihail Georgiev Savov ( bg, Михаил Савов) (14 November 1857 in Stara Zagora - 21 July 1928 in Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey, France) was a Bulgarian general, twice Minister of Defence (1891–1894 and 1903–1907), second in command of the Bul ...

assumed control of the 4th and 5th Bulgarian armies. The Bulgarians then entrenched themselves into strong defensive-positions around the village of Kalimanci, near the

Bregalnica Bregalnica (, ) is the second largest river in North Macedonia. It starts as a spring near the mountain city of Berovo and it passes near the cities of Makedonska Kamenica, Kočani, Vinica and Štip, before joining the river Vardar on its way ...

River in the northeastern part of Macedonia. On 18 July, the Serbian 3rd Army attacked, closing in on the Bulgarian positions. The Serbs threw hand grenades at their enemies in an attempt to dislodge the Bulgarians, who were sheltered 40 feet away. The Bulgarians held firm, and on several occasions they allowed the Serbs to advance. When the Serbs were within 200 yards of their trenches, they charged with fixed bayonets and threw them back. The Bulgarian artillery was also very successful in breaking up the Serb attacks. The Bulgarian lines held, an invasion of their homeland was repelled, and their morale grew substantially. If the Serbs had broken through the Bulgarian defences, they might have doomed the 2nd Bulgarian Army and driven the Bulgarians entirely out of Macedonia. This defensive victory, along with the successes of the 1st and 3rd armies in the north, protected western Bulgaria from a Serbian invasion. Although this victory boosted the Bulgarians, the situation was critical in the south, with the

Greek Army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the ...

defeating the Bulgarians in numerous skirmishes.

Citations

References

* Battles of the Second Balkan War {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalimanci Kalimanci Kalimanci Kalimanci Military history of North Macedonia Conflicts in 1913 1913 in Bulgaria 1913 in Serbia Vardar Macedonia (1912–1918) July 1913 events