pitched battle - a fierce battle fought in close combat between troops in predetermined positions at a chosen time and place

Balkan Wars - two wars (1912-1913) that were fought over the last of the European territories of the Ottoman Empire and that left the area around Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the only Ottoman territory in Europe

Thrace - a region and ancient country and wine producing region in the east of the Balkan Peninsula north of the Aegean Sea; colonized by ancient Greeks; later a Roman province; now divided between Bulgaria and Greece and Turkey