On September 1, 1916, during the First World War, Bulgaria declared war on Romania. It wanted to regain all of Dobrudja and the lost ancestral territories, which Asparuh was the first to set foot on. The Bulgarians raised the 3rd Bulgarian Army consisting of – The 4th Preslav Infantry Division, the 1st Brigade of the 1st Sofia Division, the Danube Bulgarian-German Detachment and their attached units under the general command of the commander of the 4th Preslav Division, Major General Pantelei Kiselov, with a strength of 55,000 men, 132 guns and 53 machine guns.
This is recalled by Assen Videnov for InfoSpravka.com.
In 1916, Bulgaria began military operations against Romania in order to regain the captured territories. The Romanians' allies in these battles were Serbo-Croatian volunteers and the Russian Empire, whose army liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1877-1878. From the beginning of the fighting, the cavalrymen under the command of Gen. Ivan Kolev made an important contribution - they defended the flank of the Bulgarian units storming Tutrakan, and managed to prevent the arrival of Romanian reinforcements. They defeated and captured more than one Romanian unit, and at the most tense moment in the defense of Dobrich they intervened and repelled the enemy. Then they actively participated in the liberation of all of Dobrudzha.
Gen. Kolev's cavalry was one of the first units in our army to stand up to the Russians. In Russia and even in Bulgaria at that time, voices were heard that a battle between Bulgarians and Russians was impossible. Some Russian commanders even naively expected a mass surrender of Bulgarian soldiers at the sight of the Russian army that had liberated Bulgaria. However, nothing of the kind happened. Gen. himself. Kolev felt deep gratitude to Russia - not only because of the Liberation, but also because of the fact that his family found refuge in Russian Bessarabia and escaped the Turkish pogroms in Bulgaria in the 19th century. When he had to motivate his soldiers, Ivan Kolev was categorical: "Cavalrymen, God is my witness that I am grateful to Russia for liberating us. But what are the Cossacks looking for in our Dobrudja now? We will beat and expel them like any enemy who hinders the unification of Bulgaria!" (See. "Utro" newspaper, 1,2 6, 11 September 1916)
The Bulgarian cavalrymen faced the Russian infantry and the Cossack cavalry, famous for its victories over the centuries (it was the Cossack cavalry that the young Ivan Kolev admired in Bolgrad) and defeated them several times - they even managed to capture a Russian military flag. The successes of the Bulgarian cavalry echoed throughout Europe. The Commander-in-Chief of the Central Powers in the Balkans, Field Marshal August von Mackensen, awarded General Kolev with the German Iron Cross.
General Kiselov launched the attack on the morning of September 5. He met fierce resistance from the Romanian command, but by evening the main fortified position fell. On September 6, the offensive continued. In the afternoon, the Romanian garrison surrendered. In the evening, General Pantelei Kiselov entered the liberated Tutrakan. The Bulgarian army captured 450 officers, 28,000 soldiers and all the enemy's weapons. The victory at Tutrakan marked the beginning of the liberation of all of Southern Dobrudja. The Battle of Tutrakan is also known as the “Tutrakan Epic”.
8,000 people died in the battle, of which 1,800 were Bulgarians. Among the dead on the Bulgarian side, there were a significant number of officers. The site of the battle is today a military cemetery and one of the Hundred National Tourist Sites.