On 16 November, during the Battle of Monastir ( 16–19 November 1912), his younger brother Muhtar Efendi was killed in action at the heights of Oblakovo, northwest of Bitola. After the defeat at the Battle of Bitola, he wrote that the Vardar Army's effective strength for its 78 infantry battalions was 39,398 men. The Vardar Army retreated to Albania. On 10 May, because Miralay Ibrahim Halil Bey (Sedes), who was the chief of staff of the Vardar Army, went to Istanbul, Fevzi deputized the chief of staff. On 19 June the headquarters of the Vardar Army, left pier at Seman with steamships named "Karadeniz" and "Gülcemal" and arrived at Istanbul on 22 June.