Battle of Kula

The Battle of Kula was a military engagement between the Kingdom of Serbia and the Principality of Bulgaria which took place on 4 November 1885. Bulgarian troops counterattacked the Serbs after they captured Kula but suffered a complete defeat. With this battle, the Bulgarian plans for an advance to Zaječar were thwarted, and the Serbian road to Vidin was opened.

Battle of the fortress of Kula
Part of Serbo–Bulgarian War
Date 3–4 November 1885 Location Kula, Principality of Bulgaria 43°53′20″N 22°31′20″E Result Decisive Serbian victory
Belligerents
Serbia	Principality of Bulgaria
Commanders and leaders
Milan Obrenović	Alexander of Battenberg Gancho Georgiev (POW)
Units involved
Royal Serbian Army Timoshka army	Royal Bulgarian Army Northern army
Casualties and losses
130 killed and wounded	1,350 killed, wounded & captured

Battles

Serbian attack

The Serbian offensive in Northwestern Bulgaria began on November 3, right after the invasion of Caribrod and the battle of Trun. Their Timoshka division, consisting of 7 battalions, 3 squadrons, 2 Polish batteries and engineering units, with a total of 6,200 soldiers and 12 guns under the command of Colonel Ilija Dzhuknich, crossed the border through the and captured Kula the same day after an hour of fighting in which the serbs had 60 killed and wounded but took more than 100 prisoners from the Bulgarian side.

Meanwhile, counting the delay of the offensive as a sign of the Serbian weakness along the Timok, the commander of the Northern Detachment, Captain Atanas Uzunov, ordered an "intensified reconnaissance" towards Zaječar. For this purpose, the Flying Detachment, including 900 regular soldiers, 100 cavalry and 6 guns, and the Main Reserve of the Northern Detachment, 3750 infantrymen, were designated. After knowing about the fall of Kula, Uzunov also sent two detachments from the Shumen volunteer regiment to the city.

Bulgarian counterattack

On the night of November 3 to 4, the Reserve and the Flying Squad gathered in the village of Gramada and set off for Kula under the general command of Captain Georgi Todorov. Passing through the villages of Kosta Perchevo and Poletkovtsi, the next morning they went south-east and south of the town and opened fire as the Serbian vanguard that was advancing towards Vidin. The Serbs retreated to the fortifications built around Kula by the Turks during the Serbian–Ottoman Wars of 1876–1878. Taking advantage of the surprise, Captain Todorov captured one of the fortifications, and the commander of the Main Reserve, Captain Gancho Georgiev, managed to occupy the enemy's retreat route to Vrashka Chuka. However, his unit, composed mostly of untrained and poorly armed militiamen, fled at the first counterattack of the entrenched Serbs. Georgiev himself was surrounded and captured with a hundred soldiers, after the militia left in reserve also deserted. This is also a sign for Todorov to order a general retreat of the units of the Flying Squad, which is carried out in disorder under the pressure of the Serbian cavalry. The Bulgarians retreated.

Results

Serbian losses in killed and wounded at Kula on November 4 amounted to 130 men. The Bulgarians lost around 250 killed or wounded and, including around 1,100 captured, total Bulgarian losses amount to 1,350. There were also losses during the Bulgarian retreat. A week later, the Serbian army laid siege to Vidin.