Battle of Philippopolis (1878)

Battle of Philippopolis
Part of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878

View of one of the streets of Filipoppol (Plovdiv) after the liberation, January 1878
Date14-16 January 1878
LocationFilibe Sanjak, Edirne Province, Ottoman Empire
(now Plovdiv, Bulgaria)
Result Russian victory
Belligerents
 Russian Empire  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Gourko Suleiman Pasha
Strength
12,000 7,000
Casualties and losses
1,300 killed and wounded[1] 5,000 killed and wounded, 2,000 captured[2][3][1]

The Battle of Philippopolis,[4][5] or Battle of Plovdiv,[6] was one of the final battles of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War.

Following the crushing Russian victory at the last battle of Shipka Pass, Russian commander Gen. Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko began to move southeast towards Constantinople. Blocking the route was the Ottoman fortress at Plovdiv under Suleiman Pasha. On 16 January 1878, a squadron of Russian dragoons led by Captain Alexander Burago stormed the city. Its defenses were strong but superior Russian numbers overwhelmed them and the Ottoman forces retreated almost to Constantinople. At this time foreign powers intervened and Russia agreed to the Treaty of San Stefano.

Gallery

References

  1. 1 2 Eggenberger D. An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. Courier Corporation. 2012. P. 338
  2. ↑ Jacques T. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. P. 804
  3. ↑ Dowling T. C. Russia at War. From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. 2014. P. 644.
  4. ↑ F. V. Greene, The Russian Arm and Its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878, Read Books, 2008, p. 359.
  5. ↑ Norman Tobias, The International Military Encyclopedia, Academic International Press, 2004, p. 19.
  6. ↑ Stanley Sandler, Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2002, p. 690.

Coordinates: 42°9′N 24°45′E / 42.150°N 24.750°E / 42.150; 24.750

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.