Serbo-Bulgarian War

After the defensive battles at Slivnitsa and Vidin (the latter's defence was organized by Atanas Uzunov), Bulgaria began an offensive which took the city of Pirot.However, the relationship of trust and friendship between Serbia and Bulgaria, which had been built during their long common fight against Ottoman rule, suffered irreparable damage.The Serbian army's infantry weaponry stood up to the most modern standards of the time (Mauser-Milovanović single fire rifles with excellent ballistic characteristics).Serbia's main advantages on paper were the better small arms and the highly educated commanders and soldiers, who had gained a great deal of experience from the last two wars against the Ottoman Empire.[4] However, internal Serbian problems supplemented by King Milan's conduct of the war, nullified most of these advantages: In order to claim all the glory for the victory he considered imminent, King Milan did not call upon the most famous commanders of the previous wars (Gen. Jovan Belimarković, Gen. Đura Horvatović and Gen. Milojko Lešjanin) to command the army.The modern rifles, despite being among the best in Europe at the time,[citation needed] still had issues of their own: they were introduced only two years before the outbreak of the war, and as such many of the soldiers were not well-trained in their use.More importantly, the theoretical capabilities of the rifle often misled the Serbian officers, who still lacked experience with it, into ordering volleys from distances of half a mile or more, wasting precious ammunition for negligible results.When the unification had been declared, Russia had withdrawn its military officers, who had until that moment commanded all larger units of Bulgaria's young army.The remaining Bulgarian officers had lower ranks and no experience in commanding units larger than platoons (causing the conflict to be dubbed "The War of the Captains").[citation needed] Presumably, lying to his army was King Milan's only means to mobilize and command his troops without experiencing disobedience and unrest.Furthermore, the Bulgarians had small arms that were inferior to those of the Serbs but had artillery that was greatly superior by featuring modern steel, Krupp-designed breech-loading cannons.[4] Prince Alexander I arrived on the evening of 16 November to find a well prepared defensive position manned by 9 battalions, plus some 2000 volunteers and 32 guns, commanded by Major Guchev.However, three battalions of Bulgarian troops led by Captain Popov from Sofia had held the Morava division in the Visker Hills and the flanking move failed.[4] The main Bulgarian army crossed the border in two strong divisions (Guchev and Nikolaev), supported by flanking columns, and converged on Pirot.[11][12][13] Milan believed the conflict would entail "taking a walk to Sofia" and thus mustered only one-third of the Serbian army's manpower, as he was in constant fear of possible plots against him and wished to keep the rest of the military within Serbia's borders.Novaković advocated reaching a peaceful settlement with the Bulgarians and believed that the Balkan countries should cooperate, as had occurred during the rule of Prince Mihailo Obrenović.[15] The Serbian army and political elite drew numerous lessons from the war, and proceeded to modernise and adapt the military and its tactics to the demands of modern warfare.