Talk:Battle of Dobro Pole

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Aha - another idiot article. And pray, where do the casualty figures come from? Certainly not from the sources mentioned. I hope this was written by a first grade student - because thinking about Dobro Pole like a single battle between 10,000 british and 4,000 Bulgarians is as simplistic as you could get. This is wikipedia - and anyone incompetent in history can write as they please. But if anyone cares - what actually happened in this battle was a break in the Bulgarian fortification system by British troops, which were able to advance north and into Monastir. There was no capture of a Bulgarian army. The Bulgarians were outmanned and outgunned and retreated - there were subsequent battles, which the advance of the French and British was halted. But the breach of the fortifications, meant that the Bulgarian position had become untenable, and the surrender came shortly after. To portray this a resounding Anglo-French victory is nonsensical - if you had real casualty figures you would know why. Common sense also helps - an army charging a machine-gun fortified position rarely had "minimal casualties" in WW1. If anyone has sources that support otherwise - please share. I don't mind reading alternative history. - Mladen


 * Well, feel free to improve it. Carom 04:28, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I've no time right now - as I will need to dig out and reference all sources, and do it in a semi-professional academic manner. But I encourage anyone unfamiliar with history not to try to write articles like this stupidity over here. I mean - you don't have to trust me on this - but just read the article on the Battle of Doiran in Wikipedia, a battle which happened 4 days after this one. It pretty much explains why this article here has nothing to do with history, and puts in perspective just how ridiculous it is. -Mladen

Mladen, Monastir (or Bitolj, or Bitola) was abandoned by the Bulgarian army and captured by the Allies in the Gornichevo battle in 1916. after a fierce battle between the Serbs and Bulgarians for Kaymakchalan - the highest peak of the Nije Mountain on the present-day Greco-Macedonian border. The decisive breakthroug in the battle of Dobro Pole in 1918. of the Bulgarian front was carried out by the Serbian army (7 divisions) strenghtened with 2 French divisions (122. and 17.th colonial) and much artillery near the Koziak mountain on September the 15th after a daylong artillery barage that greatly damaged the Bulgarian fortifications. The 2 Bulgarian divisions (the 2nd and the 3rd) + at least a brigade sized reinforcements were routed by Sep the 17th. The Serbian army then penetrated quickly and deeply in a nearly reckless blitzkrieg-like drive along with the French cavalry (other Allied contigents either advanced much more slowly or were beaten back like the British and the Greeks at the battle of Doiran) crushing all (now much less organised) opposition on the way and by the time it reached Bregalnitsa river the morale of the Bulgarian army began to collapse. The Allies captured aprox. 15.000 mostly Bulgarian soldiers + around 400 guns since the beginning of the offensive until the armistice effective at noon of the 30th September - by which time the Serbian Army had captured the town of Shtip near the Bulgarian border. However it should be noted that the battle of Dobro Pole is generally referring only to the 14-17th September period.

Veljko Stevanovich 23. 7. 2007. 23:35 UTC+1

I do not know many things about this battle, only that Bulgarians were defeated in it, although they put a very stubborn resistance. Both of these are described well in the article. I am very satisfied with the tone of the article, it is neutral and academic, as it should be. Very pleasant impression for this one, congratulations to the author. Lantonov 09:03, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Time machine???
"Bulgaria was able to defeat Britain and Greece at the Battle of Doiran, but Serbo-French forces did not halt their advance, and the two forces finally met at Dobro Pole."

am I the only one who is left from this phrase with the impression that Battle of Doiran was before the Battle of Dobro pole? because the articles in WP state that the former was fought from 18 September to 19 September while the latter is fought at September 15th. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.126.9.14 (talk) 13:25, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Vardar Macedonia
" Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes took Vardarska Macedonia". It did not took, reclaimed. Vardar Mcedonia was part of Serbia when WWI stared therefor it can only be reclaimed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.86.228.53 (talk) 09:39, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Geographic context
There was some snobbery about the fact that I used a free website as a source, with the result that my edit was reversed.

I have not seen other sources that actually contextualise the position of the Sokol and the Veternik. Are there not any other sources out there that can provide this? I can understand that some sources are seen as more reliable than others, but I don't see anything controversial about the website. The website is there to promote a form of battlefield tourism, rather than presenting a politically charged agenda, that I could tell.


 * 'The main attack was planned on the locality called Dobro Pole (Dobro Polje, Добро Поле - literate translation - Good Meadow). Dobro Pole is a locality between the peaks Sokol (Сокол - Falcon) and Veternik (Ветерник – Windy place) on Nidze Mountain'

Is there not a similar geographical narrative that is available from other "preferred" sources? Keith H99 (talk) 11:47, 23 June 2021 (UTC)

Preferred sources especially in the context of articles that are B-class and above are academic journal and reliable books. Now if the self published blog you were citing had a list of citations underneath each post and/or the author was an academic I wouldn't revert it. But since we do not know the author's credentials and whether his posts are based on academic sources or pure speculation, the blog goes against the standards of WP:RS.--Catlemur (talk) 15:38, 23 June 2021 (UTC)
 * "Balkan Breakthrough: The Battle of Dobro Pole 1918" by Richard C. Hall, page 129. Avidius (talk) 16:38, 23 June 2021 (UTC)-


 * Thank you for having taken the time to have read my statement, and to have provided a source (Hall) that provides a geographical narrative as to the dispositions of these geographical features. Keith H99 (talk) 16:43, 23 June 2021 (UTC)