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News from a wargamer with a special interest in the military history of the Balkans. It mainly covers my current reading and wargaming projects. For more detail you can visit the web sites I edit - Balkan Military History and Glasgow & District Wargaming Society. Or follow me on Twitter @Balkan_Dave
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Monday 1 November 2010

Military Attache in the Balkans

Just finished the memoirs of Colonel Napier who was the British military attache to Bulgaria in the run up to WW1.

This is a detailed study of the diplomatic efforts to bring Bulgaria into the war on the side of the Entente. He travelled extensively across the Balkans during this period so you get a good understanding of the position in all the Balkan states.

He describes in some detail his meetings with politicians and military leaders in these countries and the reader gets a good understanding of the factors that resulted in the decisions each country took. He is fairly critical of British foreign policy towards Bulgaria and clearly believed that a firmer line could have brought them into the allied camp.

In the end he was captured by a German submarine when leaving Greece on a passenger boat and spent the rest of the war in a prison camp before being exchanged. He then returned as the military attache to Sophia.

Not a light read this but well worth the effort for anyone interested in the Balkans during WW1.

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