The Battle of Shipka Pass |  print |
After the declaration of war by Russia against Turkey in 1877, Russian troops arrived at the Shipka pass on 15th July. Initially, the detachment consisted of just one Russian regiment – 6th Orlov – and five battalions of Bulgarian Volunteers, supported by 27 guns. Within five weeks, barely having had time to prepare the defences on the rocky hilltops, 24 Turkish battalions attacked them. Although at noon that day, 21 August, the Russian 35th Briansk regiment arrived, the odds in favour of the defenders were appalling. Terrible hand to hand fighting took place during the night and when they had run out of ammunition, the Russians and Bulgarians chucked any and everything that came to hand down onto the attacking Turks.
At this point, the Turkish commander, Suleiman Pasha, sent what in hindsight was one of the most ill judged messages in the annals of military history.
From Suleimann Pasha to the Sultan.
Date : August 22, 1877
"The Russians can neither resist me nor slip out of my hands. If the enemy does not try and run away tonight, then I will resume the attacks tomorrow and, I hope, I will crush them".
The only redeeming phrase in this message was "I hope"! Far from giving up, the defenders fought with the utmost ferocity until reinforced by the Russian 4th Rifle Brigade at 6 p.m. the next evening. These troops had made a forced march of many miles in scorching temperatures of 39 degrees without a drop of water. As soon as they reached the top of the peak, they got stuck into the Turks and won the day.
Suleiman retired to lick his wounds and one must suppose to concoct another, somewhat different message to the Sultan. A night attack launched in September likewise failed to dislodge the Russians and Bulgarians; then the "winter of Mount Shipka" began. A surviving diary of a soldier at the time reads: "Terrible frost and a fearful storm: the number of those with frozen hands has increased tremendously: it is impossible to built a fire anywhere. If a soldier falls in the snow, in 3 to 4 minutes he is buried completely. You cannot hide anywhere from the storm". It is not hard to imagine the conditions the soldiers faced that winter as one looks up to the peaks of the Balkan Mountains. Their courage and determination was the stuff of heroes.
The Russian General in charge of the sector, Radetzi, was a cool operator. He was famous for his despatches to Headquarters: "All is quiet on Mount Shipka". For this read all hell had broken loose, be it storms, blizzards, and Turkish rifle and artillery fire. But Russian officers of those days prided themselves for their "sang froid", the ability to remain cool under fire. The writer, Lermontov, as a young officer in the Caucuses, couldn't get over how his fellow officers continued to eat their dinner whilst being attacked by a mob of bloodthirsty Akdhars.
Radetzi was a big picture man, summing up the battle along these lines. 'Shipka – this was the locked door; it locked Suleiman Pasha and his 40,000 soldiers out of the North of Bulgaria and prevented him linking up with the two other Ottoman armies in the area. In January, we unlocked it and we began our march to Istanbul.'
At the end of the war, Suleiman was court-martialled by the Sultan although I have not ascertained his fate
Bulgaria
- Sofia, the chestnut city
- The road to Rila
- Zahari Zograph: A portrait
- South to the Border
- The Monastic Heartland
- Vassil Levski: A portrait
- The Battle of Shipka Pass
- The Ancient Kingdom
- Monk on a Meteora