Battle of Monastir

As an ongoing part of the Balkan Wars, the Ottoman Vardar Army retreated from the defeat at Kumanovo and regrouped around Bitola. The Serbs seized Skopje then sent forces to help their Bulgarian ally besiege Adrianople.{{sfn | Jaques | Showalter | 2007 | p=674}}

The Serbian 1st Army, advancing south on Monastir (modern Bitola), encountered heavy Ottoman artillery fire and had to wait for its own artillery to arrive.

According to French Captain G. Bellenger, writing in Notes on the Employment of Artillery in the Balkan Campaign, unlike the Ottomans, Serbian field artillery was very mobile, at some point the Serbian Morava Division dragged four long-range artillery pieces up a mountain, then each night hauled the guns closer to the Turkish forces to better support the infantry.{{sfn | Marble | 2016 | p=222}}

On 18 November, following the destruction of the Ottoman artillery by Serbian artillery, the Serbian right flank pushed through the Vardar Army. The Serbs then entered Bitola on 19 November. With the conquest of Bitola the Serbs controlled southwestern Macedonia, including the symbolically important town of Ohrid.{{sfnp|Hall|2000|pp=45–68}}

File:Bitolj-srpsko vojno groblje.JPG

After the battle of Monastir, the five-century-long Ottoman rule of Macedonia was over. The Serbian 1st Army continued fighting in the First Balkan War. At this point some officers wanted the 1st Army to continue its advance down the valley of the Vardar to Thessaloniki. Vojvoda Putnik refused. The threat of war with Austria-Hungary loomed over the issue of a Serbian presence on the Adriatic. In addition, with the Bulgarians and Greeks already in Thessaloniki, the appearance of Serbian forces there would only muddle an already complicated situation.{{sfnp|Hall|2000|pp=45–68}}

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Refbegin|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book |last1=Dupuy |first1=R. Ernest |last2=Dupuy |first2=Trevor N. |title=The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History |edition=4 |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |date=1993 |ref={{sfnref|Dupuy and Dupuy|1993}}}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Richard C. |title=The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913 |publisher=Routledge |year=2000}}
• {{cite book | last=Jaques | first=T. | last2=Showalter | first2=D.E. | title=Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O | publisher=Greenwood Press | series=Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity Through the Twenty-first Century | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-313-33538-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh6jydKXikoC}}
• {{cite book |last=Jowett |first=Philip |year=2011 |title=Armies of the Balkan Wars 1912–13: The Priming Charge for the Great War |publisher=Osprey Publishing |isbn=978-1-78096-528-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0JrmLxkvfZUC&q=Armies+of+the+Balkan+Wars+1912-13: }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• {{cite book | last=Marble | first=S. | title=King of Battle: Artillery in World War I | publisher=Brill | series=History of Warfare | year=2016 | isbn=978-90-04-30728-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fGcCwAAQBAJ&pg=PR4}}
• {{cite book |last1=Phillips |first1=John |title=Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2004 |isbn= 978-0300102680}}

{{Refend}}

{{Balkan Wars}}

{{Ottoman battles in the 20th century}}

{{Wars and battles involving Serbs}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monastir 1912}}

Category:Battles of the First Balkan War

Category:Conflicts in 1912

Category:1912 in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Battles involving the Ottoman Empire

Category:Battles involving Serbia

Category:Military history of North Macedonia

Category:1912 in Europe

Category:Manastir vilayet

Category:History of Bitola

Category:Bitola Municipality

Category:Vardar Macedonia (1912–1918)

Category:Battles of the Ottoman–Serbian Wars

Category:November 1912 in Europe