RUGGED FRONTIER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 December 1943, Page 4

RUGGED FRONTIER

TURKEY’S EUROPEAN BORDER

SERIES OF FORTIFICATIONS.

TWO LIKELY ENTRY ROUTES FOR INVADER.

Because of the rough and broken nature of the country, an Axis land invasion of Turkey from the Balkans would probably be confined to two main routes across Thrace to the Sea of Marmora and Istanbul. However, owing to the relatively short distances from Bulgarian and Greek territory, protection afforded by the terrain might be largely offset by enemy air attacks behind the defenders at such vital communication links with Turkey in Asia as the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles.

Of 'Turkey’s European land frontier of roughly 200 miles, about half lies against Bulgaria and half against occupied Greece. The Bulgarian frontier starts on the Black Sea only about 85 miles from Istanbul and follows the course of small rivers west and southwest until it cuts the Maritza River near Mustafa Pasha. CHAKMAK LINE. Then, against Greek territory, the frontier turns south and later southeast, the left bank of the Maritza being followed for most of the distance to the Aegean Sea. Where the frontier first meets the Maritza River it is about 145 miles from Istanbul, and on the Aegean coast it is about 155 miles from the same point.

To give added strength to the protection afforded by hills and streams, and, in,.the north, by forests, Turkey consrtucted along the Bulgarian frontier a series of fortifications known as the Chakmak Line.. Just as France failed to protect her flank by not extending the Maginot Line along her boundary with friendly Belgium, so did Turkey make the same mistake with the Chakmak Line by not extending it along the frontier of friendly Greece.

FIRST DEFENCES ABANDONED.

Thus, after the conquest of Yugoslavia and Greece in the spring of 1942, when Turkey hourly expected a Ger-man-Bulgarian invasion, the first thing the Turkish General Staff did was to abandon the Chakmak Line before it was too late. The Turkish Army fell back on the Chataidj a Line, a few miles from Istanbul. It would appear, however, that certain defences along the Greek frontier have since been constructed.

The two routes of entry which would probably be used by an invader are the valley of the Maritza, which rises in Bulgaria, and a course along the Aegean coast from Salonika. For a considerable distance the Maritza is fol lowed by the main railway from Europe into Turkey by way of Sofia. Across both routes lies the Chataidja Line, built by the Turks among lakes and marshes.