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The Macedono-Odrinian volunteers in the Balkan Wars

The general mobilization of the Bulgarian army was carried out on the 30th of September 1912. All Bulgarians from Macedonia who had served in the Bulgarian army as privates or officers went to their respective military units: they were about 30 000 men. But apart from them there were Bulgarians from Macedonia who had recently fled from Turkish persecution and come to the territory of the kingdom. These refugees voluntarily wanted to take part in the war for liberation and since they could not be enlisted in the regular army the defence minister organized a volunteer corps from them.

The volunteer corps, consisting of 14, 670 men, had 12 battalions: from Debar, Skopje, Adrianople (Odrin), Ochrida, Kostour, Koumanovo, Veles, Prilep, Serres, Lozengrad and Salonika. Barely organized, the volunteers were engaged in operations.

According to their place of birth the volunteers were classified as follows: from the district of Bitola - 457, from the district of Veles - 449, from the district of Vodena - 79, from the district of Gevgely - 246, from the district of Gorna Djoumaja - 162, from the district of Gostivar - 104, from the district of Debar - 1011, from the district of Demir Hisar - 234, from the district of Dojran - 73, from the district of Drama - 124, from the district of Enidje-Vardar - 104, from the district of Zuhna - 4, from the district of Kajlare - 36, from the district of Kichevo - 350, from the district of Kochany - 203, from the district of Kostour - 409, from the district of Korcha - 6, from the district of Kratovo - 330, from the district of Kriva-Palanka - 431, from the district of Kroushevo - 250, from the district of Koukoush - 512, from the district of Lerin - 158, from the district of Maleshevo - 77, from the district of Melnik - 240, from the district of Nevrokop - 715, from the district of Negotino - 12, from the district of Ochrida - 542, from the district of Petrich - 129, from the district of Pehchevo - 16, from the district of Prilep - 501, from the district of Razlog - 359, from the district of Radovish - 89, from the district of Resen - 47, from the district of Skopje - 207, from the district of Salonika - 194, from the district of Stroumitsa - 143, from the district of Strouga - 40, from the district of Serres - 197, from the district of Tetovo - 171, from the district of Tikvesh - 108, from the district of Shtip - 440.

The volunteer forces from Macedonia and Adrianople consisted of three brigades and were organized like a division with its own services. General Genov was appointed head of the the volunteers. Colonel St. Nikolov from Priliep was appointed head of the first brigade, colonel Pchelarov - of the second one and colonel Protogerov from Ohrid - of the third one.

In February the volunteer corps was joined by three new battalions - from Vodena, Koukoush and Shtip. On the 2nd of May the volunteer corps left the coast of the Marmara Sea for Macedonia. There it was engaged in the sector against the Serbs in the mountain of Ossogovo, from the village of Zletovo to the peak Sultantepe. On the 30th of June the fifteen battalions of the Bulgarian volunteers from Macedonia took part in the in the attack against the Serbian front. In one day they took from the Serbs two fortified positions and with one attack took the hills of Paradly (Roumena Bouka). The next day they retreated only after an order was given.

In the retreat of the Bulgarian army the Macedonian volunteers very often were in the rear guard. Up to the cease of the hostilities they fought against the Serbs with incredible fury. In the Eve of the signing of the armistice, when they already knew the war was lost, they counterattacked the Serbs without any political hope but only for the glory of Bulgaria, causing many casualties to the enemy.

When the treaty of Bucharest was signed it was the corps of the Macedonian volunteers to give over to the Serbs the piece of Macedonian land that Serbia annexed without having won it. In the history of nations-martyrs this was without a precedent.

During the two Balkan wars the casualties of the Macedonian volunteer corps amounted to 3, 631 of whom 177 dead, 318 killed, 2, 261 wounded and 377 disappeared, i.e. 25% of its personnel.
La Question Bulgare et les États balkaniques, Sofia, 1919, p. 237; the original is in French.

by: http://www.bulgaria.com/VMRO/balkwars.htm