16 to 25 July 1921
Eskişehir: the withdrawal to the Sakarya
On 16 July the Greeks make a feint towards the Turkish right at Eskişehir while their main blow falls on the left. They then wheel north and break the Turkish defence with frontal attacks combined with flanking moves. İsmet counterattacks hard to save Eskişehir, but the city falls.
King Constantine I decorates the war flags of Greek regiments at Eskişehir, 18 July 1921Wikimedia Commons, Hellenic Army History Directorate, Public domain (Greek Flags 1921.jpg)
Mustafa Kemal judges that the army matters more than the ground. On his advice İsmet breaks contact and takes the Western Front back to the east bank of the Sakarya, about 80 km from Ankara, with heavy losses but without being encircled. The Greek leadership meets at Kütahya and, after a delay of almost a month, decides to march on Ankara.
Sources
- Michael Llewellyn-Smith, Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919–1922 (1973).
- Andrew Mango, Atatürk (1999).
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Nutuk (1927).
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