Battle of Driskos

The Battle of Driskos (Greek: Μάχη του Δρίσκου, Turkish: Driskos Muharebesi), took place on 26–28 November (O.S.), 1912. It was a battle fought between Greek forces under Alexandros Romas and Ottoman forces under General Esad Pasha during the First Balkan War. The battle began when the Greek army attacked the Ottoman defensive line at the Hani of Kamber Aga.

Battle of Driskos
Part of the First Balkan War
Postcard depicting the battle
Date 26–28 November 1912[Note 1] Location Driskos, Janina Vilayet, Ottoman Empire (present-day Greece) Result Ottoman victory
Belligerents
Greece	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Alexandros Romas  (WIA) Peppino Garibaldi	General Esad Pasha
Units involved
Metsovo Detachment Italian Redshirts Corps of Greek Red Shirts	Yanya Corps 19th Division
Strength
3,800	7,000–10,000
Casualties and losses
200–400 killed 400 wounded	1,000–2,000 killed and wounded
Driskos Location of the battle in present day Greece

The Greeks seized the Ottoman camp at mount Driskos and cleared its surroundings. On 27 November, the Ottomans regrouped after receiving considerable reinforcements in both manpower and artillery, launching an assault on Greek positions. The Greeks began withdrawing at noon the following day, after realizing that they were at risk of being overwhelmed. The battle of Driskos marked the last intervention of the Garibaldini into Greek expansionist conflicts.

Background

Following the conclusion of the Greek War of Independence, the Megali Idea (Great Idea) ideology came to dominate Greek foreign policy. The ultimate goal of the Megali Idea was the incorporation of all areas traditionally populated by Greeks into an independent Greek state.[1] The disastrous Greek defeat in the short Greco-Turkish War of 1897 exposed major flaws in the Greek Army's organization, training and logistics. Upon his appointment in December 1905, Georgios Theotokis became the first postwar Greek prime minister to focus his attention on strengthening the army. He established the National Defense Fund which financed the purchase of large quantities of ammunition. In addition a new table of organization was introduced for the country's navy and army, the latter being augmented by numerous artillery batteries. Theotokis' resignation in January 1909 and the perceived neglect of the armed forces by his successor resulted in the Goudi coup seven months later. Rather than taking power for themselves, the putschists invited Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos to rule the country.[2] Venizelos followed in Theotokis' footsteps by rearming and retraining the military, enacting extensive fortification and infrastructure works, purchasing new weapons, and recalling the reservists for training.[3]

The climax of this effort was the invitation in 1911 of a British naval mission and a French military mission.[3] The British mission was headed by Rear Admiral Lionel Grant Tufnell, who placed an emphasis on gunnery practice and fleet maneuvers, while his assistants introduced a new fuse for the Whitehead torpedo.[4] The French mission under Brigadier General Joseph Paul Eydoux focused its attention on improving discipline and training senior officers in large formation operations.[5] The Hellenic Military Academy was modeled after the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr shifting its focus from artillery and engineer training towards that of infantry and cavalry.[6]

After being informed of a Serbo-Bulgarian alliance, Venizelos ordered his ambassador in Sofia to prepare a Greco-Bulgarian defense agreement by 14 April 1912. This was due to fears that should Greece fail to participate in a future war against the Ottomans it would be unable to capture the Greek majority areas of Macedonia. The treaty was signed on 15 July 1912, with the two countries agreeing to assist each other in case of a defensive war and to safeguard the rights of Christian populations in Ottoman-held Macedonia, thus joining the loose Balkan League alliance with Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Fearing a new war in the Balkans, the Ottomans mobilized their armed forces on 14 September and began transferring units to Thrace; the Balkan League responded in kind.[7] On 30 September, the League presented the Ottomans with a list of demands regarding the rights of its Christian population. The Ottoman Empire rebuffed the demands, recalled its ambassadors in Sofia, Belgrade and Athens and expelled the League's negotiators on 4 October. The League declared war against the Ottomans, while Montenegro had already began military operations on 25 September.[8]

Prelude

Greece dispatched the Army of Epirus and the Army of Thessaly to its frontiers in Epirus and Thessaly respectively. The Army of Epirus numbered 20,000 men and 30 artillery pieces and was commanded by Lieutenant General Konstantinos Sapountzakis. Facing the Greeks in Epirus was the Yanya Corps under General Esad Pasha, which numbered 35,000 men and 102 artillery pieces; most of which were concentrated at the Yanya Fortified Area.[9] The Army of Epirus was ordered to only conduct a limited number of offensive operations, mainly focusing on protecting the Army of Thessaly's western flank, because it was too small to breach the Ottoman defenses around Yanya.[10]

The Yanya Fortified Area included two major fortresses, those of Bizani and Kastritsa, guarding the main southern approaches, along with five smaller forts in a ring around the city, covering the western and northwestern approaches. The terrain south of Yanya provided excellent defensive ground, as all the roads leading to the city could be observed from Bizani. The Ottomans had augmented their defenses with permanent fortifications, constructed under the guidance of German General Rüdiger von der Goltz. These were equipped with concrete artillery emplacements, bunkers, trenches, barbed wire, searchlights and machine gun positions.[11][12]

The Army of Epirus crossed the bridge of Arta into Ottoman territory at midday 6 October, capturing the Gribovo heights by the end of the day. On 9 October, the Ottomans counterattacked initiating the Battle of Gribovo, on the night of 10–11 October the Greeks were pushed back towards Arta. After regrouping the following day, the Greek army went on the offensive once again finding the Ottoman positions abandoned and capturing Filippiada. On 19 October, the Army of Epirus launched an attack on Preveza in conjunction with the Ionian squadron of the Greek Navy; taking the city on 21 October. On 23 October, Esat Pasha prodded the Greek defenses at Pente Pigadia (Beshpinar), snowfall prevented the Ottomans from carrying a large scale attack, while the Greeks held their ground in a series of clashes. On 27 October, the Greek army captured Metsovo, thwarting an attempt by Ottoman irregulars to retake it on 9 November.[13]

Motivated by militant Philhellenism and Liberationist ideology, the leader of the Italian Redshirts, Ricciotti Garibaldi, called upon his followers to support the Greek war effort.[14] Garibaldi only managed to recruit 140–200 Italian volunteers due to administrative barriers placed by the country's government and internal opposition within Italy's leftist circles. Nevertheless, many Greek citizens and members of the Greek diaspora, as well as smaller numbers of Bulgarians, Britons and Frenchmen answered the call, bringing the unit to 2,224 men. The unit was split into four battalions,[15] two of which were dubbed Corps of Greek Red Shirts and were commanded by former Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament and veteran Redshirt, Count Alexandros Romas.[16] The Garibaldini were equipped by the Greek government which provided them with obsolete Gras rifles and old surplus swords, but failed to issue them with winter greatcoats.[15] The Garibaldini and a regular army rear guard battalion arrived at Metsovo between 17 and 20 November, forming the 3,800-man strong Metsovo Detachment.[17] On 24 November, Sapountzakis ordered Romas to capture mount Driskos and the north-eastern shore of Lake Pamvotida.[16] The Garibaldini were then to unite with the rest of the Army of Epirus and launch a coordinated attack on Bizani.[18]

Battle

Redshirt uniform of the Italian politician, Antonio Fratti, killed in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897

At 1:00 a.m. on 26 November, the Corps of Greek Red Shirts assaulted the Hani of Kamber Aga located between the Vigla and Toufekistra hills, which was defended by 600 Ottomans and 2 artillery pieces. The battle lasted until midday, whereupon the Garibaldini were able to secure the Ligkiades and Giobourtza villages and the Ottoman camp on Driskos. A total of 200 Ottomans were killed and a limited amount of material was seized.[19] In the afternoon Romas's troops were reinforced with the rest of the Redshirts under Garibaldi and a unit of Cretan volunteers under Kriaris and Makris, which enabled them to repulse the Ottomans from the plain in front of Driskos. In the meantime, Garibaldi's wife and daughter organized a field hospital at Sotiros monastery, in the Greek rear.[16]

On 27 November the Ottomans regrouped, reaching some 7,000–10,000 men with the arrival of the 19th Ottoman Division, a powerful searchlight, 2 mitrailleuses and a battery of field artillery pieces captured from the Greek army in the aftermath of the Battle of Sorovich.[17][18] They counterattacked from the direction of Tzoura with additional artillery support from the Kastitsa and Yanya Island batteries. The Garibaldini held their ground, but Makris was killed and three officers including Romas's deputy Mpardopoulos were wounded. On 28 November, the Ottomans launched another attack on Driskos after forwarding their battery to Hani of Lefkas. The Greeks were reinforced by 44 men and a single 75 mm Schneider-Danglis 06/09. The Greeks began experiencing a serious shortage in ammunition as the supply convoy from Grevena failed to arrive on time. Romas, Mpardopoulos and many other Greek officers including Lorentzos Mavilis were injured, leaving Peppino Garibaldi to assume command.[16]

Just before he received a second, and ultimately mortal injury to his head, according to eyewitness Nikos Karvounis, Mavilis is said to have exclaimed:

I was expecting honors from this war, but not the honor to sacrifice myself for Greece![20]

Believing that the Metsovo Detachment was at serious risk, General Dimitrios Matthaiopoulos ordered it to withdraw to Metsovo through the Hani of Kamber Aga, at midday.[16] Garibaldi's battalions which had played a limited role in the fighting, covered the Greek retreat and evacuated the wounded.[18]

Aftermath

Greek casualties in the battle of Driskos numbered between 200–400 killed and approximately 400 wounded, while the Ottomans lost between 1,000 and 2,000 killed and wounded.[21] Ricciotti Garibaldi attributed the Greek defeat to poor communication between the Garibaldini and the Army of Epirus. A number of Redshirts later claimed that the Greek state had intentionally left their unit exposed to a numerically superior force and poorly supplied so as to deny it the glory it had once attained at the Battle of Domokos.[21] In any case, the Neapoli-Siatista Evzone Detachment arrived in Metsovo several days later, replacing the casualties the Metsovo Detachment had suffered.[17] On 30 November, Garibaldi disbanded the Garibaldini and the volunteers began demobilizing. Greek Redshirts were said to have been received with hostility by the Greek society, while Italian volunteers were transported to their hometowns on mail trains and under police surveillance, a treatment usually reserved for criminals.[21] The battle of Driskos marked the last intervention of the Garibaldini into Greek expansionist conflicts. Many including Ricciotti later turned to Italian Fascism, while a group of dissenters under Cipriano Facchinetti had deserted the movement over its stance on the Albanian Question, generating an outroar of negative press.[22]

Following the conclusion of the Greek campaign in Macedonia, the Army of Epirus received considerable reinforcements. This enabled it to capture the Yanya Fortified Area in the aftermath of the Battle of Bizani (19–21 February 1913).[23] By May 1913, the numerically inferior Ottomans had suffered a series of serious defeats to the League's armies on all fronts. The League had captured most of the Ottoman Empire's European territories and was rapidly approaching Constantinople. On 30 May, the two sides signed the Treaty of London which granted the League's members all Ottoman lands west of Enos on the Aegean Sea and north of Midia on the Black Sea, as well as Crete. The fate of Albania and the Ottoman-held Aegean islands was to be determined by the Great Powers.[24]

Notes

Footnotes

1. All dates used in this article are Old Style which is 13 days before New Style.

Citations

1. Klapsis 2009, pp. 127–131.
2. Kargakos 2012, pp. 19–21.
3. Katsikostas 2014, pp. 5–6.
4. Hooton 2014, p. 65.
5. Katsikostas 2014, p. 12.
6. Veremis 1976, p. 115.
7. Kargakos 2012, pp. 26–29.
8. Kargakos 2012, pp. 35–38.
9. Kargakos 2012, pp. 106–108.
10. Christopoulos & Bastias 1977, pp. 302–303.
11. Erickson 2003, p. 227.
12. Hall 2000, pp. 62–64.
13. Christopoulos & Bastias 1977, pp. 304–305.
14. Bitarchas 2019, pp. 207–210.
15. Bitarchas 2019, pp. 215–217.
16. Kourkoumelis, Nikos. "Το «Σώμα Ελλήνων Ερυθροχιτώνων» του Αλεξάνδρου Ρώμα στη μάχη του Δρίσκου (26-28 Νοεμβρίου 1912) του Νίκου Κουρκουμέλη" [The Alexandr Romas's Corps of Greek Red Shirts in the Battle of Driskos (26-28 November 1912) by Nikos Kourkoumelis]. Corfu Museum (in Greek). Retrieved 3 May 2020.
17. Christopoulos & Bastias 1977, p. 305.
18. Bitarchas 2019, p. 217.
19. Kargakos 2012, p. 120.
20. Kargakos 2012, p. 121.
21. Bitarchas 2019, pp. 217–218.
22. Bitarchas 2019, pp. 220–221, 218.
23. Erickson 2003, p. 304.
24. Christopoulos & Bastias 1977, pp. 330–332.

References

• Apostolidis, Dimitrios (1913). Ο νικηφόρος ελληνοτουρκικός πόλεμος του 1912-1913 [The Victorious Greco-Turkish War of 1912-1913] (in Greek). I. Athens: Estia. Retrieved 13 November 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Bitarchas, Efstrathios (2019). "Ricciotti Garibaldi and the last expedition of the Italian Garibaldini volunteers to Greece (1912)". Italy on the Rimland: Storia militare di un penisola eurasiatica. 1: 207–222. Retrieved 9 April 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Christopoulos, Georgios; Bastias, Ioannis (1977). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Εθνους: Νεώτερος Ελληνισμός απο το 1881 ως 1913 [History of the Greek Nation: Modern Greece from 1881 until 1913] (in Greek). XIV. Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. ISBN 960-213-110-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Dimitracopoulos, Anastasios (1992). The First Balkan War Through the Pages of Review L'Illustration. Athens: Hellenic Committee of Military History. OCLC 37043754.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Erickson, Edward (2003). Defeat in Detail: The Ottoman Army in the Balkans, 1912-1913. Westport: Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-97888-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hall, Richard (2000). The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-22946-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hooton, Edward (2014). Prelude to the First World War: The Balkan Wars 1912-1913. Stroud: Fonthill Media. ISBN 978-1781551806.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kargakos, Sarandos (2012). Η Ελλάς κατά τους Βαλκανικούς Πολέμους (1912-1913) [Greece in the Balkan Wars (1912-1913)] (in Greek). Athens: Peritechnon. ISBN 978-960-8411-26-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Katsikostas, Dimitrios (2014). "Η αναδιοργάνωση των ενόπλων δυνάμεων και το έργο της γαλλικής στρατιωτικής αποστολής Eydoux" [The Reorganization of the Armed Forces and the Efforts of the French Military Mission of Eydoux] (PDF) (in Greek). Hellenic Army History Directorate. Retrieved 13 November 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Klapsis, Antonis (2009). "Between the Hammer and the Anvil. The Cyprus Question and the Greek Foreign Policy from the Treaty of Lausanne to the 1931 Revolt". Modern Greek Studies Yearbook. 24: 127–140. Retrieved 9 April 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Veremis, Thanos (1976). "The Officer Corps in Greece (1912–1936)". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. Routledge. 2 (1): 113–133. ISSN 0307-0131.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)