Battle of Kütahya–Eskişehir

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Turkish. (November 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Turkish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Turkish Wikipedia article at [[:tr:Kütahya-Eskişehir Muharebeleri]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|tr|Kütahya-Eskişehir Muharebeleri}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Battle of Kütahya–Eskişehir" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Battle of Kütahya–Eskişehir
Part of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22)
Greek cavalry charge.
Date July 10–24, 1921 Location Afyonkarahisar–Kütahya–Eskişehir Result Greek victory Turkish army forced to retreat
Belligerents
Ankara Government	Greece
Commanders and leaders
İsmet Pasha	Constantine I of Greece Anastasios Papoulas
Strength
Greek source: 95,750 men[1] Turkish source:[2] 55,000 men[Note 1] 711 light and heavy machine guns 160 cannons	Greek source: ~110,000 men [4] Turkish source:[2] 106,000 men (11 divisions, 1 cavalry brigade) 908 light and heavy machine guns 318 cannons
Casualties and losses
1,643 killed 4,981 wounded 374 prisoners 30,809 soldiers deserted 18 cannons, 47 heavy and 34 light machine guns lost[5]	1,491 killed 6,472 wounded 110 missing[6]

The Battle of Kütahya–Eskişehir (Greek: Μάχες Κιουτάχειας-Δορυλαίου, Turkish: Kütahya-Eskişehir Muharebeleri), was fought between July 10 and July 24 (or June 27 and July 10 in the old calendar, then in use in Greece), 1921 when the Greek Army of Asia Minor clashed with the Turkish troops commanded by İsmet Pasha in defence of the line of Kara Hisâr-ı Sahib (present day Afyonkarahisar)-Kütahya-Eskişehir.

It was also known in some Greek historiography as the Battles of Kutahya-Dorylaion. It was part of the Greek Asia Minor Campaign and the Turkish War of Independence of 1919–1922.

Strategically, the battle was of little importance as the Greeks failed to grasp the opportunity to encircle the retreating Turkish troops. This proved later to be a major strategic error, when the two sides had to meet each other again during the much more fierce Battle of Sakarya which turned the tide in favour of the Turks.

After their halt in the second Battle of Inonu, the Greek staff decided to make a new offense to capture the cities of Afyonkarahisar, Kütahya and Eskişehir with their inter-connecting rail-lines. King Constantine arrived in Anatolia to inspire the soldiers and to command the attack.

The Greek Army managed to break through the Turkish resistance and occupied the towns of Kara Hisâr-ı Sahib (in March), and later (in July) Kütahya and Eskişehir (Dorylaion in Greek), together with their inter-connecting rail-lines.

The Turks despite their defeat managed to avoid encirclement and made a strategic retreat on the east of Sakarya river. On August 5, 1921 İsmet Pasha was replaced by Birinci Ferik Fevzi Pasha as the Minister of the General Staff (Erkân-ı Harbiye-i Umumiye Reis Vekili) of the Ankara government after his failure to check the Greek offensive.

The State and Greek army leadership, including King Constantine, Prime Minister Dimitrios Gounaris, and General Anastasios Papoulas, met at Kütahya where they debated the future of the campaign. The Greeks, bouyed by their victory, failed to appraise rationally the strategic situation that favoured the defending side; instead, in the overall climate of enthusiasm, the leadership was polarised into the risky decision to pursue an engagement with the Turks on their last line of defence, close to Ankara. Only few voices supported a defensive stance, but they were not heard.

After a delay of almost a month, that gave adequate time to the Turks to organise their defences, 7 of the Greek divisions marched to Sakarya River.

• 
  Greek army in Eskişehir
• 
  Greek cavalry in Eskişehir