Hi, how important were the Bulgarians to hitlers war in the east, were they only used to police certain areas, such as nothern Yugoslavia on bits of southern Russian, did there troops ever go on the offensive like Hungarian, Italian, Slovakian, Romanian and Finnish armies. I know they didnt have a modern army like the other ones I have named but you dont really hear about them in action in Russia.
There are a few odd facts: Boris III declared war to the uk and the USA but Bulgaria never offically declared war to Russia. It allowed Germany to station on its territory and in return expected to annex Thracia from Greece and parts of Yougoslavia when those countires were defeated. To be noticed it became part of the Axis after Hungary and Romania. Bulgaria's participation to the war was very limited and in Sept 1944 it swithched sides.
Thanks Skipper, I have been trying to find the TO&E for Bulgarian infantry company in 1941 to assemble a wargame infantry company, I have found the basic structure if anyone wants a look.
sure feel free to post it in our gaming section. I have afew pictures in Funken's WW2 books, they are nice drawings that are pretty accurate. If interested I can scan a page or two for you . It shows collar tabs and gear details In 1943 Bulgaria received 120 French Dewoitines and used them to protect the oil plants in Romania and patrolling over the black sea. They also got some ME109 and fought against the russians with them.
What was happen in WWI was in the minds of Hitler and his Generals. Especially Hitler, remembered that during WWI the Allies were landed in Thessaloniki. So the south wing of the armies which marched into Russia was unprotected if the same thing was happened again. On top of that, the oil fields in Ploesti were very important for the Reich. On the other hand Bulgaria always wish to return in the status quo of 1870 (st. Stefanos protocoll) when they occupied the Greek Thraki area and had ports in Aegean Sea. The political interests of Bulgaria were according the military needs of Wermacht, so easily Bulgaria became an Axis follower. However the Bulgarian army was not modernized, well trained and well equipped. They were more closed to WWI tactics than to the '40's new achievements. There was big distance between the aristocratic officers and the simple soldiers. Very strict discipline with very severe penalties for non important things.The moral was not so high and same the will to fight and the faith to victory.
I agree over the weapons Pelekys, I have a list of Bulgarian artillery from ww2 and 90% was of ww1 standard.
Actually there are not much to say so with a little research someone can cover in brief the whole story. In brief we can say that Bulgaria was traditional friend of Germany and Bulgarians fought together with Germans and the other Central European forces in WWI. They lost and after the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (1919) they lost some territories and forced to follow some regulations which made them weaker in military development (for example they have not allowed to have tanks). Although in the beginning they were neutral in WW2, the friendly for the Germans feelings of some important Bulgarians in government, aristocracy and army, the influence of the German economic miraculous development and the dream that the above Treaty would be revised and they would got back the areas they lost appr. 20 years before, made the Bulgarian king Boris III to sign on 1st March 1941 the joining of his country in the Axis. The Bulgarian army was consisted of 4 Armies, divided in 16 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions and a panzer regiment. When Germany took Yugoslavia and Greece on April of 1941 the Bulgarian army without fight and without declare of war moved to and occupied the biggest part of FYROM, a small piece of the Greek Thrace and almost the Greek Eastern Macedonia. The Germans gave them these areas in temporary basis but Bulgarian consider these areas as Bulgarian territory. Regarding the FYROM part, in the beginning the relationship between the Bulgarian and the local people was not bad. However after 1-2 years the people could not stand the conqueror's behavior of the Bulgarians and start to follow the communist Tito's Partisans. From the end of 1943 The Bulgarian army there started to have serious problems. In Greece the Bulgarians tried from the beginning to Bulgarize the Greek parts they got so the Greek population started to resist against them and especially after the German attack to Russia, communist partisans started to be more and more organized and on 28 September they started a local revolution in city of Drama. Bulgarians defeated the partisans and made atrocities against the population killing about 1.500~3.000 and forced more than 100.000 to leave their homes. Slow-Slow after the end of 1941 the 1st Bulgarian army moved to south-east Serbiain order to replace some German divisions which moved to the Eastern Front. On May of 1943 two Bulgarian regiment (61st /24Div and 63rd /22Div) took part in anti partisan operation 'Schwartz” and on December some units of 24 Div. Took part in operation 'Kugelblitz'. Although king Boris III had declare war against U.K and USA from December of 1941 he refused to declare war against the Russians because generally the orthodox Bulgarian people had (and have) friendly feelings against the orthodox also Russians. He refused also to send soldiers to Eastern Front claiming that he would need every man in case that Turkey joined the Allies or the Allies make a major landing in the Macedonian and Thracians coasts. This make many historians to suspect that the sudden death of Boris III on 28 Aug. 1943 just 2 days after he visited Germany and had meetings with Hitler was result of poisoning by German agents. His son Symeon became the new king and as he was just a big child the ex prime minister Bogdan was his guardian. Till the next year the Bulgarian armies in Greece and Serbia were fought from time to time against the local partisan groups, while the Allies bombed targets in Bulgaria including Sofia. On 26st August 1944 the Bulgarians declare that they will be neutral in this war and demand from the German army to leave any Bulgarian territory. On 5th September the Russians declare war to Bulgaria and on 8 September field marshal Tolbuchin cross the Bulgarian borders ahead of the 3th Ukrainian Front. Bulgarian army was not resisted and from that time they fought in the side of the Allies. Officially they declare war against the Germans on 9 September. Some officers and many soldiers who had anti-communist ideology left Bulgaria and went to Germany. So during September 1944 the SS top level officers decided to organize a Bulgarian Waffen SS division. Beginning of January1945 in Austria, at training camp Dolersheim 25 officers, 56 non-commissioned officers, 500 soldiers and 150 Bulgarian students in German universities (included 12 women) consisted the 1st Bulgarian Anti Tank Brigade. Basically it was a regiment consisted of 2 infantry battalions with anti tank weapons, one anti tank artillery and a few command units. Commandor was the ex minister of Labour in Bulgaria government Ivan Rogozarov and chief of staff the SS sturbanfyrer Paoul Brinner who had Bulgarian mother. The Brigade had Mauser, MP40s, Panzerfaust and MG34. Also two guns of 88mm and some of 75mm. They fought against the marching Russians at Stokerau and Horn and then crossed the Austrian-Czech bordeline and surrendered to the 3rd American Army.
There is another chapter also, the story of the Bulgarian army from 9th September 1944 till the end of the war, while they fought against the Germans using German equipment which was under the Soviet hands (even Tiger tanks) more interesting maybe and more bleeding as the majority of the Bulgarian casualties lost in the fight against the ex friend and ally German army.
