Greece declared war on the Ottoman Empire on October 5, 1912, marking the start of operations by the Greek armed forces in the First Balkan War. After the completion of the recruitment, the Greek army was divided into two divisions, the Army of Thessaly under the command of the heir Constantine and the Army of Epirus under the command of the lieutenant general Konstantinos Sapundzakis. On October 6, the Thessalian Army achieved the first victory of the Greek arms at Elassona.
The Ottoman forces then retreated to the straits of Sarandaporos. “The Turks occupied a formidable position, at the foot of the mountain which had a narrow pass behind them. They were placed higher than us, so that they had an advantage and could see everything that happened on the plain. It was two and a half divisions with an artillery regiment, twenty-four cannons” said the heir regarding the Ottoman defensive positions in Sarandaporo (Macedonian Studies Society, Hours of Freedom, Balkan Wars, 100 years, From Meluna to Thessaloniki, Kathimerini, March 2012, p. 45). The Greek attack took place on October 9. Faced with the danger of being encircled, the Ottoman forces collapsed during the night of the 9thher-10her October, leaving behind cannons and large quantities of supplies and materials. In pursuit of the enemy forces, the Greek army liberated Serbia on 10 October.
After the liberation of Kozani, Constantine planned the advance of the Greek forces towards Monastiri (Bitola), headquarters of the 3rd Corps of the Ottoman army, thinking militarily and fearing the dispatch of Ottoman reinforcements from the city to the area of Thessaloniki. The Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, however, thinking politically, gave the order to advance towards Thessaloniki, fearing the occupation of the city by the Bulgarians. When it became evident that no Ottoman reinforcements would be sent from the Monastery, the crown prince turned towards Thessaloniki. Due to the subsequent National Schism, the difference of opinion between the successor and Venizelos took on great dimensions.
This was followed by the liberation of Veria, Naoussa and Edessa on October 16, 17 and 18 respectively and then the Greek forces fought the Battle of Giannitsa on October 19-20. “The battle of Jenitsa can be characterized as the biggest, the most stubborn and the fiercest of the battles so far” the correspondent of the Athenian newspaper wrote about the Battle Script (op., pp. 51-52).
During its retreat, the Ottoman army destroyed the Axios bridges. It took the non-stop work of the Engineer’s units as well as the memorable offer of the necessary tools and materials from the residents of the area, especially of Chalastra (Koulakia), to complete the work of bridging the Axios. The road was now open to Thessaloniki.
After long discussions with the consuls of the M. Forces, the commander of the newly established 8th Corps of the Ottoman army, Hasan Tahsin Pasha, accepted the terms of the heir Constantine for the surrender of his forces and the city. Late in the evening of the 26thher October, on the day of Saint Demetrius, the patron saint of Thessaloniki, Victor Dousmanis and Ioannis Metaxas jointly signed the handover protocol with Tahsin. The next day, units of the Greek army entered the city. Thessaloniki, the capital of Macedonia, the city that “embodied woes and Greek dreams”, was now free.
The Liberation of Thessaloniki caused shivers of emotion throughout Hellenism. “”Ours have come! Our Army has arrived! the Greeks came!”. It seemed to me as if I was waking up from a dream. So was it true? I jumped up, got dressed in a hurry and went out to Egnatia! In the broad as we used to say then… the shops were half closed! But the street was full of our people asking each other. At that moment, a tram coming from Vardari shouted to us that the Railway Station had been occupied by the Greek Army!… Almost simultaneously, two mounted Greek heralds, one a soldier and the other a gendarme, were seen galloping towards Kamara! That’s it! It was suddenly heard, thrown from all sides of the street. A voice that came from our soul, from the pain of so many years of slavery… an unstoppable wave of people, hugging each other, gesticulating furiously, crying with joy, poured out running towards the Station” Nikolaos Christodoulou told the 1962, fifty years after Liberation (op.p. 64).
On October 28, King George I entered Thessaloniki. “Our flag was first raised on the White Tower that day in the morning, just as the victory parade was coming down the promenade. The cannons erected nearby were firing a salute, the ships in the harbor were all whistling together, and King George, the Crown Prince and the Staff were riding ahead of the army. The people who had spilled out into the streets cheered furiously and many eyes shed tears of emotion” wrote the Thessalonian Alexander Zannas in his Memoirs describing the moment (IMHA, The Macedonian Struggle. MemoirsThessaloniki 1984, p. 163).
Column Editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
