Salonika
and Macedonia 1916 - 1918
It is fairly easy to find
descriptions of The Western Front, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and other well-known
areas of action. The events in Salonika are not so easy to find as it was regarded
as a sideshow. In the following I have assembled some information from various
sources which give some idea of what was involved in the Salonika campaign
where for every casualty of battle three died of malaria, influenza or other
diseases. As the area has seen much trouble and bloodshed in the 1990’s some of
the names may sound familiar.
In October 1915, a combined Franco-British
force of some two large brigades was landed at Salonika at the request of the
Greek Prime Minister. The objective was to help the Serbs in their fight
against Bulgarian aggression. However the expedition arrived too late, the
Serbs having been beaten before they landed. It was decided to keep the force
in place for future operations, even against Greek opposition. The Greek Chief
of the General Staff in Athens had told them “You will be driven into the sea,
and you will not have time even to cry for mercy” (Some Greek factions, including King Constantine, were
pro-German). The outcome of the Gallipoli campaign was in the balance and most
shipping in the area was involved so they really had no choice.
During the first four months of 1916 the
British Salonika Force had enough spadework to last it for the rest of its
life. Large amounts of barbed wire was used and a bastion about eight miles
north of the city was created connecting with the Vardar marshes to the west,
and the lake defences of Langaza and Beshik to the east, and so to the Gulf of
Orfano and the Aegean Sea. This area was known as the ‘Birdcage’ on account of
the quantity of wire used. The Bulgarians and Austrians also fortified the
heights of the hills surrounding Salonika during the same time which had dire
consequences later on.
The original two Brigades
eventually were reinforced by larger units until 22nd, 26th, 27th and 28th Divisions were there. If the Bulgarians
had descended from their Doiran and Struma heights it would have been very
difficult to ‘push us into the sea’.
The Divisions now involved
were composed of the following Battalions:
22nd Division
November 1915 : moved to
Salonika. Order of Battle at time of formation.
Subsequent changes to order
are shown in brackets, with dates.
65th
Brigade
9th
(Service) Bn., the King's Own (Royal Lancaster) (joined October 1914)
13th
(Service) Bn, the King's (Liverpool) (joined October 1914, left June 1918)
12th
(Service) Bn, Lancashire Fusiliers (joined September 1914, left 2nd July 1918)
8th
(Service) Bn, the South Wales Borderers (joined June 1918)
9th
(Service) Bn, the East Lancashire (joined September 1914)
66th
Brigade
12th
(Service) Bn, the Cheshire’s (joined February 1915)
9th
(Service) Bn, the Border (joined September 1914, left February 1915)
9th
(Service) Bn, the South Lancashire (joined September 1914)
8th
(Service) Bn, the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) (joined September 1914)
13th
(Service) Bn, the Manchester’s (joined October 1914, left June 1918)
67th
Brigade
11th
(Service) Bn, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (joined September 1914)
7th
(Service) Bn, the South Wales Borderers (joined September 1914)
8th
(Service) Bn, the South Wales Borderers (joined September 1914, left June 1918)
11th
(Service) Bn, the Welsh (joined September 1914)
12th
(Service) Bn, the Cheshire’s (joined September 1914, left February 1915)
9th
(Service) Bn (Pioneers), the Border (joined February 1915)
11th
(Service) Bn, the Loyal North Lancashire’s (joined October 1914, left April
1915)
9th
(Service) Bn, the North Stafford’s (joined September 1914, left April 1915)
26th Division
November 1915 : moved to
Salonika. Order of Battle at time of formation.
Subsequent changes to order
are shown in brackets, with dates
77th
Brigade
8th
(Service) Bn, the Royal Scots Fusiliers (joined October 1914)
11th
(Service) Bn, the Cameronian’s (Scottish Rifles) (joined October 1914)
10th
(Service) Bn, the Black Watch (joined September 1914, left July 1918)
12th
(Service) Bn, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (joined September 1914)
78th
Brigade
9th
(Service) Bn, the Gloucester’s (joined September 1914, left July 1918)
11th
(Service) Bn, the Worcester’s (joined September 1914)
7th
(Service) Bn, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire’s (joined September 1914)
7th
(Service) Bn, the Royal Berkshire (joined September 1914)
79th
Brigade
10th
(Service) Bn, the Devon’s (joined September 1914)
8th
(Service) Bn, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (joined September 1914)
12th
(Service) Bn, the Hampshire (joined October 1914)
7th
(Service) Bn, the Wiltshire’s (joined October 1914, left June 1918)
10th
(Service) Bn, the Gloucester’s (joined September 1914, left August 1915)
8th
(Service) Bn (Pioneers), the Oxford & Buckingham’s (joined October 1914,
became Pioneers January 1915)
8th
(Service) Bn, the Royal Berkshire (joined September 1914, left August 1915)
27th Division
Order of Battle.
80th
Brigade
2nd
Bn, the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) (joined
November 1914)
3rd
Bn, the King's Royal Rifle Corps (joined November 1914)
4th Bn, the King's Royal Rifle Corps (joined November 1914, left June 1918)
4th Bn, the Rifle Brigade (joined November 1914)
81st
Brigade
1st
Bn, the Royal Scots (joined November 1914)
1/9th
(Highlanders) Bn, the Royal Scots (joined February 1915, left November 1915)
2nd
Bn, the Gloucester’s (joined November 1914, left November 1916)
13th
(Scottish Horse Yeomanry) Bn, the Black Watch (joined October 1916, left July
1918)
2nd
Bn, the Cameron Highlanders (joined November 1914)
1st
Bn, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (joined November 1914)
1/9th
(The Dumbartonshire) Bn, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (joined
February 1915, left May 1915)
82nd
Brigade
1st Bn, the Royal Irish (joined November 1914, left November 1916)
2nd
Bn, the Gloucester’s (joined November 1916)
2nd Bn, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (joined November 1914)
10th
(Service) Bn, the Hampshire (joined November 1916)
10th
(Lovat's Scouts) Bn Territorial Force, the Cameron Highlanders (joined October
1916, left June 1918)
2nd
Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers (joined November 1914, left November 1916)
1st
Bn, the Leinster (joined November 1914, left November 1916)
1/1st
Bn, the Cambridgeshire (joined February 1915, left November 1915)
19th
Brigade
This
Brigade joined the Division from the 6th Division on 31 May 1915,
and
was transferred to 2nd Division on 19 August 1915.
2nd
Bn, the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (joined May 1915, left August 1915)
1st
Bn, the Cameronian’s (Scottish Rifles) (joined May 1915, left August 1915)
1/5th
Bn, the Cameronian’s (Scottish Rifles) (joined May 1915, left August 1915)
1st
Bn, the Middlesex (joined May 1915, left August 1915)
2nd
Bn, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders(joined May 1915, left August 1915)
26th
(Service) Bn (3rd Public Works Pioneers), the Middlesex (joined August 1916)
Engineer
Units
1st
(South Midland) Field Company (joined Dec 14, left Mar 15)
17th
Field Company (joined Mar 1915)
1st
(Wessex) Field Company (joined Nov 1914, renamed 500th Field Coy)
1st
(Wessex) Field Company (joined Nov 1914, renamed 501st Field Coy)
81st
(1st Home Counties) (joined Nov 14)
82nd
(2nd Home Counties) (joined Nov 14)
83rd
(3rd Home Counties) (joined Nov 14)
28th Division
A Division of the Regular
Army
January 1915:
Moved to France, landing at
(Le) Havre and proceeded to the Western Front.
The Second Battle of Ypres. The
Battle of Loos.
October 1915:
Embarked at Marseilles,
proceeded to Egypt, and in November moved on to Salonika.
Order of Battle.
83rd
Brigade
2nd
Bn, the King's Own (Royal Lancaster)
1/5th
Bn, the King's Own (Royal Lancaster) (joined March 1915, left October 1915)
2nd Bn, the East Yorkshires (joined December 1914)
1st
Bn, the King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry) (joined November 1914, left June
1918)
1st
Bn, the York and Lancaster (joined December 1914)
1/3rd
Bn, the Monmouthshire (joined March 1915, left September 1915. Absent May to
August 1915.)
84th
Brigade
2nd Bn, the Northumberland Fusiliers (joined December 1914, left June 1918)
1st
Bn, the Suffolk’s (joined November 1914)
2nd
Bn, the Cheshire’s (joined December 1914)
1st
Bn, the Welsh (joined December 1914)
1/6th
(Glamorgan) Bn, the Welsh (joined July1915, left October 1915)
1/1st
Bn, the Monmouthshire (joined February 1915, left September 1915)
1/12th
(County of London) Bn, the London Regiment (joined February 1915, left May
1915)
85th
Brigade
2nd
Bn, the Buffs (joined December 1914)
3rd
Bn, the Royal Fusiliers (joined December 1914, left July 1918)
2nd
Bn, the East Surreys (joined December 1914)
3rd
Bn, the Middlesex (joined December 1914)
1/8th
Bn, the Middlesex (joined March 1915, left June 1915)
228th
Brigade
This
Brigade came under the command of the Greek Crete Division from 30th
September 1918.
2nd
(Garrison) Bn, the King's (Liverpool) (joined August 1917)
2/5th
Bn, the Durham Light Infantry (joined March 1917)
1st
Garrison Bn, the Seaforth Highlanders (joined March 1917)
2nd
Garrison Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers (joined March 1917, left August 1917)
22nd
(Wessex & Welsh) Bn Territorial Force, the Rifle Brigade (joined November
1916
23rd
(Service) Bn (Welsh Pioneers), the Welsh (joined August 1916)
17th
Field Coy (joined Jun 15)
38th
Field Coy (joined Apr 15)
1st
(North Midland) Field Coy (joined Jan 15, left Apr 15)
1st
(Northumbrian) Field Coy (joined Dec 1914, left Jun 1915, renamed 447th Field
Coy Feb 1917)
2/1st
(Northumbrian) Field Coy (joined Jul 15, renamed 449th Field Coy Feb 1917)
1st
(North Midland) Field Coy (joined Jan 15, left Apr 15)
1/7th
(Hants) Field Coy (joined Oct 15, renamed 506th Field Coy Feb 1917)
3rd
(London) Field Coy (joined Dec 14, left Apr 15)
84th
(2nd London) (joined Dec 14)
85th
(3rd London) (joined Dec 14)
86th
(2nd Northumbrian) (joined Dec 14)
The force was deployed to
fortify an advanced defensive line.
In December 1915 the British
element fought a battle at Kosturino, north of Lake Doiran, after withdrawing from Serbia. After this
there was little action except for occasional air raids on Salonika. On January
7th German machines flew over and caused eighteen casualties. On
February 1st a Zeppelin caused fires and damage. On March 27th
the French stores were hit causing considerable damage. The Zeppelin came over
for a third and last time on May 5th but it was caught in the
searchlight of HMS Agamemnon whose 12 pounder in the forward bridge blazed away
and eventually brought it down in the marshes at the mouth of the Vardar. Up on
the ‘ Birdcage’ the early months of 1916 had some heavy falls of snow and the
Vardar wind blew from the north freezing everything. The only diversion for the
force was the affair at Kara Burun. The Kara Burun Forts at the mouth of the
Vardar were in Greek hands and the international force under General Mahon were
not too happy that they were seen laying in stocks of armour piercing shells
and building gun emplacements. The French, Russian, Italian and British
warships in the harbour under the forts decided enough was enough and British
Marines landed and French troops marched round from behind the city. The Marine
Officer called on the first fort to surrender as the fleet had orders to fire
if it heard any gunfire. The NCO in charge (his officers were away on leave)
only had 70 men so he complied. The other forts seeing this followed suit. This
was a dangerous business because if the Greeks had resisted King Constantine
would have used that as an excuse to bring the Germans into Greece against us.
By bluff and careful disposition of the International forces this was averted.
The Salonika Force dug-in until the summer of 1916, by which time the international force had been reinforced and joined by Serbian, Russian and Italian units. The Bulgarian attempted invasion of Greece in July was repulsed near Lake Doiran. At the beginning of Oct 1916, the British in co-operation with her allies on other parts of the front, began operations on the River Struma towards Serres. The campaign was successful with the capture of the Rupell Pass and advances to within a few miles of Serres.
During 1917, there was
comparatively little activity on the British part of the front in Macedonia,
due in part to complex political changes in Greece throughout the year. The main fighting took place around Lake Doiran,
where the line was adjusted several times by each side early in the year. In
April 1917, the British attacked, gained a considerable amount of ground and
resisted strong counter-attacks. In May, the Bulgarians attacked the British
positions, but were firmly repulsed. The British action in May triggered a
series of attacks elsewhere on the front by the other Allies, known as the
Battle of Vardar.
At the beginning of 1918,
the Allied troops in Salonika were prepared for a major offensive intended to
end the war in the Balkans. The Greek Army had
been reorganised and joined the Allied force. The offensive began in
July 1918, but the British contingent did not play a significant part until
early September. Then the British attacked a series of fortified hills. The
final assault began along the whole front on 15th September 1918,
the British being engaged in the Lake Doiran area.
This Battle was really on
the 18th and 19th September 1918 and was a disaster for the British Divisions.
They had to frontally assault 'Pip Ridge' which was a 2000 foot high heavily
defended mountain ridge with fortresses built on some of the higher mountains,
notably Grand Couronne (This was what the Bulgarians had been working on in the
first months of 1916 and early 1917). They sustained very heavy casualties. The
following report from one involved gives some idea of what the men went
through.
By ‘An
Unprofessional Soldier’ on the Staff of 28th Division.
He entitled his paper: “I saw the
Futile Massacre at Doiran”
It is from
Issue 46 of “I Was There” published 1938/9
“The Battle of Doiran is now a forgotten episode of the Great War,
overshadowed by the doings of Haig in France and Allenby in Palestine. There
was no full contemporary account of the Battle in any British Newspaper. Sir
George Milne’s dispatch was not published and did not appear in the Times until
January 23rd 1919, and then only in truncated form. The very name of
the battle is unknown to most. Yet, in singularity of horror and in tragedy of
defeated heroism, it is unique among the records of British arms.
The real work of the assault was
entrusted to the men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions, who
were to attack the Doiran hills, co-operating with the Cretan Division of the
Greek Army and a regiment of unreliable Zouaves. (French Colonial troops)
In the
early light of an almost unclouded morning the British and Greek forces
advanced in order of battle. The noise of our guns had abruptly ceased before
daybreak, and there came that awful pause in which defenders and attackers are
braced up to face the ordeal, with fear or desperation, with cool courage or
with blazing ardour. Slowly the pale grey smoke lifted in layers of thin film
above the ridges, blue shadows deep in every fold or hollow and a dim golden
glow on scrub, rock and heather. No one could tell what had been the effect of
our gunfire upon those fortified hills. The infantry soldier relies upon the
guns behind him, trusting in their power to smash a way for his advance by
killing or demoralizing the enemy and cutting up his defences. In this case, if
he had any hopes or illusions, the infantry soldier was quickly un-deceived.
Our attack on ‘Pip Ridge’ was led by 12th Cheshire’s. The
battle opened with a crash of machine-gun fire, and a cloud of dusty smoke
began to blur the outline of the hills.
Almost immediately the advancing battalion was overwhelmed in a deadly steam of bullets which came whipping and whistling down the open slopes. Those who survived were followed by a battalion of Lancashire men, and a remnant of this undaunted infantry fought its way over the first and second lines of trenches – if indeed the term “ line “ can be applied to a highly complicated and irregular system of defence, taking full advantage of every fold or contortion of the ground. In its turn, a Shropshire battalion ascended the fatal ridge.
By
this time the battle of the “ Pips” was a mere confusion of massacre, noise and
futile bravery. Nearly all the men of the first two battalions were lying dead
or wounded on the hillside. Colonel Clegg and Colonel Bishop were killed; the
few surviving troops were toiling and fighting in what appeared to be
inevitable and immediate death. The attack was ending in a bloody disaster.
No orders could reach the isolated cluster of men who were still trying
to advance on the ridge. Contact aeroplanes came roaring down through the
yellow haze of dust and smoke, hardly able to see what was going on, and even
flying below the levels of the Ridge and Grand Couronne (nearby mountain at the top of Pip Ridge and fortified).
There was only
one possible ending to the assault. Our troops in the military phrase of their
commander, “fell back to their original positions” Of this falling back I will
say nothing. There are times when even desperate heroism has to acknowledge
defeat.
While the 60th Brigade was
thus repulsed on the ridge, a Greek regiment was thrown into disorder by a
counter attack on the right. At the same time the Welsh Brigade was advancing
towards Grand Couronne.
No feat of
arms can ever surpass the glorious bravery of those Welshmen. There was
lingering gas in the Jumeaux Ravine (probably ours!) and some of the men had to
fight in respirators.
Imagine if you can, what it means to
fight up a hillside under a deadly fire, wearing a hot mask over your face,
dimly staring through a pair of clouded goggles, and sucking the end of a
rubber nozzle in your mouth. At the same time heat is pouring down on you from
a brazen sky. In this plight you are called on to endure the blast of
machine-gun fire, the pointed steel or bursting shell of the enemy. Nor are you
called on to endure alone ; you must vigorously fire back, and vigorously
assail with your own bayonet. It is as much like hell as anything you can think
of.
Welsh Fusiliers got as far as the Hilt, only half a mile below the central fortress, before being driven back by a fierce Bulgarian charge. Every officer was killed or wounded.
Following these came the 11th
Welsh, who were also compelled to retire fighting. For a time, however, a few
of the enemy’s trenches, full of dead or dying men, remained in our possession.
A third Welsh battalion was offered
up, to perish, on that awful day. The 7th South Wales Borderers nobly stormed up through the haze of battle
until they had come near the hills of The Tassel and The Knot, Then, all at
once, the haze lifted, and they were left exposed in the open to a sweeping and
overwhelming fire. Melting away as they charged, a party of Welshmen ran up the
slopes of Grand Couronne itself and fell dead among the rocks. Of the whole
battalion, only one officer and eighteen men were alive at the end of the day.
All night, unheard in the tumult of a new bombardment, wounded men were crying
on the hillsides or down in the long ravines.
Whatever Sir George Milne now thought
of his own plans, he must have been gratified by the behaviour of his own
troops. Those troops had been flung against positions no infantry in the world
could ever have taken by a frontal attack, and they had proved themselves to be
good soldiers. Two entire Brigades had been practically annihilated.
Only on the right was there a
temporary gain of ground by two Hellenic regiments in the neighbourhood of
Doiran Town.
The troops of the 28th
Division were in support of the Cretans under the Krusha hills east of the
Lake. These people were intended to make a “surprise” attack on the high
positions to the north, though I do not see how anyone can be surprised by an
attack which has to be launched over three or four miles of perfectly open
country – unless he is surprised at the futility of such a thing.
The Cretans had lined up during the
night along a railway embankment, which is immediately below the hills. At dawn
they advanced over the plain of Akindzali, breaking through the enemy’s outpost
line. Our artillery, owing to a failure in co-ordination, did not properly
support the advance, and our guns were eventually withdrawn under a heavy
Bulgarian fire. There were casualties in the neighbourhood of Akindzali village
(the scene of unmentionable Greek atrocities in the war of 1913). The attack
rapidly collapsed, and by evening the Cretans were back at the railway line
from which they had started. At nightfall the 28th Division took up
a purely defensive attitude, overlooking the plain. It may well be asked why
this Division was never given the chance of throwing its full weight into the
battle. The enemy himself, as we afterwards learnt, was very much astonished by
the absence or concealment of so large a body of troops. One of the first
questions put to a captured British airman near Petrich was “Can you tell us
what has become of your 28th Division?”
A fresh and equally futile massacre on
the Doiran hills was arranged for the following day, in spite of the total
breakdown of the general scheme.
It was now the turn of the Scotsmen – Fusiliers,
Rifles and Highlanders of the 77th Brigade, undismayed by the
dreadful evidence of havoc, ran forward among the Welsh and Bulgarian dead.
Artillery demoralised the regiment of Zouaves on their left. A storm of
machine-gun fire blew away the Greeks on their right, in uncontrolled disorder.
Fighting on into a maze of enemy
entanglements, the Scotsmen were being annihilated, their flanks withering
under a terrible enfilade. A fine battalion of East Lancashire’s attempted to
move up in support. The 65th Brigade launched another forlorn attack
on the Pip Ridge. The broken remains of two Brigades were presently in retreat,
leaving behind more than half their number, killed, wounded or missing.
We had now sustained 3,871 casualties
in the Doiran battle. Our troops were incapable of any further effort. A
terrible high proportion had been lost or disabled. We gained only the
unimportant ruins of Doiran Town and a cluster of small hills immediately above
it, never of any value to the enemy or strongly defended. The fortress of Grand
Couronne was unshaken, with crumpled bodies of men and a litter of awful
wreckage below it.
No one can view the result of the operation as anything but a tactical defeat. Had it been an isolated engagement, there would have been every prospect of disaster. The whole plan of the battle and its conduct are open to devastating criticism; but so are the plans and the conduct of a great majority of battles. ( The Cheshire’s, South Wales Borderers and the Argyll’s were awarded the French Croix de Guerre for their part – the Royal Scots Fusiliers lost 358, the Argyll’s 299 and the Scottish Rifles 228 men)
Luckily, the Franco-Serbian advance
was being continued with extraordinary vigour (elsewhere). Before long the
Bulgarian Army was cut in two and a general withdrawal began to take place
along the entire front. Our Doiran battle was now regarded as a contribution to
victory for had we not been effective in pinning down the enemy reserves?
British commanders are wonderfully philosophic after all. “
In other words another waste
of lives. Among those killed in this waste were Martin Alexander of Balerno Edinburgh,
Robert Wilson of Juniper Green both of 8th Royal Scots Fusiliers and
Charles Whitfield Arstall from Cadishead Lancashire of the 11th Welsh
Regiment. Wilfred Taylor from Hollinfare Lancashire also of the Welsh Regiment
received gas burns and shrapnel in the chest, although Wilfred survived it was
recorded in 1940 that he had died of these wounds.
The Franco–Serbian Armies
were also attacking in better conditions further to the east and, in spite of
desperate fighting by the Bulgarians and their Austrian allies, a gap was
opened in the Bulgarian line and the Serbian, French and British cavalry
followed up the Bulgarian retreat and captured Kosturino and Strumitsa. The next section gives
details of this action. Following the breakthrough the Bulgarians sued for
peace. To add to the tragedy the battle honour ‘Doiran 1918’ was awarded to one
yeomanry regiment and 22 infantry regiments.
The campaign honour 'Macedonia
1915-1918' was awarded to 10 British
yeomanry, 59 British infantry regiments and 4 Indian infantry regiments.
Sir George Milne was never asked about these events but was hailed a victor.
A description of life in
Macedonia during the final phase of the campaign suggests that discomfort
rather than danger was the chief menace to the troops. The tragic battle of
Doiran was an unhappy exception.
Mr F. A. W. Nash served with the RAMC and the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry from summer 1917 to the Armistice. He became a schoolteacher after the War and wrote a book of fairy tales ‘The Enchanted Spectacles’
The following is also taken
from the same issue of “I Was There”
“The Infantry Training Base
at Summer Hill cast us forth upon a cold, hard world after a tabloid training
of six weeks. NCOs shepherded us, our putteed legs carried us, and motor
lorries decanted us, upon the wide margins of the Struma Plain.
Before
us lay the winding Struma, silvery in the winter sunshine, and in the distance
the bluest hills I have ever seen. To our left lay the famous Rupell Pass, an
impregnable defile commanded completely by German guns.
An
occasional shell screamed across the plain and burst at the foot of the hills
where Johnny Bulgar lived and moved and had his being.
How
well I remember the villages scattered over the plain, each with its trivial
happening on that stagnant front! There was Orljak where we slept under canvas
in a blizzard, and the tent pole, round which our rifles were lashed, fell upon
my legs. I kicked myself free, lifted a flap of the fallen canvas, saw the snow
and snuggled down cosily again.
We
lived in redoubts in comfortable little iron tunnels, and had Greek infantrymen
to share our guard with us.
Once
we were marched to the ‘crumped’ village of Yenekoi, where we dug ourselves in.
We were acting as a sort of infantry screen to a flying battery. There was no
attack through the hot and thirsty night. We drank all our water and then lay
and endured till dawn. One enterprising lad tried to assuage his thirst with a
tin of sweetened condensed milk! This was an act , which would have caused a
shock of revulsion even to the Ancient Mariner!
But
apart from battalion manoeuvres at Four Tree Hill and a rush from thence to the
Plain again, when a false alarm of mutiny amongst the Bulgars was spread, we
were bedded fast in slab and thick monotony like flies in treacle.
We
had kit inspections; we scrubbed our shorts and helmets with the wonderful
sandy Struma mud, and went out on patrol looking for Bulgars. On these patrols
we actually carried stretchers. We hacked down the lush green grass, which
might harbour malarial mosquitoes, and poured cresol in pools to kill the
larvae.
The
night patrols had a ritual of their own. Each man anointed his face and neck
with almond-smelling mixture of the appearance of floor polish. This was to
make us unpleasant to the mosquitoes. Then we put on a muslin veil and tucked
the loose ends into our tunics. The tout ensemble was surmounted by the good
old tin hat, and off we went like the female portion of an Eastern Bridal
Party. One of our patrols, actually, made contact with the Bulgars. A corporal
‘discharged his piece’ at them. One of the Bulgars replied and, honour
satisfied both sides went home to supper.
A
terrific bombardment over the Rupell Pass one morning held our momentary
interest, and the news that a section of The Rifle Brigade had been wiped out
near Prosnik. Then we settled down to the eternal sameness.
But a
change was to come over the dream of the plain dwellers. Mosquito strafing,
O.Ps and comic opera patrols were to be no more. We ‘proceeded’ – in the
majestic language of the War Office – to the Vardar front. This was a very
different pair of shoes.
Behold
us then, marching up a camouflaged road leading to a Turkish village called
Myadagh. Greenery and wire netting against the vulture eyes of Fokkers had
screened the road.
“L’artillerie,
ce n’est pas merchante!” our French guide informed us. He would go to Ceres
with his battalion – but yes – and dorme…. He folded expressive hands
simulating sleep. Which would he rather fight, Johnny Bulgar or Le Boche?
“O – le Bulgare! Le Bulgare”
He left us in the courtyard
of a ruined house in Myadagh. We eased our equipment and ate our plentiful
rations. Pipes and cigarettes came out. The floor was littered with our mess
tins. The fig tree in the middle of the court sustained our reclining forms. In
one corner, potsherds and stacks of litter, which might have graced the rubbish
dump of Haroun al Rashid, were piled upon three timber joists, making a sort of
smelly Aladdin’s cave.
A
little Turkish boy and girl ate jam from a tin with their fingers, whilst we
tried to talk to them in scraps of French. Suddenly a gun boomed and a sound
like the shuffling of a giant across the sky in slippers filled with boulders
grew to a fearful crescendo. The little sultana dived like a rabbit into the
magic cavern, simultaneously with the oldest sweat in the party. I seized the
little boy and dragged him into the doubtful shelter of the doorway.
The
crescendo rose to a high demoniac shriek, as a high explosive shell burst
thirty yard up the road and demolished a house in a fan of black smoke, flying
bricks, dust and rubble. Our platoon sergeant strolled up unconcernedly, grinning
at our perturbation.
Although
the artillery wasn’t too bad on the Vardar, it was nevertheless worrying. There
would be sporadic bursts of shelling when fatigue parties were in the open and
on the move. We were shelled as we bore ammunition to the trenches, when we
filled our water bottles at the great stone Bulgar fountains, or when we made
sandbag emplacements for Lewis guns. One nearly had me at a fountain, and
before breakfast too!
Here
we were awakened soon after dawn by a Taube overhead. She signalled the German
battery across the river. Then came the ominous boom, followed by the rattling
scream of a shell.
Gloucester’s
and Hants bathing in the Vardar by the pontoon scattered wet and naked as the
high-explosive shells raked the railway line and ravine. I viewed the
bombardment with a sergeant of the Royal Engineers from behind a mass of rock.
The Taube sheered off for Brigade Headquarters and the bellowing echoes died
away further up the line. After lunch the wretched machine came back. This time
I posed. I snatched up my tin hat and Palgrave’s Golden Treasury (of verse) and dashed off amidst a
crowd of Gloucester’s and Hants. It would be a good thing to tell ‘em at home
that I’d read poetry under shellfire.
I
remember that as we crouched under the shadow of a boulder that one of the Gloucester’s
had come without his tin hat. He was bald and pink on the top and tied a
spotted handkerchief pirate-wise round his pate, more for protection from the
sun than high explosives and shrapnel.
Soon
our position became untenable and we fled again, the Gloucester’s to an arch in
the railway and I to the RAMC hut round the corner. The echoes up and down the
dump were simply infernal and one shell landed amongst a group of mules feeding
by the railway line. I saw a brave fellow going to get one of them in with
stuff dropping all around him.
A
pale man in the RAMC hut pushed back his topee, removed an unsteady cigarette,
and observed “ If it was your fate, you’d go that way” I read Palgrave but
can’t remember which part.
At
length the hideous noises ceased and the Taube departed. There were no more
bombardments, though had the Germans shelled the steep road leading to 67 Kilo,
when it was choked with lorries, mules and limbers, I dread to think what would
have happened.
67
Kilo was important because it was here, returning from the YMCA, I used to come
across the Gloucester’s and Hants manoeuvring, or gathered round a relief map
made of clay, of the positions they were to attack in a long projected “stunt”.
They
went into action in the late summer of 1918 with the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders. Fate and the Higher Command decreed that I should witness only a
part of the battle. I was extremely obliged to Fate and the Higher Command. I
saw the terrible bombardment under which our fellows attacked the Bulgar
trenches outside Gevgeli. A land torpedo was placed under their wire and our
men took the trenches with bomb and bayonet.
But
our losses were terrible. A friend of mine in ‘W’ Company helped bury the dead.
He said that under the light of flares and a heavy shellfire they buried our
poor fellows with their equipment still on and wondered if the graves they dug
would be their own.
The
Middlesex Regiment Pioneers dug a communication trench from our old positions
to the captured Bulgar ones. To these trenches a man of the Duke of Cornwall’s
Light Infantry, whom we were relieving, led us.
We
came at long last to our fire bays, for he led us round and round, always
missing the turning at the side, which led to our temporary home.
Part
of the parapet had been blown in a few yards to our left and a gaunt iron stake
was alone left standing, but our own dugout was deep in the chalk. There was a
puddle at the bottom, and here we tried to brew tea over the flame of three
candles. Never have I tasted such a horrid concoction of lukewarm, smoky water
and floating logs.
We
had two hours on and four off, all through a night of intermittent bombardment.
A few nights later the sky was red with flames from the Bulgar positions, and
the air was alive with the pop of the ammunition they were burning. The next
day we were walking about on top of the parapets under which we had so recently
cowered. The Bulgars had at last broken under the strain.
We
chased them up through the Rupell Pass and into Serbia. The line of their
retreat was strewn with shreds of clothing, dead horses, wrecked machine-guns,
ammunition, rifles broken across the small of the butt and bayonets with the
locking ring torn off.
The
Germans had laid out the part of Serbia they had occupied with little chilli
and tomato gardens, and had built Swiss looking chalets on the sides of the
ravines. At one place they had built a bath over a natural hot spring. We had a
swim! The conduct of our fellows was exemplary but not so some of our allies.
We soon came upon grim evidence of this, in
the shape of blackened Bulgar corpses at an abandoned hospital. All of them
were sitting up in their beds and rotting. Someone had got there before we did.
We had to burn the whole hospital, including a German medical marquee with
cases of beautiful surgical instruments. ( The Serbian Army was ahead
of them)
We were informed by our
Colonel we were going to Sofia. Our route took us across a plain as flat as a
draughtboard. We changed direction towards the Danube but we never arrived
there.
We saw the poor old
disbanded Bulgars with the toes hanging out of their boots returning to their
homes. They gratefully accepted bully beef and cigarettes from us.
Strange
how we try to slaughter poor fellows who have no real enmity towards us and
whose only fault is obeying their leaders.
So
back we came to Macedonia, even unto Sarigal, where we bivvied among the mule
lines in the mud. Here, on a certain November night , the Greeks on our left sent
up rockets and flares and a bugle quavered a call we had never heard before.
Our sergeant, coming back from the canteen and his potations said “Don’t you
know the Cease Fire when you ‘ear it!”
On 30th
September 1918 the Great War ended in Salonika.
If anyone
would like more information on Salonika, Malcolm G Fergusson of Balerno,
Edinburgh, offers more detailed accounts.
Information kindly
supplied by Malcolm G Fergusson of Balerno Edinburgh Scotland.