Balkan breakthrough -The Battle of Dobro Polo - reviews?

[keithmroberts]

Has anyone an opinion of this book by Richard C Hall. Its on my list of possible purchases and seems to be the only detailed English language account about this battle. I'll probably buy a copy once I ahve worked through a few more titles on the not yet read shelf, but would welcome comments - and also any suggestions of other English langiauge material on the battle.  I appreciate that there might be more by French and Greek historians, but my French reading skills are somewhat basic, and still depend on an O level from 1965, and I ahve no greek whatsoever.

 

Keith

[Gardenerbill]

Hi Keith,

I am sure you are aware that there is a chapter on the battle in the Official History Vol II.

[keithmroberts]

Thank you yes, I'm enough of a tightwad to be reluctant to lash out for yet another book to add to the oveflow in the house. I'm hoping to visit that area next year, so want to be as fully prepared as possible and wonder whether this volume will add much to the OH.

 

Keith

Edited 22 November , 2019 by keithmroberts

[Rockdoc]

A bit late to the party, Keith, but I have the book and thought it gave an interesting insight into the opposition. I think I had a better feel for the war in the area, having a viewpoint from both sides of the lines.

 

Keith

[NorthStaffsPOW]

I'm even later to the party than Keith but having just finished the book I thought I would add my two cents. First off I was surprised at the amount of grammatical errors that were present in a book published by an academic press. Maybe this was just my copy but I also found one fairly large quotation that was present on one page and then used again on the next page. This lack of proof reading may put some people off. Importantly however, I found the book itself to be very informative and can echo Keith's view that it provided a good overview of both sides of the Macedonian front. It set the scene very well, even if the actual Battle of Dobro Pole is only reached at the very end of the book the reader gets a good feel for why the Allied offensive was so damaging for the Bulgarian Army who late 1918 were severely hampered by lack of material and poor morale. They had also lost faith in their German, Austrian and Ottoman "allies" who all appear to have viewed Bulgaria very much as the junior partner in a patronising sense. As Hall points out it was like the Bulgarian Army were not just fighting the Entente but also the German High Command and their own government as well. If you are looking for an overview of the Macedonia front in the First World War this is good compact book to read and interesting in its assessments, if you can overlook some grammatical errors.