Help needed with Bulgarian abbreviations

[ado]

Здравей България!
I am trying to sort out the graves of the Bulgarian soldiers of WW1 buried in the British cemeteries in Greece. There are many errors in the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which I would like to correct.
The gravestones themselves are most likely correct, as they were made by a Bulgarian veterans' association in the 1920s.

Most of the gravestones mention the unit/regiment the man belonged to, but this information is missing from the database, so I would like to add it.
"Пех.Полкъ" is easy enough to understand, but I would be grateful if someone could tell me what is meant by the following abbreviations:

13.Д.ПР.ТР.
5/7.ПЖТ.УЧ.
6 ПОЛИЦ. 1/2 Е-НЪ (=ескадронъ? Military police half-squadron?)

I am sorry to say, I do not speak any Bulgarian. I wish I did because this looks like a very interesting forum.
I will have more abbreviations to solve soon!
There are also may errors in CWGC's transliteration of the soldiers' names. For one thing, they appear to have used a transliteration system for Russian, e.g. shch instead of sht for Ш.

Does anyone know if there is an official list of the men buried in Greece? Some of the graves are listed by name although the actual gravestone reads неизвестенъ български воинъ. Is there an official organisation in Bulgaria responsible for its war graves abroad?

Благодаря!
Adrian

[dibo]

5/7.ПЖТ.УЧ. (or more likely 5/7 ПГР.уч.) - 5/7th border guard section?
6 ПОЛИЦ. 1/2 Е-НЪ - 6th military police half-squadron

13.Д.ПР.ТР. - does not make sense to me

Do you have any photoes of the gravestones with these abbreviations?

Does anyone know if there is an official list of the men buried in Greece? Some of the graves are listed by name although the actual gravestone reads неизвестенъ български воинъ. Is there an official organisation in Bulgaria responsible for its war graves abroad?

The Central Military Archive in Veliko Tarnovo should have the lists. Its contacts are:
cva@gua.e-gov.bg
+ 359 62/61-69-50

The Bulgarian National Military History Museum in Sofia may also help you:

http://www.militarymuseum.bg/scripts/isapivwb.dll?id=14735

The organization for the war graves:
Ivo Antonov - chief expert on war memorials in the Ministry of Defense. Phone + 359 2 9220579;

http://www.memorials.bg/scripts/isapivwb.dll?id=3778

But I would suggest to contact the Ministry through its Public Relations Department: http://www.mod.bg/en/contacts.html as thus you are more likely to receive an answer.

[ado]

Thank you very much for your helpful reply, dibo!

I will follow your advice and attempt to contact the organisations you mention. I hope someone there speaks English!

Could you please give me the full Bulgarian forms of the terms you have translated? Thanks!

I attach some photos below.

Regards,
Adrian

[dibo]

Correction:

5/7.ПЖТ.УЧ. - 5/7 Пжтен участъкъ (Old Bulgarian) - 5/7 Пътен Участък (Modern Bulgarian) - 5/7 Road Section (road maintenance section)

6 ПОЛИЦ. 1/2 Е-НЪ - 6 полицейски полуескaдрон- 6th military police half-squadron

[dibo]

13.Д.ПР.ТР. - I think I found it:

It is "3-ти дивизионен продоволствен транспорт" or in English "3th divisional supply column" оr "3th divisional supply transport" to be exact.

Although on the grave the "I" before the 3 is visible and the letter П is actually Г, there are several facts, that lead me to believe they made mistake on the abbreviations. In WW1 Bulgaria did not have 13th divison nor I can find any unit whose inscription is ГР. ТР.

[Николай]

Hi, Adrian and welcome to the forum

Not much to add to the Dibo's explanations. It is however possible that by the "13th divisional supply column" is meant the divisional supply column of the Combined infantry division (Sbornata pehotna divizia). The division itself was not numbered 13th (probably out of cheer superstition), yet the artillery brigade of this division was given number 13 (13 artilerijska brigada)-according to the OOB of the Bulgarian army on 15 September 1918, annexed to the book "Zashto ne pobedihme" (Reasons why we didn't win) by col. Stefan Noykov.

[ado]

Thank you very much for the information and the welcome, dibo and Nikolay!
Благодаря!

Just a couple more questions, if I may:

1) Are the names "Boirgonsi" and "Peherven" Bulgarian names? If so, how would you spell them in Old Bulgarian? (They don't look/sound Bulgarian to me!) There are two graves at Mikra Cemetery here in Thessaloniki which are marked "неизвестенъ български воинъ", but the CWGC database shows them as belonging to Private P.Y. BOIRGONSI and Private P.G. PEHERVEN, Bulgarian Army. I don't know where the CWGC got its information!

2) How to transliterate the old letters ѣ and ѫ (yat and yus)? Is it OK to treat yat as Modern Bulgarian E and yus as Modern Bulgarian Ъ.

3) Would the Road (Maintenance) Section be a sub-unit of the Engineer Corps, if there was such a thing?

I was in Bulgaria last October and, just like you, the people were all very friendly and helpful (except the guy at the car park by the Lion Bridge, who ripped us off! ). But we had a fantastic time, and plan to visit again this summer.

Thank you again!
Regards,
Adrian

[dibo]

Thank you very much for the information and the welcome, dibo and Nikolay!
Благодаря!

Just a couple more questions, if I may:

1) Are the names "Boirgonsi" and "Peherven" Bulgarian names? If so, how would you spell them in Old Bulgarian? (They don't look/sound Bulgarian to me!) There are two graves at Mikra Cemetery here in Thessaloniki which are marked "неизвестенъ български воинъ", but the CWGC database shows them as belonging to Private P.Y. BOIRGONSI and Private P.G. PEHERVEN, Bulgarian Army. I don't know where the CWGC got its information!

2) How to transliterate the old letters ѣ and ѫ (yat and yus)? Is it OK to treat yat as Modern Bulgarian E and yus as Modern Bulgarian Ъ.

3) Would the Road (Maintenance) Section be a sub-unit of the Engineer Corps, if there was such a thing?

I was in Bulgaria last October and, just like you, the people were all very friendly and helpful (except the guy at the car park by the Lion Bridge, who ripped us off! ). But we had a fantastic time, and plan to visit again this summer.

Thank you again!
Regards,
Adrian

1) Does not sound Bulgarian to me.
2) In most cases - yes
3) No, AFAIK they were part of the Rear troops, directly attached to the HQ of the Acting Army (Щаб на Действащата армия). There is a complete OOB of the Bulgarian army in 1918 in Bulgarian here:

http://ariergard.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63%3A1918&catid=43%3A2009-02-07-15-02-16&Itemid=65&showall=1