Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas

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Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas
Part of Second Balkan War
Date June 19–June 21, 1913 Location Kilkis, Ottoman Empire (present-day Greece) Result Greek victory
Belligerents
Bulgaria	Greece
Commanders
Gen. Nikola Ivanov	King Constantine I
Strength
ca. 20000-40000 men, 62 guns (32 Infantry Battalions, 1 Cavalry Regiment)	ca. 85000 men, 170 guns (73 Infantry Battalions, 8 Cavalry Companies)
Casualties and losses
est. 7000 killed and wounded, ca. 2500 captured	8,652 killed and wounded

v • d • e Second Balkan War Kilkis-Lahanas - Doiran - Bregalnica - Kalimantsi - Kresna Gorge

The Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas took place during the Second Balkan War between Greece and Bulgaria for the town of Kilkis in Macedonia. The battle lasted three days from June 19, 1913 to June 21st. Due to the enormous Greek superiority in numbers, the Bulgarian army retreated to more favourable positions at Kresna where the Greek army was surrounded and only the peace treaty saved it from total destruction.

Even before the end of the First Balkan War the contradictions between the allied Balkan states became obvious. Despite the previous agreements, the Serbs and the Greeks who occupied most of Macedonia while the Bulgarian army was fighting against the main Turkish forces in Thrace wanted to preserve the occupied territories. The Serbs began atrocities against the Bulgarian population on order to provoke the Bulgarians to attack. Serbia and Greece also signed a secret treaty against Bulgaria.

During the night of 16-17 June, 1913, the Bulgarians, without official declaration of war, attacked their former Greek and the Serbian allies, and managed to evict the Serbs from Gevgeli, cutting off communication between them and the Greeks. However, they failed to drive the Serbs away from the Vardar river line. After repulsing the initial Bulgarian attack of June 17, the Greek army, under King Constantine, advanced with 8 Divisions and a Cavalry Brigade, while the Bulgarians (1 Infantry Division, 3 Brigades, and elements of other units, under General Ivanov) retreated to the naturally strong defensive position of the Kilkis-Lahana line.

The Greek forces established contact with the Bulgarian positions on the night of June 19, and the attack commenced on the whole front the next day. The Greeks made slow progress, paying with many casualties against the well-entrenched Bulgarians, primarily because of their close deployment on open field and the frontal attack tactics of their High Command. Despite this, the town of Kilkis fell on June 21, forcing the Bulgarian commander to retreat, but managing to prevent a rout. The Greeks burned down the town.

Due to its significance, the Battle of Kilkis gave its name to a Greek battleship, the Kilkis, in 1914.