The Great Offensive ( tr, Büyük Taarruz; ) was the largest and final military operation of the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

, fought between the

Turkish Armed Forces The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF; tr, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri, TSK) are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. Turkish Armed Forces consist of the General Staff, the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The current Chi ...

loyal to the government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label= Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, wh ...

, ending the Greco-Turkish War. The offensive began on 26 August 1922 with the

Battle of Dumlupınar The Battle of Dumlupınar ( el, Μάχη του Τουμλού Μπουνάρ, translit=Máchi tou Toumloú Bounár, tr, Dumlupınar (Meydan) Muharebesi, lit=Dumlupınar (Field) Battle), or known as Field Battle of the Commander-in-Chief ( t ...

. The Turks amassed around 98,000 men, the largest number since the beginning of the war, to begin the offensive against the

Greek army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the ...

of approximately 130,000 men.International Committee of Historical Sciences, 1980
page 227
From 31 August to 9 September, the front moved a distance of as the Greek troops retreated. The Turkish army lacked motorized vehicles; its forces consisted of infantry and cavalry units, and logistical support was provided by a supply system based on ox carts. The Turkish troops reached the sea on 9 September with the capture of İzmir. The operation ended on 18 September 1922 with the capture of

Erdek Erdek (formerly known as ''Artàke'', el, Αρτάκη) is a town and district of Balıkesir Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The population was 34,000 in 2010. Located on the Kapıdağ Peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Erd ...

and

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest par ...

. The staggering defeat caused great dissent within the Greek army and a general loss of morale, which led to unwillingness to continue fighting. On top of this, numerous Greek divisions had been encircled and destroyed as effective fighting units, which meant that the Greek army had lost its offensive capabilities and was unable to organize a controlled retreat, leading to numerous Greek POWs.

Advance

The offensive started with the

, where the Turkish army defeated the Greek army within four days, paving the way for a rapid offensive. After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's order issued in the Forces of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the main part of the Turkish Army began moving toward

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...

and a secondary force began moving from

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from "old" and "city") is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 898,369 with a metropolitan population of 797,708. The city is located on the banks of the ...

toward Bursa.International Committee of Historical Sciences. Commission of comparative military history, ''Revue internationale d'histoire militaire (Editions 46–48)'', University of Michigan, 1980
page 227
The commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in Asia Minor, Nikolaos Trikoupis, surrendered on 29 August. On 7 September, Aydın,

Germencik Germencik is a town and a district of Aydın Province in the Aegean region of Turkey. Geography Germencik is located in the middle of the fertile Büyük Menderes (Meander) plain, inland from the Aegean coastal town of Kuşadası, on the Aydı ...

and

Kuşadası Kuşadası () is a large resort town on Turkey's Aegean coast, and the center of the seaside district of the same name within Aydın Province. Kuşadası is south of İzmir, and about from Aydın. The municipality's primary industry is tour ...

fell under Turkish control. On 16 September, the last Greek troops left

Çeşme Çeşme () is a coastal town and the administrative centre of the district of the same name in Turkey's westernmost end, on a promontory on the tip of the peninsula that also carries the same name and that extends inland to form a whole with the ...

, and two days later the Greek III Corps left

. The British Chief of Staff expressed his admiration for the Turkish military operation.Elisabeth Özdalga
''The Last Dragoman: The Swedish Orientalist Johannes Kolmodin as Scholar, Activist and Diplomat''
Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 2006, , page 62.

Gallery

File:Turkish cavalry during mopping‐up operation 1922.jpg, alt=Cavalry galloping, Turkish cavalry during a mopping-up operation File:Turkish infantry in trench.jpg, alt=Soldiers in a trench, with one looking in a different direction, Turkish infantry in a trench File:Turkish V Cavalry Corps.jpg, alt=Large group photo, with a dog in front, Fahrettin Altay and V Cavalry Corps officers File:Greek soldiers retreat, 1922.jpeg, alt=Soldiers marching down a road, Greek soldiers retreating File:Turkish village burned down.jpg, alt=Burning buildings, with residents watching, A Turkish village burnt by retreating Greek troops File:Turgutlu inspection of the burned town.JPG, Inspection of the burned town of Turgutlu by a group of dignitaries and journalists File:Greek POW officers 1922.jpg, alt=Large group photo of men in uniform, Greek POW officers in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

File:Kocatepe1922.jpg,

Mustafa Kemal Pasha Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى , Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name Mou ...

at Kocatepe hill,

Afyonkarahisar Afyonkarahisar (, tr, afyon "poppy, opium", ''kara'' "black", ''hisar'' "fortress") is a city in western Turkey, the capital of Afyon Province. Afyon is in the mountainous countryside inland from the Aegean coast, south-west of Ankara along t ...

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* Kemal Niş, Reşat Söker, ''Türk İstiklâl Harbi, Batı Cephesi, Büyük Taarruz’da Takip Harekâtı (31 Ağustos – 18 Eylül 1922)'', Cilt 2, Kısım. 6, 3. Kitap, Genkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, Ankara, 1969. * İsmet Görgülü, ''Büyük Taarruz: 70 nci Yıl Armağanı'', Genelkurmay Başkanlığı Basımevi, Ankara, 1992. * Celal Erikan, ''Komutan Atatürk'', Cilt I-II, Üçüncü Basım, Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, İstanbul, 2001, .

External links

"9 Eylül 1922 İzmir'in Kurtuluşu"
("9 September 1922 Rebelation of İzmir"), ''Tarihten Kesitler'',

General Staff of the Republic of Turkey , image = , image_size = 160px , caption = Emblem of the General Staff , dates = 3 May 1920 – present , country = , allegiance ...

.
''İzmir Marşı (Izmir March)''
(

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

) in

Google Videos Google Search (also known simply as Google) is a search engine provided by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is also the most-visited website in the world. The ...