On September 29, 1918. the Thessaloniki Armistice was signed between Bulgaria and the Entente, with which our homeland leaves the First World War.
By virtue of the treaty, all Bulgarian servicemen located west of the old Bulgarian capital Skopje remain hostages. 3 of our divisions with a strength of 100,000 soldiers and 14 regimental flags are captured. This is recalled by "Infospravka".
The French command issued an order for the surrender of all flags of the captured Bulgarian military units, and the penalty for hiding a flag was death.
All flags except one were saved at the risk of the lives of officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers, who, under the threat of execution, hid them under their clothes, in their pillows, in hiding places and hollows for months in captivity, and after escapes and night marches, managed to return all flags intact to Bulgaria. Each of the tens of thousands of Bulgarian soldiers knew where the flag of his regiment was, but not one of them would hand it over for better food, a bed, or money, even after torture.
The flag of the 1st Infantry Sofia Regiment was saved by Captain Lyuben Kuzupov and Lieutenants Zlatev and Petkov, who organized an escape from the hostage camp and took the regimental shrine to the unit's location in Sofia.
The commander of the Vratsa troops, Colonel Ivan Bashavliev, formed the regiment and declared that there was no greater dishonor for a soldier than to surrender the sacred flag to the enemy. After that, he ordered the commander of the 12th company, Reserve Lieutenant Angel Yanchev from the city of Vratsa, who was also the regiment's standard-bearer, to burn the flag. The lieutenant burned the flag's case instead, hiding the truth, and tied the regimental shrine around his waist. Thus, at the risk of his life, he guarded the flag for 9 months.
The fate of the 27th Infantry Chepino Regiment is interesting. A group of soldiers was organized, who, with the clear awareness that if they were captured they would be shot, returned the flag to their homeland. On May 24, 1919, the soldiers of the regiment were still hostages of the French. The young soldiers, filling the ranks of the regiment in Chepino (Velingrad), took their solemn oath under the saved battle flag.
15th Infantry Lom Regiment - V. Shishkov organized the rescue of the flag. On the night of October 3-4, 1918, he, together with Lieutenant Colonel Hristo Mladenov, hid the flag in a chest and buried it. In order to deceive the French, they burned the case, which, however, did not contain a flag. On October 4, 1918, the regiment surrendered to the French in the city of Skopje. It was decided that the flag would be hidden by Captain Petko Kapitanov, Lieutenant Strahil Mitev and Sergeant Dono Velkov. On February 6, 1919, it was handed over to Colonel Yosif Petrov, who, using the fact that he was a liaison at the French High Command in Thessaloniki, managed to hand it over to the Chief of Staff of the 10th Division in the city of Gyumyurdzhina, Colonel Valkov. He returned it to the Ministry of War.
52nd Moravian Infantry Regiment – The commander - Colonel Stefan Solarov ordered the flag to be saved. Lieutenant Tsvetko Mitkov, together with Non-Commissioned Officer Tseno Lozanov and nine soldiers set off at midnight on October 3, 1918, to Bulgaria with the flag. They arrived on October 10, 1918 in the city of Vratsa.
The flag of the 25th Dragoman Infantry Regiment was saved by Capt. Veselinov, commander of the non-commissioned company, Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Paunov and three soldiers. They hid the flag in the jacket of the ensign, the metal parts in a bag and through Smederevo, Lom, Sofia they saved the sacred object of the regiment. 173,000 leva were also handed over from the regimental treasury.
The Thessaloniki Armistice is a temporary agreement. The final peace was imposed with the Treaty of Neuilly (November 27, 1919), which took away territories, imposed heavy reparations, and reduced the army to 20,000 men.
Bulgaria's surrender caused a domino effect: the Ottoman Empire capitulated on October 30, Austria-Hungary on November 3, and Germany - on November 11, 1918.
Bulgaria became the first breakthrough in the Central Powers camp, hastening the end of the war.
Czar Ferdinand was forced to abdicate on October 3, 1918 in favor of his son Boris III.
The new government retained the monarchy, but the country remained under heavy Allied control. The Armistice of Thessaloniki on September 29, 1918 was a fateful moment for Bulgaria - the collapse of the dream of national unification and the beginning of a deep political and social crisis. Despite the defeat, the heroic rescue of the battle flags remains one of the brightest testimonies to the Bulgarian military honor and uncompromising spirit.