!m
Presented to the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
by the
ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY
1980
OTHER RECORDS OF THE GREAT WAR.
OUR ITALIAN FRONT. Painted by Capt. MARTIN HARDIE, A.R.E., and described by H. WARNER ALLEN. With 50 full- page Illustrations in colour and a Sketch Map. Demy 8vo. Cloth.
J'rice ass. net.
The experiences of the British Expeditionary Force in Italy, from the moment of its arrival in a country which had never before seen a British Army down to the Victory Offensive, are described by Mr. H. Warner Allen, who was attached both to Italian and British General Headquarters as Correspondent to the Morning Post and other London newspapers. Capt. Martin Hardie, fifty of whose drawings are reproduced in colour, was Head Censor to the Base and Line of Communication in Italy. His spare time was devoted to the making of drawings of places and subjects of special interest to the Expeditionary Force, and at the time of the final "push" in October 1918, he was given special facilities by G.H.Q. for making records of the battered area on the Piave anil beyond. All lovers of Northern Italy will appreciate these water-colour drawings : but they are of special value and importance as a unique historical record of our close association with Italy in the field of war.*
BOULOGNE: A WAR BASE IN FRANCE. By
Capt. MARTIN HARDIE. Square demy 8vo. Containing 32 repro- ductions— 8 in colour and 24 in sepia — from Drawings completed on the spot. Price 73. 6d. net.
Some Press Opinions.
" These drawings are ot unique interest and value. Each has a quiet dignity of its own : graceful in outline, bold in treatment, and effective in expression. Those who have known Boulogne either in peace time or as a base in France will be glad to possess so charming a souvenir. " — Record.
" A book that we shall all be glad to possess, aucl that to English women and men will recall memories grave and gay." — Army and Navy Gazette.
THE IMMORTAL GAMBLE, and the Part Played in
it by H. M.S. " Cornwallis." By A. T. STEWART, Acting-Commander,
R.N., and the Rev. C. J. E. PESHALL, Chaplain, R.N. With 32
Illustrations and a Map. Price 6s. net.
This book, written by two officers of the battleship from whose turret was fired the first
shot of the bombardment, gives an account of happenings of vital interest and importance. It
is absorbing because the truth shines out everywhere, and you feel that for once you are really
getting first-hand information as to what did happen.
In Preparation. CANADA IN CASQUE AND JERKIN, a Book on
the Canadian Corps at the Front. By INGLIS and RALF SHELDON- WILLIAMS, M.M.
This is the work of two Canadian brothers, sons of the late artist Alfred Sheldon-Williams, both of whom have fought for the Empire, and it promises that "difference" in manner and matter so valued by the discriminating reader.
This book is the story of the Canadian Army ; the part played by it in the drama of Armageddon. It is told by the younger brother, Ralf, and illustrated by Inglis ; the latter was commissioned by the Canadian Government to assist in immortalising Canada's great part in the Great War. The paintings for this book have in themselves a luminous truth and poetry which are unique in illustrations of the battle area.
THE NAVAL FRONT. By Lieut. GORDON S. MAXWELL, R.N.V.R.,and illustrated in colour by Lieut. DONALD MAXWELL, R.N.V.R. A book dealing with the world-wide front held by the British Navy throughout the \var.
PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK, LTD., 4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. i.
THE SALONIKA FRONT
BALKAN FANCIES
AND OTHER POEMS
BV
CAPTAIN A. J. MANN, R.A.F. SQJJARE FCAP. 8vo.
PRICE 2/6 NET (By Post as. 8d. )
THE IRISH TIMES, in reviewing this book, says : ** Such a spirit never can have known what boredom means even amid the fever - stricken plains around Salonika. It is this unconquerable optimism, this zest of life, which give to these poems their power to stir some of the deepest chords in the reader's heart."
PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK, LTD. 4, 5, & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.i.
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LAST PHASE OF THE GREAT FIRE AT SALONIKA, SEEN FROM THE AIR
56 b3 5
THE
SALONIKA FRONT
PAINTED BY
WILLIAM T. WOOD, R.W.S.
DESCRIBED BY
A. J. MANN, M.A. 56335
(CAPTAIN ; LATE RECORDING OFFICER, zz BALLOON COMPANY)
WITH PREFATORY NOTE BY
LT.-GEN. SIR GEORGE FRANCIS MILNE K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O.
A. & C. BLACK, LTD.
, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.I
1920
j>
till
TO
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR G. F. MILNE, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.S.O.
WHOSE UNTIRING VIGILANCE ENABLED THE BRITISH SALONIKA ARMY TO ASSUME AND MAINTAIN ITS PART IN THE ALLIES' BALKAN EFFORT, AND WITHOUT WHOSE FINAL SYM- PATHY THIS ATTEMPT TO OUTLINE SOME OF THE MAIN FEATURES OF THAT EFFORT WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN COMPLETED.
PREFATORY NOTE
A PERUSAL of Captain Mann's account of the doings of the Allied armies in Macedonia will assist the reader to pierce the supposed veil of mystery with which popular fancy has enshrouded these forces, and to form his own opinion as to their weight in the scale of the military operations which eventually led to the debacle of the Central Powers and their allies.
The army of Salonika was an offshoot of the army in France, hurriedly despatched to stem the tide of the Serbian retreat, but it unfortunately arrived too late to be of any immediate use. The conditions of service in the two theatres of war were far from similar, as was to be expected in two countries in such divergent conditions of civilised development. For the first two years
" * i
Vll 0
Vlll
THE SALONIKA FRONT
of the campaign communications were the main difficulty, but like the work of the Romans of old, roads of the British Army in Macedonia will long remain the best memorial of its presence.
The difficulties and the disappointments, the tragedies and the glories of the campaign of British, French, Greek, Italian, Russian, and Serbian troops are vividly described by the Author, who, as a member of the Army was able to appreciate the deeds of the Allies in the Balkans.
GEO. F. MILNE,
Gen.
NOTE
Throughout the book " last year * refers to 1918.
CONTENTS
PAGK
PREFATORY NOTE ........ vii
.CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY ........ 1
CHAPTER II
LINES OF COMMUNICATION ... 26
CHAPTER III
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 42
CHAPTER IV
OPERATIONS ......... 59
CHAPTER V
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 79
CHAPTER VI
THE ITALIAN EFFORT ....... <H
iz
x THE SALONIKA FRONT
CHAPTER VII
PAOB
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 110
CHAPTER VIII
THE GREEK EFFORT 128
CHAPTER IX THE BRITISH EFFORT . 143
CHAPTER X THREE FURTHER FACTORS .... . 162
INDEX. 185
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
By WILLIAM T. WOOD, R.W.S.
Owner of Original.
1. Last Phase of the Great Fire at Imperial War Museum
Salonika, seen from the Air .... Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
2. Salonika from Petit Karabou . Major Walter Waring,
M.P.. . . 4
3. Burnt-out Shops after the Fire Imperial War Museum 8
4. Ruin and Desolation. Salonika
after the Fire 12
5. From a Minaret of St. Sophia —
Part of the Burnt-out Area . Ministry of Information 16
6. On the Verge of the Fire's
Devastation ....... 20
7. Mount Olympos from Mikra . Lt. - Col. G. Windsor-
Clive ... 24
8. Mount Hortjac from the Gulf
ofTherma ......... 28
9. From an Observation Balloon
— Struma Valley, looking
towards Lake Tahinos . . Canadian War
Memorials Fund . 32 10. Doiran Town and Lake . . Major Walter Waring,
M.P.. . . 42 xi
Xll
11.
12.
13. 14.
15. 16.
17.
18 and-
19. 20.
21. 22.
23.
24.
25
and'
26.
THE SALONIKA FRONT
Owner of Original. FACING PAGE
Across the Struma towards Demirhissar,from Gumusdere
Maj.-Gen. G. N. Cory, C.B., D.S.O.
Imperial War Museum
46
48 52
54 56
Imperial War Museum 62
Basilica of St. Deme trios — All
that the Fire left Turkish Farm, Gorgop . Ruined Turkish Stronghold
at Vergetor .... Gerbasel Church Rupel Pass and Struma Valley
Villages, from Gumusdere . Hostile Air Raid on the British
12th Corps Headquarters Col J. B. Gaskell, C.B.E.
' Vardar-Doiran Front, from an Observation Balloon .
Junction of Butkovo and Struma Valleys, from an Observation Balloon .
Beles Range from Sal Grec
de Popovo .... Vardar River, Lake Ardzan,
and Dragomir Village . . British Military Cemetery at
the Cross Roads, Dragos House Interior at Gorgop After the Fire
Seres Town and Bulgarian Positions along the Struma
Mikra Bay . . .
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum . Imperial War Museum
68
76 and
77
80
86
92 98 Imperial War Museum 1 04
Peter Davidson .
1112 and
113
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
Owner of Original. FACING PAOB
27. British-Serbian Hospital and
Serbian Camp, Mikra (Oct. 2, 1916) . ,. . .
28. Rupel Pass .
29. Dreveno. The first Greek
Field Hospital
30. Piton Rocheux, Beles, and
Krusha Balkan
31. The "Pip" Ridge .
32. Lake Doiran, Eastern End
33. Vergetor Church .
34. Sunset Effect on a Quarry
near Vergetor
35. Scottish Women's Hospital,
Mikra (1916)
36. Headquarters (First Site) of
17 Kite Balloon Section, R.A.F., Orljak Ravine .
37. British Aerodrome and Air-
craft Park, Mikra Bay .
38 Brought down'in Flames 39. Dragomir Village . 40 Kretchovo and Trans- Vardar Mountains
M. Venizelos .
120 128
132
Imperial War Museum 1 36
Capt. G. Knowles . 140 Canadian War
Memorials Fund . 144
Jose A. Gandarillas 148
Capt. A. J. Mann . 152 156
160
Canadian War
Memorials Fund . 1 64
Imperial War Museum 168
H. Ballantyne . 172
180
Sketch Map at end of Volume.
"* c
€>A,-
. J .>
' V
THE SALONIKA FRONT
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Mr. William T. Wood's drawings — Origin and scope of this book — SALONIKA — Approach to the city in war time — Overland and air routes — Sea route — The gulf and bay — Morning A. A. guns — "M.L.O."— First impressions on landing — Inhabitants — The city, old and new — Streets, churches, mosques — Before and after the Fire — After war reconstruction — The Turkish quarter — The Greek quarter — The Levantine quarter — Quartier General and G.H.Q. — Social and military clubs — The White Tower music hall — Night life — Short leave — Returning to the front.
THE full significance of England's tribute, for over three and a half years, to the Balkan Minotaur, cannot without the help of pictures be thoroughly appreciated by those who have never been to that part of Europe. Its pictures are, then, the back- bone and, as it were, vitalising chord of this book. Reproduced from drawings by Mr. William T. Wood, R.W.S., who was not till long after their execution officially recognised as one of our war artists, they are, perhaps unfortunately, confined in
2 THE SALONIKA FRONT
their range of subject to that portion of the Allies front in Macedonia occupied during 1917 by Greek and British troops.
After midsummer of that year, owing to the sympathetic efforts of his Commanding Officer, Mr. Wood, then an acting corporal of the Royal Flying Corps and on the strength of the Salonika Balloon Company, was first permitted in his spare time to paint pictures.1 A late autumn exhibition of these pictures held at Salonika won him useful friends. Thanks to them, he was soon afterwards granted permission to bring his work home to London, where it was exhibited during June and July 1918 at the Leicester Galleries.
As the collection was being divided up it was thought advisable to reproduce a representative selection of these pictures in the way now seen in this book ; for, apart from their intrinsic value as works of art, they record faithfully the scenic setting of our British Salonika campaign. They are also, in a broad sense, typical of the main features of Balkan scenery along the whole of the Allies' front from Valona to Stavros. As on
1 Until then his time had been taken up by R.F.C. duties, which included the making from observation balloons of detailed drawings of the main enemy sectors ; a work for which he was mentioned in despatches.
INTRODUCTORY 3
that front occurred last autumn one of the most complete and surprising victories of the war, it cannot be altogether futile to attempt, side by side with this pictorial record, a brief shadowing forth in words of some of the main facts connected with our occupation of Macedonia.
Other writers have already several times pointed out that the physical obstacles to any extensive advance on that front were almost too great to be overcome. It is now proposed to show the manner in which the Allies did overcome them, not neglecting the contribution of each nation towards what was at least a very fine example of successful concerted action. The events themselves are unfortunately too recent, and too many details are still lacking for any profound critical judgement to be passed upon them, but an attempt can at any rate be made to describe, before they are forgotten, some of the main aspects of the campaign.
Incomplete a work of this kind must necessarily be, for to treat at all adequately a subject so vast demands not one but many volumes. The utmost that can be hoped is that, by virtue of its pictures, and its attempt to set down in words a few personal impressions, this book may interest all
4 THE SALONIKA FRONT
who have been condemned to pass the greater part of their active war service in the Balkans, as also those whose cruel fate it has been to lose a near relative or friend on that front ; enabling them to form a general idea of the total output of energy expended by each Ally, the final fusion of which resulted in the victory of our arms.
Had we but realised at home a little earlier the importance, in the general strategic plan of the Central Powers, of this theatre of war much waste of human life might have been avoided. At any rate the survivors from our long watch in the Balkans are conscious of having participated in a campaign as essential to the winning of the war as was the Gallipoli adventure, knowing well that their perseverance in the face of huge obstacles finally achieved its full measure of success.
Whoso set out from England during the Great War for the city of Salonika had before him several alternative routes. After a not wholly unadventurous Channel passage he might start by train across France. Touching (if fortunate enough to travel by the speedier line) at Paris, he would embark again at Marseilles. Forewarned against mine and submarine dangers, he would be
SALONIKA FROM PETIT KARABOU
The modern residential portion of the old walled city as it appears from the lesser of the two eastern headlands which form Salonika Bay. To the left is the famous White Tower, and from there to the ancient boundary wall on the right, clustering along the water's edge, are the headquarters and dwellings of consular and other representatives of the Western World. As the fire was stayed at the White Tower • this part of Salonika remained unburnt.
INTRODUCTORY 5
then conveyed by a circuitous sea route south of Italy and through the Aegean. Or again, he might be permitted, as the majority were later on, to proceed by slow troop train into Lombardy ; thence down Italy's east coast ; halting through long days at picturesque mediaeval townlets and seemingly interminable rest camps ; being shelled, on occasions, by Austrian submarines. At Taranto he would embark once more and sail by night on a crowded troopship, bound for an unknown port in the Gulf of Corinth, or, more often than not, by a very eccentric course, for Salonika itself.
The few favoured souls who, armed with a special permit, entered the Italian closed fortress of Brindisi, and were allowed to brave the Adriatic on a destroyer, troopship, or much way-worn cattle steamer till they entered the zealously guarded harbour of Valona, had before them an adventurous four days' land journey. Descending at length by precipitous and sharply looping mountain roads to the great plains beyond Fiorina, they came to the arrow -straight Roman highway that led south- wards from shell-pitted Monastir. Along this, if in a good car, they sped tranquilly till — covered from head to foot and lung-lined with the dust of
6 THE SALONIKA FRONT
ages — they entered, by the way Alexander must have entered it, the city of their dreams.
It was proved possible also, although owing to war's remorseless requirements no regular service was instituted, to travel out the whole way from England by ah*. Those who attempted the journey — they were not many — rose from off some convenient south -coast aerodrome and saw the white margin of cliff and wave that was England, with its miniature harbours, fade rapidly away, giving place to a sea of glass that merged mysteri- ously on all sides into cloud and haze. With nothing to guide them but a compass and, below, a chain of diminutive steamers, or "blimps" and toy craft intent on submarine spotting, they clove the wind, the noise of their engine drowning all speech. In five minutes the grey-green coast of France appeared ahead, and in ten more they were circling rapidly towards large camouflaged hangars, till, suddenly and with ears that sang, they felt the ground bump rhythmically beneath their under-carriage, and, slowing down, soon taxied in between the hangars.
A cigarette and a cup of tea in the mess, a friendly word or two, and then, at about three-
INTRODUCTORY 7
thirty (assuming they had started after lunch) the travellers remounted their Pegasus, and climbing in circles above a thin ground mist reached the lower strata of cloud, while far beneath northern France unrolled itself, a tangled mesh of mead and boscage, white roads and clustered townlets, that dwindled with but half perceptible gradation to- wards a horizon of mingled cloud and sea.
Yes, there is Gris Nez and there is Boulogne ; there too is the mouth of the Somme. Over there to the left, hidden in a mist of shell bursts, lie the greatest battlefields of the war. The sight of them draws like a magnet. It is hard to remember, whilst journeying onwards, to keep the Somme estuary constantly in view.
What are those little black dots floating north- wards ? Like small twigs carried on by a stream they glide nearer through the translucent ether, growing larger each instant. They resemble fish swimming steadily through turbid waters. They are too rigidly persistent for birds. Suddenly, as they pass high on the left, it dawns on the mind that they are aeroplanes in formation flight.
Are not those very like trenches beneath ? Was not that a shell burst? Yes, for there are one, two, three more farther on. That dark streak
8 THE SALONIKA FRONT
far off to the left ? Is it still the Somme estuary ? Or has their machine got into a wind drift, and, travelling at the rate of a couple of miles a minute out of its course, is it already above No Man's Land ?
A sharp bank, a swing round, a steep dive west- wards and the great guiding highways of France stand out once more, until a halt for petrol becomes necessary. They descend, as before, between camouflaged hangars, are given a similar kindly greeting and sent on the journey again with fresh maps and abundant advice. After a flight of about an hour and a half they see the rising smoke of Paris and come to earth towards sunset at a suburban aerodrome.
A whole book could be easily written about experiences on such journeys, for they vary as infinitely as do the heavens themselves. Paris would be but the first stage. There remained, for the second day, a choice of routes through southern France and into Italy, skirting or surmounting the Alps. Then, for the third, if the weather were still favourable, came an adventurous sea crossing to Albania, and a halt for lunch at a triangular aerodrome, the base of which faced a large islet- bound harbour, its two sides being backed by barren and precipitous highlands.
BURNT-OUT SHOPS AFfER THE FIRE
The fire, fanned by the Vardar wind, swept on relentlessly till it had turned prosperous shops and dwelling-houses into heaps of tangled girders and de'bris. After it was extinguished and superfluous rubble had been cleared away, the former owhers of shops established temporary stalls in the ruins, endeavouring to carry on trade as before.
INTRODUCTORY 9
Throughout the sweltering afternoon a siesta, then tea and a flight of over two hours across mountain, lake, and river until there appeared, framed off by rich- tinted clouds, what looked like earth's farthest limit, the tiny, three - tongued promontory of Chalcidice.
One could scarce believe those miniature splashes of water between each tongue and the even more diminutive kink that formed the bay to the north of them were each at least twelve miles wide and from thirty to fifty miles long. It seemed laugh- able, too, to reflect, from such a vantage height, that a mere pin prick beside that splash of water was renowned Salonika. To see the splash broaden out rapidly to a vast land-locked harbour with toy battleships at anchor in it, and to behold the ruined city grow orange and then purple as the sun dropped behind Olympos, then to skim on above Kalemaria and land at twilight beyond Mikra was an experience never to be forgotten.
Most Englishmen, however, at the beginning of the campaign, were sent out by the long sea route via Gibraltar and Malta. The time taken varied between ten days and a month according as the enforced halts in protecting ports were of long or
10 THE SALONIKA FRONT
short duration. Very eccentric were the courses chosen. Many found themselves conveyed to Alexandria, and from there, after several days' rest, started on a zig-zag northern voyage through the Aegean. The memory of the slowly narrowing Gulf of Therma, its western coast outlined sky- wards by glistening, snow-capped mountains, of the ship threading its way perilously under escort through anti-submarine nets at nightfall, and ot the final anchor-dropping beyond Karaburun as the lights of Salonika, five miles across the bay, broke forth one by one, must live ever vividly in the mind of most who approached the city by sea. To walk on deck the next morning, ere the sun rose to full strength, and see the gleaming city spread out on the water like some Levantine Venice, to distinguish for the first time the White Tower, the hospitals, the quays and clustering minarets, produced on any normal western mind a most startling effect. The yellow tents of the Allies, the green -brown aerodromes and fields, with their background of rugged hills that, from " Gibraltar " to Hortjac, form what has been called the "Bird-cage" defence line, contributed an additional note of light and colour to this truly oriental panorama, while a further note — one of
INTRODUCTORY 11
animation — was struck by the feverish activity of picket boats and miniature launches that rushed hither and thither on various errands among the vessels anchored around.
An element of excitement often entered into this first arrival, for as the morning advanced it was almost certain that a hostile aeroplane would make reconnaissance of the harbour. A.A. guns on all sides would then at once get busy, and a series of "bangs" from the ground would be followed by a series of "burr .... pops" in the air, which immediately afterwards festooned the sky with chains of white and black shell-bursts.
Next came the raising of the anchor and the approach to one of the quays. Soon a tall, blue- tabbed captain, bearing on his arm the red brassard of the A.M.L.O.,1 came aboard. What home- sick Englishman, landing at Salonika for the first time, has not felt grateful for the kindly welcome of this officer, who, from his striking personality and long service in the same capacity, became perhaps the most familiar figure among British officers at the Base? Towards late afternoon a landing for certain favoured ones might be effected. That is to say, a small boatload would be rowed
1 Assistant Military Landing Officer.
12 THE SALONIKA FRONT
to the landing stage by the White Tower, or the ship herself, having waited her turn, might be moored alongside the so-called " English " quay.
A run down the gangway and, after some jostling from Musulman porters, a hasty inquiry from a British military policeman for the office of the Base Censor. Approached along a street thronging with the most diversely garbed individuals, and smelling of all the vilest odours of the East, Base Headquarters, behind the old Bairn Botton, was at length discovered. After the mystic rite of censoring had been performed, a hurried rush to the post office with the proposed cable resulted in a lengthy conversation in French or Greek with an official behind a ticket-window. When he assured the anxious sender that there was no hurry, and that a letter would probably reach England just as quickly, the unfortunate one would perhaps resign himself to the inevitable, and, becoming accustomed in some measure to the unsavoury smells, might settle down to enjoy the fine cosmopolitan flavour of the place. Sampling ices at the most vaunted cafe, Floca's, or tea with goat's milk in the Winter Garden at the top of the Olympos Palace Hotel, had indeed its charms. Both these places, and the still more pretentious Splendid Palace Hotel, were
RUIN AND DESOLATION. SALONIKA AFTER THE FIRE
INTRODUCTORY 13
completely gutted by the Great Fire. Only Floca, the perennial, rose phoenix-like from its ashes and, though there remained but the charred shell of the house it once was, continued its existence as a rendezvous, starting afresh amidst its ruins almost the day after the conflagration.
Conveniently situated at the upper end of the small square that forms the seaward embouchure of Venizelos Street, this caf£, from seven-thirty in the morning till late at night, during the Allies' occupation presented a scene of vivid colour and animation scarcely ever equalled by other establish- ments. A traveller had only to sit on one of the cane-bottomed chairs outside such a caf£ to be at once assailed by a small mob of mendicant children in rags, and an army of diminutive, wistful- eyed shoeblacks, two of whom very frequently provided a lightning "shine" by working at frantic speed one to each boot of some kindly disposed Allied officer.
Amidst the mingled costumes that passed be- fore the observer in ever-changing kaleidoscopic pageantry were distinguishable first of all the uni- forms of French, Russian, Italian, Serbian, Greek, and British officers and men, also members (chiefly women) of the various Red Cross contingents.
14 THE SALONIKA FRONT
These, and a few over-dressed civilian ladies who aped the European style, walked, drank, and talked side by side with a crowd of other races, among whom many orientals in rich -tinted costumes. Tsiganes, Vlachs, Albanians, Serbs, Bulgars, Rumanians, Armenians, Deunmehs, Macedonian women with their peculiar red and green head- dress, veiled Turkish ladies passed and repassed, and with them mingled the veriest dregs of humanity, men, women, and children for whom begging seemed to be the primary object in life.
Before the Great Fire the none too wideVenizelos Street continued straight on from Floca's up a hill that increased in steepness after it crossed Via Egnatia, the oldest thoroughfare of the city. Ere it reached that point its character had changed. From an open roadway with shops on each side it became the main promenade of a tortuous and elaborately covered -in bazaar, which enticed the visitor to wander in search of curios. On all sides British officers and men were greeted by cries of, " Wadie-waan ? " the local variant of the old-time pedlar's cry, "What d'ye lack?" If the object of these cries preserved a stony countenance and chose to continue on up the steeper part of Venizelos Street, crossing the Via Egnatia, he
INTRODUCTORY 15
once more came out into the open and went on mounting the hill until he reached the Prefecture. Thence another road, running parallel to Via Egnatia, led right and left.
Turning to the right, one could penetrate to the upper and more purely Turkish portion of the city and mount the Seven -Towered Acropolis ; from beside the " Chain-Tower " of which could be seen a magnificent panoramic view of the whole city and harbour. To rest in the shadow of this tower on a hot summer afternoon, in company with some somnolent skin-clad Macedonian whose flock of mingled sheep and goats wandered over the neighbouring hillside, made one realise the true mediaeval significance of this definite limit to the ancient city. Within the wall, extending right down to the sea, stretched a rich profusion of white minarets and towers, domed edifices, crumbling habitations, gardens, and green-decked balconies. Beyond the wall the desolate, parched moorland looped on from gully to gully towards a distant background of rugged mountains, fit haunt for the brigands and barbarians who in former days constantly harassed the city.
Descending thence by a more direct route that skirted the old N.E. wall, and turning to the right,
16 THE SALONIKA FRONT
one came to the beginning of the wide thorough- fare now known as the Boulevard of National Defence. Along this Boulevard were the main Venizelist public offices, and between it and the N.E. wall lies the more purely Greek portion of the city. It touches the seashore at the point of junction between Victory Street (which skirts the harbour) and George I. Avenue. At this point stands the most typical of all mediaeval monuments of the city, the White Tower, a construction said to date from 1431, and known formerly as the Tower of Blood, because there were massacred, in 1826, by order of Sultan Mahmoud II., the Janissaries stationed at Salonika.
On August 18, 1917, an old woman in the Ilan Mermer quarter, whilst frying an early after- noon meal, set fire inadvertently to her kitchen and house, and, thanks to the strong "Vardar" wind, started the great conflagration that, burning for a week, despite all attempts to stay it, wiped out the more densely populated portion of the city. About one-third of the whole normal population of 180,000 was rendered temporarily homeless by this catastrophe. There is no doubt whatever in the minds of all who dealt officially with it that the fire was due solely to these natural causes.
FROM A MINARET OF ST. SOPHIA— PART OF THE BURNT-OUT AREA
INTRODUCTORY 17
It did not, as some have asserted, start at seven places at once. Lack of adequate water-supply, together with the general inflammable nature of the property destroyed, were the only reasons why it could not be extinguished earlier. A very heroic fight was put up by representatives of the Allied troops stationed at the Base, and an even more praiseworthy effort was made to cope with the great distress of the populace. Refuge camps were at once started at convenient places outside the city, and there, rationed and tended day and night by the Allies, the poor homeless wanderers found rest and protection. Throughout the period of this great emergency, to use the words of an officer in charge of most of the arrangements, "every British Tommy behaved like an ambassador."
Although much that was picturesque was destroyed by this fire, sufficient of the most ancient monuments remain to-day to make the city still a treasure -store of antiquities. For example, the N.E. wall, the Byzantine Seven- Towered Acropolis, the White Tower, and Arch of Galerius. The greatest loss of all is perhaps the churches, synagogues, and mosques, which were one of the chief glories of the place ; nearly
18 THE SALONIKA FRONT
all the synagogues were burnt — St. Demetrios, a basilica of five naves, that dated back at least to the fifth century, was almost totally destroyed, as also the famous mosque of Hamza Bey. Very ambitious plans for reconstruction of the burnt portions have been drawn up, and if these are ultimately carried out Salonika will be one of the most perfectly built cities of modern Greece. The main idea of the proposed reconstruction is to have wide roads radiating from all the most ancient monuments of the city. At present, however, many of the former denizens of houses in the burnt quarters sit from morn till eve among the ruins and offer for sale such merchandise as they have been able to procure, a pitiful reminder of their once well-stocked establishments.
The fire burnt only a small portion of the purely Turkish quarter. The upper and unburnt portion still retains its picturesque, old-world aspect. Mounting thither a day or two before the signing of the Bulgarian convention, three officers from G.H.Q. visited the house of the most respected Turk in the whole city. Pro- ceeding by steep and tortuous cobble - stoned roadways, and passing through a crowd of curious children, they entered a shady garden courtyard
INTRODUCTORY 19
which was surrounded by over-hanging, heavily latticed windows, and a creeper -hung balcony. Greeted at the garden doorstep by their white- bearded host, who kissed his principal visitor cere- moniously on both cheeks, they were escorted up the steps that led to the balcony and from it entered a spotlessly clean, white-washed inner chamber. Having seated themselves on a comfortable divan, they were served with coffee, sweets, and cigarettes. After the coffee had been imbibed, the Sheik produced book after book of ancient lore : treatises on geometry, alchemy, astronomy, and the casting of horoscopes. He referred to the earliest known dwellers on the site of Salonika, fire worshippers, who, at least 3000 B.C., according to Turkish chronology, lived there. He spoke of the wall that formerly surrounded the White Tower, and of many other things of local interest. Finally, after introducing his very shy little grand-daughter, he expounded the pictures on the walls of his room. They were texts from the Koran, worked in silk on a brilliantly coloured background in such a way that the script formed a ship in full sail, a bird, or a house.
Interiors such as this exist in every Macedonian Turkish village. In most you find the same
20 THE SALONIKA FRONT
scrupulous cleanliness, the same natural, quiet courtesy towards British visitors, in whom the Turks, at least in Macedonia, have implicit faith as in their natural, hereditary friends.
To leave this Turkish house and visit a Greek one, in the Greek quarter which lies on the north- east side of the Boulevard of National Defence, though it took but twenty minutes, seemed to transport the visitor to a totally different era of civilisation. The dwellings in this quarter, as also those of the so-called Levantine district along Queen Olga Avenue, are constructed more or less after Austro-Italian models. Their interiors are furnished mainly in Austrian style. Unwieldy stoves in porcelain, with enormous lengths of piping that disappear through the ceiling, heavy plush upholstering, Viennese verrerie, with perhaps a statuette or bust of some notability standing in a recess. Always in the most prominent wall space is displayed a portrait of the chief Greek political luminary of the moment, to-day of course Mr. Venizelos, yesterday King Constantine.
Charming was the cordiality of reception given to officers of the Allied forces, many the terms of flattery bestowed. Yet ever in the background lurked the feeling that, as a general principle, our
r
ON THE VERGE .OF THE FIRE'S DEVASTATION
-
INTRODUCTORY 21
intrusion was resented. In certain extremely Anglophil households, however, the restraint due to the presence of this feeling almost altogether vanished. The visitor was greeted at the door- step, and being invited in, had one single cigarette specially chosen and handed to him with ceremony. The eldest daughter of the family would bring him a glass of some liqueur or Turkish coffee, water, and preserves. He might be invited to( stay for the evening meal, at which a Greek variety of Imam Baildi,1 a typical Salonikan dish, consisting of aubergines cooked in oil, might be served. After the meal a guitar or mandolin would be produced, and while the household and their guest enjoyed the cool evening air in a miniature moonlit garden, popular songs would be sung, the whole family swaying to the lilt of the music.
In the Levantine quarter, that is, among the houses of foreign representatives resident at Salonika, the manners and customs of course varied in accordance with the nationality of the inmates, Salonika being as it were a microcosm of the whole world. Intermingled with these
1 Translated, this means "The priest faints," several variant versions of the cause of the disaster being current at Salonika.
22 THE SALONIKA FRONT
polyglot establishments were many houses which were temporarily taken over by the Allies as headquarters or base hospitals. The French Quartier G6n6ral, situated first of all in a street that ran at right angles to the "English" quay, was ultimately distributed among several of these houses. British G.H.Q. started in the former residence of the Turkish Minister and was not, until near the end of the war, removed to more commodious quarters at Papafi. Its first shelter, when abandoned, developed into the British Officers' Rest- House, which, towards the end, vied in popularity with the French Cercle Militaire. The latter was situated next to the White Tower restaurant and music hall. It was cleverly constructed by the French Intendance, and mainly decorated with odd-and-end wicker material which had previously served for other purposes. Upon its cool wave-washed terrace or in its side arbours officers of all the Allies, on short leave from their duties up the line or at the Base, quaffed drinks of every description and watched the incoming or outgoing ships. Russians entertained Frenchmen, English fraternised with Greeks and Serbs ; the whole atmosphere was one of jubilant cordiality and put up a magnificent
INTRODUCTORY 23
barrage against that terrible home-sickness which, sooner or later, was bound to afflict all who served at Salonika. What officers found in these military clubs and in the quiet, pre-war premises of the Greek club (unfortunately destroyed by the fire) the other ranks had, to a lesser degree, in their Y.M.C.A. and E.F. Canteens. It was on them, perhaps, far more than on their less restricted superiors, that the burden of the "ennui" fell. Their cheerfulness in the face of countless draw- backs was truly remarkable.
Adjoining the Cercle Militaire, and supplying a pleasantly distant strain of music to that institu- tion, was the garden, music hall, and restaurant of the White Tower. Wishing to cater for all tastes, the proprietors of this establishment probably ended by really pleasing none, although the overcrowded state of Salonika made the money flow into their tills. About one-third of the garden was reserved for the overflow from the dining-rooms of the restaurant, the remainder being crammed each evening by civilians and representatives of the Allies, who imbibed inferior beer and other drinks at exorbitant prices, and listened to whatever band happened to be playing. After the sun had gone down behind Olympos this orderly, music-haunted
24 THE SALONIKA FRONT
garden, thronging with the most diverse types of humanity, was very interesting to contemplate.
Those whose natures required something more than mere tranquillity could enter, if they chose, the adjacent music hall, where bad dancing, bad singing, bad beer or even worse champagne at an extortionate price, and a general racket of inter- ruptions from an audience composed mainly of officers in a very after-dinner mood, could be enjoyed or endured for as long as the place kept open. This, the largest music hall of its kind, was typical of the Greek estimate of the Allies' taste in such matters. Certainly it was always full, as were, before the fire burnt most of them, the lesser establishments that swarmed along by the shore -skirting Street of Victory. But to those who allowed themselves a moment's reflection, the throng of raucous-voiced women, most of whom had lost their last vestige of feminine charm, and the general air of ribaldry that pervaded the place, while it occasionally disclosed quite an unlooked- for chameleon trait of adaptability in the British, could not fail to be distasteful in the extreme. It was, however, almost the only evening antidote that Salonika afforded the tired officer who, after a long spell of service, was sent on short leave to the Base.
MOUNT OLYMPOS FROM MIKRA
Nightfall. The dark line of land in the middle distance is "Grand Karabou," the promontory which separates Salonika Bay from the Gulf. Mount Olympos is about 60 miles away.
INTRODUCTORY 25
Such a one, if lucky enough to command a place in a car, might start back late on the last night of his three days' leave with a light purse and a satiated soul. For months, amidst sweltering, rocky ravines and shrapnel -haunted trenches, he had watched his wounded or fever- stricken comrades dwindle one by one ; he had longed for some respite. At last leave had come, and he had plunged deep into the sights, sounds, and odours of the Base ; had perhaps had the extreme good luck to meet and speak with a woman who was not like those mere semblances of womankind he had just seen at the White Tower. He would return, refreshed in mind if not in body, and as he sped onward through the night his thoughts, diverted maybe by the beauty of a star, or the rising of the full moon above a rich oriental landscape, would speed back towards those lost friends with some of whom he hoped one day to be reunited, until a small " strafe " of guns along the distant hills and a Ve'ry light or two reminded him of the duty he was about to resume.
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CHAPTER II
LINES OF COMMUNICATION
Transport difficulties — Via Egnatia — Monastir to Seres — To Fiorina and Koritza— To Tepelen and Valona— To British 12th Corps— To British 16th Corps — Through the Krusha Balkan — The Independent Brigade. TOPOGRAPHICAL DETAILS : Lakes — Mountains — Rivers — Harbours — Mineral wealth — Flora and fauna — Climate — Towns — Villages — Population.
NIGHT journeys, such as the one just alluded to, or less comfortable trips by train, did not give the traveller much opportunity for studying the physical features of the country, or the transport difficulties against which the troops who occupied each sector of the Allies' front had to contend. At the outset the one existing highway of any consequence was that very ancient Greek one which, under the name of Via Egnatia, had been developed into a main channel of communication by the Romans. Starting from modern Durazzo, it continued on through Monastir, Vodena, and Salonika ; thence, joining up with Seres, it looped
26
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 27
round to Kavalla and Constantinople. When the Allies started to adapt the part of this road under their control to heavy motor transport they found that it needed almost entire reconstruction ; also constant subsidence of the soft, underlying strata made it necessary for repairs to be carried on throughout the whole period of the campaign. Always miles of it were lined with Macedonian men and women workers, or French, Italian, Serbian, and British labour companies, and at all places where roads such as this were under repair traffic was forced to side track right and left, a very perilous undertaking in the wet season.
(Any one who left Salonika by car in the morning with intent to visit the western portion of our Balkan front passed along this wide, dusty road, which, bordered at first by slowly dwindling habitations, transformed itself at length into the main transport artery between a series of large " dumps," each of which was interesting as a proof of the immense amount of reserve stores found necessary by each Ally. The importance of these reserves of food and material was not overlooked by the enemy, as frequent hostile bombing expedi- tions proved.
Soon after passing Dudular railway station on
28 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the left, a sharp turning branched off to the right and provided, as it were, the final boundary line of the last and largest "dump," the British Reserve Ammunition Depot. From there onwards Via Egnatia, or Monastir Road, as during the occupa- tion it was usually called, continued for several miles in a straight line across the flat plains of the Vardar, until after crossing that river it reached what remained of ancient Pella, and from there looped round to Ostrovo, through the picturesque Turkish townlets of Yenedze- Vardar and Vodena. Before Lake Ostrovo was reached the scenery had gradually altered from a flat alluvial plain to a country of woods and hills, which afterwards be- came more and more mountainous. Then followed a steep descent to Fiorina at the south-west corner of the Monastir plateau. There, throughout the latter part of the war, the French established the headquarters of the western section of their army. To climb the heights beyond this town by the magnificent slowly zigzagging road constructed by French engineers, and to continue round the edge of precipices and through richly wooded gorges as far as Biklista or Koritza, brought one to the limits of French influence and the beginning of Italianised Albania. It was just possible, by travelling all
MOUNT HORTJAC FROM THE GULF OF THERMA
The wreck in the foreground represents one of our enemies' very rare submarine successes in these waters.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 21J
day in a good car, to arrive at this place before nightfall. The journey, if continued the day following through the remainder of Albania, became, with one brief respite, more and more mountainous, until at last, by way of stately Agirocastro and rugged Tepelen, the Italian main headquarters at Valona and Kanina were ultimately reached.
Seldom did Fortune favour individual travellers sufficiently to allow of their completing this journey to Valona in two days, for although the road was kept in good repair punctures and tyre bursts were unavoidable. Lucky indeed were they who had the good chance to break down near some Italian post-station, where rest and refresh- ment could be obtained, and whence, if necessary, the journey could be continued next day by postal omnibus or ammunition lorry. Otherwise they would be forced to spend a night or two by the roadside, in close proximity to all the unknown perils of the mountains.
The sharp turning which, as has been said, branched off to the right from the Monastir Road after passing Dudular, developed into the new Sarigol-Kukus line of communication, the con-
30 THE SALONIKA FRONT
struction of which, early in 1917, was entirely carried out by British supervision and enterprise. This road, which was our main means of access to the Doiran front, led to the British 12th Corps headquarters at Janesh. After running for some distance along the left bank of the Galico and skirting " Gibraltar," the western outstanding pro- montory of the " Bird-cage " defence line, it crossed the river and looped round by way of Amberkoj to Sarigol. Thence, turning sharply again to the right, it led on to Kukus, the most important town of the sector, once a main rendezvous of both Bulgarian and Greek revolutionary activities, and right up to the beginning of the war an important centre of the tobacco industry. As is the case with all these Macedonian towns, more or less pretentious edifices, their walls plastered with dung cakes (the chief article of fuel) or hung with festoons of drying tobacco leaves, intermingled here with the veriest hovels. Another sharp turn, this time to the left and in the centre of the town, swung the main road round northwards again, where it passed close behind the French convent school, and finally, with a sort of switch-back railway effect, wound on across the hills to Janesh, the headquarters throughout the latter part of the cam-
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 31
paign of the British 12th Corps, the front of which stretched from the Vardar to Lake Doiran. The dominating heights of the so-called " Pip " Ridge, the seemingly impregnable Bulgarian stronghold on that front, the taking of which by British troops was an important episode in the Bulgars' retreat, were also, on normally clear days, distinctly visible from this point.
To set out from Salonika for the British 16th Corps it was necessary to travel by the only other available road which, being the old caravan route to Seres, started off from the Vardar Gate of the city (Piccadilly Circus) and passed through a cutting in the Derbend or " Bird-cage " ridge. Leaving Lake Langaza well to the right this road mounted the highlands towards Likovan and Lahana, two of the most healthy stations of this unhealthy campaign, and the centres of main supply activities for the 16th Corps front. Soon after passing Lahana one of the most magnificent Balkan views opened up before the eyes of the traveller. The whole Struma and Butkovo valleys, with their picturesque winding rivers terminating to the right in the great Lake of Tahinos, and dotted here and there, among richly varied verdure, with white minaretted towns and villages, stood
32 THE SALONIKA FRONT
forth in marked contrast against the rugged back- ground of the Beles range. The continuity of this range, except at one point, was preserved throughout. That point was the famous Rupel Pass, beyond which could be seen, on clear days, a glorious vista of snow-capped mountains. To descend by zigzag and precipitous turnings to the 16th Corps headquarters near Orljak, almost on the level of the plain, and to slowly realise the strength of the enemy positions on the other side of that plain, was an experience that could not fail to remain very vividly impressed on the minds of all who visited that portion of the front for the first time.
A journey north-westwards from Orljak by way of Gumusdere and Paprat to Snevce, or from Paprat to Kurkut and thence to Kukus, could be quite easily effected by car in fine weather, although the roads for the most part were little more than tracks improved by British and native labour. Such a journey opened up an ever- changing spectacle of gorgeously varied scenery, and at the same time enlightened the curious on the main features of that large front occu- pied by the British Independent Brigade, the head- quarters of which were at Paprat. In this least
FROM AN OBSERVATION BALLOON — STRUMA VALLEY, LOOKING TO - WARDS LAKE TAKINGS
The bridge in the foreground is Gudeli Bridge. Beyond the wood to the left are the beginnings of the Bulgarian lines, and in the distance to the right is the extreme southern limit of our British lines.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 33
disturbed of all British war areas game was plentiful, and the numerous villages passed through thronged with shy yet curious chil- dren, whose Moslem mothers had run to hide themselves in an inner chamber on the approach of strangers.
The country the Allies found themselves forced to hold consists of a series of bleak, mountainous highlands, mainly of crystalline or schistose for- mation, and vast sedimentary or alluvial plains, interspersed occasionally by lakes, and everywhere else cut into by countless intersecting torrential nullahs, which render wheeled traffic even in fine weather extremely difficult.
The chief lakes of this region as they lie in succession across the country from west to east are : Ochrida, the largest, on the much-disputed Albano- Serbian borderland, approximately nine miles wide and twenty miles long ; Prespa and Mala Prespa, which, it is believed, are connected with Ochrida by a subterranean channel ; Ostrovo, due south of the famous Kaimactchalan peak in the Morichovo range ; Ardzan and Amatovo, to the east of the Vardar ; Doiran, to the right of the " Pip " Ridge ; Langaza and Beshik, north of the
34 THE SALONIKA FRONT
Derbend Ridge ; Tahinos, at the south end of the Struma valley.
The most important rivers are : the Scumbi and Voyussa, in Albania ; the Vardar (ancient Axius), which, rising in the Shar Mountains near Kostovo, flows past Uskub and Veles, through Demir-Kapu, and then, after a long course over the plain north- west of Salonika, does its best to silt up the narrow entrance to Salonika harbour ; the Galico (ancient Echedorus), of little more than historical importance, which adds also its tiny quota of detritus to the harbour ; the Struma (ancient Strymon), which springs from Mount Vitosha and runs through narrow gorges into the low-lying plain south-west of the Belashitza range, where, turning south, it expands into Lake Tahinos and through it finds way into the Gulf of Orfano.
Of the harbours which were available for the Allies' use during the war, the one that proved of greatest practical importance to the forces based on Salonika was that on which the city itself is situated, and which is bounded on the south by the Vardar Delta and Karaburun headland (Grand Karabou). In another fifty years, experts have predicted, this magnificent land-locked harbour will, if left to itself, be transformed into a lake
. 35
with no navigable outlet to the sea, so great is the amount of alluvial deposit brought down annually by the Vardar. To avoid this disaster it will be necessary to carry out extensive and costly dam- ming and dredging operations, the object of which would be to move the main Vardar outlet more to the south.
There was also from the first Mudros harbour, and, later on, Volo, Corfu, and Itea ; the last two being much made use of in conjunction with the overland route through Italy. In marked contrast with the Salonika base the harbour at the Italian main base — Valona — had a wider outlet to the sea, and had, in consequence, to be protected by a very elaborate system of mines, which were strung together in the form of a triple boom. Once inside this boom there were excellent facilities for anchorage, the harbour being almost completely encircled by steep mountains rising straight up from the water's edge. They scarcely left room for the dizzy, zigzag windings of a wonderfully constructed road the Italians cut round them to link up Valona with Pie di Monte and Santi Quaranta.
The mineral wealth of this portion of the Balkan Peninsula, though well known to the ancients,
36 THE SALONIKA FRONT
remains in modern times practically unexplored. Gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, mercury, manganese, graphite, antimony, arsenic, sulphur, coal and lignite probably exist locally in consider- able quantities ; but hitherto, owing to instability and lack of enterprise on the part of the various governments concerned, no organised mining of these deposits has taken place.
The country abounds in wild animals. Prior to the occupation wolves, deer, boars, bears, badgers, jackals, foxes, wild cats and] dogs, wild goats, hares, and rabbits lived and hunted or grazed, each after its kind, over the moorlands and moun- tain sides. Cats, dogs, hares, and rabbits are all that continued to coexist with the occupation. Tortoises are found everywhere ; also lizards, scorpions, snakes, toads and frogs of various species. Among birds eagles, vultures, falcons, owls, crows, jays, magpies, storks, quails, thrushes, doves, geese, and duck occur in large numbers. To the insect collector the place is a rich hunting- ground, swarming with beetles, hornets, bees, butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, ephippigeras, and flies generally, including several large species of horse-fly, and anopheles, the much-dreaded malarial mosquito.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 37
The sudden outburst, in early March, of a rich profusion of spring flowers is very noticeable. From an uncultivated space of only a few square yards beside a camp at Vergetor a British soldier collected in half an hour no less than fifty -two distinct species of wild flower. It is sad to see this brief floral glory change within a fortnight to a dull parched mass of sun-dried herbage, which towards autumn frequently bursts spontaneously into flame. Although by far the greater portion of the country is barren and treeless, in the Krusha Balkan, between Fiorina and Koritza and frequently in Albania, you come upon the following trees : oak, ash, beech, elm, poplar, walnut, plane, cherry, wild pear, fig, and olive. Vines, wheat, and maize are grown extensively. Rice and cotton have been cultivated with success in low-lying districts such as the Struma valley and tobacco has, in many places, become the staple product of the soil. Despite all these proved possibilities, however, only about 6 per cent of the country is at present under cultivation.
The climate is fairly uniform throughout this whole region ; hot from March to October, cold and wet during the remaining months of the year.
38 THE SALONIKA FRONT
The highest thermometer reading recorded within the limits of the Allied occupation was 113° F. in the shade.
A great contrast during the hotter months is observable between tiie temperature of the swelter- ing low-lying valleys and the wind-swept uplands. This contrast became exceedingly trying to British soldiers on the march. Being unaccustomed to such rapid variations in temperature, they frequently caught severe chills owing to their neglect to cover themselves adequately at nightfall and in cold altitudes. The continuous spell of fine weather that lasts throughout the summer, with a heat that makes active military operations or other work impracticable for three or four hours in the middle of each day, was also irksome in the extreme to all, particularly as hardly any natural shelters existed and there was very little material for making artificial ones.
The discomforts endured by our men in this direction were accentuated by the constant presence of fever and other ills, dissemination of which by insects was unavoidable in so unhealthy a climate. Also, the omnipresence of that fine, irritating Balkan dust, which gets into your eyes, your lungs, your hair, and the very food you eat, and covers
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 39
your face, hands, and garments with a thick layer that replaces itself as fast as it is brushed off, was very annoying, when you had to breathe it con- tinually through long days of physical activity. But what was suffered from the heat was nothing in comparison with what had to be faced throughout the winter season. The so-called " Vardar " wind that at intervals throughout the summer blew for four or five days with unrelenting fury, was followed towards autumn by torrential rains ; and these in turn were superseded by a period of bitterly damp and cold weather, during which, on account of transport difficulties, active warfare became altogether out of the question.
The towns and villages dotted about the region of the Balkans occupied by the Allies are more or less racial and architectural epitomes of certain portions of Salonika itself. In each the Greek, Turk, Slav, or Albanian element predominates. Frequently, in the case of villages, a wholly Greek one will exist within a mile of one wholly Turkish. Those in the vicinity of the main lines of com- munication lost much of their original old-world character upon contact with our troops, and, while exacting exorbitant prices for very inferior
40 THE SALONIKA FRONT
commodities, became more and more dependent upon commercial intercourse with them. Of the old territorial provinces or vilayets into which, under Turkish rule, this country was divided, the department or sandchak of Salonika comprised, in addition to ajl the districts south of Doiran and Guevgueli as far as the sea, and from east to west between Verria and Stavros, territory as far north as Strumnitza, which did not, until the last week of local hostilities, come under full control of the Allies. We obtained also, early in the war, the greater portion of the old sandchak of Monastir and northern Epirus, the part of Albania south of the line Mala Kastra — Glava — Koritza.
In this whole region the total indigenous population, without including Salonika's 180,000,* was estimated roughly in 1914 at something over 310,000, about 125,000 of which consisted of people designated as Greek-speaking, 80,000 Turkish- speaking, and 75,000 Bulgarian-speaking; of the remaining 30,000 some 12,000 being described as nomad Vlachs and Tsiganes, 10,000 as Albanians, 6000 as Serbs, and 2000 Jews, Russians, Ruma- nians, etc. There has been, however, no really
1 In August 1915, the official returns for Salonika were : Greeks 85,000, Jews (Spanish-speaking) 65,000, Turks 25,500, other races 3500.
LINES OF COMMUNICATION 41
scientific assessment of population, and since 1914 numerical readjustments have taken place owing to interchange of refugees between different territories and compulsory evacuation of towns and villages in localities where military operations were contem- plated or in progress. Moreover, the language test is not necessarily a final one in determining the nationality of the inhabitants of any given area in this part of the world. Both during and after Turkish rule the country has been the constant hunting-ground of unscrupulous propagandists in the pay of each of the rival peoples who, up to 1914, entertained and very probably still continue to nourish ambitious schemes for completely domi- nating the Balkans. These propagandists, working in conjunction with the schools that each nation took care to establish hi convenient population centres throughout the country, very often, for purely political ends, succeeded in making members of that large class of people who had learnt more than one language adopt a nationality different from the avowed nationality of their parents.
•-
CHAPTER III
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL
Ancient cities — Xerxes — Cassander founds Salonika — Prosperity of the city — Rome the conqueror — Religious cults — St. Paul and the early Christians — Triumph of Christianity — Theodosius and the Goths — Visigoths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Saracens — Bulgars, Mag- yars, Normans — Crusaders, Lombards, Serbs, Catalans — Turks — Venetians — Spanish Jews and Deunmehs — Greek revolt — Balkan wars — Political situation in 1914 — Gallipoli and after — Lauding of first Allied contingents.
ALTHOUGH the fire -worshippers, whoever they were, that, according to Turkish tradition, lived three thousand years before the beginning of our era, on the spot where now stands Salonika, must have been no more than one human wave in the long succession of primitive settlers, the history of this part of the world does not begin until its colonisation by the Greeks. Planted in the first instance at various points along the coast of Chalcidice, and afterwards in the main river basins, the Greek communities prospered rapidly; but even where particular place-names owe their modern
42
DOIRAN TOWN AND LAKE
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 43
survival to association with famous historical personages, nothing is known about them beyond that they were centres of literary, artistic, or commercial activity, or that some more or less capable ruler established in them his headquarters. Of this last category was Aegae (modern Vodena), which, up to the days of Archelaus, appears to have been the seat of government of the kings of Macedon. That monarch, however, transferred his court to Pella, and constructed there a new palace, which Zeuxis, the painter, decorated throughout, and in which the foremost philosophers, poets, and musicians of the day found constant welcome. Thus we hear of Euripides passing the last years of his life at this court ; later on, too, Aristotle resided at Pella as tutor to Alexander the Great.
Over a century and a half before the death of Alexander, Xerxes, " Great King " of Persia, after immense preparations, had flung his vast army across the Dardanelles, and with it, in due course, had marched through the forests of northern Chal- cidice, where his baggage columns were attacked by lions. Halting for a while on the slopes of Mount Hortjac, he may have looked down on the twin townlets of Halia and Therma, which stood
44 THE SALONIKA FRONT
respectively at the northern and southern ex- tremities of the area now covered by Salonika. A French writer has at least pictured him sur- veying in this way the surrounding country, and marvelling at its apparent fertility, while he reflected with pleasure on the probability of easy conquests farther south. The sun must have set behind Mount Olympus just as gloriously then as it does to-day, and its noontide heat was just as keen. Only the landscape was more wooded, and its general aspect wilder. The fever raged then as it does now, and it took its toll of Xerxes' army. It took toll subsequently of many another invading horde.
In the year 315 B.C. Salonika (then Thessalonika) first came into existence. Cassander, son of Anti- pater, having taken to wife a half-sister of the deceased Alexander the Great, sought to perpetuate her memory by naming after her the city he caused to be constructed, and which he peopled by the remnant of several neighbouring settlements, de- vastated by disastrous wars. Well planned and protected by strong walls, the new city speedily prospered. It became a centre of great commercial and some literary activity. Wine and oil were its
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 45
chief articles of commerce in those days ; gold and silver were mined in its vicinity. Sacked by the Gauls, it nevertheless continued its economic existence, and when, after the battles of Cyno- cephalae and Pydna, Macedonia became a Roman province, the importance and prosperity of this, its chief commercial emporium, increased so much that the population is said to have numbered over 250,000, about one-third more than the present figure. Moreover, by adroit partisanship of the winning side before the battle of Philippi, the inhabitants won for it the status of a " free city," and thenceforth it became renowned throughout the antique world for loyalty towards Rome and as a stronghold of Hellenistic culture.
The old tutelary divinities, whose beneficent vigilance shielded the first citizens from harm, appear to have dwindled in importance in men's minds as their sense of security, derived from Rome's peaceful sway, gained ground, and the cult of the deified city of Rome and its deified emperors almost superseded them. Side by side with the newer forms of faith and worship, several older ones, such as that of Dionysus, Apollo, and Aphrodite, continued to exist. Mithraism flourished there in the first century. There was
46 THE SALONIKA FRONT
also, even in those early days, a large Jewish colony and synagogue.
Into the midst of this colony and that of Beroea (Verria), about the year 53, came St. Paul, after he had evangelised Syria, Asia Minor, and Philippi. Although his new doctrine aroused a certain amount of opposition from orthodox Jews, to the Gentiles who had espoused the main tenets of the Jewish faith it was from the first readily acceptable, and he found his warmest adherents among the large circle of these that existed at Salonika.
Despite all opposition the flame once lit con- tinued to burn. It burned on steadily, though oft-times in secret, through the days of the gi eater persecutions, until after " enduring all things " the once despised and rejected faith became, under Constantine the Great, the guiding star of the Roman world. That emperor is said to have at first meditated making Salonika the capital city of the new Eastern Roman Empire ; but, following the dictates of a dream, he chose the site of Byzantium instead.
The Goths, who from about the year 269 became a constant menace to Salonika, were several times beaten off, and the Emperor Theodosius, who lived there for over twelve years, had to
ACROSS THE STRUMA TOWARDS DEMIRHISSAR, FROM GUMUSDERE
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 47
organise an army to repel them. After driving them back with success he made himself for ever obnoxious to Christendom by causing his mer- cenaries to fall upon and massacre, as a reprisal for disaffection, a large part of the population of Salonika at the conclusion of a free display in the Hippodrome, to which they had been specially invited.
Thenceforward great and grievous calamities fell in rapid succession on the unhappy city. Goths, Visigoths, Huns, and Avars devastated, each in turn, the fertile and inadequately protected province of Macedonia. They seem to have con- sidered it an easier prey than Constantinople, but though they repeatedly laid siege to the city they were seldom able to sack it. After them, through- out the centuries, followed still more redoubtable human scourges. Slavs, at first under Avar chief- tains, made attempt after attempt against the city, being repelled almost always by the brave and well-sustained defence that, under the direction of Church dignitaries, the inhabitants invariably put up. Settling at length throughout the Balkans, their tribes still occasionally attacked the city, and at times planned to synchronise with the descent of the Saracen pirate galleys of Crete. Ultimately,
48 THE SALONIKA FRONT
upon contact with the softening influence of Christianity, their remnant, having spent its force, settled down to more peaceful pursuits.
There followed the wave of Bulgarian incursions. This fierce and warlike people first conquered and then became assimilated linguistically to the subject race. Converted to Christianity, Bulgars and Slavs gradually fused into one Bulgarian kingdom, which, in the days of Tzar Simeon, became almost co- extensive with the Balkan Peninsula ; Durazzo and Salonika alone being held by the moribund Eastern Empire. It was but a brief period of glory, for soon, by help of new frontier assailants such as the Magyars, imperial Constantinople — though herself very unstable — contrived to again get the upper hand.
In 1081 Robert Guiscard, Norman duke of Calabria, crossed the Adriatic and attacked Durazzo. Then, preparatory to future conquest, he sent his son to plant detachments of Normans in various cities, such as Uskub, Ostrovo, Vodena, and Verria ; but on the death of their leaders these detachments became rapidly absorbed by the people they had momentarily dominated. After them came those wandering bands of men and women adventurers, who, calling themselves crusaders, preceded the first
BASILICA OF ST. DEMETRIOS— ALL THAT THE FIRE LEFT
This church, parts of which were said to-date back to the fourth century, was among the chief of the architectural glories of Salonika destroyed by the fire.
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 49
organised crusade, everywhere spreading disorder and discredit for their cause. Then a formidable land and sea expedition, started by William II. of Sicily, ended in the capture and pillage of Salonika by Normans. Next Boniface of Monferrat and his Lombards took possession of the city, and he had himself declared King of Salonika.
Change upon change followed, the supreme suzerainty of the Balkans passing and repassing alternately into the hands of the despot of Epirus, the Tzar of Bulgaria, and the different incumbents of the imperial throne at Constantinople.
At the expense of Bulgaria, Serbia had mean- while been growing into a more or less defined free kingdom, which in 1285 extended northwards as far as the Danube and southwards to Ochrida and Prilep. The Serbian monarch of that time, by name Miloutin, formed powerful alliances with Epirus, Naples, and Constantinople. Stefan Douchan in 1334, following up these advantages, had himself crowned at Uskub " Tzar of the Serbs and Greeks," shortly afterwards extending his sway from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, from the Danube to the south of Thessaly and Epirus and as far south-east as the environs of Salonika. But this suzerainty, too, was short-lived, and the
7
50 THE SALONIKA FRONT
whole kingdom ultimately became a prey to the Turks.
Meanwhile, Salonika and the whole of Chalcidice had been much harassed by the famous Catalan Company of adventurers who, having been dis- missed from service by both the Sicilian and Constantinople Governments, allied themselves with the Turks and started pillaging various population centres throughout Greece.
It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that in 1387, after a siege that lasted four years, the city, much depleted in population, at last fell a prey to the Turks. At that period, although the new invaders had overwhelmed the whole surrounding country, reducing the Eastern Empire to a state of vassaldom, they had not had time to consolidate their own internal organisation sufficiently to en- sure the maintenance of discipline throughout the lands they subjugated. Allowed full autonomy of government, Salonika thus became virtually free immediately after its conquest, and a few years later sought to shake off altogether the Turkish yoke by calling in the help of Venice. Readily accepting the offer, that Republic willingly paid money for the privilege of annexation. A small garrison was sent to occupy the city, and the walls
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 51
were repaired. These efforts, however, proved inadequate to meet the danger of a fresh attack on the part of the Turks, for in 1428, on the approach of a large army led by Sultan Murad II., the Venetians only made a show of resistance, and then fled hastily by sea. Recaptured with ease, the whole city was put to the sword, and after the greater part of its surviving inhabitants had been sold as slaves, it was re-stocked by Turks from the Vardar valley.
Thereafter, in place of the old Byzantine- Christian edifices and culture, Moslem mosques (frequently Christian churches transformed) and Moslem manners pervaded the city. There set in also that great exodus of Jews from Spain, compelled by a desire to escape the Inquisition, and many of those who came to the Levant obtained special sanction from the Sultan to settle at Salonika. It was mainly due to their untiring activity that the city once more became of some commercial importance. A series of communities, each self- sufficing and wholly immersed in its own affairs, grew up within its walls. Orthodox Jews and Deunmehs (Jews converted to Islam), Turks, Bulgars, Greeks, had each a separate quarter of the city allotted them, an arrangement
52 THE SALONIKA FRONT
that in a general sense still persists, and although Turkish garb was adopted and Turkish rule prevailed, each separate community lived its own life and spoke the language of its forbears.
After Crete had been wrested from the Venetians by the Turks and Venice had ceased to count as a commercial entity, Salonika's importance again waned, her main trade having been through Venetian agency. It was not until the con- struction of the railways, begun in 1870, that a renewed impetus was given to commerce by the opening up once more of adequate trade channels with the western world.
Meanwhile in 1830, Greece, with the exception of Macedonia, by sympathetic help of the greater nations, had after nine years' struggle won freedom from Turkish rule ; and Greek men of commerce, even in Macedonia, had slowly and surely gained control of considerable trade interests, until towards the end of the last century they had established an intricate network of commercial ties with almost all the countries of the world.
Then came a series of propaganda conflicts between the Bulgars and Greeks, who, by help of the Orthodox Greek Church, aimed at hellenising the whole of Macedonia. Bulgaria retaliated by
TURKISH FARM, GORGOP
Musulman or Greek Orthodox inhabitants of the country districts throughout Macedonia and Albania are usually housed in picturesque, barn-like structures of this kind.
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 53
obtaining sanction from Turkey for the establish- ment of a separate national church organisation, to be controlled from Constantinople by its own supreme exarch.
In and after 1903 the results of these and other skilfully organised propaganda efforts on the part of Bulgaria were seen throughout Macedonia in the form of revolutionary risings and bomb outrages, engineered in the main by secret agents and committees. On several occasions these disturbances became so acute as to look very like developing into war between Bulgaria and Turkey, and it was only by the intervention of Austria and Russia that war was averted. Also Greece, deter- mined to fight Bulgaria with weapons as subtly forged as her own, established secret committee organisations which aimed at the complete over- throwal of her rival's unscrupulous revolutionary tactics.
Despite repeated promises from Constantinople, throughout European territory still controlled by the Sublime Porte, administration showed small signs of improving and lawlessness and brigandage became more and more prevalent. As concerted action was needed, a temporary coalition was effected between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and
54 THE SALONIKA FRONT
Montenegro, and in the late autumn of 1912 this coalition, known as the " Balkan League," putting matters to the test of arms, won a series of complete victories over different portions of the cumbersome, though theoretically modernised, organisation of the Ottoman Army.
In the course of this "First Balkan War" the Greeks contrived to reach Salonika and assume supreme control there one day before the arrival, by forced marches, of the Bulgarian advance-guard, and this aroused considerable ill-feeling among the Bulgars. A series of similar petty frictions between Bulgars and Serbs resulted, early in 1913, in the splitting up of the League immediately it had achieved its primary object of an overthrowal of Ottoman control and before it had taken any steps towards an amicable repartition of the conquered territory.
Severance from Bulgaria appearing unavoidable, Serbia, on June 1, 1913, entered into a new agreement with Greece, whereby she was to be allowed free access to the sea through a neutral zone of territory, each party being pledged to aid the other in resisting Bulgaria, should that nation employ military force as a means of obtaining advantageous terms in the repartition. Almost
RUINED TURKISH STRONGHOLD AT VERGETOR
A block-house, which stands just off the Vergetor- Cugenci road, and is a prominent landmark for miles around. As the adjacent village of Vergetor was razed to the ground by the Bulgars in the course of their retreat before the Greeks during the summer of 1913, the block-house itself was probably reduced to this state of ruin in the same way.
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 55
immediately afterwards Bulgaria attacked both frontiers, and the two allies, by carrying out in conjunction with Rumania that succession of well - planned operations which constituted the " Second Balkan War," forced on her the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest Thus Austria, Bulgaria's secret ally, was again compelled to postpone the realisation of her long- cherished idea of check- mating Serbia and thereby winning control of the Salonika railway ; and Bulgaria's own hopes of dominating all other Balkan states were once again frustrated.
The situation in 1914, then, as regards balance of power in the Balkans, was a decidedly precarious one. Each young Balkan nation whose fate was involved after release from Ottoman control, desired before all things self -development and consolidation. Not one, perhaps, was completely satisfied with the existing state of things, as set down by the Treaty of Bucharest, or certain as regards the length of time it would be possible to persist in any given alliance or policy ; all being more or less at the mercy of the greater European powers.
Of these powers Austria and Russia, on account
56 THE SALONIKA FRONT
of geographical proximity, were the most keenly interested in the future of Balkan affairs, the former still hankering after an unhindered trade and strategic outlet through the Aegean and the reduction of Serbia to a state of subjection, the latter bound by racial ties to support Slav interests. Russia, moreover, had her own Pan-Slav ambitions, and Rumania, dreading encroachment from that quarter, and anxious before all things to unite in one single political entity the scattered sections of her people, was strongly in favour of inter- nationalising the Bosphorus and Dardanelles coast lines.
When, after the Serajevo murders, and the out- burst in Vienna and other places of skilfully fanned popular indignation, Austria issued that ultimatum to Serbia which, despite its virtual acceptance within the prescribed time limit of forty -eight hours, was followed up by a declaration of war, French, Italian, Russian, and English diplomatists had already exerted themselves to the utmost in vain endeavours to bring about a settlement of the points at variance by methods of peaceful arbitra- tion. It was therefore seen by all that the Central Powers had chosen war as the only possible means of realising their ideals of expansion, the most
GERBASEL CHURCH
This ruin, another result of the Bulgars' rage during their 1913 retreat, stands beside a few charred stones and a ruined campanile, which are all that is left of a once prosperous and peaceful Greek village. It was a strange contrast between old and new when, at about a mile distant on each side, the R.A.F. established flights of aeroplanes which daily crossed it in all directions.
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL 57
probable direction of their advance being by way of the nearer East.
It thus became imperative for the Allies, as soon as possible after western dangers had been met, to turn their attention towards the creation of some form of check on hostile initiative in the Balkans. After the failure of two attempts by an Anglo-French fleet to free the Dardanelles, the Gallipoli landing was resolved upon and carried out, despite all efforts made to stay it by a well -prepared opposing Turkish force. In the general strategic scheme of the Allies it was never regarded, in view of the great transport difficulties involved, as much more than a diversion planned to gain time for more important operations. England at any rate soon realised that nothing short of a decisive victory elsewhere would enable this small force to win through to Constantinopla
Austria, meanwhile, persevered in her military attempt to crush Serbia, and it was seen that the very small assistance hitherto given that supremely heroic little state was wholly inadequate to achieve any favourable result. At the eleventh hour, therefore, and after Bulgaria had fully mobilised, the Allies resolved to land a small combined French and British force at Salonika; which
8
58 THE SALONIKA FRONT
port, although neutral territory, offered the most convenient base for operations in support of Serbia. Accordingly (October 3, 1915) the first in- stalments of this force disembarked there, the debatable point as to occupying neutral territory being got over by a formal protest, lodged by Mr. Venizelos. That statesman had already suggested to the Allies the advisability of having a force in readiness to assist Serbia in the event of Bulgaria breaking neutrality by siding with the Central Powers ; which would make Greece obliged, by the terms of her treaty with Serbia, to participate actively in the general conflict. It was the worst time in the whole year to start operations in that part of the world ; for in a very short while the autumn rains that were already beginning would be succeeded by the intense cold of winter, and the absence of metalled roads north- wards from Salonika would render any organised advance of heavy transport through the virtual quagmires into which rain soon transformed the only existing thoroughfares hazardous in the extreme.
CHAPTER IV
OPERATIONS
Too small and too late for relief of Serbia, the first Allied force creates a diversion, advancing and then retreating (October 1916 to January 1916) — Expecting the Bulgars to attack, the Allies con- solidate the "Bird-cage" defence line ( — March 1916) — No attack taking place, they extend their front, and after successful minor en- gagements on their right and centre and considerable gains on their left, consolidate a new advanced line ( — February 1917) — They attack along the centre of this line (April and August 1917) — They renew the attack successfully (August 1918) — Bulgaria capitulates (September 30, 1918)— The World War ends where it began.
THE force thus landed at Salonika in October 1915 ultimately consisted of about 34,000 French and 14,000 British troops, the French being under command of General Sarrail, the British under General Sir Bryan Mahon. The Greek public and their local government officials naturally looked askance at the intrusion of so many belligerents on neutral soil and did much to thwart our efforts at mobilising on a war footing such resources as were to be found in the vicinity
59
60 THE SALONIKA FRONT
of the city. Accommodation adequate for the establishment of a base headquarters and urgently needed supplies had to be discovered without regard to cost and at the shortest notice. Thus, from the outset, the Allies were compelled to carry on operations at a very great disadvantage. All that seemed feasible was to make use of the only existing railway northwards and push their comparatively small force rapidly up the Vardar valley towards the hardly pressed, retreating Serbs, creating in their favour and against the Bulgarian flank as formidable a diversion as possible.
Accordingly, the 57th, 122nd, and 156th French Divisions were sent up by rail and speedily occupied positions between Gradsko, Krivolak, and Strumnitza. After about ten days' unavoidable delay their supports along the Vardar valley, as also the protecting force they had thrown out on their right flank (Kosturino — Doiran), were relieved by what remained of our 10th (Irish) Division, still depleted and physically weakened by its very exacting service at Suvla Bay.
The Bulgars meanwhile continued to press the already isolated extreme right-hand portion of the Serbian Army, which, although it fought stubbornly, was compelled (November 16) to abandon the
OPERATIONS 61
Babuna Pass and fall back on Prilep and Monastir. This necessitated a corresponding withdrawal of the French through the Demir-Kapu defile, and, after failing to keep in touch with the Serbs, owing to fresh German-Bulgar concentration and attack over the whole area, the withdrawal of the Franco-British line to within Greek territory be- came unavoidable. This withdrawal, an extremely difficult and perilous undertaking at the time of the year, was very skilfully carried out, despite constant pressure by the Bulgars. The French even succeeded in taking with them the greater part of those supplies they had collected, for political reasons, beyond the Macedonian border.
As for our 10th Division, no alternative was open to it but to hold out on the freezing, shelterless mountains as long as the French retirement required protection, and then fall back within the Greek frontier. The steadfast Irish- men who composed it were subjected throughout this very anxious period to both frontal and flank attacks by comparatively fresh hostile forces, which outnumbered them by at least four to one and were supported by far superior mountain artillery. Finally, at the cost of heavy losses from fatal wounds, frostbite, and other sickness, and
62 THE SALONIKA FRONT
with but small abandonment of guns and materiel, they made good their retreat.
To render this retreat at least temporarily secure against rear concentration and attack by the then very suspect Greek Army, a naval blockade of Greek ports had meanwhile been carried out by the Allies. As numerous French and some British reinforcements were still disembarking at Salonika and the landing of an Italian Expedi- tionary Force of 30,000 at Valona in December constituted a further Balkan menace to the Central Powers, probably also owing to a secret undertaking with Greece, the Bulgarian armies, despite their superior artillery and strong stiffening of Germans, forbore to cross the Greek frontier. The Allies thus had ample time to consolidate the positions nearer Salonika they at length decided to hold.
These positions constituted the so - called "Bird-cage" defence line, which stretched for about 60 miles across country, its nearest point due northwards from Salonika being about eight miles from that city. Starting in the western marsh-lands of the Vardar delta, it crossed the River Galico, then ran along the northern slopes of the Derbend ridge to the western shore of the
RUPEL PASS AND STRUMA VALLEY VILLAGES, FROM GUMUSDERE
OPERATIONS 63
Gulf of Orfano. Protected on the left by a fifteen-mile depth of impassable morass and on the right by specially constructed redoubts and the monitors of our Mediterranean Fleet operating in the Gulf of Orfano, the greater part of this line was soon reinforced by elaborate systems of concealed trenches, concrete gun emplacements, and wire entanglements. It had , also to be rendered easy of access from Salonika by the construction of solidly built roads and decauville tracks. General Sarrail, who from January 1916 was placed in supreme command of all the Allied contingents on that front, gave the utmost care and thought to the carrying out of these very necessary operations ; so that by the beginning of April 1916 he and other experts pronounced the whole line to be capable of prolonged resistance to the still anxiously awaited enemy advance.
Training of all arms had gone on apace, and when in May Lieut. -General Sir G. F. Milne took over command of the British Salonika Army, he had at his disposal five very well-conditioned divisions, while the total Franco - British forces numbered over 800,000 effectives, a figure that was still further augmented by the addition in the course of the next few months of the newly
64 THE SALONIKA FRONT
reconstituted Serbian Army, already nearly 80,000 strong. These reinforcements, Rumania's demand of an offensive from the south, the enemy's delay in attack, and the unexpected handing over by a Greek garrison to Bulgarian troops of the strategic point of Fort Rupel (May 26) rendered the occupation of a more advanced line desirable.
It had been found necessary to take very definite action with regard to Greek armed neutrality and veiled hostility towards what the majority of them were still disposed to consider our unwarranted intrusion in Macedonia. The most significant stages of our policy in this direction were marked by :
(1) Blockade of Greek ports, begun in De- cember 1915, which warded off the danger of any large concentration of the Greek Army in our immediate rear.
(2) Agreement with the Salonika (3rd) Greek Army Corps Commander, whereby our infantry and cavalry patrols were allowed free circulation throughout Macedonian territory.
(3) Expulsion from Salonika of all enemy consuls immediately after the first hostile air raid over the city.
(4) Seizure and occupation of the Greek shore
OPERATIONS 65
batteries at Karaburun (Grand Karabou), January 28, 1916.
(5) Seizure of communications (rail and tele- graph) and proclamation of martial law in the Salonika district (June 1916).
(6) Forcing of King Constantine to agree to a strictly neutral attitude and demobilisation of the Greek Army (June 21).
As regards actual fighting, nothing but desultory engagements between infantry and cavalry patrols occurred during the first four months of 1916. There was also the hostile air bombing attack, already mentioned, and two Zeppelin reconnais- sances, the last of which (May 6) resulted in the bringing down of the intruder by gun-fire from H.M.S. Agamemnon, then in Salonika harbour.
The handing over of Rupel, altering as it did the whole strategic situation, was followed up at once by attempts on the part of the Allies to fore- stall in some measure the expected offensive. But, although quite early in the year we established advanced cavalry patrols with headquarters at Kukus and, in June, occupied the right bank of the Struma, while the French, assisted by our 22nd Division, advanced to positions in the Doiran- Vardar sector, the Bulgars, owing to connivance of
66 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the Greek frontier guards, succeeded in overrunning Macedonia from the north-east as far south as Drama, Seres, and Kavalla, and Epirus from the north-west as far as Koritza.
As the Allies were pledged to attack eight days before Rumania declared war, an offensive demonstration, rendered less hazardous by the arrival of two Russian brigades (July 30) and the very strong Italian 35th Division (August 10), was organised by General Sarrail. It began (August 10) by a heavy bombardment of Doiran, and the capture of Tortue by the French and Horse-shoe Hill by the British (August 18). At the same time British forces, already in line along the Struma, crossed it at several places, the Italians meanwhile taking over a large portion of the Krusha Balkan sector.
The enemy, however, by an adroit surprise attack directed against the Serbs, who had been allotted that large sector of the Allies' line on the right bank of the Vardar, succeeded in seizing the initiative so definitely that it became necessary to transfer there, as rapidly as possible, as many French troops as could be spared. This attack, developing over the Lake Prespa-Kaimactchalan sector, outnumbered and drove back (August 18)
OPERATIONS 67
the few Serbian outposts north of Fiorina, took Fiorina and Banitza (August 19), and forced the Serbs to fall back to the highlands north of Lake Ostrovo (August 20), where, thanks to French and Russian reinforcements which began to arrive, they contrived to make a stand. Owing to this transfer of troops, the attack we were pledged to make could not be continued. The British became by degrees solely responsible for the whole front from the Vardar to the mouth of the Struma, the Italians being the last to hand over to us their sector in the Krusha Balkan (November 29, 1916).
The task of consolidating defences, and of keep- ing up active offensive demonstrations against the Turks, Bulgars, and Germans who had taken up strong positions facing this line, was by no means light. Vigorous attacks across the Struma were again and again effected at several places on either side of Lake Tahinos, and the line finally held by us in the Struma valley ran through Ormanli-Elisan- Homondos-Ago Mah, with advanced cavalry posts as far as Kalendra-Kispeki. In the Doiran- Vardar sector we held up at least 30,000 Bulgars and Ger- mans by bombardment and successful attack of the Macucovo salient ; and by a series of well-planned minor operations and raids, admirably carried out
68 THE SALONIKA FRONT
despite a heavy dysentery and malaria sick-list, suc- ceeded in keeping the enemy in constant suspense.
After their stand north-west of Ostrovo, the Serbian First Army, with the French and Russians, found themselves once more able to advance via Gornicevo, and across the Mala Reka, towards Fiorina, which they entered (September 18). The Serbian Second Army meanwhile, having with supreme heroism won its way from hill to hill, on the same day successfully stormed the great Kai- mactchalan peak, culminating height (8284 feet) of the Moglena Mountains, and the main strategic point of the whole sector. As repeated endeavours to retake this position only cost the Bulgars very severe losses, they at length retired across the Serbian frontier to the line they had prepared at Kenali. They were not long safe there, for the Serbs continued to press them via Petalano and the Tcherna bend, while the French and Russians, assisted by part of the Serbian First Army, ad- vanced north through Vrbeni (October 2), north- west through Buv to Kisovo, and through Pisoderi to Popli and Jermano, at the north-east extremity of Lake Mala Prespa (October 3).
With superb dash and courage the Serbs pushed right and left along the Tcherna, and, crossing it
This, the most formidable hostile air raid that visited the i2th Corps front, is here very vividly portrayed by the artist, who saw it from the most convenient vantage-point, about two miles away. The bursts on the ground are all bomb bursts ; the brown, white and black dots in the air being our own anti-aircraft shell-bursts.
OPERATIONS 69
in two places, entered Brod (October 8), en- deavouring to turn the Bulgar's line. Ten days' stubborn fighting enabled them to win this much- disputed Tcherna bend corner of Serbia ; then, while their left wing pushed on in the direction of Tepavci, on their right they stormed the southern promontory of the Selechka Mountains, and captured, round about Polog and Iven, a large quantity of stores and many guns, together with several hundred prisoners ; they also took Chegal, Negochani, and Jarashok. Porodin and Velushina being won by the French, the enemy was obliged to withdraw behind the Bistrica stream (November 14), and though offering desperate resistance, was finally driven to evacuate Monastir (November 19).
General Sarrail was wont to say that if only reserves had been available, the long period of deadlock on our Balkan front which followed these 1916 operations need never have been endured. The intense fighting of the preceding weeks, and the continual bad weather in which it had been carried on, had so exhausted all arms that it was impossible to push the attack farther north, and the enemy succeeded in digging into positions sufficiently near Monastir to keep it under constant
70 THE SALONIKA FRONT
shell-fire. Thus, although it had great political significance, the capture of Monastir had scarcely any strategic value. British troops in the Struma valley had meanwhile gained a local success, which culminated in the capture of Jenikoj (Oct. 1916).
Both sides spent the winter months in consoli- dating their new lines, and when, in March 1917, hostilities again started, they tended to take the form of sanguinary though very indecisive engage- ments, which did little more than test the endurance and defensive strength of different portions of the enemy's entrenched lines. It is worth while bearing in mind that as the initiative of these engagements was, except as regards air raids, almost always on our side, their total strategic effect tended un- doubtedly towards the advantage of the Allies, enabling us, at the end of a two years' seeming hiatus in progressive operations, to achieve a definite and final success.
During the winter months of 1916-1917 the Allies worked hard at offensive and defensive preparation. To give one example of the amount of engineering work that still remained to be done : a journey by road, from Salonika to the head- quarters of our 12th Corps at Janesh was, early in January 1917, so uncertain of duration that,
OPERATIONS 71
although the rectilineal map distance was no more than 28 miles, it was necessary to start at 8.30 in the morning to arrive by 3.30 in the afternoon, even if the conveyance were an R.F.C. Crossley touring car ; for that car would probably have to be pulled, no less than three times over, by a chance team of mules, out of the thigh-deep mire that, in places, was still the only thoroughfare. A month later, when the new 12th Corps (Amberkoi- Kukus) road was finished, it was quite possible, without too obviously exceeding the speed limit, to cover the whole distance of 36 miles by this road in 2J- hours.
Greece, unfortunately, continued to give us cause for grave anxiety, although the Bulgarian incursions over the frontier aroused intense popular resentment in Macedonia. This feeling found expression in the " Revolution " (August 30, 1916), whereby the partisans of Mr. Venizelos at Salonika definitely threw off allegiance to King Constantine and joined actively in the war on our side. It was, nevertheless, deemed advisable to occupy a five - mile " neutral zone " across the north of Thessaly, separating royalist from Venizelist spheres of influence.
The first hostilities of the spring of 1917, with
72 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the exception of a large enemy air raid, took the form of an attack by the French and Russians over the sector between Lakes Prespa and Ochrida, and also by the French and Serbs north of Monastir. Owing to bad weather little, beyond the capture of prisoners, was achieved ; though the attempt no doubt helped, as a prelude, our ambitious British offensive in the Doiran-Vardar sector.
Begun, after two days' artillery preparation, on the night of April 24, this last attack aimed, in the first instance, at winning P. 4£, a point more than half way up the "Pip" Ridge, that great natural fortress of hills which faced and dominated the whole of our British positions. By sheer grit and perseverance our men reached and maintained possession of this objective, but the two Infantry brigades who carried out the attack on the right found almost unsurmountable difficulties in their way. In front of them lay the boulder-strewn slopes of Jumeaux Ravine, into which, half an hour before we were timed to start, the enemy began to pour a very formidable barrage. Although we had two balloons on duty their observers could not see into the deep ravines where the enemy batteries lay concealed. It was not possible, therefore, to locate the exact positions of their
OPERATIONS 73
flashes, or for our gunners to reply with sufficient accuracy to put an end to the barrage. On the other hand the Bulgarian gunners were assisted by two very strong searchlights ; in the full glare of which our men had not only to leave their own trenches but also, braving the barrage, to run right to the bottom of the ravine, wade through a stream, and charge up the steep slope on the opposite side. They succeeded in many places in getting a foothold in the enemy's trenches that ran along the top of this slope, but were unable to stay there, as the deadly barrage, while it kept their own supports from arriving, also followed them into the trenches they had captured. Next morning as many as were left alive and able to move back regained their own lines.
On May 5 the Greeks, who now occupied the sector on our immediate left, just across the Vardar, won their first slight success, and on the following day we recommenced our artillery preparation in front of Doiran and the "Pip" Ridge, where the enemy had meanwhile been con- siderably reinforced by both artillery and infantry. The attack it preluded was again directed across
Jumeaux Ravine, and again had no lasting result,
10
74 THE SALONIKA FRONT
although individual infantry units achieved some very remarkable temporary gains.
During this period the French, Italians, Serbs, and Greeks were almost equally baffled in their endeavours to advance by the natural and strongly fortified resources of the ground occupied by the Bulgars. German experts, by construction of very deep reinforced emplacements and concrete dugouts or trenches cut from the solid rock, had developed to their utmost all these natural ad- vantages. In the concrete emplacements machine- guns were planted ready at a moment's notice to sweep their deadly hail of bullets along the deep and heavily wired ravines through which all our attacking parties had to make their way.
In order to minimise malarial casualties on the Struma during the summer of 1917, a general withdrawal of our British line to the foot-hills was carried out under cover of a small offensive demonstration. The Bulgars did likewise, and nothing but chance encounters between patrols in a very vaguely defined No Man's Land varying between twelve and twenty miles in width, occurred throughout the length and breadth of the Struma valley ; while, along the remaining sectors
OPERATIONS 75
of the Balkan front, activity was confined to a few raids of merely local importance.
In the autumn a third attempt to take a portion of the "Pip" Ridge was again made by the British 12th Corps, an attempt that proved even less successful still and cost us heavy casual- ties. These dominant heights became at length recognised as an almost impregnable natural fortress, strengthened as they were by the latest German improvements in defensive warfare.
Similar local engagements along the sectors occupied by our Allies met with very little success, and, by the end of 1917, it was universally felt at Salonika that with the comparatively small force available nothing in the way of a definite, crushing blow could be dealt, unless some great western victory brought about the sudden withdrawal from the Balkans of the stiffening of German troops Russia's collapse had provided, or the Bulgars themselves ultimately grew weary of the war.
Events of 1918 bore out in the main the truth of this opinion. Many German troops were with- drawn, and the Bulgars did, it is thought, to some extent, begin to lose heart. It remained for the Allies to take advantage of the most favourable point and moment for attack.
76 THE SALONIKA FRONT
During the spring and early summer of 1918, considerable redistribution of the various Allied contingents took place, and to compensate for transfer of over one quarter of our British Salonika Army to other fronts, General Guillaumat, who, in March, succeeded General Sarrail in command of the Allied Armies, placed the 1st Hellenic Corps of the Greek Army under General Milne. General Franchet D'Esperey, who succeeded Gen- eral Guillaumat early in June, outlined a scheme for an offensive in September, to coincide with the big offensive in France. Our British 12th Corps, which still occupied the Doiran-Vardar sector, was reinforced by many more Greek troops, and the length of front for which General Milne was re- sponsible was extended from 90 to 135 miles, including as it did the hitherto wholly Greek sector on the right of the Vardar.
In this sector, after heavy artillery preparation, a preliminary success was gained by British troops (September 1), the object being to divert the enemy's attention from the Allies' main objective. A terrific bombardment began along the whole front from Monastir to Doiran (September 14), and 24 hours afterwards Franco -Serbian troops, under Voivode Misitch, took the enemy's first
VARDAR-D
ON the west edge of the lake is Doiran town. Before the last push our I
south of Doiran to a point situated about the left-hand corner of this pictu
in the centre (the -'Pip" Ridge) and those beyond, but had also swe|
JUNCTION OF BUTK.C
THE Italian Krusha-Balkan sector, which the British ultimately t
along the foothills of the Bel
DC|\N FRONT.
l lines stretched along the southern shore of the lake and across the gullies After the push we had not only gained possession of the dominating heights ar of enemy the mountains to the extreme north and east of the lake.
•
STRUMA VALLEYS.
ver, began to the left of this picture, nge, seen in the background.
It was faced by the Bulgars
OPERATIONS 77
and second lines, storming the heights between Sokol and Vetrenik. General Milne thereupon issued orders for the British, French, and Greek troops, under command of Lieutenant-General Sir H. F. M. Wilson, to attack the " Pip " Ridge, and for the British and Greek troops under Lieutenant- General Sir C. J. Briggs to carry out concomitantly a surprise attack round the eastern shore of Lake Doiran. Both started before dawn (September 18), but, though many prisoners were taken, owing to the great difficulties that had to be encountered, neither attacking force gained more than a temporary foothold in the enemy's positions. Next morning at 5 A.M., despite the previous day's heavy casualties, the attack on the "Pip" Ridge and Grand Couronne was renewed, it being necessary to compel the enemy to keep large reserves in that sector, instead of utilising them to stem the tide of the Allies' advance elsewhere. The result was we were able to gain and hold Petit Couronne', Teton Hill, and Doiran town.
The victorious Serbs and French meanwhile pressed on from point to point with incredible rapidity, till (September 21) they had cut the enemy's communications between Gradsco and Prilep, and down the Vardar valley, The Bulgars
78 THE SALONIKA FRONT
began a general retreat through the Kosturino Pass, and their rear-guard was hotly pressed by the Greek and British advance. Moving forward by night (September 26), French, Greek, and British troops stormed the Beles, that rocky and precipitous mountain range north-east of Lake Doiran, which is 4000 feet high and which we had long regarded as impregnable.
Previously, on the morning of that day, an open car was seen approaching our lines, the occupants holding aloft a white flag, and the result of the conference that ensued between them and the Allies' representatives was the signature, three days later, of the Military Convention that embodied Bulgaria's capitulation. When at noon (September 30) hostilities finally ceased, the British 16th Corps, the Greek Cretan Division, and the 228th Infantry Brigade had cleared the Strumnitza plain of the enemy, and the 12th Corps had swept right along the crest of the Beles range to a point opposite Rupel, while the French and Serbs had disappeared northwards beyond Veles and Istib. It was felt universally at Salonika that the war was over.
CHAPTER V
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT
French and Greek alternate languages of commerce in the Southern Balkans — French the normal medium of culture — French direct- ness of thought and action a co-ordinating diplomatic influence — Sarrail's saving celerity — Territorials, Cavalry, Artillery — " Service Routier '' — ' ' Service des Eaux " — " Intendance " — " Bazar de Lyon " — "Mission Antipaludique" — Franco-Greek and Franco-Serbian Schools — " Bibliotheque Macedonienne " — " Service Archeologique " — Industrial and Agricultural experiments — Geological and Carto- graphical Survey — " (Euvre civilisatrice " — The " Albanian Re- public " — Impressions of French officers — THE RUSSIAN CONTINGENT — Its arrival and ultimate fate — Impressions of Russian officers.
THIS victory, so long hoped for, so long almost despaired of, was only rendered possible at length by loyal and whole-hearted co-operation between the various Allied contingents, each of which con- tributed its individual quota to the total effort we were able to make on that front. It is proposed, therefore, in the course of the few remaining chapters of this book, to indicate briefly some of the most salient features of the social and military contribution made towards this effort by each of
79
80 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the six Allied peoples ; only one of whom, owing to revolutionary upheaval, ceased to count as a definite military entity before the final phases of the campaign.
First in importance, as the locally predominant power throughout, the one possible unifying element of the whole adventure, France stands forth. French troops from the very outset were by far the most numerous, and theirs was the largest share in the operations. As their tongue was spoken with more or less facility by each of the Allies it naturally tended to become a bond of union between all.
Prior to the war French and Greek had been generally recognised as alternate languages of commerce in the Southern Balkans, and to a practical knowledge of these the indigenous trader had to add, besides his own particular dialect, some acquaintance with "Ladino" or Levantine Spanish, as spoken by the numerous Salonikan descendants of the Jews who left Spain to escape being persecuted under the Inquisition.
Since Greece became a free state many wealthy Greeks had sent their children to be educated in France. Although not a few of them being naturally gifted as regards languages acquired
BELES RANGE FROM SAL GREC DK POPOVO
This seemingly impregnable natural, barrier was nevertheless at last successfully stormed by Greek and British troops.
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 81
German with almost equal fluency, French, on account perhaps of certain analogies of mentality and temperament between the southern French- man and the Greek, had become universally re- cognised as the most useful extraneous linguistic medium of culture.
French directness of thought, therefore, assisted us in our military and diplomatic relations with Greece, co-ordinating the individual views and efforts of all the Allies. Thus and thus only was General Sarrail, with characteristically French celerity, enabled to meet subterfuge with subter- fuge, political expediency with expediency, fulfilling with success the twofold function of a General- in-Chief at Salonika and a local mouthpiece of the Supreme War Council.
From the very outset the inhabitants of Salonika understood instinctively that they had to deal with the whole force and weight of Gallic political genius, that the intellectual weapons of the Allies would be at least as subtly forged as their own. Their estimate of the English was a confused and distorted one, based mainly upon past experiences in dealing with our comparatively few Levantine trading organisations and upon
a vague feeling of gratitude towards certain
11
82 THE SALONIKA FRONT
individual Englishmen such as Gladstone and Byron. They were therefore fully prepared, when the Franco-British contingents arrived, to have to face that subtle French diplomacy which conceals itself admirably beneath a mask of social geniality ; but alike on the French and on the all too credulous representatives of Great Britain as a military power, they looked with a curiosity which was not wholly untinged by hope of commercial gain. Perhaps the majority of them were not a little surprised at the very abrupt and business-like treatment they at once received at the hands of the French. It is not to be wondered at that occasional outbursts of individual resentment occurred, and that statements derogatory to the French appeared in certain anti-Venizelist Athens newspapers.
The first French troops to land at Salonika consisted mainly of Infantry, with some units of Field Artillery and a few machine-guns. Soon after came some Heavy Artillery, Cavalry, and "Territorial" contingents. The Cavalry proved indispensable in scouring the country at the various moments of the Allies' advance, and when the vast tracks of temporary No Man's Land
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 83
between our positions and the Macedonian border had to be patrolled. The Territorials were at once made use of along the Lines of Communication, and the Artillery, throughout the whole campaign, by skilful counter battery work and co-operation with other arms, seem to have kept the enemy in a state of constant apprehension. Later on, too, several contingents of white and black colonial troops from North and West Africa arrived and were found to be invaluable in the course of subsequent offensive operations, being well able to stand the hottest weather. Certain of their officers rendered great assistance in dealing with the Turkish-speaking Musulman population of Mace- donia. The excellent work of the French Air Service will be referred to in a later chapter of this book.
The most indispensable work of all achieved by the French was that carried out under supervision of their corps of Engineers. Throughout the whole period of the occupation, by means of an organisa- tion known as the "Service Routier" (which was mainly recruited locally by civil labour and pro- vided work for over 25,000 French soldiers and Macedonian civilian men, women, and children), hundreds of bridges and over 600 miles of roadway
84 THE SALONIKA FRONT
were constructed and kept in good repair. In addition the "Service des Eaux" had to clarify and supervise the main source of water-supply throughout the region occupied by the French Army. This meant the keeping in serviceable order of over 600 natural springs, the piercing of 240 wells, both ordinary and Artesian, and the construction or reconstruction of over 1000 reser- voirs. In this connection should be mentioned the building of the Hortjac aqueduct, whereby Salonika itself was provided with an abundant supply of fresh water. What the " Intendance " (the nearest equivalent in the French Army to our R.A.S.C.) achieved in the way of supply and transport was also very admirable.
Nothing perhaps struck the chance guest at a French officers' mess so forcibly as did the excellence, in the roughest circumstances up the line, of French field cooking ; while the table kept up at some Divisional Headquarters and the daily fare at the " Cercle Militcdre" Salonika, left nothing to be desired. The French canteen supply system, de- veloped under the auspices of the "Bazar de Lyon" was most efficiently conducted, and for those British officers who obtained permission to buy there provided a pleasant change as regards
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 85
comestibles from those purchased from our own canteens.
Their Medical Service, and in particular the "Mission Antipaludique" deserves more than the passing mention it can be given here. Not only did the French establish and control a large number of most efficient base and field hospitals, but they also furnished equipment for the Greek hospitals that were started soon after the Venizelists came into the war on the side of the Allies.
The benefit derived by all the Salonika armies from the anti- malarial propaganda the French Medical Service initiated was most satisfactory. Carried out in an equally thorough way by the other Allies' Medical Services, the practical methods employed by the "Mission Antipahidique" included the draining of marsh-lands, the straightening of water-courses that tended to stagnate, the destruc- tion of mosquito larvae, and the inspection and compulsory covering of all reserve supplies of water in camps and houses; with a view to reducing to a minimum the reproductive powers of the malarial mosquito. The "Mission" also drew up statistical tables and maps showing the worst malarial districts, and regulated the supply of quinine, emphasising its beneficial effects
86 THE SALONIKA FRONT
as a preventive by means of humorous pictorial propaganda.
The losses from wounds, fever, and sickness suffered by the French throughout this campaign and the hardships they endured in the various sectors of their front being wholly as severe as our own, the way in which they stood the long strain of the three years' campaign in so uncongenial a foreign climate was most remarkable and praiseworthy.
The French founded several Franco-Serb and Franco-Greek schools of instruction at Salonika, Fiorina, Vodena, and Monastir. They were primarily responsible as well for all the details connected with the reformation of the Serbian Army at Corfu. At the French Lyc£e in Salonika they started a library of works on Macedonia, they also originated a Franco -Macedonian Historical and Archaeological Review entitled " Cahiers (TOrient"
Their "Service Archfologique" conducted many excavations of prehistoric sites at Gona, Sedes, Zeitenlick, Petit Karabou, Hortjac ; drew up maps ; collected pottery, ancient mosaics, and Turkish tombstones ; made a detailed study of the ramparts and churches </f Salonika and the historical treasures of Mount Athos. It also collaborated actively
VARDAR RIVER, LAKE ARDZAN, AND DRAGOMIR VILLAGE
In the distance, beyond the river, was the point of junction between the French and the first Greek Army of National Defence. In the final offensive General Milne's command extended across the Vardar to that point.
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 87
with British and Greek authorities in the drawing up of plans for the proposed reconstruction of the burnt portions of Salonika and the general modern- ising of the city thoroughfares.
Somewhat ambitious industrial experiments were carried out at Salonika and Fiorina. Undertaken for the most part in the French Army workshops, they ranged between the construction of army furniture, spare parts, portable huts, and aeroplanes. Several brick-fields, a soap factory, a brush factory, a tobacco factory were set working with success. Three lignite mines and a salt factory yielded a considerable output when systematically worked.
As regards agriculture they did their utmost by organised supervision to instil sound modern principles into the native Macedonian ; they im- ported modern metal ploughs to replace the antiquated wooden ones hitherto used, also thresh- ing and reaping machines. They gave demonstra- tions in the utilisation of fallow and marsh lands, and in scientific vine-growing, supervising in the areas occupied by their army some 250,000 acres of productive soil.
A very essential part of the French military achievement was the map-making and map-revising carried out by their Cartographical Survey, and a
88 THE SALONIKA FRONT
considerable amount of geological exploration was made throughout Macedonia with a view to possible after- war mining ventures.
All these very useful attempts to test and develop to the utmost the natural resources of this hitherto undeveloped country and its long-suffering popula- tion were referred to by their originators as the " CEuvre civilisatrice" of the French Army. France was thus able to acquire almost exclusive control of a large proportion of the educational and financial interests of Macedonia, and the results of these undertakings are likely to prove far- reaching when the Balkan States settle down to after- war consolidation and reconstruction.
When they first occupied the south-eastern corner of Albania and reached Koritza, they pro- claimed a free Albanian Republic there, working out a detailed scheme of government and police control by the help of a specially created chamber of 14 deputies (7 Christian and 7 Musulman, under supervision of a French Staff Officer) and the formation of a corps of Albanian gendarmerie. By such measures and by constant military patrols they were able to keep down brigandage in the immediate vicinity of Koritza and as far as their
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 89
sphere of influence extended. Essad Pasha, how- ever, whom the Entente still recognised as President of Albania, meanwhile remained in residence at Salonika and voluntarily paid for the upkeep of his bodyguard of 500, who were actively participating in the French offensive operations.
Unless engaged on special liaison work, the ordinary duties of British officers and men did not bring them much in contact with individual Frenchmen. Their impressions of things Gallic were therefore generally gleaned from chance encounters in the lines of communication areas, whilst journeying to and from Salonika by land and sea, or when a spell of leave brought them in touch with Frenchmen similarly situated, bent on getting as much amusement as possible out of sight-seeing and changed diet at the base.
These encounters, whether in shops, cafes, trains, transports, house or club interiors, were always most agreeable. At the slightest provocation Englishmen did their best to shed that insularity of manner of which they have been accused in the past, and the process was much assisted by the partaking of some form of refreshment with their new ac- quaintances. There was almost as much enticing
12
90 THE SALONIKA FRONT
mystery about these speedily made friendships as in some Arabian Nights adventure. A chance meeting in a Salonika curio shop or some dis- agreeably dirty railway carriage might lead to three days' delightful companionship.
Scarcely one of the daily crowd of British officers who waited their turn for admission to the dining-room of the " Cercle Militaire " knew what that evening might bring forth in the way of social experiences. In the course of the excellent dinner they were about to enjoy, they might meet and exchange cards with the most diverse types of Frenchmen on leave from the various sectors, officers of their Pay Service, their Motor Transport, Artillery, Infantry, or Medical Services ; and each, with remarkable cordiality and good humour, would have his tale to tell of how things were going on his particular portion of the front, of fevers and other sicknesses endured or avoided, of dead comrades, of home and after- war projects.
Nothing seemed more agreeably surprising at first, and yet nothing was more natural than these unreserved outbursts of genuine sympathy and good feeling. Up the lines of communication, too, whenever any French road station had to be passed, a most kindly hospitality was offered. The
\
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 91
officers in charge of such isolated posts were ever ready for an excuse to open a bottle of champagne. Even the French Colonial Infantry officer of the most hide-bound conventional type imaginable warmed to comradeship over a glass of " Pinard " however bad in quality.
To travel through Greece and across the Adriatic with a party of home-coming Frenchmen was an unforgettable experience for a mere Englishman. Like Charles Reade's immortal Burgundian each had an eye and a gay word for every peasant woman they passed ; despite fever and inadequate food-supply, throughout the long train journey along Tempe and past Pharsala and Larissa, and during the constant jolting that followed on that half-day's perilous lorry journey from Bralo to Itea, they kept up a round of gay raillery and humorous remarks. How kindly, too, were their doctors to any of our poor compatriots who fell ill of fever en route. Countless instances of their true-hearted and self -abnegating charity must live in the minds of many of our returning officers and men.
The two Russian brigades which, having jour- neyed more than half-way round Europe (July 30,
92 THE SALONIKA FRONT
1916), added their contribution to the cause of the Allies on this front, were from the first day of their arrival grouped with the French reserves, and although their fighting effort as regards duration was to be short-lived, they threw themselves into a course of three months' training at Zeitenlick with great vigour. Their help before Fiorina and at the advance on Monastir was most valuable, but after the winter lull had just been followed up by the Allies' general spring offensive demonstration of 1917, they had to be withdrawn from the line owing to serious breaches of discipline among them consequent upon the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. Here again decisive action on the part of the French saved the situation. Three alternatives were at once offered the residue of these two brigades. They could either join in non-combatant duties on the Salonika Front or in North Africa, or be sent to fight on the Western Front. It is significant of their fine sense of loyalty to the Allies' cause that many of them chose the latter alternative.
Up till the close of our summer operations in 1917, the dining-room of the " Cercle Militairc" besides its throng of French and other Allies, generally contained a table or two of Russian
BRITISH MILITARY CEMETERY AT THE CROSS ROADS, DRAGOS
THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN EFFORT 93
officers, who, after their country's overthrow having no particular occupation, seemed to spend all their time and money in trying to stifle repeated bouts of Balkan "ennui" by lavish entertaining. Any solitary Englishman, should he chance to find a vacant place at tables where such were seated, would be first of all regaled, in almost antique style, with specially prepared hors-d'oeuvres and strong brandy — vodka being then unprocurable — after which, in conjunction with other courses, many bottles of champagne would have to be drunk and many almost in- terminable speeches listened to in mingled French and Russian, the end of the discourse being either acutely political, desperately melancholic, or excess- ively Anglophil. There were not lacking among them several thoughtful, sensitive souls whose sheer despair at the appalling uncertainty of the Russian situation moved any sympathiser to feelings of the deepest regret for the vanished glory of their once splendid army.
CHAPTER VI
THE ITALIAN EFFORT*
Its twofold aspect — Participation with Salonika forces and penetra- tion of Albania — Arrival of 35th Division at Salonika (August 1916) — Occupation and subsequent relinquishment of the Krusha Balkan sector — The " Sicilia" Brigade sent to Verria — The " Cagliari" Brigade joins in the attack to left of Monastir — Occupation of the western half of the Tcherna Bend — Hospitals, schools, police — Subsequent operations. Albania and its people — Historical vicissitudes — Italians land at Valona (December 1915) — Stages in the penetration — Consolidating their positions — Engineering feats — Roads, bridges, telegraph, telephone — Carto- graphy— " Comando di tappa " — Albanian militia — Medical Service — Education and pro-Italian propaganda — Agriculture — Mining projects — Orderly state of the occupied portion in September 1918 — Urban councils — Palaces and statues — Hospitality at Kaniua — — General Ferrero and his staff.
THE contribution made by our Italian allies to Balkan operations had a twofold aspect. Not only did a strong expeditionary division take part with us in our general advance from Salonika, but the Italians also sent a formidable force to carry out an almost wholly peaceful penetration and occupation of a small part of Albania.
94
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 95
The 35th Division, commanded by Major- General Petitti di Roreto, when it landed at Salonika (August 11, 1916), was considerably larger than an ordinary Italian division. It was com- posed of two infantry brigades (the " Cagliari " and the " Sidlia " ),f a regiment of mountain artillery, two squadrons of cavalry, a trench-mortar group, and several auxiliary service units. Later on in the autumn it was augmented by a third infantry brigade (the "Ivrea"). These troops first took over the defence of a portion of our front in the Krusha Balkan. They were in action and suffered slight losses in the vicinity of Gornoi Poroi in September, where one of their detach- ments was surrounded and taken prisoner by the Bulgars. Having handed over the sector to British troops, all, with the exception of the "Sicilia" Brigade, were transferred via Salonika to a sector on the immediate left of the French and Serbian troops who were attacking Monastir. The " Sidlia" Brigade, in conjunction with other French and British troops, temporarily occupied Verria, but was soon sent up to reinforce the other two brigades.
While the Serbs were capturing Kaimactchalan and the mountains farther north, the "Cagliari"
96 THE SALONIKA FRONT
Brigade, to left of the French, though they met with considerable resistance and were much im- peded by the late autumn snows, pushed forward along the Peristeri ridges. This movement on the left corresponded with the Serbian outflanking movement on the right, and contributed towards making the enemy's line through Kenali untenable. It thus assisted the capture of Monastir. General Petitti and several other officers were wounded by a hostile shell which fell in Monastir soon after the joint occupation of the town had taken place.
In December 1916 the Italian force took over the defence of a fresh sector, that of the western half of the Tcherna Bend. This desolate region, which had been conquered by the Serbs, consisted mainly of a flat marshy plain rising rapidly towards the rocky heights known as Hill 1050, which the Germans and Bulgars had recaptured. The Italian front lines were about eight miles in length. By keeping one brigade in reserve and two in the front trenches, which were strengthened as much as possible, they succeeded in maintaining their stand against a much larger enemy force in possession of all the stronger and more dominating positions.
In May 1917 General Pennella took over from General Petitti, but was succeeded after three
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 97
weeks by General Mombelli, who had previously held the position of Italian Military Attache at Athens. When the Allies' spring offensive of 1917 began, the Italians stormed Hill 1050 on two successive days, but, owing to the enemy's formid- able barrage, which was undoubtedly as severe here as that the British had to face when they attacked the " Pip " Ridge, they had to return to their original line.
From then onwards, as on other sectors of the front, nothing but raids and small offensive demonstrations took place until the final offensive of 1918. Meanwhile the Italian troops were kept busy making their own defensive works still stronger, and in the captured villages and lines of communication area constructing many useful buildings which served as hospitals and store- houses. At Brod, by help of the Serbian Relief Fund and the American Red Cross, village schools were started ; excellently appointed hospitals were also created at Salonika, Fiorina, Banica, Ekhisu, etc. Italian troops assisted in military police duties at Salonika, and Italian engineers on the strength of the 35th Division were responsible for a portion of the road constructed from Fiorina to Santi Quaranta, the opening up of which by the
13
98 THE SALONIKA FRONT
summer of 1917 afforded an alternative route back to Italy.
When (September 15, 1918) the Franco-Serb attack began, the Italians had orders to delay offensive operations. They were thus saved un- necessary losses, such as they had suffered in the past and would probably again have incurred from a premature attack on Hill 1050. The rapid ad- vance of the Serbs to the north-east, outflanking as it did Hill 1050, brought about a partial retire- ment of the enemy. The Italians then advanced (September 22), and, overcoming a very feeble defence, took possession of this strong position. They then endeavoured to catch up with the French and Serbs, who by that time had pushed far ahead. Ordered by the French Higher Command to leave Prilep on their left, by occupying the Monastir-Kicevo road, they prevented a Bulgarian retreat via Kicevo-Kalkandelen. Thereafter they overcame enemy resistance on the Baba Planina, and in conjunction with French troops rounded up, on the heights of Sop, eight Bulgarian regiments and much Bulgarian and German artillery. At dawn next day (September 30) operations were suspended ; news having been received of the signing of the military convention. For two days
HOUSE INTERIOR AT GORGOP
This house was long occupied as a mess by the N.C.O. pilots and observers of the French aeroplane squadrons stationed at Gorgop. Iking without the usual plaster completion, it shows the normal type of house structure in Macedonia.
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 99
afterwards, however, the Bulgarian troops thus cut off, having been abandoned by their German colleagues and having no telegraph or telephone communication with the rest of the Bulgarian forces, refused to surrender. The first news they had of the terms of the Bulgarian Convention was conveyed to them by aeroplane from Sophia on October 2. They thereupon laid down their arms, 9000 surrendering to the Italian and about 11,000 to the adjoining French divisions. After the collapse of Bulgaria, the 35th Division remained for a few days at Krushevo, then moved to Prilep. It was later on despatched farther north to take part in operations against the German and Austrian troops still remaining in the Balkans.
Interesting politically, and highly beneficial even in a military sense to the Allies' Balkan effort, was the almost wholly peaceful penetration of a part of Albania by an Italian force of 30,000, which landed at Valona in November and December 1915. That country had naturally afforded Greece a direct though somewhat precarious communicating link with the Central Powers. The avowed object of the penetration was, in the first place, to put a stop to such possibilities, and it was mainly by
100 THE SALONIKA FRONT
fulfilling that object that it rendered great assist- ance to the Allies' cause.
Albania was then a country of no very precise geographical, ethnological, or political limits. It consists mainly of mountainous highlands which are drained through deep gorges by rivers that are far too choked by detritus to be navigable. Seawards this detritus has contributed towards the formation along the crumbling coast-line of a cultivable low-lying shore-belt which varies be- tween ten and eighteen miles in depth. The inhabitants of this region, as also those of the interior valleys and mountains, had, up to the time of the Great War, made no attempt at organised agriculture or industry. The whole country was in a very backward and unprogressive condition, despite repeated efforts on the part of the Powers to give it a stable form of government. The roads, moreover, were in a more deplorable and primitive state than anywhere else in Europe.
Descendants of the ancient Pelasgian settlers, who preceded the first wave of Greeks in the Balkans, the Albanians had defended their moun- tain fastnesses against invasion from time im- memorial, but had hitherto been far too turbulent to submit to a really settled form of government.
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 101
Dialectically they consist of two distinct stocks : Gheghs, who live north of the River Skumbi and are almost wholly of Catholic persuasion, and Tosks, who live south of that river and are either Musulman or Greek orthodox. These are in turn subdivided into many clans. Among them dwell Serb, Bulgarian, Vlach, and Turkish settlers, the residue of successive invasions or forerunners of commercial exploitation.
Under Turkish rule Albania included the three vilayets of Scutari, Monastir, and Janina. During the First Balkan War (1912) the Greeks seized Janina, Agirocastro, and Koritza and menaced Valona. Despite the decision of the London Conference, Greek troops continued to occupy the sandchaks of Agirocastro and Koritza, but when (March 7, 1914) Prince William of Wied, nominated by the Powers King of Albania, disembarked at Valona, the majority of these Greek troops were withdrawn. A provisional, independent, and autonomous " Northern Epirus " government, with headquarters at Agirocastro, was, however, established under Greek patronage.
Though Prince William's Albanian gendarmes seized Koritza, his unwise conduct set the greater part of the Albanians against him, and, when the
102 THE SALONIKA FRONT
Great War began, he was forced to escape by sea, Essad Pasha's provisional Albanian Republic being set up at Durazzo in place of the Prince's purely nominal authority. In friendly relationship with the former, and, as the Serbian retreat had started, with the avowed objects of defeating Austro- Hungarian encroachments in Albania and stopping contraband between Greece and the Central Powers, Italy established a naval base on the Island of Saseno, in Valona Harbour ; and soon after, Italian troops, landing at Valona, seized the surrounding hills. The occupation (November 1915) had extended north and east as far as the Voyussa, and south as far as Dukati and Logara. Contemporaneously an Italian contingent pushed northwards along the coast-line to Durazzo, with the avowed object of linking up with Essad Pasha and the retreating Serbs. Afterwards Durazzo was abandoned and the Italians retired behind the Voyussa, Essad Pasha sailing for Salonika.
During the summer of 1916, continuing their peaceful conciliatory measures among the Alban- ians, they occupied successively, without firing a shot, Tepelen, Chimara, Santi Quaranta, Agiro- castro, Premeti, and Lescovici. By February 1917 they were in touch with the French at Ersek.
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 103
Lieut. -General Ferrero proclaimed (June 3) at Agirocastro the unity and independence of the whole of Albania under Italian protection, and the Italians also participated with the French and British in the occupation of Thessaly, by sending troops southwards to Janina and Find us. These were withdrawn after King Constantine's abdication.
Meanwhile they consolidated and strengthened their defensive line northwards against the Austrians, who, however, did not show much disposition to attack. This line, in 1918, ran along the Mala Kastra ridge to Glava, and thence, north of Sirak, kept fairly well in touch with the French, who were advancing on the Italians' right in the direction of Porocani and Elbasan. The advance was not pushed to any extent on the side of the Italians until after the Bulgarian Convention of 1918 had been signed. Then, in conjunction with naval forces, and with the general Allied advance elsewhere, Durazzo was captured and the retreating Austrians were pursued northwards.
Throughout the war the Italian force based on Valona chose the more prudent part of holding on to the strong defensive positions it had been able to consolidate. At any rate it created a formidable barrier between Greece and that part
104 THE SALONIKA FRONT
of Albania occupied by Austrian and German troops, while it did its utmost to improve the communications and resources of the regions occupied. A total lack of material and of experience on the part of the native population as regards manual labour, frequent storms of a violent nature, and a three months' continual frost prevented them from making headway in engineer- ing construction during the winter of 1915-1916. Towards the end of March 1916 the work began in earnest. First of all, Valona Harbour and its shore approaches had to be put in order. Landing- stages and a hydroplane station were constructed. A five-mile-long aqueduct was made in order to supply Valona with drinking water. Metalled roads leading off in convenient directions over specially built stone causeways and bridges by degrees provided the country with reliable com- munication arteries.
The three main directions of these roads were : northwards towards the line they decided to hold ; eastwards to Tepelen on the Voyussa ; and, lastly, the wonderful zigzagged hill-climbing shore road to Santi Quaranta, the completion of which triumph of engineering was not possible until the spring of 1918. Each of these roads had to be carried
AFTER THE FIRE
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 105
through deep river gorges and along precipitous mountain sides. They were interlaced with numer- ous subsidiary tracks which enabled an effective supply service to feed the different detached units. Telegraph and telephone systems were established and a fairly complete cartographical survey made. South of Valona, at Pie di Monte, two aerodromes were prepared, one of which was used, in 1918, by a British squadron of Camel Scouts, the other being reserved for Italian Capronis.
The interior administration of the occupied country was based on a system of road stations which were situated at convenient points along the main arteries of communication. Each of these, known as a " Comando di tappa? provided a halting-place for the traffic that passed through, and, at the same time, was used as a means of maintaining order, a sufficient number of officers and men being stationed at each point After a day's jolt along a tortuous and precipitous mountain roadway it was pleasant to be welcomed, as all travellers (and particularly Englishmen) were, by the officer in command of one of these road stations. Though accommodation was often extremely primitive, one felt that the very best
14
106 THE SALONIKA FRONT
was done to make Italian army rations palatable and to alleviate the discomfort of a night passed in a half-ruined, unsanitary Albanian inn. Such a wanderer on entering the station mess was always ceremoniously offered the place of honour next to the senior Italian officer present, and, comforted by good cheer, retired to a pallet of fresh straw, where, if the howling of Albanian wolf-dogs permitted, he might sleep uninterruptedly, and without fear of the brigands who were said to still infest the neighbouring mountain heights. Next morning after a kindly farewell from his host, the station commandant, he would resume his journey by "autobus" in company with such fellow-travellers as happened to be going the same way. All of these, amidst the excitement of precipice dodging, would have interesting tales to tell, and most of them would, like him, be fascinated by the many batches of not over-clean though picturesque Albanian men and women they met on the road. The older women particularly attracted attention, for many of them carried dis- taffs of antique pattern, which they manipulated deftly as they walked, resembling in this and in their garb some old vase painting of the Parcae. Policing of the vast area occupied was greatly
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 107
facilitated by the formation of an Albanian Militia with headquarters at Agirocastro. Organised on lines similar to the French Albanian Militia at Koritza, this force had as its emblem the double- headed eagle of Scanderbeg, one of the most popular Albanian national heroes.
Much had to be done in the way of improving the sanitary condition of the country, and much still naturally remains to be done. The very efficient Italian Medical Service had its hands full. Cholera, typhus, dysentery, malaria had to be combated as vigorously as malaria and dysentery in other parts of the Balkans. The civilian popu- lation had also to be looked after and hospital treatment provided for them.
Schools were started in all the main population centres of the occupied area, and the children were everywhere taught to speak Italian. They undoubtedly provided one of the chief weapons of the general pro- Italian propaganda campaign, which aimed at impressing the Albanians with a sense of the beneficent effects of Italian protection. Another means of fostering these ideas was the introduction of as many modern improvements as possible into the agricultural activities of the country, which hitherto had naturally been very
108 THE SALONIKA FRONT
feeble. Some exploration of mineral resources with a view to after- war mining projects were made by individual Italians.
In September 1918 a chance visitor to this portion of Albania found the country in a very orderly condition under Italian rule. The main roads were better kept up than any in the whole of the occupied Balkan territory. With the ex- ception of certain well-nigh inaccessible mountain heights all the main strongholds of brigandage had been annihilated. In every population centre well- ordered urban councils took the place of the former confusion caused by family feuds. In Valona and at Kanina, General Ferrero's seat of government during the summer months, offices that were veritable palaces had been built, and artistic bas- reliefs had been set up above public fountains.
To reach Kanina from Valona Harbour it was necessary to climb several hundred feet above sea- level, but although the height was very noticeable, the ascent was quite easy in a car, owing to the remarkably well-built roadway. Once arrived on a level with the Commander-in-Chief's headquarters a magnificent view of the whole harbour was obtained.
THE ITALIAN EFFORT 109
General Ferrero, Governor and Commander-in- Chief, kept open table for all chance comers. Were it not for the busy air of the officers around him, such a visitor might almost believe himself at the court of some pre-war potentate, so splendidly served and admirably cooked was the meal. But if after partaking of it he followed Colonel La Racine, the Chief of Staff, to his private office, the constant telephone calls and mass of maps and documents visible there convinced him of the strenuous life that was in reality being led.
Should permission be asked to visit the front, a journey northwards by car for three hours carried the observer along roads that showed evidence of great military preparedness, until, perhaps, the positions on the Mala Kastra ridge, overlooking Firei, were reached and a glimpse of some Austrians, three miles away on the plains beyond, might be obtained. A shoot conducted against these by a neighbouring battery, and the excellent general condition of the defences, showed at least that, besides her great care for the civilised future of Albania, Italy was, here as elsewhere, fully mindful of her role as a belligerent, and but awaited, like her Allies, the ripe occasion for making an offensive effort of her own.
CHAPTER VII
THE SERBIAN EFFORT
Serbia's firm stand saves the whole Balkan Peninsula — Austrian advance stemmed by Serbian victory of Jador Valley and Tcer Ridge (August 1914) — Serbian offensive move met by over- whelming Austrian counter-offensive (October 1914) — Yielding and recapture of Belgrade — Second severe Austrian defeat (November 1914) — A long vigil — The Bulgarian menace — Macken- sen and his guns — Greece refuses help — Delay of the Allies — Its natural consequences — A people's agony — King Peter and his men — The retreat across Albania (November-December 1915) — State in which the remnant reached Scutari, Durazzo, and Valona — Corfu and after — The reorganised army lands at Mikra — the Bulgars stayed and thrust back ; Kaimactchalan and the Tcherna — Mental strain of two years' vigil — Admiral Troubridge — The Prince Regent and his Generals — Unquenchable spirit and irresistible bravery achieves victory at last (September 1918) — Mouastir and Prilep — the Yugo-Slav panacea.
ALTHOUGH the " Salonika Front " was, in the active military sense, non-existent at the time, no account however cursory of the individual Balkan efforts of our Allies can afford to ignore the supreme heroism of the Serbian Army and people through- out the first fourteen months of the Great War.
no
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 111
So engrossed were France, Russia, and England during that period with their very strenuous war activities on other and perhaps momentarily more important fronts, that they felt compelled to leave little Serbia to wrestle alone with Austria's vast armament and resources, though the daily menace of Bulgaria's Army, 350,000 strong, must have convinced the Serbian General Staff of the utter
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hopelessness of the situation. Face to face, north-
N* f ' ^ " \ wards, with one active, superior-forced enemy and,
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eastwards, with a second obvious though still nominally neutral enemy, the Serbian Army, hardly more than 280,000 strong, stood firm. Sacrificing itself to the cause of patriotic recti- tude, it thus saved the whole Balkan Peninsula from becoming a chief outlet for Pan-German expansion.
The Austrians, during their first 1914 advance on this front, had at their disposal some 183 fighting and landsturm battalions, 78 squadrons of cavalry, 144 batteries of field-guns and mountain howitzers. The Serbian Army's total effectives barely included 180 infantry battalions, 41 squadrons of cavalry, and 108 batteries, most of them of inferior calibre. This force, divided into three armies, was con- centrated (August 10) in the region between
112 THE SALONIKA FRONT
Palanka-Arandjelovac-Lazarevac and Valjevo. It proceeded to take up positions as follows :
(1) First Army : defending Palanka.
(2) Second Army : defending Arandjelovac.
(3) Third Army : defending Valjevo. Nowhere was the ground chosen favourable to defensive operations. It was bounded to north and west respectively by the rivers Save and Drina. Numerous torrent-bed ravines intersected it, frequent hill spurs offered artillery vantage posts for the attacking Austrians, and the total absence of reliable roads not overlooked by the enemy made it impossible for the Serbs, in the event of their being forced to retire, to carry out the manoeuvre with ease or despatch. No such general retirement, however, proved necessary ; for the Austrians, although they crossed the Danube, the Save, and the Drina (August 12) and, in the vicinity of the two last, developed a superior -forced attack, a skilful surprise counter-attack, on the left flank of their columns advancing down the Jador Valley (achieved by means of forced marches), enabled the Serbs to turn the scales of fortune in their own favour and, by their fine fighting qualities, to drive the invader back over the borders, leaving behind a great quantity of guns, stores, provisions, and dead.
THE TOWN OF SERES AMD BULGA
MU
THE French developed the resources of this shelter behind the nat to right are the clustered white encampments of many French, 5
Grand K-arabou is t
.AI .N POSITIONS ALONG THE STRUMA.
L BAY.
mole of Grand Karabou, landing supplies and men there. From left an and British contingents. Immediately beneath the extremity of ritish Serbian Hospital.
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 113
Throughout September and October local en- gagements, mainly of a trench warfare character, took place along the whole Drina, Save, and Danube fronts. Although they were extremely sanguinary they did not modify the general situa- tion. At the end of October the Central Powers, having again collected far superior forces, under- took a second general offensive against Serbia with the object of assuring Rumanian neutrality and of inducing Bulgaria to join in the conflict on their side. This time they had at their disposal 265 infantry battalions, with abundant equipment and munitions, besides far superior strength as regards heavy and mountain artillery. The Serbs had no more than 100 batteries of relatively smaller calibre and only 200 battalions of infantry, not at full strength. They were moreover deplorably deficient in equipment and munitions, and having for over two months been engaged in continual trench war- fare amid very trying climatic conditions they were already fatigued.
The Austrians attacked first of all the main concentration of the Serbian Army, at the moment facing the sector of their front north of Chabatz,
grouping their forces north of the main south- is
114 THE SALONIKA FRONT
eastern spur of the Bosnian mountains and making use of the Save and three adjacent railway lines as their artery of transport. The Serbs had only a single railway line of narrow gauge, completed as far as Valjevo ; whence they had to convey their supplies northwards over roads that had already become quagmires, and which had scarcely ever been worthy of their name. The enemy (October 15) began an intense bombardment of all the fronts. This was followed by an advance towards Valjevo to positions in front of which the Serbs had deemed prudent to withdraw.
The strategic object of the Serbian General Staff appears to have been : to entice the enemy as far as possible away from the excellent base and communication lines they had prepared and to entrap them a second time in the treacherous hill, wood, and marsh country south of the Tcer Ridge. Chabatz was therefore abandoned, and all bridges and communications were destroyed as they retired (October 26-30). This retreat had a very un- favourable effect on the spirit of the Serbian soldiers. Their feelings of despair were augmented by the knowledge of their almost total lack of munitions.
Meanwhile the Austrian heavy guns, several of
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 115
them of the largest calibre, carried on a constant bombardment. The Serbs lost heavily from this alone and they had no reserves. When new recruits arrived from the base it only caused additional confusion, and as all the new rifles that could be issued were of old-fashioned Russian pattern the soldiers lost confidence even in their own weapons. Incidents of the retreat of a heart- rending nature (such as the discovery of members of their own family destitute by the roadside) caused many of the Serbian soldiers to abandon their units in order to endeavour to alleviate the sufferings of their own flesh and blood. The General Staff felt that the only remedy for this diminishing morale was a renewal of offensive operations, but dared not attempt this owing to the shortage of munitions. The stores at Valjevo were evacuated, while the retreat continued down the right bank of the Kolubara (November 1-3). On account of the difficult country the Austrians did not advance very speedily, and a temporary defence line was constructed south of the Kolubara, while on the Drina front Serbian forces based on Oujitse remained firm. The enemy, however, eventually took Valjevo, the communication centre of the whole of North-
116 THE SALONIKA FRONT
West Serbia (November 4). In the course of the next few days a renewed attack was met effectively by a Serbian counter-attack and the enemy suffered considerably, the Serbs meanwhile having received a fresh supply of munitions from the Allies. It had been deemed advisable (Nov- ember 16) to evacuate Belgrade and to withdraw the whole right-hand portion of the Serbian line from the Danube to positions south of Valjevo and Palanka.
Despite their apparent successes the enemy were wearing themselves out, and although they tended to become over -confident were not physically capable of much more sustained effort. Discipline among them had become very lax and rations were growing more and more scanty. The Serbs therefore (November 20) began a fresh counter- attack along the left bank of the River Morava, from Tchatchak towards Oujitse, their confidence being heightened by a knowledge of the enemy's enfeebled condition ; they also attacked the same day, though less violently, along the remainder of the front.
On November 22 and 23 the offensive developed with that surprising vigour and activity of which the Serbs alone in our Balkan operations have
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 117
shown themselves supremely capable. In the centre and on the left wing they broke the enemy's line, and in the neighbourhood of Oujitse, though they met with a more stubborn resistance, inflicted heavy loss on the enemy.
From the direction of Belgrade a far superior enemy force began to attack. As Oujitse was recaptured and the Kolubara lines regained (Nov- ember 26) this Belgrade offensive was abandoned and a general Austrian retreat followed.
Thus, a second time, little Serbia inflicted a defeat on her far more powerful enemy, and thirteen days after they had abandoned Belgrade the Serbs re-entered their capital (November 30) ; the enemy being by then in precipitous flight across the Save and the Danube. They had lost 50,000 prisoners, 200 guns, and immense quantities of war material.
The Serbian lines having been again made conterminous with the normal peace-time frontier, a long vigil followed. Decimated by typhus and typhoid, besides the usual ravages of dysentery and malaria, they still (March-September) contrived to ward off Austrian minor offensive demonstrations. There was, in addition, the ever-present menace of
118 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the fully prepared though still nominally neutral Bulgarian Army, the existence of which further complicated the problem of defence the Serbs had to face. Never in good spirits except when engaged in an offensive of their own, the Serbs still talked of taking the initiative and hoped on from month to month for the arrival of substantial reinforcements from the Allies.
Meanwhile Germano-Austrian troops were con- centrating (September 1915) at various points along the frontier, and they began to realise that the only immediate Allied help they were likely to receive was that given by the heroic little band of French and British men and women medical volunteers who were already doing their utmost to combat the sickness still rife throughout the Serbian Army. They therefore, as soon as the Bulgars had completely mobilised (September 10), called upon the Allies to sanction their making an immediate attack across the Bulgarian frontier, but although both Serbia and Rumania had furnished official proof of Bulgaria's convention with Austria-Hungary (whereby even the date was fixed for Bulgaria's declaration of war) this sanction was withheld. They thus had no alter- native but to organise as strong a defence as
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 119
possible along the whole of the Austrian and Bulgarian frontiers. In anticipation of an Austrian attack down the Morava Valley the Serbian Armies, from west to east, were grouped as follows :
(1) First Army (commanded by Voivode Misitch) along a line : Vichigrad-Drina embouchure-Ostrus- nitza.
(2) Belgrade Defence Army from Ostrusnitza along the Danube to east of Grotzka.
(3) Third Army from Grotzka to Golubats.
(4) Kraina Detachment, Golubats to Timok embouchure.
(5) Timok Detachment, Timok to north-east of Nich.
(6) Second Army, east of Nich to east of Vrania.
(7) Uskub Defence Force from Vrania through Egri Palanka to Ishtib.
Mackensen's operations began (September 23) with several hours' intense artillery preparation followed by a general attack of Germans and Austrians across the Save, Danube, and Drina. On this front alone the enemy outnumbered the Serbs by one -half and, although not all were troops of the finest quality, they were everywhere supported by overwhelmingly superior artillery.
120 THE SALONIKA FRONT
It is surprising that the Serbs held out as long as they did. Not till ten days continual bombard- ment and repeated attacks over the Morava, Kolubara, and Belgrade sectors were they forced to yield ground appreciably. In face of the deadly bombardment, as intense as any on the Western Front, it is doubtful whether their total military resources could have coped with the situation, even were the Bulgarian menace non-existent. By the time Bulgaria threw aside all pretence at neutrality, and without declaring war attacked across their frontier line (September 29), the "btfania," the great retreat, though not yet in full career, had become inevitable.
To trace the stages of this retreat would involve the enumeration of a long series of names unfamiliar to the majority of English readers. Suffice it to say that when Bulgaria actually declared war (October 12) the abandonment of Nich and Kragoyevats had become inevitable. Tchatchak, and afterwards Kraljevo, then became the main headquarters of the Serbian Army, while the seat of government was transferred partly to Monastir and partly to Prishtina. Both Oujitse and Tchatchak were abandoned in the last days of October, and as early as the end of the second
BRITISH-SERBIAN HOSPITAL AND SERBIAN CAMP, MIKRA (OCTOBER 2, 1916)
Re-equipped by the British and French, the Serbian contingents, on arrival, were usually sent into camp at that general dumping-ground for new-comers which lay along the eastern shore of Salonika Bay, between Kalemaria and Mikra. The vacant premises of the Greek Agricultural College, beneath the hill on the right, were taken over by us and converted into a hospital for Serbian sick and wounded.
THE SERBIAN EFFORT
week, on the very day when General Sarrail began to move troops up the Vardar towards Krivolak, rail and telegraph communication with Salonika had been severed by the natural course of the Bulgarian advance. Thus, as Greece, or rather a Greek government that was at the time a mere tool of King Constantine, had flatly refused to carry out the terms of the treaty with Serbia, and the Allies had sent their help too late, Serbia was isolated and hopelessly outnumbered.
Nothing in the whole history of the war, not even the overwhelming of Belgium, is comparable with the mental and physical sufferings of the Serbs during their march across Albania. Rations were of the scantiest, boots and equipment completely worn out, spirits exhausted. Every- where along the line of retirement old men, women, and children, all destitute and all mad- dened by fear of the invader, clinging to a few rain- sodden and mud-soiled belongings, were jumbled together with cattle and wounded in the most unsanitary conditions imaginable ; while the pro- tecting residue of the Serbian Army continued to swell their ranks by sending down ever- in creasing contingents of unguarded prisoners and sick.
Barefooted and covered with mud, through
10
122 THE SALONIKA FRONT
long weeks of rain and intense cold, the stream of mingled refugees and soldiers continued its flight. The heroism of King Peter, himself grievously sick, and the personal devotion it inspired in all ranks did not succeed in overcoming the natural tendency towards desertion of soldiers who before the war had been simple peasants in localities passed through by the retreating army.
Though many died by the way, the majority at any rate remained steadfast and plodded on through snow and bitter cold across the Albanian highlands. A straggling remnant of little more than 130,000 men, 40,000 horses, and 10,000 oxen, with 310 machine and 81 field guns, finally reached the Adriatic shore in three main batches, all the men being utterly worn out and most of them clad in the scantiest residue of clothing. The largest batch made straight for Durazzo ; the two smaller first touched the coast, the one at Scutari, the other at Valona.
Meanwhile the Bulgars were advancing towards Elbasan and Montenegro was being hard pressed by Mackensen's victorious armies (December 1915). Essad Pasha had only 5000 Albanian gendarmes, and the exhausted Serbs could not be expected to
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 123
make a stand without time to re-equip and re- organise their depleted units. Concentrating, therefore, at Durazzo, they and the refugees were embarked, both there and at Valona, as speedily as possible on such transport as could be provided by the Allies. Thanks to the efficiency of the precautions taken by Allied naval authorities not one of the vessels was attacked by submarines.
Towards the end of March 1916 the whole remainder of the Serbian Army and material had been safely landed at Corfu, and were well on with the work of re-equipment and reorganisation under joint control of the different Military Missions sent out by the Allies. By April 1 the first contingents were ready for shipment to Salonika, whither King Peter and the Prince Regent had already gone. With very praiseworthy despatch they were conveyed by French vessels to a specially prepared landing-place at Mikra, 6 miles south of Salonika, where all came ashore in safety during May. The summer was spent in further training at Mikra and in taking over the sector west of the Vardar that had been allotted them.
Hardly had they done this when the Bulgars began their attack (August 18). Forced to retreat on Ostrovo, the new Serbian Army soon proved
124 THE SALONIKA FRONT
itself to be not inferior to the old army in defensive warfare and, by the superb dash and courage it displayed throughout subsequent operations, won for itself lasting glory. In the whole history of the war on all its fronts it would be hard to find a storming achievement to match the taking of Kaimactchalan and the subsequent rapid advance over the Tcherna area. It was only the Serbs' combined dash and staying power that enabled the Allies' counter-offensive to succeed in winning as far as Monastir.
Throughout the two years' hiatus in progress that followed the Allies' entry into Monastir, no soldiers of the armies based on Salonika could have felt a tithe of the mental anguish each Serb must have daily endured. Their country, on the map, had ceased to exist, their wives and children were at the mercy of the Austrian or Bulgarian invader. They had for long ceased to receive any news of them. They, who were now called upon to play what then seemed a very inglorious, minor part in the direction of operations, had sacrificed all they possessed in the cause of liberty and found themselves compelled to wait the good pleasure of the greater Powers. It was but natural that, occasionally, blank despair seized on many of them
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 125
in this, perhaps, the darkest of all their periods of trial.
During that time, as also from the outset of the defence of Belgrade, to which he and the international naval brigade he then commanded gave no small assistance, Admiral Sir E. C. T. Troubridge, British naval officer and diplomatist, did more to smooth over difficulties of mutual com- prehension between the Serbs and the Allies than did any other man. When after the "bejania" the naval brigade ceased to exist, he stayed on as British liaison officer attached to the Prince Regent's headquarters. He was thus enabled to obtain first-hand knowledge of any grievances or misunderstandings that arose, and frequently to set matters right before they took too grave a turn. Till the end of the war he carried on these most delicate and indispensable functions, being quar- tered, when up country, at Monastir and later on at Vrbeni, and having also his house at Salonika, where he lived when the Prince Regent was at the Base. The Serbs regarded him as their best friend among the Allies, and his genial and pic- turesque personality was perhaps the most familiar among those of all British officers on the Salonika Front. After King Peter and the Prince Regent
126 THE SALONIKA FRONT
the stalwart and stately forms of Voivode Misitch and General Vassitch, who commanded at Ostrovo and Kaimactchalan, were constantly in evidence at Salonika and travelling to and fro to the battle-fronts. With such chiefs spared them the Serbs could not fail to be " a people still," and thanks to their efforts the men's spirits were kept throughout at concert pitch, ready for the final, glorious part they were to play.
All who are familiar with the course of events on this front must admit that it was to the irresist- ible dash and courage of the Serbs we owed the complete and rapid final victory achieved last autumn. Their marvellous mobility, and the un- quenchable spirit of patriotism that inspired them, combined with that unique power they seemed to possess of existing for whole fortnights without regular rations of any kind, enabled the sword- thrust provided by their first onset to be driven to the heart of their own invaded country, and thus to cut irretrievably the Bulgarian communications.
On the morning after their advance had got fully under way the inhabitants of Monastir, for the first time during nearly two years, had the
THE SERBIAN EFFORT 127
almost unhoped-for joy of coming out of their cellars by day without fear of shell-fire.
Those who followed close in the wake of the Serbs' great advance, for example from Monastir to Prilep, found first of all about a couple of miles of shell-pitted roadway, and then, as that improved, saw evidence on all sides of the Bulgars' retreat. Valuable stores, with equipment and munitions of all descriptions, lay scattered about in the utmost confusion and disorder. Here and there hurried attempts seemed to have been made by the enemy to set fire to a building or a haystack, though frequently with only partial success. All proved that the retreat had been precipitate in the ex- treme, and it was not surprising that it developed later on into a complete rout.
Whatever be the final result of that Yugo-Slav panacea which, as its enthusiasts predict, is to provide the cure for all political ills in the Balkans, the Serbs have at any rate won a right to an honourable place among Balkan peoples, if only by their sheer bravery and unfaltering devotion to the Allies' cause.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE GREEK EFFORT
Political difficulties in 1914 — King Constantino's autocratic policy — His predilection, our Dardanelles failure and our offers to Bulgaria momentarily turn Greek partiality towards the Central Powers — The Bulgarian advance causes a rapid change in Greek public opinion — Salonika Revolution — Army of National Defence occupies the Guevgueli sector (April 1917) — King Constantino abdicates — United Greece's new army — Equipment, training, and transport difficulties— The full army takes the field (April 1918)— Greek participation in the general offensive against Bulgaria and in subsequent operations — The Muleteer Corps, Macedonian road makers — A Greek regiment on the march — Hardships endured — Sick and wounded — M. Venizelos and his adherents — Debt of gratitude owed them by the Allies — Hellenistic aspirations — The Greek point of view.
THE problem of partisanship which all Balkan peoples found themselves obliged to face at the beginning of the Great War was, in the case of Greece, a decidedly difficult one to resolve. Serbia was her ally ; Bulgaria did not hide her intention of finding a favourable moment to occupy certain parts of Macedonia. Turkey, moreover, laid claim to all the islands captured in 1912 by the Greek
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Army and Fleet. Also, while the aims and resources of the Entente were not clearly under- stood, the military efficiency of the Central Powers was at least thoroughly appreciated and not a little feared.
To Greek statesmen therefore the only safe attitude at the outset seemed to be that of a watchful and very perilous neutrality. As soon as both Bulgaria and Turkey showed their hands they would probably have to take sides with one or other of the belligerents, but, until Bulgaria attacked Serbia, Greece was not bound to enter the conflict at all.
When Turkey did at length make her choice, M. Venizelos, foreseeing very clearly what course Bulgaria would ultimately pursue, suggested to King Constantine the advisability of a Greek force being sent to take part in the Franco-British attack on the Dardanelles, but the king refused his consent.
Then began that period of absolute autocratic control by King Constantine which ultimately brought about his own downfall Modelling him- self on his brother-in-law, the Kaiser, and relying on the confidence his past successes as supreme Commander of the Army inspired in all loyal
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Greeks, he completely ignored the Greek Constitu- tion and sent personal assurances to Bulgaria and the Central Powers, promising both to persist in neutrality even though Bulgaria attacked Serbia.
Meanwhile our failure to force the Dardanelles did not tend to heighten the Greek estimate of the Allies' military and naval resources ; and, in addition to their own sovereign's marked predilection for and belief in the Central Powers, they heard with consternation of our offer to cede large portions of their own territory to Bulgaria as an induce- ment to participate in the conflict on our side (June 1915).
King Constantine had been obliged to recall M. Venizelos to power, and the latter, as soon as Bulgaria mobilised (Sept. 1915), ordered a general mobilisation of the Greek Army. In a formal declaration made before the Greek Chamber he then defined the object of this mobilisation as being, by virtue of the alliance with Serbia, against both Bulgaria and the Central Powers. As the majority of the Chamber approved of these views it was at once dissolved by the king, who dis- missed M. Venizelos and substituted a new ministry entirely subservient to his own wishes. This ministry refused point blank to carry out
THE GREEK EFFORT 131
the terms of the alliance with Serbia, kept up the general mobilisation, and, under the cloak of neutrality, held themselves in readiness for active co-operation with the Central Powers.
Although plans in this direction were frustrated by the arrival of the Franco - British forces at Salonika, King Constantine's pronounced partiality for his German relatives, influencing as it did all his own loyal subjects, continued to be for several months a formidable menace. Had not energetic measures been taken by the Allies immediately after the handing over to the Bulgars of Fort Rupel, the king's policy might have still had very disastrous effects.
When the Bulgars occupied eastern Macedonia, winning control over Rupel, Drama, Seres, and Kavalla, great indignation was aroused among Macedonian Greeks ; which, as we have already seen, eventually brought about the Salonika Revolution. Although the Athens Government still continued to exist, Greece had thenceforth its provisional government established at Salonika under the direction of M. Venizelos, and volunteers for a new Army of National Defence speedily collected. The first battalion of this army was sent to assist the British in the Struma sector
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(Sept. 1916), and in a few months four divisions of volunteers were fully equipped and ready for service. Being allotted the Guevgueli sector on the right bank of the Vardar, these soon proved their sterling military qualities, and their work in the field was admirably supported by certain heroic Greek ladies who, at grave risk to their own health, gave all their energies to helping at the Greek field hospital established at Dreveno.
Upon the enforced abdication of King Con- stantine (June 1917) the whole of Greece became at least nominally unified under the Venizelist government ; but as the royalist section of the Greek Army had long been demobilised, and its members had become disheartened by the in- glorious part they had been compelled to play in the war, there was considerable spade work to be done before this army could take the field. Besides the necessary training of the men and of several thousand new officers, there were also countless requirements in the way of munitions and equipment, very difficult things for the Allies to provide at short notice, and, in view of the submarine menace, still more difficult to transport.
This work of reorganisation and training was completed by the beginning of the following
DREVENO, THE FIRST GREEK FIELD HOSPITAL
On the right bank of the Vardar south of Guevgueli, this hospital, controlled by Greek doctors and with a nursing staff composed mainly of Greek ladies, was the means of saving many lives. Here as almost everywhere malaria was rife and several of the most devoted voluntary workers fell victims to the disease.
THE GREEK EFFORT 133
spring (1918), and the new army at once took up positions in the line. It soon proved itself to be in no way inferior to the first volunteer Venizelist divisions, and, in conjunction with what remained of them, captured over 2000 Bulgars, completely annihilating the 49th Bulgarian regiment (May 30). By September 1918 the Greeks had in the field divisions which, under command of General Paraskevopoulos, were disposed as follows :
13th Division : Orfano to Jenimah. 1st Division : Jenimah to Jenikoi. 2nd Division : Jenikoi to Butkovo. Cretan Division : in line east of Lake Doiran. Seres Division : in line west of Lake Doiran. Archipelago Division : in line along Mala Rupa. 3rd Division (2 Regiments) : in line on the Serbian left. 3rd Division (1 Regiment): in line between lakes Prespa and Ochrida.
When the final offensive started, the Greeks were solely responsible for the Struma front demonstration which, like our own "Pip" Ridge attacks, held up considerable Bulgarian forces. They took a large part with us in the fight along the sectors contiguous to Lake Doiran, and, being used to mountain warfare, were of incalculable assistance throughout the whole period of our subsequent advance.
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On the right bank of the Vardar, too, in conjunction with the French, they pursued the retreating Bulgars as far as Demir-Kapu and acted as a protecting screen to the Serbian right flank ; also, after the capitulation of Bulgaria, they took their full share in all manreuvres and opera- tions connected with the occupation of parts of Asia Minor and of the territory south of the Danube.
In short, the advent on the different sectors of the front of this total force of about 400,000 Greeks insured for us the numerical superiority necessary for final victory, and their achievement was, in many respects, analogous to the service rendered by the American Expeditionary Force in France.
As far back as the first year's operations a khaki-clad Greek Muleteer Corps had been formed on the civilian contract basis and mainly under British control. Their teams continued to act as supply columns to several of the more inaccessible parts of the front, until, on the formation of the new army, most were absorbed in other Greek units.
The mixed civilian population also provided
THE GREEK EFFORT 135
abundant labour material, and throughout the lines of communication area were to be seen breaking stones and mending roads. This being among the most essential of services rendered to the Allies in Macedonia, it must also be included in the sum of Greece's total effort, although the workers were all paid at far higher rates than they had ever before received for such labour.
A Greek regiment on the march, whether on its way to the front through the flag-decked streets of Salonika or winding snake-like along mountain roads, was always an interesting sight. Clad in French blue or British khaki, these extremely tough and wiry brown- skinned warriors, generally of small stature, seemed more than any others made for mountain 'Warfare. Always sprightly and cheerful, they stood the climate variations far more easily than did the Allies, and although many succumbed to malaria they did not seem to suffer so severely as did our own men.
To see the Greek wounded, at advanced points in the line, cheerfully waiting their turn for attention, and, especially after the last attacks, accepting with equanimity what scanty rations and treatment could be meted out to them, huddled together the while in hard-floored and
136 THE SALONIKA FRONT
painfully jolting lorries, with only a few handfuls of straw to lie on, was a heart-rending and, at the same time, inspiring spectacle.
Such at any rate knew what war meant, their country having only recently come successfully through two national struggles to be forcibly dragged anew into this European conflict. The consciousness of their past achievements must have stood them in good stead, and assisted them as nothing else could in keeping up that concert pitch of efficiency which was necessary throughout the final advance.
Over and above other facts worthy of note by any one who considers Greece's contribution to the Allies' cause was the pre-eminent, all -pervading personality of the greatest statesman the Balkans ever produced, M. Venizelos. Were it not for his firm stand and for the effect it had upon the majority of Greeks, none of whom would other- wise have dared commit themselves, Greece would at least have remained coldly neutral throughout the war, and even perhaps become bitterly hostile to our cause.
Nor should the untiring energy and ceaseless vigilance of his many distinguished civilian and military assistants be left out of account. What
PITON ROCHEUX, BELES AND KRUSHA BALKAN
The junction between our Independent Brigade in the Krusha Balkan and the right wing of our iath Corps front, at the extreme south of Lake Doiran. The lake is just beyond the first line of hills, the small peak of which to the extreme left is Piton Rocheux. The relative height of the Bulgars' Beles stronghold, seen along the horizon, is clearly shown.
THE GREEK EFFORT 137
men like Generals Danglis and Paraskevopoulos achieved in a military sense was at least equalled, on the civilian side, by indefatigable workers such as M. Adossides, who alternately held office as Prefect of Salonika and Governor of Macedonia. At a time when the health, safety, and success of the Allied armies in the Balkans depended upon the rapid solution of countless very pressing problems connected with the organised control of the mixed civilian population throughout the war areas, it was mainly due to his untiring personal efforts that such difficulties were met and overcome with the necessary despatch.
That very natural feeling of distrust and animosity against Greece, which in the early stages of the war was rife among most of the Allies, long before our operations developed, ceased to have any reasonable foundation in the domain of facts. No state that was a member of the Allies' combine threw itself more whole-heartedly and with more singleness of purpose into the overcoming of all obstacles that hindered the furtherance of our cause than did Greece, as soon as she won free from the toils of Germanophil court influence.
As the task of overcoming the Germano- Bulgarian deadlock with our forces would have
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138 THE SALONIKA FRONT
been insurmountable without this additional moral and military weight, the debt of gratitude the Allies owe to M. Venizelos and, after him, to all participant Greeks cannot be adequately expressed in mere words.
Although Greece and her Serbian allies have thus, a third time within the past seven years, won successfully through the vortex of a Balkan war tempest, much in the way of consolidation and almost everything on the side of industrial develop- ment remains to be done by both before they can show full moral justification for their territorial claims.
" England never won true greatness as a nation until she learnt to do without autocratic sovereignty." This remark made by M. Venizelos at a private lunch in Salonika immediately after the formal signing of the Bulgarian Convention last year, although it was not intended for publication, lingers in the memory of the few who heard it. Surely Greece, in the hands of such a statesman, will at least have every opportunity of starting her peace-time career upon broad and sound principles of government. Yet, although no student of Greece's past greatness can fail to sympathise with even the widest-ranged Hellenistic
THE GREEK EFFORT 139
aspirations, whatever territorial advantages may be accorded her at the outset she will have an uphill task of many years' duration before winning free from the relics of stagnation that, being a legacy of centuries of Turkish misrule, still remain a severe handicap to the development of the Balkan peoples.
Somewhat has already been said about Greece's political difficulties, but those who have not studied on the spot the countless problems with which this young nation is faced find it almost impossible to grasp the relative values, as far as Greece is concerned, of present day influences at work in the Balkans. A Greek who, although he formerly acted as head of a secret committee organised to frustrate the insidious methods em- ployed by Bulgarian propagandist societies, long since retired from political life, being asked to set down his views in writing last autumn, made many interesting remarks concerning public opinion in Greece, and of some of these the following is a translation :
" War conditions have produced among Greeks a temporarily abnormal psychological state, which has not tended towards any adequate mutual understanding between individual Greeks and the
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various representatives of the Allies whose duties brought them to Salonika.
" French ways of thought and French financial interests had made such progress in Greece prior to the war that it would have been compara- tively easy, at one time, for France to establish almost colonial suzerainty in Greece. She chose instead to be content with posing as the pro- tector of Levantine Catholics, and left Russia the part of protecting members of the Greek Church.
" Greece thus, while developing a strong religious tie with Russia, being anti-Catholic, learnt to mis- trust the Catholic missions, which were rather more international than purely national in character, and tended to become centres of anti- Greek intrigue, offering shelter at times to Bulgarian propagandists. Knowing well that Russia was Bulgarophil and aimed at winning control of Constantinople, the Greeks lost faith by degrees both in France and Russia. Italy, too, was sus- pected of designs on Epirus and certain parts of Asia Minor. England's point of view was un- known ; she was thought to be mainly Bulgarophil. Austria and Germany were gaining control of Greek and Turkish markets by flooding the
THE "PIP," RIDGE
THE GREEK EFFORT 141
Balkans with cheap goods, and were therefore not trusted at all.
"When the Allies landed at Salonika they naturally ran against hotel-keepers, shop-keepers, carriage drivers, etc., all intent on making money, and they gleaned from this momentarily venal keenness of one class an impression that was not a true one of the whole Greek people. The Greeks resented the rigid treatment meted out to them by the Allies' military measures, and this helped the anti-ally current of feeling that belief in King Constantine's policy of Germanophil neutrality had already fanned into flame.
" The French, on arrival, did not consider them- selves among friends, and adopted, perhaps, an unnecessarily harsh demeanour towards all Greeks. The Serbs did likewise, because they thought Greece had betrayed them. The British, ignorant of other tongues than their own, remained aloof and apart, but as they paid whatever they were asked, no matter how exorbitant, and as they treated women with courteous restraint, they produced a remarkably good impression, an im- pression which was greatly enhanced by the way in which the R.A.M.C. lavished their attention on all poor people, no matter of what race or creed,
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and also by the obviously unselfish part they were playing, i.e. they did not appear to have come to Macedonia to benefit themselves.
"Thus, while this, his first contact with the British in any considerable numbers, has had a good effect on the Greek, he still fears a recru- descence of British Bulgarophil policy, yet still desires the support of what seems to him the most altruistic of the Greater Powers, as far as Balkan politics are concerned."
CHAPTER IX
THE BRITISH EFFORT
Sea and land communications — Transport difficulties — Inadequacy of numbers — Achievement of the 10th Division — The " Birdcage " and after — R.E. Works — The expected Bulgarian attack — Consolida- tion of a new line — The deadly climate — The unhealthy Struma Valley — Heat stroke — Dysentery — Malarial debility — Nostalgia — Shell-swept trenches — Dwindling friends — Influenza — Facing an impregnable stronghold — The " Pips " and what they mean to Britons who served long years in front of them — How British grit and perseverance wore out the Bulgars' watchfulness — Final winning of Grand Couronne and the Beles — Kosturino Pass and Strumnitza — Advance to the Danube — Advance against Turkey — Supply and Transport — R.E. Survey — Ordnance Stores — E.F. Canteen — Corps Headquarters — "C.H.A. " — Indian and Greek Transport — Group Headquarters — Anti-Aircraft — A Mountain ' ' O. P. " — Yeoman Cavalry — With the Infantry — Festive occasions — After the " Pips" were taken — Medical Service — Sanitary and Anti-Malarial measures — The "Scottish Women" — Feminine heroism — British Serbian hospitals.
WHAT can be added to that which has already been said regarding our own British effort? At the outset, our lines of communication with home bases, excepting those of the so speedily dis- membered Russian contingent, were by far the longest and the most beset with transport diffi-
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culties. It was not until well on in the campaign that we were able to make use of overland routes through France and Italy. We had, moreover, no certainty of being able to keep up the strength of the comparatively small body of troops with which we started to join battle on this remote and, in the opinion of England's political magnates, least important of all fronts.
Mention has been made of the splendid and for ever memorable achievement, immediately it landed, of the already fatigued and depleted 10th Division. The marvel was that, although they provided a flank screen under cover of which the whole of the French forces up the Vardar were able to with- draw in safety, those staunch Irishmen, hard pressed and far outnumbered by the Bulgars, weakened by cold, hunger, and sickness, were yet able to withdraw with but slight battle casualties.
Throughout the period of defensive preparation within the " Birdcage " our men had very important tasks to fulfil. The R.E. Works had not only to make use of every available member of the Corps but also to call upon all other units that could be spared to help carry out the protracted and very onerous engineering operations which the consolida- tion of the line demanded.
LAKE DOIRAN, EASTERN END
THE BRITISH EFFORT 145
For several months the whole British Salonika force worked night and day at the strengthening of our positions along the right-hand sector of the "Birdcage." Then came the tentative advance, during the early months of 1916, to positions farther up-country, positions that had first to be reconnoitred by our infantry and^cavalry patrols.
As soon as it was decided to occupy the Vardar- Doiran, Krusha-Balkan, and Struma Valley fronts, the whole of the constructive engineering work, beset with countless fresh difficulties, had to be undertaken anew on a far larger scale. All this was done in daily, almost hourly dread of a formidable attack.
Working at feverish heat throughout the oppressive summer months, our men, although considerably reinforced, did not fail to suffer from their first experience of the debilitating effects of the Balkan climate. During this first summer over 3000 malaria-stricken British soldiers were admitted to the Casualty Clearing Stations in one day from two divisions on the Struma front.
Doubtless the Bulgars of this region, sprinkled in more or less formidable detachments along the base of the opposing Beles Range, suffered considerably also during this first summer. At any
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rate, both they and ourselves, having learnt a severe lesson, throughout subsequent summers took care to withdraw to the foothills on either side of the Struma Valley ; so that, when the malarial season was at its height, a low-lying and fever-haunted No Man's Land of from twelve to twenty miles in width had to be constantly patrolled. Nor was the sickness by any means confined to this portion of the front, heat-stroke, dysentery, and malaria being everywhere more or less prevalent.
Out of the trying nature of the climate, the feeling of sheer hopelessness inspired by the strongly fortified mountain barrier that faced them on the whole front, and the despondency that is one result of the weakening effects of repeated bouts of malaria or dysentery, developed that nostalgic "ennui" of the Balkans to which most British soldiers who served there sooner or later succumbed. It is a marvel to those who saw, on the spot, the countless individual manifestations of this unhealthy mental condition among all ranks that we ever won through the long and most trying period of semi-quiescence which preceded the development of our final victorious advance.
Disease casualties increased, and, wounds from
THE BRITISH EFFORT 147
shell-fire being not infrequent, the survivors saw their friends dwindle one by one. After malaria and dysentery came that most insidious of all disease foes, Influenza. Yet, when circumstances at length enabled us to sweep over the whole country of the " Pip " Ridge, even this last scourge had no power to daunt the inherent courage of our men, several of whom, finding nothing better to do than to "go sick" with "influenza" the day previous to the advance, begged to be allowed to rejoin their units as soon as they realised the advance had indeed begun.
All who participated in the long vigil that preceded the final offensive felt they were up against an impregnable mountain barrier, that the home folk could not be brought to understand the stupendous nature of the problem they were facing, and that, unless something little short of a miracle occurred, those among them who survived would go on sitting there for ever in dead-lock with the enemy.
Such thoughts as these preyed constantly on the minds of those who served opposite that most formidable of Bulgarian natural fortresses of which the "Pip" Ridge formed the central stronghold and " Grand Couronne' " the main bastion towards
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the east. Strengthened by all the arts of modern German warfare, studded everywhere with ex- ceedingly deep, reinforced concrete dug-outs and gun emplacements, this gaunt cluster of rugged peaks, which dominates the whole surrounding country, could have been easily held against far larger opposing infantry contingents without any artificial fortification.
Even after the enemy's withdrawal a very stiff climb was necessary to scale these peaks success- fully. We must therefore count as one of the chief individual achievements of the war the fact that certain Welsh and Scottish soldiers really did, in face of the enemy's intense machine-gun and trench-mortar fire, rush the summits of both Grand Couronne' and the "Pip" Ridge. Although only their dead bodies were found, their desperate attack, combined with the imminent outflanking peril brought about by the rapid Allied advance on our left, no doubt provided the final pressure which caused the precipitate abandonment of these heights by the Bulgars.
Captured plans and maps show they had very accurate information regarding the disposition of our forces and the exact situation of our batteries, but they did not appear to exhibit a skill equal to
VERGETOR CHURCH
Its congregation of faithful having long sought other regions (the remains of their village consist of a few stones), this church became successively, after accumulated dirt had been cleaned away, a Brigade Headquarters, a mess and chart room, and a banquet hall, in which prominent members of the Allied forces were entertained. It was subsequently used for Church of England services.
THE BRITISH EFFORT 149
that of our own artillery groups in counter-battery work. They seem to have relied mainly upon machine-guns and trench -mortars for repelling attacks, and to have kept their own guns intact under cover of their solid concrete dug-outs, bringing them out for use whenever the occasion required. This was, perhaps, the best method of defence for a force in possession of the dominating heights in a country made up of steep-sided ravines and narrow, precipitous nullahs which intersect one another in all directions, and in which, owing to their depth, opposing batteries very easily found shelter. As compared with the problem British troops had to face on the western front, the difficulties of organising an attack in the Balkans were further augmented by the impossibility of making a creeping barrage effective round the sharp turns and tortuous windings of these deep and narrow ravines which almost everywhere impeded our progress.
Following up the retreating Bulgars through Kosturino to the Strumnitza plateau was by no means an easy task. Although they fled in disorder, leaving behind them vast stores, they everywhere contrived to destroy bridges and leave roads in an unsafe condition. Besides wilful
J50 THE SALONIKA FRONT
damage to these roads, they left, sprinkled about in profusion among the thick dust, a quantity of unexploded shells and hand- grenades, and this rendered our own progress perilous in the extreme. That we so speedily won through to Strumnitza and far beyond it speaks volumes for the efficiency of all arms, and especially of our transport services ; for the problem of how to get adequate rations up to our rapidly advancing positions became daily more and more acute, particularly as the roads, which, here as elsewhere in the Balkans, led round the edge of precipices, were already becoming sticky owing to the beginning of the autumn rains. After the signing of the Bulgarian Convention, General Milne received orders to move, by way of Petritch and Radomir, through Bulgaria to Widin on the Danube, in co-operation with the French and Serbs and against Austria -Hungary. Soon after this move had got under way he was placed in command of the Allied troops operating against Turkey (October 10) and ordered to transfer his forces eastwards. When news of the armistice with Turkey reached General Headquarters (October 80), two British and one French divi- sion had already moved towards the river Maritza, and were on the point of seizing the bridges as a
THE BRITISH EFFORT 151
first step towards occupying Adrianople, while the 1st Hellenic Division had advanced between Kavalla and Drama, preparatory to furthering the general move against Constantinople. For this rapid advance of over 250 miles it was necessary to re-base our troops on small ports in the Aegean, and, although malaria and influenza had consider- ably reduced our strength, those officers and men who were still left, to use General Milne's own words, "remained in the ranks until often they dropped from sheer exhaustion."
Everything throughout the whole period of our Balkan operations hinged primarily upon our systems of supply and transport and upon the wonderfully efficient work carried out by the Royal Engineers. Not only did the stability of our positions and the possibility of subsequent advance depend upon the services of these most essential adjuncts to all warfare, but as no locally reliable maps of the country existed, a very im- portant contribution to our success was made by the R.E. Survey Section, who had to face the task of editing the old Austrian military maps, which teemed with inaccuracies.
The efficiency with which our Ordnance Stores were administered cannot receive too high com-
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mendation, and the way in which, despite all transport difficulties, the organisers of our Ex- peditionary Force canteen supply system contrived to meet all emergencies was most praiseworthy.
As the main purpose of this book is to recall, however imperfectly, a few of the many things seen on our Balkan front, it may not be unprofit- able to outline some of the exterior aspects of British conditions of service in the Corps areas both before and after the final advance.
Before that advance, a visitor, for example, to the 12th Corps Headquarters at Janesh, if he came from up the line, saw an hour or two before he reached it, across what seemed like a perfectly flat stretch of moorland, the white tents and huts that were his ultimate destination. He could not see the dozens of deep gullies that intersected that moor in all directions, and were bound, if he travelled by horse or car, to delay his progress considerably. He might, however, jump up behind some ambulance truck on the de'cauville railway, and, with sick and wounded, journey somewhat joltily across miniature mountain torrents and gorges until he reached the main Railhead station of Janesh. From there it was but a short walk among tents and hutments to the various offices
SUNSET EFFECT ON A QUARRY NEAR VERGETOR
The track winding off on the right led to the I2th Corps Headquarters at Janesh, where General Milne first received the Bulgarian delegates.
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THE BRITISH EFFORT 153
of the Corps Staff, which, at the time of the big air raids, were no very safe places of work and residence.
Noticeable as he passed, on rising ground to the left, was the 31st C.C.S., the 12th Corps Railhead Casualty Clearing Station, and also, over to the right, the Corps cemetery and the Corps vegetable garden. As he mounted the slightly rising ground he parsed a medley of neatly constructed hutments, which served either as officers' messes, offices, or orderly rooms used by the various Headquarters units. There was also the native labourers' deten- tion camp, surrounded by barbed wire, and the locally famous Janesh fountain of natural aerated water, which, although it was for some reason condemned by the Sanitary Section, was neverthe- less prized by many as a beverage, and was never known to do any one harm.
He saw a number of horses and a good many flies. If mounted himself, there was a spot where he would dismount and tether his horse under shade of the trees. He would then cross a foot- bridge over a dried -up brook and enter the hutment to which his business brought him. Inside he would see genial-faced, perspiring staff
officers in shirt sleeves, busy over papers or maps.
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His business done, he would remount and ride back ere nightfall, passing through many a roadside camp, and crossing stream after stream as his way wound on through seemingly interminable gullies. He might on his return journey visit the C.H.A. (Corps Heavy Artillery) Headquarters, which was situated just off the main road to Cugunci, and housed unpretentiously in camouflaged tents and dug-outs with rush-covered tin roofs on a level with the soil.
After that he would journey along the road for a mile or two, passing the main ration dump, which used to be regularly shelled at distributing time each afternoon by a hostile long-range gun. He would continue on towards Cugunci, at the base of the ridge of hills south of Doiran along the northern side of which our own trenches lay. Far above these hills towered the "Pip" Ridge and Grand Couronne', both of which, in addition to the vast wall of the still higher Beles on the right, conveyed a very vivid impression of the enemy's advantages of position.
Perhaps he would suddenly, at the base of the hills behind Cugunci, come upon a quantity of Greek or Indian horse transport, and be saluted by the turbaned members of the latter with punctilious
THE BRITISH EFFORT 155
precision. If his way led among the hills he eventually came past a path that led to a gully concealing one of our long-range guns, or even to an Artillery Group Headquarters. If a random enemy shell-burst or two did not impede him, he might surprise the group mess at their tea. This mess often consisted of a small camouflaged bell- tent gingerly adhering to the steep boulder-strewn slopes of a rocky ravine.
With a telephone receiver hanging from the central pole and a packing-case spread with fly- haunted delicacies in tins, a Macedonian sheep-dog for a playfellow, and a horse in the gully beneath, what more could a British gunner officer ask ? He could crave for the excitement of a "strafe," and this indeed, on the 12th Corps front, he had quite often enough. Frequently, also, he had above him what he did not ask for, several bursts of shrapnel or a hostile aeroplane making reconnaissance. Generally about tea-time did the latter occur. The remedy for the revellers was for one to seize the telephone and get on to the neighbouring A. A. battery, transmitting the remarks which, above the " burr . . . pop " of the shells, his companions shouted to him from outside the tent. These remarks, at one historic tea at least, so successfully
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corrected "Archie" as to bring down an enemy machine.
Not far from the Group Headquarters, and towards the top of a small mountain on the side of which it was perched, began a path that, after skirting a lesser summit, suddenly developed into a skilfully constructed subterranean gallery. Cut out of the solid rock, and camouflaged above its wooden roofing by replanted gorse bushes (a work that could only be carried out by night), this wonderful gallery, which was the only means of access to the neighbouring Artillery Observation- Post, led at length through mazy windings to a small dug-out chamber. With conveniently arranged chairs, and resembling in shape and size a box in some theatre auditorium, this chamber had a slit about two yards long and six inches wide, through which observers could watch the activities of the enemy across a twenty or thirty mile front. Nothing short of a direct hit, and perhaps not even that, could annihilate the officers concealed there. They sat on amid the roar of guns, noted flashes and the effect of our own shell- bursts, then transmitted their observations by telephone to the neighbouring batteries.
What our mounted yeomanry patrols achieved
SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITAL, MIKRA (1916)
THE BRITISH EFFORT 15 7
in the way of preparing our advance over wide stretches of country will, it is hoped, be one day placed on record by those who lived with them. Our infantry, who in this very "inhospitable" climate suffered and yet accomplished most, are far beyond all praise.
When visiting an infantry brigade headquarters it was easy to see how intense a life was led by all.