8 to 13 September 1921
Sakarya: the counterattack
New Turkish recruits keep arriving, but every Greek unit is already in the line. For a few days neither exhausted army can attack. On 8 September Mustafa Kemal takes personal command of a counterattack against the Greek left around Çal Dağı. It gains little ground, but the Greek command fears a larger move round its own flank, and winter is approaching.
The Battle of Sakarya National Historic Park between Polatlı and Haymana, 2021Wikimedia Commons, Murat Özsoy, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Battle of Sakarya National Historic Park, Polatlı-Haymana, Ankara, Turkey - Murat Özsoy 100.jpg)
On the night of 12 to 13 September the Greek army breaks off and withdraws across the Sakarya, taking its guns and equipment. Railways and bridges are blown up and villages burnt behind it. The Turks retake Sivrihisar on 20 September.
Sources
- Lord Kinross, Atatürk: The Rebirth of a Nation (1964).
- Andrew Mango, Atatürk (1999).
- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Nutuk (1927).
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