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190 BULGARIA ATTACKS HER ALLIES [cii. xii.
In Macedonia the plateau of Ovtche Polie and the
bend of the Vardar near Krivolak were already the
scene of sanguinary battles. At Krivolak the
Bulgarians had at first succeeded in surrounding a whole
Serbian division, but Prince Alexander arriving at the
last moment with a portion of the Serbian First Army
retrieved the situation and freed the surrounded division.
And from that moment success was decidedly on the
Serbian side. The Bulgarians were forced to retire
gradually towards their former frontier, that is to say,
in the direction of Kustendil. Two weeks later, the
Serbians had already conquered strong Bulgarian
positions on the frontier, and it only depended on them to
occupy the whole district of Kustendil; moreover, by
then complete demoralisation had set in amongst the
Bulgarian troops ; whole companies were deserting from
the front with their arms, and were going into the
interior of the country and in the direction of Sofia, which
might become very dangerous for Ferdinand and the
members of the Government.
Generally speaking, during this miserable war the
Bulgarian soldier displayed much less courage and
endurance than during the glorious campaign against
the Turks; and the reason is quite simple and quite
natural. Whereas the Bulgarian officer was impelled
by the ambitions of a rigid and exaggerated nationalism,
the soldier vaguely felt that he was being exposed to
death in order that he might shed the blood of his
Serbian brothers without plausible reasons and for
unacknowledged ends. Besides, in going against his
will to fight his former allies, the Bulgarian soldier’s
thoughts were centred on other things: he was
perpetually thinking of his native village left at the mercy
of a Turkish or Rumanian invasion. In this respect
the Bulgarian peasant showed far more common sense
than his rulers, who seemed utterly unable to view
matters correctly.
I have been told that when the order was issued to
retire the Bulgarian troops who were occupying the
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