artillery would gallop forward
and come into action on a new alinement. It was a running fight. By
leaps and bounds the incredible _elan_ of the Greek troops drove the
Bulgarians back toward Kilkis itself, which position had been heavily
entrenched. By 4 P.M. on the 2d of July, the Greek main army was within
three miles of the town, while the 10th Division, helped by two
battalions of Servian infantry, gradually fought its way up the Vardar
toward Guevgheli. At 4.30 P.M. (at Kilkis) the Bulgarians delivered a
furious counter-attack in which some 20,000 bayonets took part, but it
was repulsed with heavy slaughter, and the weary Greek soldiers, who
had fought their way over twenty miles of disputed country, rolled over
on their sides and slept. Toward Guevgheli the Evzone battalions had
for two hours to advance through waist-deep marshes under a heavy
artillery fire, but they struggled along through muddy waters singing
their own melancholy songs and without paying the least attention to
the heavy losses they were sustaining. On the 3d of July the Greeks
reoccupied Guevgheli, and toward evening the Bulgarian trenches at
Kilkis were taken at the bayonet's point, the town being entirely
destroyed, partly by Greek shell fire (for the Bulgarian batteries had
been located in the streets) and partly by the Bulgarians, who fired
the town as they retired. On the 3d and 4th the Bulgarians retired
sullenly northward toward Doiran, contesting every yard and putting in
the units of the 14th Division as quickly as they could be detrained;
but the Greeks never flagged for one moment in the pursuit. The 10th
and 3d Divisions, marching at tremendous speed, came up on the left,
menacing the line of retreat on Strumnitza. It was in the pass ten
miles south of this town that remnants of the Bulgarian 3d and 14th
Divisions made their last stand upon the 8th of July. Throughout the
week they had been fighting and retreating incessantly, had lost at
least 10,000 in killed and wounded, some 4,500 prisoners, and about
forty guns, while the Greeks lost about 4,500 and 5,000 men in front of
Kilkis and another 3,000 between Doiran and Strumnitza.

Meanwhile at Lakhanas an equally sanguinary two days' conflict had been
in progress. The Greeks attacked and finally captured the Bulgarian
entrenched positions. Time after time their charges failed to reach,
but eventually their persistent courage and inimitable _elan_ won home,
and the Bulgarians fled i