BULGARIA IN WORLD WAR I

“Bulgaria, the Bulgarian army, and the wars of national unification photographed by General Yerotey Sirmanov”

Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1914, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, Self-portrait

Yerotey Sirmanov was born on June 22, 1868 in Sirmanov Huts (Kolibi Sirmanovi), nowadays a district of the town of Gabrovo. He was a volunteer during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885 and enlisted in the Student Legion. In 1887 he graduated from the Military School in Sofia as in the course of the next 32 years he served in the Bulgarian army and was promoted to the rank of general. He consequently worked in every artillery unit in Bulgaria and took part in all the three wars of national unification. In 1890 he went into photography and devoted his next 30 years to this passion. He was a member of the Photographic Society in Sofia since 1897. Yerotey Sirmanov showed himself as a chronicler of the wars of national unification in the period 1912 - 1918. During the Balkan War and the war between the former allies that followed as a commander of the Eleventh Artillery Regiment he was extremely busy, and yet succeeded to take phenomenal pictures which he dated by time, place and object. During the First World War he was at the head of an artillery brigade, the coast artillery of the White Sea defense, the artillery of the Fourth Army, and the artillery of the Second Military Inspection. As he himself acknowledged, due to a lack of time, his passion to photography remained far in the background. After his discharge in 1919 as stipulated by the concluded Treaty of Neuilly, Yerotey Sirmanov devoted himself to public activities. In 1920s he was a chairman of the Plovdiv Philatelist Society. In the period 1934 - 1943 he presided at the Red Cross Society in Plovdiv and the control  committee of Dimitar P. Kudoglou. He died on September 15, 1954 in Plovdiv.

Gun of Greek siege battery, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Captured gun of a Greek siege battery ready to receive an attack by the Bulgarian army, 1916

Bivouac of a mountain artillery detachment, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Bivouac of 2/20th mountain artillery detachment at the village of Toz Burun (now Mogilitsa), 1916

Camouflaged trenches of a battery, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Camouflaged trenches of the battery for a defence from ships and landing of troops, 1916

Ground for gunfire against airplanes, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Ground for gunfire against airplanes positioned by a battery of 10th artillery regiment at Boru Gyol, 1916

English bomber shot down, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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English bomber shot down near the town of Drama. In the foreground the pilot Bladney and the watcher Reginald, 1916

Army entertainments, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Army entertainments at the position of Chegla Peak, 1916

Monastery turned into a military hospital, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Sveti Archangel and Michael Monastery in the town of Xanthi turned into a military hospital, 1916

Position on Dikili Peak, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Position on Dikili Peak in the Rhodope Mountains, June 19, 1916

Ring dance in Pashmakli, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Ring dance in Pashmakli (now Smolyan), June 1916

Bulgarian army officers in the White Sea region, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1916, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Bulgarian army officers in the White Sea region, 1916

Public prayer in the town of Drama, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1917, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Public prayer in the town of Drama on the occasion of the capture of Bucharest by the forces of the central Powers, 1917

The monastery of St. Panteleimon, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1917, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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The monastery of St. Panteleimon near the town of Kavala in White Sea Thrace, 1917

Bulgarian fishermen, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1917, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Bulgarian fishermen from the Rhodope Mountains in Porto Lagos, 1917

Porto Lagos, Colonel Yerotey Sirmanov, 1917, From the collection of: Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv
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Porto Lagos, 1917

Credits: Story

Photographer—General Yerotey Sirmanov

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The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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