Draft:Battle of Guglin

• Comment: Much of the fight remains unreferenced, and its unclear where this information came from. Please use page numbers for refs 1 and 2. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 04:03, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

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The Battle of Guglin (Borba na Guglinu) was fought on the night between 12 and 13 September 1905 when Đorđe Skopljanče's company attacked the Bulgarian stronghold of Stracin. On that occasion, he destroyed the local Komita company and almost devastated Stracin. Skopljanče's company had 32 Chetniks and at that moment was the largest Serbian company in Macedonia. The attack on Stracin itself was a rather audacious enterprise, as it housed a Turkish garrison with a permanent crew of over 80 soldiers. After the night battle, which ended without losses, the Serbian company retreated to the nearby Vis Guglin, where it intended to surrender. Around 6:00 a.m., during breakfast, the guards noticed the army approaching from the direction of Stracin. Skopljanče divided the company into three divisions and arranged them by height.

The fight

The battle at Guglin began around 7:00 a.m. with Turkish fire on the division of non-commissioned officer Vidak Nikolić. When the army arrived at a distance of 400 meters, the Chetniks attacked it and broke it. Đorđe's youngest Chetnik, eighteen-year-old Mihailo Ivković, was killed in the attack. His older brother Miloš was also in the same company, they were the sons of retired Major Timotije Ivković from Despotovac. Around 10 o'clock, the Turkish battalion from Kumanovo entered the fray. The shooting continued at a distance of about 400 meters without any losses to the Chetniks. Soon, a cavalry squadron arrived to help the Turks, which was preparing to strike the Chetniks in the flank. Milan Kovinić noticed the officer who was lining up the army and killed him with one shot. After that the horsemen dispersed. At the same time, Duke Jovan Pešić-Strelac appeared on a nearby hill with four Chetniks. He tried to relieve the position of Skopljanče's company by shooting, but since he did not succeed, he had to retreat. Around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, two cannons came to the aid of the Turks. Their shells did not hit the target, but they encouraged and consolidated the Turks who started the attack. The Chetniks were running out of ammunition, so Skopljanče ordered rapid fire with a gradual retreat. One by one the Chetniks left their position and all of them had already moved away when the Turks noticed it. However, during the retreat, a Chetnik division went in the other direction and ran into the Turkish army. Then it was forced to retreat towards the mill, from which they resisted until the last shot. Then they decided to try to break through with the bayonets on the rifles. Eight Chetniks died in the breakthrough, and the only survivors were Obren Knežević and Dimitrije Premović.

Eighty (80) Turkish soldiers and one officer died in the battle at Guglin. The Serbian Chetnik casualty was nine soldiers. It is considered a tactical victory for the Serbs

List of the Chetnik dead

• Mihailo Ivković, son of Major Timotije Ivković from Despotovac
• Petar Momčilović
• Života Miladinović
• Todor Stojković-Sarainče
• Stojan Krstić
• Staniša Stanković
• Atanasije Đorđević
• Milutin Stanojević
• Konstantin Anđelić.

• 
  Petar Momčilović
• 
  Stojan Krstić
• 
  Staniša Stanković
• 
  Milutin Stojanović
• 
  Konstantin Anđelić

Sources

Vladimir Ilić: Serbian Chetnik Action 1903-1912. p. 73-74