The Big Raid

The raiders had issued a proclamation calling upon the Macedonians and Epirotes to rise en-masse but there was no response.

Continuing Greco-Turkish War of 1897,
our selection from Battlefields of Thessaly by Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett published in 1897. The selection is presented in seven easy 5-minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Greco-Turkish War of 1897.

Time: 1897
Place: Thessaly and Crete

Along the frontier line of Thessaly and Epirus were massed, at the outbreak of the war, about one hundred thirty thousand Ottoman troops and about ninety thousand Greeks. The whole Turkish army of Thessaly was under the supreme command of Edhem Pacha, whose headquarters, up to April 25th, were at Elassona. The difficulty of communication with Epirus made that country, however, almost an independent command. Ah med Hifzi Pacha and Mustapha Pacha led the Turks in Epirus, and their headquarters were at the old and famous fortress of Janina and at Pouros.

When hostilities broke out, Edhem Pacha had about one hundred thousand men of all arms under his immediate direction. These were divided into six divisions, under Hamdi, Hakki, Neschat, Hairi, Memdouk, and Haidar Pachas. The Crown Prince was the nominal commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in Thessaly, and he had seventy thousand men between Volo and Kala-baka, the chief force being collected just north of Larissa, between Tournavos and the Col di Melouna, with strong bodies thrown out right and left along the mountain boundary. At Arta, the Greek headquarters on the west. Colonel Manos was in command, with fifteen thousand men.

On April 17th the Sultan and his Government at last decided to declare a state of war. Desultory fighting had been going on along the frontier for some days previously. Greek irregular troops had made several deliberate raids into Turkish territory, especially in the direction of Grevena and Nezeros. The provocation thus given to Turkey was great and intolerable, and there can be no doubt that the Sultan was by these raids justified in formally declaring war.

The circumstances of these raids are peculiar. Fortunately, a full and reliable account exists in the letters of English correspondents who were present with the Greek army.

On April 9th a body of two thousand irregulars assembled at Koniskos, close to Kalabaka, the terminus of the Volo-Pharsalos-Trikkala Railway line. This band was organized by the Ethnike Hetairia, under the personal direction of M. Goussio. The men were mostly reservists and were armed with the regulation Gras rifle and bayonets of the Greek army. Each man had a badge embroidered with the letters E. E. Their leaders were two retired Greek officers named Mylonas and Kapsapoulos. Under these were several notorious brigand chiefs, including Develis, Zermas, and Makris.

After a solemn religious service, in which the band were blessed by a Greek priest, they crossed the frontier near Krania in three detachments, with the object of seizing Grevena and cutting the line of communication between the Turkish armies in Thessaly and Epirus. Krania lies only five miles from the frontier and was about thirteen miles northeast of the important Turkish position of Metzovo. Grevena is fifteen miles north- northeast of Krania.

The raiders had issued a proclamation calling upon the Macedonians and Epirotes to rise en-masse but there was no response. They captured three or four small Turkish blockhouses and outposts, making eight prisoners and killing the same number of soldiers. They then attacked a company of Ottoman Nizams (regular troops) in the village of Baltimon. The lieutenant in command, when summoned to surrender, returned a point-blank refusal, and said he and his men would rather die at their post. These hundred Turks held the village against all attacks till Saturday night, the 10th, when they retired with trifling loss.

The main body of the raiders advanced a few miles farther, but Hakki Pacha’s forces were gathering about them, and their line of retreat was threatened. A desultory engagement ensued at Bougasi and the Sixth Turkish Chasseurs, under Islam Pacha, defeated the invaders. Most of them fled back as rapidly as possible into Greek territory, with a loss of more than one hundred fifty men. Eighty-six of the raiders were Italians, under the Socialist deputy Amilcar Cipriani. The cold and exposure soon told on the weak constitutions of these southern Italian revolutionists. Forty-one of the band deserted on April 1oth and returned to Kalabaka in a wretched plight before the main body came back.

Thus ended ingloriously the first enterprise of the Ethnike Hetairia. The early telegrams to Athens were in the usual grandiose style. A whole Turkish battalion had been cut to pieces, Grevena had been captured, and the Turkish armies had been cut in half!

The Times correspondent at Athens thus described the effect produced on April 15th, when the truth became known: “The unsuccessful issue of the first raid into Macedonia has deepened the general exasperation, and also led to much angry recrimination. The Ethnike Hetairia blames the Government, and the Government blames the Ethnike Hetairia. It is quite evident that the society expected that its forces would receive the support of the regular troops, and that an outbreak of war would thus be precipitated. Some journals give vent to bitter recriminations against all the authorities. They declare that mistrust exists between the Court and the Government; that the nation knows what it wants, but that its rulers are wavering and undecided. They ask how it is possible that two thousand five hundred Greeks should be surrounded and compelled to retreat without receiving any assistance from the Greek army. A pessimistic tone is now becoming noticeable, but there is no diminution in the clamor for war.”

M. Delyannis, the Greek Premier, denied that any regular officers or troops were in the raid. M. Skouzes tried to prove that the Turks were the aggressors. The Greek commander is said to have warned Edhem Pacha of the expedition, declaring that he was himself powerless to prevent it. Other inroads also were made by the Greeks into Turkish territory almost simultaneously. Much indignation was caused in Turkey by these irregular attacks, and an official protest was sent by the Porte to the great Powers. But the Sultan was exceedingly loath to begin war, and matters quieted down by the 12th.

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