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Battle of Florina
Part ofMacedonian front (World War I)
Battle of Lerin (to the south-west)
Date 17–28 August 1916 Location aroundFlorina,Greece Result Minor Bulgarian victory The Bulgarians capture Florina Bulgarian advance stopped
Belligerents
Bulgaria	Serbia
Commanders and leaders
Kliment Boyadzhiev	Pavle Jurišić Šturm
Units involved
First Army	3 Corps[a]
Strength
117,368 190 field guns 128 machine guns	124,000
Casualties and losses
5,478 killed/wounded Total: 5,478[1]	657 killed 2,555 wounded 706 missing Total: 3,918[1]

TheBattle of Lerin orBattle of Florina orChegan offensive was an offensive operation of the Bulgarian army fought between 17–28 August 1916, during theFirst World War, in which they conquered the city ofFlorina (in present-day Greece, but known in Bulgaria asLerin) but failed to take Chegan.

In August 1916,Romania chose to join the war effort on the side of the Entente. The Allies planned a large offensive in theMacedonian front for the middle of August to support Romania's entry into the war and pin down as many Bulgarian forces as possible. The Bulgarian high command suspected an impending offensive, and the fighting aroundDoiran that erupted on 9 August only confirmed these suspicions. On their part, the Bulgarians had urged for an offensive in Macedonia since the beginning of the year, now planning a strike with theFirst Army andSecond Army on both Allied flanks.

TheStruma operation on the eastern flank by theBulgarian Second Army underGeneral Todorov was a huge success, mainly because the Greek government ordered their troops not to resist.

The advance on the right flank was to be undertaken by theBulgarian First Army, which had the following order of battle in July 1916:

The Germans finally agreed that an offensive was needed, and on 12 Augustgeneral Boyadzhiev received his orders from the headquarters ofArmy Group "Mackensen". The right wing of the army, consisting of the reinforced 8th infantry division (four and a half infantry brigades,) was to advance and takeLerin while parts of the 3rd division towards the Chegan mountain range and the village of the same name (today known asAgios Athanasios, to the north-west ofLake Vegoritida, in the Greekregional unit of Pella). General Boyadzhiev agreed to attack but had concerns regarding the final results of the offensive because his army was scattered on a140 km front and lacked enough mountain and heavy artillery.The six infantry and one cavalry divisions of the three Serbian armies faced the Bulgarians.

The offensive began on 17 August 1916, with the Bulgarians takingLerin andBanitsa. However, the advance soon encountered difficulties, slowing down considerably due to the increased Serbian resistance. The fighting was especially heavy on the bare rocky slopes of Chegan Mountain and theVoras Mountains. The Serbians were reinforced with new artillery constantly and fresh troops thanks to the railway that reached the battlefield, while the Bulgarians soon began depleting their ammunition stocks. This and the slow advance forced the Bulgarian high command to call off all attacks on 27 August and order the forces to dig in on the occupied positions betweenLake Vegoritida,Lake Petron and along the ridges of theVoras Mountains. For the next several days, the Bulgarian positions were subjected to heavy artillery fire and a few Serbian attacks that were repulsed.

TheChegan Offensive also known as theLerin Offensive had failed. It failed to influenceRomania, which entered the war on the side of theAllies but also failed to achieve its final military objective to take the Chegan village and the pass north ofLake Ostrovo.

French GeneralMaurice Sarrail now prepared a counterattack against the First Bulgarian Army that would eventually develop in theMonastir Offensive. The French retook Lerin/Florina on 23 September 1916.

• Falls, Cyril Bentham (1933).Military Operations Macedonia. From the Outbreak of War to the Spring of 1917. History of the Great War based on Official Documents. London:His Majesty’s Stationery Office.

• First Army (Bulgaria)

40°47′00″N21°24′00″E / 40.7833°N 21.4000°E /40.7833; 21.4000

• Battles of the Balkan Front (World War I)
• Battles of World War I involving Bulgaria
• Battles of World War I involving Serbia
• Serbia in World War I
• Greece in World War I
• Battles involving France
• Military history of Macedonia (Greece)
• 1916 in Bulgaria
• 1916 in Serbia
• Florina
• Macedonian front
• August 1916 in Europe

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