Qualla: Battle of Kosturino

Battle of Kosturino: Introduction

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit British Government (Ordnance_Survey), Public domain. By the first week of December 1915 the Connaught Rangers had been on a ridge above the village of Kosturino for nearly three weeks. The greatcoats they had brought from Ireland were ruined. A blizzard had come and gone; the next gale had soaked their new coats and the next gale had frozen them. Twenty-three officers and over sixteen hundred soldiers of the 10th (Irish) Division had already been evacuated to Salonika with frostbite or exhaustion. They had been sent here to save Serbia. Serbia was already lost. They were now waiting for the Bulgarian Second Army to come down the slope.

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Image: British Government (Ordnance_Survey) | Public domain

Battle of Kosturino: A march that came too late

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Official photograph, Public domain. The Allied expedition to Macedonia had its origins in something Serbia had been begging for since 1914: a French and British force to hold the southern flank of the Serbian army against Bulgaria. It was finally sent in October 1915, two divisions under General Maurice Sarrail of ...

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Image: Official photograph | Public domain

Battle of Kosturino: The ridge in the snow

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Agence Rol, Public domain. The Bulgarian Second Army under General Georgi Todorov had concentrated at Strumica, twelve kilometres north. Bulgaria came into the war for territorial reasons most British soldiers did not fully understand: in the Second Balkan War of 1913 it had lost lands it considered rightf...

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Image: Agence Rol | Public domain

Battle of Kosturino: Fog at dawn

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Agence Rol, Public domain. The Bulgarian assault on the morning of 7 December came up through a heavy fog. Both sides wore similar greatcoats; the defenders could not make out who was who until bayonet length. The Connaughts and the Royal Hampshires were forced back from Rocky Peak, to a line called Crete ...

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Image: Agence Rol | Public domain

Battle of Kosturino: Walking back into Greece

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Agence Rol, Public domain. Through 9, 10 and 11 December the Allies fell back south down the Vardar valley toward the Greek frontier. The 11th Bulgarian Division took the village of Bogdanci, cut the local telephone line, and seized an ammunition depot. The 9th King's Own Royal Regiment, isolated on the wr...

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Image: Agence Rol | Public domain

Battle of Kosturino: The line that became Salonika

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Agence Rol, Public domain. The strategic consequences ran in both directions. The Central Powers had now opened the railway between Berlin and Constantinople, prying it free of Allied threats and finally able to ship arms to the Ottomans on a regular schedule. The Allies had failed to save Serbia, but they...

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Image: Agence Rol | Public domain