Siege of Pleven

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Siege of Pleven
Part of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78
Date July 20–December 10, 1877 Location Pleven, Bulgaria Result Russian-Romanian victory
Combatants
Russia, Romania	Ottoman Empire
Commanders
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolai Krudener Prince Carol I of Romania	Osman Pasha
Strength
100,000	40,000
Casualties
68,000 killed, wounded or captured	40,000 killed, wounded or captured

Map

The Siege of Pleven (or Plevna) during the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78, saw a major struggle between the joint army of Russia and Romania; and the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish defense held up the main Russian advance southwards into Bulgaria. Eventually superior Russian numbers forced the garrison to capitulate.

[edit] Background

In July, 1877 the Russian Army, under the command of Grand Duke Nicholas, moved toward the Danube River virtually unopposed, since the Turks had no sizeable force in the area. The Turkish high command sent an army to reinforce the city of Nikopol under the command of Osman Pasha. Before Osman reached Nikopol, the Russian vanguard easily took the city in the Battle of Nikopol (16 July 1877) and Osman settled on Pleven to the south. Hours after Osman constructed fortifications Russian forces began to arrive.

[edit] The Siege

[edit] First Battle

General Schilder Schuldner, commanding the Russian 5th Division, IX Corps, received orders to simply occupy Pleven. Schuldner arrived outside the city on July 19 and began to bombard the Turkish defenses but made no attack. The next day the Schuldner attacked and succeeded in driving the Turks from some of the outer defenses. Osman brought up reinforcements and launched a series of counter-attacks which drove the Russians from the captured trenches, inflicting 2,800 casualties at a cost of 2,000.

[edit] Second Battle

Both sides brought up reinforcements. General Nikolai Krudener arrived with the entire Russian IX Corps and Osman's forces grew to 20,000. On July 30 Russian headquarters ordered Krudener to assault the city. Krudener had a cavalry division under General Schakofsky and an infantry division under General Mikhail Skobelev. Schakofsky attacked the eastern redoubts and Skobelev assailed the Gravitza redoubt to the north. Schakofsky managed to take two redoubts, but by the end of the day the Turks succeeded in repulsing all the attacks and retaking lost ground. Russian losses amounted to 7,300 and the Turks lost 2,000.

[edit] Third Battle

After repulsing the Russian attacks, Osman failed to press his advantage and possibly to drive off the besiegers. He did however make a cavalry sortie on August 31 which cost the Russian 1,300 casualties and the Turks 1,000. The Russians continued to send reinforcements to Pleven, and their army reached 100,000 men, now personally led by the Grand Duke. On September 3, Skobelev reduced the garrison at Lovech guarding the Turkish supply-lines before Osman could move out to relieve it. see main article: Battle of Lovcha. The Turks organized the survivors of Lovech into 3 battalions for the Pleven defenses. Osman received an additional 13 battalions, bringing his total strength to 30,000; the highest it would reach during the siege.

On September 11 the Russians made a large-scale assault on Pleven. Skobelev took two southern redoubts and a Romanian division took the Gravitza redoubt. The next day the Turks retook the southern redoubts, but could not dislodge the Romanians. From the beginning of September Russian losses had amounted to roughly 20,000, while the Turks lost 5,000.

Plevna Chapel on St Elijah's Square in Moscow, opened in 1882, commemorates the Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Pleven.

[edit] Fourth Battle

Growing Russian casualties put a halt to frontal assaults. General Eduard Ivanovich Todleben arrived to oversee the conduct of the siege as the army chief of staff. Todleben had proven command experience in siege warfare: he had previously gained renown for his defense of Sevastopol (1854 - 1855) during the Crimean War. He decided on a complete encirclement of the city and of its defenders and by October 24 the Russians and Romanians had completely surrounded Pleven. Osman requested permission to abandon Pleven and retreat, but the Ottoman high command did not allow him to do so. Supplies began to run low in the city and Osman finally made an attempt to break the Russian siege in the direction of Opanets. On December 9 Osman crossed the Vid River, attacked on a 2-mile front and broke through the first line of Russian trenches. Outnumbering the Turks almost 5 to 1, the Russians drove the Turks back across the Vid and wounded Osman in the process. Making a brief stand, the Turks eventually found themselves driven back into the city, losing 5,000 men to the Russians' 2,000. The next day Osman surrendered the city, the garrison and his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Cerchez. The number of Ottoman prisoners-of-war captured at Pleven exceeded 2100 officers and 43000 soldiers. They were subjected to a death march comparable to the Germans who surrendered at Stalingrad. Only a handful of them returned to Turkey after the war. Turks rarely took prisoners and chose to kill and mutilate any russians they captured.

[edit] Results

Sword surrendered by Edhem Pasha after the defeat at Pleven.

The siege had held up the main Russian advance into Bulgaria and captured the world's admiration. The fall of Pleven freed up Russian reinforcements sent to Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko, who decisively defeated the Turks in the fourth battle of Shipka Pass.

[edit] Story

There is a story about this battle told among Turkish, Romanian and some Bulgarian people. The story goes like this; before the siege of Plevna, the Grand Duke wanted to give the Czar a gift on his birthday. However, he wanted his gift to be a mighty one. Having such an ambition, he decided to give the city of Plevna as a gift to the Czar. When he set up the siege, the Russians were constantly beat back by the Turks. However, the Russians had many troops and the Turks were having shortages. Also it was winter and the Turkish soldiers were still in their summer outfits because of the siege. Being in such a desperate position, Osman Pasha took all his men that were able to walk and made a plan to quickly go through the Russian lines and cross the river, abandoning the city yet saving their lives. Agreeing to go through with this plan, he had to leave the wounded in the city. To insure their well-being, he told the Bulgarian bishop of the city to take care of the wounded after his men left and prevent the Russians from killing them when they came. However, the bishop didn't go by his word and as soon as the able Turkish troops left the city, he and the non-Muslim population of the city massacred the wounded soldiers. Hearing of this midway through the charge, Osman Pasha ordered the return to the city, and upon reaching the city, ordered the death of the bishop and his aids and most of the people witnessed on committing the massacre in his anger. Although his heart was at rest, for his faithful soldiers were avenged, he still had to surrender the city.

[edit] Trivia

A large new factory building, completed in 1877, of the Finlayson & Co cotton mill in Tampere, Finland was named Plevna commemorating the battle and the Guard of Finland that took part. [1]

The city of Plevna, Montana in the United States was given its name by Bulgarian immigrants building the railroad there in honor of the battle of Plevna. The Peabody-Martini rifles used by the Turkish army in the battle of Plevna were made in Providence, Rhode Island (US), and some of the Russian army's Berdan breech-loading rifles were made by Colt Firearms in Hartford, Connecticut (US). Both Russia and Turkey used rifle ammunition made at the same Bridgeport, Connecticut (US) factory. ^{[citation needed]}

The best selling Russian detective novel The Turkish Gambit, the second book in the Erast Fandorin series, is set at the Siege of Pleven. The plot involves Fandorin attempting to discover a Turkish spy believed to be inside the Russian headquarters.

The heavy casualties suffered by Russian forces can be partly attributed to large quantities of Model 1873 Winchester lever action repeating rifles purchased at the beginning of the war. Turkish soldiers were able to maintain a high rate of fire over their Russian counterparts, who were armed with single shot Berdan rifles they had to pause to reload. The success of these rifles-and their 15 round magazines-proved the military value of large capacity magazine weapons to skeptical ordinance officers in Europe and the Americas, prompting a major change in technology and tactics. By 1890 every major army had adopted a magazine fed bolt action rifles. (Source: John Walters, Rifles of the World, Second Edition, 1998)

[edit] See also

• Battles of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78
• http://www.militaryrifles.com/Turkey/Plevna/ThePlevnaDelay.html

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. (vol. 21 pp. 838-840, article by John Henry Verrinder Crowe)
• Compton's Home Library: Battles of the World CD-ROM