SHIPKA PASS
During the Russo-turkish War (1877-78) this mountainous position was the scene of brutal fighting
The Russo-turkish War of 1877-78 was fought between the Russian Empire (more correctly, an Eastern Orthodox coalition led by Russia, which included Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro) and the Ottoman Empire. It was the last, and most important, of a series of conflicts fought between the two empires dating back to the 17th century. Its causes are deep-rooted and complex, but the 1877 conflict began on 24 April, when the Russian Tsar, Alexander II, declared war on the Ottomans to come to the aid of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, who had begun a rebellion against Ottoman rule. It would end in a Russian coalition victory ten months later following a savage campaign that saw tens of thousands killed and countless more wounded. There were several sizeable actions fought during the conflict, one of the most notable being the Battle of Shipka Pass, itself a series of bloody actions fought for control of the vital pass in the Balkan Mountains.
Russian strategy
Bitter experience of earlier conflicts between the Russians and Ottomans had led to Turkey building a string of fortresses to guard its European provinces from future attacks. Nevertheless, Prussian-born Russian General Hans Karl von Diebitsch had managed to break through these formidable defences in 1829 and advance on Constantinople, allowing Russia to dictate subsequent peace terms. In 1877, Russian strategy was simply to repeat Diebitsch’s earlier victory.
However, in 1877 Russia was unable to benefit from the naval supremacy it had enjoyed in the earlier campaign, which allowed unopposed amphibious operations and resupply by sea. This was because the Russian Black
Sea fleet had scuttled itself at
Sevastopol during the disastrous
Crimean War, while the subsequent
Treaty of Paris of 1856 restricted
the number and size of vessels Russia could maintain in the Black Sea. Turkey, on the other hand, had built several modern ironclads which Russia could now not counter.
Russian strategy instead focussed on marching an army of 250,000 men through Romania and cross the Danube – the natural border between Russian and Ottoman controlled territories – to avoid Ottoman defences. The Russian army would then advance over the Balkan Mountains to Adrianople, from where it would finally march on Constantinople and again force terms on the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, another force would launch a diversionary offensive in the Caucasus to draw off Ottoman troops that might otherwise meet the main Russian thrust towards the Ottoman capital. Alexander knew he needed a quick victory before the Great Powers of Europe could intervene.
Ottoman forces
At the start of the campaign, the Russian Army of the South was organised into four corps, each comprising two infantry and one cavalry divisions with supporting artillery. There is some debate as to the strength of their Ottoman opponents. At the time, Russia estimated that Turkey held around 160,000 troops in Europe, of which 60,000 were at Vidin on the Danube and the remaining 100,000 concentrated around Rushchuk, Silistria, Varna and Shumla. Historians believe the number of Ottoman troops available to oppose the Russian invasion was higher, estimates ranging from 186,000 to over 250,000, although many would be garrisoning forts and not available for field operations.
Unlike Russia, the Ottomans do not appear to have had a strategy for the coming conflict, save for holding their static defensive line formed by the fortresses. The Ottoman high command suffered from internal rivalry, with commanders actively engaged in intrigues against one another. Even when the fighting commenced, these rivalries continued and undermined the Ottoman defence. Nevertheless, Ottoman troops would fight a determined and bloody campaign against the Russians.
The Russians advance
Initially, the Russians successfully crossed the Danube into Bulgaria as planned, with all four corps over the river by 1 July, although they quickly began to deviate from their original strategy by adopting a broader, slower advance. Nevertheless, General Iosif Vladimirovich Gurko was ordered to race ahead of the main Russian army with 16,000 men – including the 4th Rifle Brigade, the Bulgarian Legion, a half-battalion of dismounted Cossacks, and some artillery – and take possession of the strategically vital passes through the Balkan Mountains before Ottoman troops did the same.
The Russian advance came as a shock to the Ottomans, who scrambled to form a new line south of the Balkan Mountains. However, they simply did not have enough men to properly guard the mountain passes the Russians sought to exploit. One such pass was the Khankoi Pass, itself found to be totally unguarded, as it was little more than a rough path. Russian pioneers set to work improving the path to allow the passage of cavalry and artillery, the work carried out totally undetected by the Ottomans. Nevertheless, it took Gurko three days to get over the pass, his infantrymen hauling the heavy guns up the steep slopes, a feat that led Gurko to later remark, “None but Russian soldiers could have made such a march in the time, and dragged the guns through such a defile.”
Once over the Khankoi Pass, Gurko’s force advanced through the Tundja Valley. The Russians skirmished with Ottoman advance troops, causing some delay, but otherwise continued without meeting serious resistance. Soon, Gurko’s men found themselves looking towards their prize – the Shipka Pass.
Capture of the pass
On 17 July, Prince Nikolay Svyatopolk-mirsky, commander of the Russian 9th Infantry
Division, attacked Ottoman positions at Shipka Pass. Gurko was supposed to work in concert with Mirsky to take the pass but had not arrived on time due to his delay. Unwilling to wait, Mirsky sent forward 2,000 men of the 36th (Orlovski) Infantry Regiment, supported by Cossacks and artillery, but they were repulsed by an Ottoman force of 4,000 made up of regular infantrymen, irregular Bashi-bazouks and artillery. When Gurko arrived the next day, he also attacked the pass with two infantry battalions supported by two companies of Cossacks. This second attack also failed. Russian Colonel Nikolai Epanchin recalled,
“The fire of [Ottoman] musketry and cannon was murderous.” Russian casualties stood at 150 killed or wounded.
Nevertheless, the Ottoman defenders believed more Russian troops would soon be arriving and that they would unlikely be able to hold the pass from another assault. On 19 July, Ottoman troops quietly withdrew from the pass. The Russians, who believed the Ottomans were considering their demands for surrender, only realised the defenders had retired when they sent forward pickets to probe Ottoman defences. Shipka Pass now fell to the Russians.
Following the capture of the pass, Epanchin encountered signs of the already brutal nature of the war, “Here … could be seen traces of the barbarity of the Turks … On the terrace beside the guardhouse was found the decapitated corpse of Captain Bashtavnuzi, while to the right and left of the road lay the headless corpses of the Cossack infantry and Bulgarians … By the barracks our surgeons were binding up the Turkish wounded, and not far off lay the mutilated bodies of our riflemen, and among them hospital orderlies with the Red Cross on their arms. These bodies presented a terrible sight; half naked and with the fingers cut off, with the knees turned outwards, and the soles with strips of skin cut off.”
Battle begins
The loss of Shipka Pass had come as another blow to the Ottomans and plans to retake it were quickly put in motion. This task fell to Süleyman Hüsnü Pasha, who had been recalled from Montenegro with an experienced army of 20,000 men. Elsewhere, the advance of the main Russian force had ground to a halt in the face of determined Ottoman resistance at Plevna in northern Bulgaria. The war had suddenly taken on a static nature and not the one of mobility envisioned by the Russians.
Meanwhile, Gurko had garrisoned the
Shipka Pass with a Russian infantry regiment and a Bulgarian battalion, while he led the remainder of his force south towards the town of Kazanlak. It would be on the 29 July that some of Gurko’s Bulgarian troops clashed with the advanced guard of Süleyman’s force near Stara Zagora. Süleyman’s veteran soldiers proved too much for the Bulgarians, who withdrew after sustaining heavy casualties. The Ottoman troops then burned Stara Zagora and reputedly murdered thousands of its Christian inhabitants. Gurko, realising he was heavily outnumbered, retired back through the Khankoi Pass but sent five Bulgarian battalions to reinforce the garrison at Shipka Pass.
It was now the turn of the Russians to defend the Shipka Pass, their garrison consisting of the Russian 36th Infantry Regiment, five battalions of the Bulgarian Legion, five companies of Cossacks, and 29 guns. In all around 7,500 men, mostly Bulgarians. The defenders set about improving the old Ottoman defences, digging new trenches and building breastworks out of stone. They also buried explosives left behind by the original Ottoman garrison to blow up Ottoman troops as they advanced on the pass.
His army swelled to 38,000 men, Süleyman ordered an advance on the Shipka Pass on 21 August. The Ottoman troops climbed the rocky slopes leading to Mount St Nicholas where they came under a murderous fire from the muskets and artillery of the
Bulgarian defenders above, which inflicted
grievous casualties among the Ottomans. Nevertheless, Süleyman had managed to get one of his artillery batteries onto the Malybedek Mountain, from where it fired onto the Russian and Bulgarian troops.
Ottoman troops again assaulted Mount St Nicholas, this time from the direction of the Demir-tepe Mountain to the east. Again, they were met by withering musket and artillery fire which burned through the Ottoman ranks, causing yet more heavy casualties. As the desperate fight for Shipka Pass raged, the Russian 35th Infantry Regiment arrived to reinforce the defenders.
One witness to events was Lieutenant
Francis Greene of the US Army, who was serving as military attaché to the Russians, “They [the Ottomans] attacked with the utmost desperation, but were as desperately received, and the struggle went on from a little afternoon till eight o’clock at night. Again and again the Turks came on yelling ‘Allah’ and rushed up the slope to within a few yards of the [Russian] battery; but they could go no farther. Their last attack was made by moonlight about 9.00pm, and being repulsed they tried no more for that day; but they remained in the positions they had taken … and kept up a constant fire throughout the night.”
Little happened on 22 August, apart from some infrequent exchange of fire. However, on 23 August, Süleyman ordered a major assault. Attacking from three directions, the Ottomans again climbed the steep slopes only to be met by the same savage fire of the Russian and Bulgarian defenders as before. The Russians also set off the buried explosives, causing death and horrendous injuries among the attackers. Nevertheless, some of the Ottoman troops did reach the Russian trenches and bloody hand-to-hand fighting ensued, during which many Russian gunners were killed. A Russian bayonet charge of the 36th (Orlovski) Infantry Regiment eventually threw the Ottomans back down the slopes.
Again and again the Ottomans attacked, despite the murderous fire they faced each time. At one point, the Russians and Bulgarians ran so low on ammunition that they threw rocks and rolled down boulders upon their attackers. Some accounts even quote the corpses of Ottoman dead being picked up and thrown at the attackers. At 3.00pm, the Ottomans managed to overrun the central battery, forcing the defenders back.
Greene recalled what happened next, “Colonel Lipinsky … went back to the road, expostulated, reasoned, threatened, and drove these men back to the positions on the centre hill. From here they delivered their fire in volleys upon the Turks in their rear, who were just beginning to climb the slope toward the road. Stunned by this sudden reception, the Turks wavered a little; and at this very moment … appeared in sight the first of the reenforcements [sic.] … The attack was so bold and spirited that the Turks fell back through the wood … leaving the Russians in possession of their first line of trenches at the foot of the slope.”
These reinforcements came in the form of 200 mounted men of the 4th Rifle Brigade, who retook the battery, after which the remainder of the brigade, commanded by Fyodor Radetsky, arrived. The Ottomans attacked yet again, and were yet again repulsed. Radetsky then ordered two of his battalions to capture the Bald Mountain, the Russians climbing the slopes to meet a hail of deadly fire from the Ottomans. During the assault, the leading Russian troops were virtually annihilated, and, after much heavy loss, the remainder retired.
The next day, the Russians again attacked the Bald Mountain, but they were unable to take it, although they did manage to dislodge the Ottomans holding Wooded Hill. On 26 August, the Ottomans counter-attacked to retake Wooded Hill, inflicting such casualties on the Russian 35th Infantry Regiment that Radetsky felt compelled to abandon the position. Fighting for the Shipka Pass now died down, but Süleyman Hüsnü Pasha was still determined to retake it.
“SOME ACCOUNTS EVEN QUOTE THE CORPSES OF OTTOMAN DEAD BEING PICKED UP AND THROWN AT THE ATTACKERS”
Süleyman’s second attack
The attacks on Shipka Pass had proved costly for Süleyman, losing in the region of 10,000 killed or wounded. For the next three weeks he reorganised his forces and gathered reinforcements for a renewed assault. During that time, Süleyman received orders from Mehemet Ali Pasha to march his army into northern Bulgaria where the bulk of the fighting of the war was taking place. Süleyman, hellbent on retaking the pass, ignored his superior and continued his preparations for another attack.
On 17 September, Süleyman once again ordered his men to attack Mount St Nicholas. Despite slippery conditions caused by recent rains, the Ottoman troops captured some of the forward Russian trenches, but they remained unable to reach the top. The Russians counterattacked and drove the Ottomans off. Again, the Ottomans attacked only to be repulsed once more. This cycle continued without success. Süleyman’s renewed assault had cost him another 3,000 men. Despite his failure to recapture the Shipka Pass, Süleyman was promoted to command Ottoman forces in northern Bulgaria following the sacking of Mehemet Ali. He departed having not achieved the goal he so desperately wanted.
Ottoman defeat
As winter approached, the defenders on Shipka Pass were withdrawn and replaced by fresh troops. For those now defending the pass, life in the snow proved miserable. Many became sick. However, there was good news for the freezing defenders when they learned that the Ottoman fortress at Plevna had finally surrendered in December. The end of the war was in sight.
Gurko now went on the offensive, leading an army of over 65,000 through the Araba Konak Pass, capturing Sofia on 4 January
1878. Moving on, he marched south through the Balkan Mountains. He relieved Radetsky at Shipka after which both generals worked in concert to trap an Ottoman army under Veissel Pasha near Sheynovo on 5 January. Veissel, greatly outnumbered, was forced to surrender on 9 January. Some 30,000 Ottoman troops were taken prisoner.
The Russo-bulgarian defence of Shipka Pass had been an epic one and casualties were high. The Russians suffered around 13,500 killed and wounded while the Ottomans sustained something in the region of 60,000 killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The defence had also tied up thousands of Ottoman troops that might otherwise had marched to the aid of their comrades at Plevna. Had the defence of Shipka Pass failed, the outcome of the war may well have been different.