Turkey - The Balkan League War (I) - 09 Jun to 17 Jul 1912

09 Jun 1912: Serbia declared war on us at the earliest possible moment. I would have preferred a later date but no bust. I select Artillery Effort as my next National Focus.

I call Ottoman Albania into the war. (Maybe that was a mistake....)

I activate 1st Army which attacks all along the front.

10 Jun 1912: We are in the headlines.

11 Jun 1912: Research on Vest Pocket Camera has finished.

I choose the Air Doctrine Air Squadron next.

13 Jun 1912: I move a couple of Cavalry Divisions east in order to plug the whole. Unfortunately Ottoman Albania is not neutral so it will be sacrificed in order to block the road to Thessaloniki.

16 Jun 1912: 2nd Army now joins the war with the capture of Plovdiv as the first objective.

22 June 1912: Plovdiv has been captured and I've shortened the front of 3rd Army facing Greek forces. My plan is to defeat Bulgaria first then advance on Belgrade from the east. That should end the war.

I've transferred a couple of Cavalry Divisions to 1st Army to help block enemy forces advancing through Albania.

24 Jun 1912: That was inevitable but we shall return later.

26 Jun 1912: I've lengthen 3rd Army's front to cover the hole between it and 1st Army. 3rd Army has been reinforced with 2 Infantry Divisions from 1st Army plus an Albanian Division. In the east 2nd Army's objective is to advance along the Black Sea coast then swing westwards.

2nd Army's left flank is attacking in order to pin down the enemy's forces.

28 Jun 1912: We have complete naval superiority in the Black Sea.

According to this chart we are losing heavily but I disagree. They have 3 times as many losses as we have and Albania was undefended.

01 Jul 1912: I assign my Airforce to 2nd Army.

09 Jul 1912: The attack SE of Sofia is looking promising as is the offensive in the east.

13 Jul 1912: The front is holding so I'm waiting for a breakthrough in the east.

14 Jul 1912: Bulgarian troops in the east are not being reinforced so I should be able to break through within a fortnight.

17 Jul 1912: An overview of 2nd Army's operations.

A convenient place to pause. We should see more progress in the next post but I'm a little concerned about the concentration of enemy forces on the Albanian front.