The Battle of Sorovich (, ) took place between 21–24 October 1912 (O.S.). It was fought between Greek and Ottoman forces during the First Balkan War, and revolved around the Sorovich (Amyntaio) area. The 5th Greek Division which had been advancing through western Macedonia separately from the bulk of the Greek Army, was attacked outside of Lofoi and fell back to Sorovich. It found itself to be heavily outnumbered by an opposing Ottoman force. After withstanding repeated attacks between 22 and 23 October, the division was routed on the early morning of 24 October after Ottoman machine gunners struck its flank in an early morning surprise attack. The Greek defeat at Sorovich resulted in the Serbian capture of the contested city of Monastir (Bitola). Background The disastrous Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 exposed major flaws in the Hellenic Army's organization, training and logistics. Georgios Theotokis was the first post-war Greek prime minister to focus his attention on strengthening the army. He established the National Defense Fund which financed the purchase of large quantities of ammunition. In addition a new table of organization was introduced for the country's navy and army, the latter being augmented by numerous artillery batteries. Theotokis' resignation in January 1909 and the perceived neglect of the armed forces by his successor resulted in the Goudi coup seven months later. Rather than taking power for themselves, the putschists invited Cretan politician Eleftherios Venizelos to rule the country. Venizelos followed in Theotokis' footsteps by re-arming and re-training the military, including extensive fortification and infrastructure works, purchase of new weapons, and the recall of reserve classes for training. The climax of this effort was the invitation in 1911 of a British naval mission and a French military mission. After being informed of a Serbo-Bulgarian alliance, Venizelos ordered his ambassador in Sofia to prepare a Greco-Bulgarian defense agreement by 14 April 1912, fearing that should Greece fail to participate in a future war against the Ottomans, it would be unable to capture the Greek majority areas of Macedonia. The treaty was signed on 15 July 1912, with the two countries agreeing to assist each other in case of a defensive war and to safeguard the rights of Christian populations in Ottoman held Macedonia, thus joining the loose Balkan League alliance with Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Fearing a new war in the Balkans, the Ottomans declared mobilization on 14