Ancient town "Stoby"

  The old city of Stobi “…Stobis, vetus urbs…”, as the Roman historian Livy named it, at the confluence of rivers Crna and Vardar, was the largest city in the northern part of the Roman province Macedonia, later capital city of the Roman province Macedonia Secunda, an important urban, military, administrative, trade and religious center of two large empires: Roman and Early Byzantine. Located in the heart of Macedonia, on the crossroads between the Aegean World and the Central Balkan, during the whole period of its existence it was a place where cultural achievements of the ancient world gathered in a unique way.

Thetown of Stobi was built in the Hellenic period, some time before the rule of the Macedonian king Philip theFifth. It was situated 160 km from Thessalonica on the main road Via Egnatia that led from the Danube to theAegean Sea. Because of its location, Stobi was an important army, strategic, economic and cultural center atthe time. Owing to the numerous historical and literary documents and archeological findings fromthorough research done in the area, there is a complete urban picture of Ancient Stobi, its architecturalstructure and organization of life, which speaks of a highly developed urban society with a high level ofcultural development. Considering these facts and according to some additional sources, the beginnings ofStobi were much earlier, in the 7th and 6th Century BC. Some bronze objects discovered here and datingfrom ancient times include ceramic findings, which point to life in it as early as the Neolith and the IronAge.The town was rather developed in the early andmiddle Roman period, partly owes this status of a“municipium” to its mint, where coins with the sign“Municipium Stobensium” were made. The “denar” coinswere produced here, too. Numerous monuments withsigns and buildings that are unique for their beauty have also beenfound.

Among these are the great sanctuaries and, certainly, thefamous Theatre. The town wasn't any less significant later, at the timeof the establishment of the Christianity. Stobi was quite influential asthe Archbishop's Seat and later as an Archbishopric. A lot of churchesand basilicas with rich interior decoration, luxurious private palacesand other significant buildings come from this period. There was also aJewish community in Stobi in the 3rd Century. The Synagogue thatproved this was torn down at the end the 4th Century and a Christianbasilica was built on its remains. In the late 5th and early 6th Century,the town was ravaged in the great Avaro-Slavonic invasions and wasdestroyed in an earthquake in the year 518. The discovered Justin II coins from the second half of the 6thCentury and the necropolis with 23 Slavonic crests from the 9th to the 12th Century confirm that there waslife in Stobi after the earthquake. The town was renovated, but never reached its previous level of prosperity.

Today, the remains of this famous archaeological site are equally easily approachable from the E-75 corridor of the international highway, thus making it very popular tourist destination in Macedonia. The nocturnal illumination of the city walls and preserved monuments, additionally emphasize its beauty and attractiveness.

http://www.exploringmacedonia.com/stobi.nspx

British 22nd Division Memorial Doiran

The history of 22nd Division

This Division was established in September 1914 as part of Army Order 388 authorising Kitchener's Third New Army, K3. The units began to assemble in the area of Eastbourne and Seaford, with the artillery at Lewes, from September 1914. The Division remained in these areas, other than when the infantry moved for two weeks entrenchment training to Maidstone in April 1915, as it was trained and equipped.
The Division crossed to France in early September 1915, all units being concentrated near Flesselles by 9th of the month. But the stay in France was to be very short.
On 27 October 1915, the Division, having been moved by train to Marseilles, began to embark for Salonika. It completed concentration there in November, although the final artillery units were still coming in as late as 13 December 1915. The 22nd Division remained in the theatre for the rest of the war, taking part in the following operations:
1915
8-13 December: the Retreat from Serbia (Advanced Divisional HQ, 6th Brigade, 9th Border and 68th Field Ambulance only)
1916
10-18 August 1916: the Battle of Horseshoe Hill
13-14 September 1916: the Battle of Machukovo
1917
24-25 April and 8-9 May 1917: the Battles of Doiran
1918The Division lost a number of units in mid 1918; they were transferred to France 
18-19 September 1918: the Battle of Doiran

An Armistice with Bulgaria was signed on 30 September 1918. 

By 18-20 October, units of the Division had marched back to Stavros. Here they embarked on destroyers with the intention of a landing at Dede Agach to continue the fight against Turkey. After one attempt was called off due to rough weather, the infantry finally landed on 28 October 1918. On reaching Makri, the Division learned that an Armistice with Turkey was imminent. Demobilisation began at Chugunsi and the Division ceased to exist by 31 March 1919.

The 22nd Division had suffered casualties of 7,728 killed, wounded and missing during the war but vastly larger numbers sick with malaria, dysentery and other diseases rife in the Salonika theatre.

http://www.1914-1918.net/22div.htm

Doiran Memorial

The DOIRAN MEMORIAL stands roughly in the centre of the line occupied for two years by the Allies in Macedonia, but close to the western end, which was held by Commonwealth forces. It marks the scene of the fierce fighting of 1917-1918, which caused the majority of the Commonwealth battle casualties.

From October 1915 to the end of November 1918, the British Salonika Force suffered some 2,800 deaths in action, 1,400 from wounds and 4,200 from sickness. The campaign afforded few successes for the Allies, and none of any importance until the last two months. The action of the Commonwealth force was hampered throughout by widespread and unavoidable sickness and by continual diplomatic and personal differences with neutrals or Allies. On one front there was a wide malarial river valley and on the other, difficult mountain ranges, and many of the roads and railways it required had to be specially constructed.

The memorial serves the dual purpose of Battle Memorial of the British Salonika Force (for which a large sum of money was subscribed by the officers and men of that force), and place of commemoration for more than 2,000 Commonwealth servicemen who died in Macedonia and whose graves are not known.

The memorial was designed by Sir Robert Lorimer with sculpture by Walter Gilbert. It was unveiled by Sir George Macdonogh on 25 September 1926.

The memorial stands near DOIRAN MILITARY CEMETERY. The cemetery (originally known as Colonial Hill Cemetery No.2) was formed at the end of 1916 as a cemetery for the Doiran front. The graves are almost entirely those of officers and men of the 22nd and 26th Divisions and largely reflect the fighting of April and May 1917 (the attacks on the Petit-Couronne), and 18-19 September 1918 (the attacks on Pip Ridge and the Grand-Couronne). In October and November 1918, after the final advance, a few burials were added by the 25th Casualty Clearing Station.

After the Armistice, graves were brought into the cemetery from the battlefields and from some small burial grounds, the most important of which was Strumnitza British Military Cemetery, north-west of Doiran, made by the 40th Casualty Clearing Station in October and November 1918.

The cemetery now contains 1,338 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 449 of them unidentified. There are also 45 Greek and one French war graves.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/160000/DOIRAN%20MEMORIAL

Mikra British Cemetery Kalamaria Greece

At the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister, M.Venizelos, Salonika (now Thessalonika) was occupied by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division from Gallipoli in October 1915. Other French and Commonwealth forces landed during the year and in the summer of 1916, they were joined by Russian and Italian troops. In August 1916, a Greek revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek national army came into the war on the Allied side. 

The town was the base of the British Salonika Force and it contained, from time to time, eighteen general and stationary hospitals. Three of these hospitals were Canadian, although there were no other Canadian units in the force. 

The earliest Commonwealth burials took place in the local Protestant and Roman Catholic cemeteries, and the Anglo-French (now Lembet Road) Military Cemetery was used from November 1915 to October 1918. The British cemetery at Mikra was opened in April 1917, remaining in use until 1920. The cemetery was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from a number of burial grounds in the area.

MIKRA BRITISH CEMETERY now contains 1,810 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, as well as 147 war graves of other nationalities.

Within the cemetery will be found the MIKRA MEMORIAL, commemorating almost 500 nurses, officers and men of the Commonwealth forces who died when troop transports and hospital ships were lost in the Mediterranean, and who have no grave but the sea. They are commemorated here because others who went down in the same vessels were washed ashore and identified, and are now buried at Thessalonika.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/35900/MIKRA%20BRITISH%20CEMETERY,%20KALAMARIA

The 10th (Irish) Division Memorial

The 10th (Irish) Division Memorial is dedicated to 10th (Irish) Division troops who were amongst the first Allied forces to arrive in Greece and went north alongside the French in support of the Serbian Army. Attacked by overwhelming numbers of Bulgarian troops on 7 December 1915 at Kosturino, the 10th (Irish) Division fell back on Salonika. Here they took part in the construction of the ‘Birdcage’ defence line before going on to serve in the Struma Valley. The division left the Balkans for Palestine during summer 1917.

Struma Military Cemetery, Greece

In the autumn of 1916, the 40th Casualty Clearing Station was established not far from the road near the 71 Kilometre stone and the cemetery made for it was originally called Kilo 71 Military Cemetery. The original plot, Plot I, was set too close to a ravine and the graves in it were moved after the Armistice to the present plots VIII and IX. The remainder of the cemetery consists almost entirely of graves brought in from the battlefields, from the churchyards at Homondos, Haznatar and Kalendra, and from small front line cemeteries established by field ambulances or fighting units. The most significant of these were Ormanli, Dolab Wood and Big Tree Well. Struma Military Cemetery contains 947 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 51 of them unidentified. There are also 15 war graves of other nationalities.
http://www.remembering.org.uk/glosregtofficers/glos_regt_offrs_cemeteries_struma.htm

Salonika (Lembet Road) Military Cemetery

This cemetery (then known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was opened in November 1915 and had British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections. The British section remained in use until October 1918, although from the beginning of 1917 burials were also made at Mikra (see below under Additional Cemeteries). The front line was 40 miles away and most of the burials are of soldiers who died in hospitals established locally. In February and March 1917 Salonika received two heavy air raids and many of the graves just north of the Cross of Sacrifice are of those killed in the bombing. The cemetery contains 1,650 British burials (of whom 15 were in the Malta Labour Corps) and three Canadian; 45 Bulgarians who died as prisoners of war are also buried here.

One of the more remarkable graves is that of Mrs Katharine Mary Harley, Croix de Guerre (France), age 62, who died on 7th March 1917. She was a sister of Field Marshal Sir John French, C-in-C of the BEF in France and Flanders in 1914-1915. Mrs Harley led a group of British nurses serving with the Serbian Army and she was killed in the bombing. Her grave bears a private memorial (as well as a recumbent Commission headstone) erected in 1917 by the Serbian Army and inscribed in two languages:

THE GENEROUS ENGLISH LADY AND GREAT BENEFACTRESS OF THE SERBIAN PEOPLE MADAME HARLEY A GREAT LADY ON YOUR TOMB INSTEAD OF FLOWERS THE GRATITUDE OF THE SERBS SHALL BLOSSOM THERE FOR YOUR WONDERFUL ACTS YOUR NAME SHALL BE KNOWN FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION

Though Mrs. Harley, at an age when few men were serving, died nursing in the Serbian Army, she was typical of the many women who served with the nursing and similar forces of the Commonwealth forces and whose graves lie wherever those forces served.
http://www.mta.ca/library/courage/greekcemeteries.html

SCS Salonika Battlefield Tour 26 September - 3 October 2015

The First World War can be said to have started in the Balkans with Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia. During the war an allied force of some 500,000 men – Serbs, French, British, Russians, Italians and Greeks faced men of the Bulgarian Army supported by German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish units across Macedonia. And yet the Salonika Campaign is comparatively little known. This 100th anniversary tour gives an opportunity to visit this ‘forgotten front’ including the wonderfully preserved battlefield at Doiran, with its trenches, concrete bunkers and broken terrain. Our guide Alan Wakefield has visited these battlefields many times and his book “Under the Devil’s Eye” reflects his knowledge of the campaigns, the country and the men who fought there. There will be some walking on rough paths and optional treks up to some of the heights from where can be had wonderful panoramas across the former battlefields.

The campaign began on 5th October 1915 when British and French divisions began landing at Salonika in Greece, to deter Bulgaria from joining an Austro-German attack on Serbia. They remained to prevent German domination of the Balkans, with allied offensives in 1916, 1917 and 1918. On the Doiran battlefield the tangled masses of hills and ravines were covered with three lines of trenches cut from solid rock, concrete machine gun bunkers, artillery positions and many miles of barbed wire. Dominating all from its position near the summit of Grand Couronné was a large observation bunker , ‘The Devil’s Eye’, the remains of which can be seen today. The British fought twice in this difficult area.

Throughout the campaign, living conditions for the soldiers were harsh. Winter brought bone chilling winds and blizzards. Summer came with extreme heat and insects. Disease, especially malaria, caused many more casualties than the fighting. Rations were poor, comforts few and home leave a rarity. British troops felt they were fighting a forgotten war.

Although the landscape is little changed, Macedonia is now a very welcoming place for the visitor, making this an ideal opportunity to discover the story of the Salonika Campaign.

ITINERARY

Day 1 (Saturday): Fly London Gatwick to Thessaloniki. Check into our hotel in Thessaloniki (3 nights). Evening reception at Greek Army Officers Club.

Day 2: Drive to Polykastro for Five Nations Ceremony of Commemoration. Lunch in the local Officers’ Mess. Visits to Karasouli CWGC cemetery and the Doiran Memorial to the Missing. The latter includes attendance at a short ceremony of commemoration organised by the British Embassy.

Day 3: Visit to sites in the Struma Valley, former area of operations of the British XVI Corps.

Day 4: Walk part of the Birdcage Line defences to the north of Thessaloniki. Drive to Doiran and check into hotel (4 nights).

Day 5: Walking tour of the Doiran battlefield including 22nd Division memorial, Grand Couronné and the Devil's Eye observation bunker.

Day 6: Continuation of walking tour of the Doiran battlefield including British artillery positions on La Tortue, the key Bulgarian front line position known as Petit Couronné and Hill 340 in the second defensive line.

Day 7: Walking tour of Kosturino battlefield including Kosturino Ridge, Rocky Peak, Memesli village, Crete Rivet and Crete Simonet. Stop at the 10th (Irish) Division memorial on return to Doiran.

Day 8: Return Drive to Thessaloniki for flight to London Gatwick. We will aim to be to be at the airport for the 11:50 Easyjet flight to Gatwick. This will give group members a choice of return flights.

Note: Walks on the Doiran and Kosturino battlefields will be between 4 – 6 hours, including breaks and lunch. The walking is mainly on tracks, which are rough in parts. Part of the walk on Day 5 at Doiran includes some stretches of steady uphill gradients. Good walking shoes or boots are essential. It is also a good idea to bring lightweight waterproofs as storms are not unknown in September. A day bag for carrying waterproofs, packed lunches, water etc is also recommended.

Whilst the guides will offer advice regarding visit to sites all walks are undertaken by individual travellers at their own risk. For this reason all travellers must have adequate travel and medical insurance cover for the duration of the tour. In addition, we cannot accept liability where the performance of our obligations with you is prevented or affected, or you otherwise suffer any damage, loss or expense as a result of force majeure. Force Majeure means unusual and unforeseeable circumstances beyond our control, the consequences of which neither we nor the local operators could avoid, including (but not limited to) war, riot, civil strife, terrorist activity, industrial dispute, natural or nuclear disaster, fire flood, adverse weather conditions or the threat of any of these.

Costs & Payment:

Although final costs are yet to be established, it is expected these will be in line with previous tours. This would price the tour between £700 - £900 per person, dependent on final numbers travelling. Tour cost will include accommodation, in-country transport, meals, local guides/organisation. As usual on SCS tours, each traveller is responsible for booking their own flights.

A Deposit of €200 or £200 is required to secure a place and the balance owing must be either be paid before we leave or preferably brought in cash (Euros) and paid on arrival at Thessaloniki. (We pay for accommodation and food by cash so it saves us bringing lots of Euros over!). The deposit is not returnable in the event of the guest cancelling. However it will be returned if we are able to fill the vacancy. Deposits will be returned in full if the tour is cancelled.

For additional information and payment details please email Alan Wakefield via:
chair@salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk

Under The Devils Eye

As my grandad was there in 1916, Salonika became very important to me, but like many of the 'sideshows', info on this campaign is a bit sparse. Thanks though (YET again) toChris Baker and 1914-1918.net, I was able to get an understanding of this much overlooked Macedonian theatre. Alan Palmer's 'Gardeners of Salonika' (1965) (his dad was there too), whilst it has one of the coolest titles, was a bit of a slog. I so wanted it to be the definitive book on Salonika, and it was, until 'Under The Devil's Eye' by Alan Wakefield w/Simon Moody, which to me is the dogs bollocks on the subject.Recently I've posted links to other books written at the time, and whilst fascinating, they are not for the beginner....most of them make Palmer's book seem an easy read. Alan Wakefield brings the gardeners to life,and he knows his sh-stuff....he also does tours of the area, and if ever anyone can trace my grandads steps, it would be him. But thats next year. Until then we have 'Under The Devil's Eye', which is, for me, the definitive work on Salonika. The unit war diaries of my grandad, who was part of the 27th Division, 81st Brigade, 1st Royal Scots. They were part of the British Salonika Force, which included Irish and Canadian regiments, whom my grandad fought alongside. I know this from the 1 R/S war diaries, which tells me this. Alan Wakefields book fleshes out the story, in a thoroughly readable way. General Erich von Falkenhayn, referred to Salonika once as his largest Entente prison camp. I dunno....I'm kind of glad my grandad was there....though 'Under The Devil's Eye, shows that it was no picnic...like all areas of ww1, it sucked.

By: Geoff Harrison
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205563271750035&set=pb.1499770540.-2207520000.1429605038.&type=3&theater

British Salonika Force

The British government and War Office were unwilling participants in the Macedonian campaign. When military assistance to Serbia was first discussed, the Gallipoli landings were being planned and the request was regarded as an unacceptable extra draw on the limited resources available; despite this, however, the 29th Division was first allocated to a landing at Salonika.

There were also political complications because Greece would have to be the base and the Royal and Venizelist factions there had widely differing war aims and demands. The final decision was dependent on the withdrawal from Gallipoli and French coercion. However, Egypt and later Palestine then became the primary British priorities in the Eastern Mediterranean - to put this in perspective the British Salonika Army was under the administrative control of the Commander-in-Chief in Egypt until September 1916 - and the overall level of direct military support was much less than that provided by the French.

The first troops - the tired and under-strength 10th Division - were sent from Mudros to Salonika in October 1915 followed by five divisions from France; four (22nd, 26th, 27th & 28th) between October and January 1916 (originally intended to replace French troops at Kum Kale or for a diversionary landing in the Gulf of Alexandretta) and the fifth (60th) in December 1916. Three (22nd, 26th & 60th) were fresh but still very inexperienced when they arrived having spent only a few weeks each in the line in France. The other two (27th & 28th) were regular divisions made up from battalions transferred from the Middle and Far East after the outbreak of war. Arriving in Flanders in mid-winter the troops suffered badly from the cold and damp and the resulting sick list was huge. The divisions saw heavy fighting at Ypres in April, and the 28th lost heavily again at Loos, but both reached Salonika via Egypt where some time was spent in rest and retraining. 

The War Office continued to demonstrate its reservations, and other priorities, by restricting the activities of the force, effectively excluding it from any significant offensive action before the April 1917 Battle of Doiran and that only after French insistence. Until 1918 it looked on the British Salonika Force as a strategic reserve for the Middle East so, when planning began for the Jerusalem campaign in the summer of 1917, two divisions (10th & 60th), most of the mounted troops and some heavy artillery were moved to Egypt from Macedonia as reinforcements (although much of the artillery was replaced in 1918). On top of this, twelve battalions - almost a quarter of the remaining infantry - were sent to France and Flanders in mid-1918. These reductions in strength, although undoubtedly necessary, eliminated any remaining ability of the British force to conduct effective offensive action after mid-1917. This in turn should have seriously affected morale so it is to the force’s credit that although its role in the final offensive was only diversionary it was conducted as vigorously as possible, at appalling cost to such a small force.

Equipment lagged behind France and Flanders in quality and quantity. This was due in part to the low priority accorded Macedonia by the War Office but supply was also affected by enemy submarine action on the main routes from the UK and Marseilles in 1917 and 1918 and the small capacity of, and other demands on, the alternative route through Italy and across the Adriatic. Most seriously, the allotment of heavy artillery remained tiny in comparison to France and Flanders with too many guns and not enough howitzers for the mountainous terrain; plans to increase the allocation of mountain artillery to the divisions had to be abandoned for the want of guns and pack animals. The small air component used obsolescent types until late 1917 when the first modern aircraft appeared, but it was mid-1918 (coincident with the formation of a separate Royal Air Force) before they were made available in any quantity. 

However, the biggest problem facing the force as a whole, and the infantry in particular, was reinforcements. Virtually none were sent from the UK after the end of 1916 and the constant drain of manpower from malaria meant that battalion rifle strengths rarely rose above 500. For example, by mid-1918 7/South Wales Borderers contained men from at least 24 different regiments and corps including the Royal Army Medical Corps and Army Service Corps.

Although the order of battle concentrates on the fighting arms the contribution of the services was - as ever - vitally important to the conduct of the campaign. When the 10th and 22nd Divisions arrived there were virtually no roads in the country and the Royal Engineers oversaw a major road construction and maintenance programme. Even with these improvements the terrain nearer the front was unsuitable for horse-drawn transport so infantry divisions made extensive use of pack transport instead, until restricted by the need to send mules to Palestine in 1917. This was supported by large numbers of motor vehicles; 3,500 were in use at the end of the war, both light Ford vans and heavier lorries. As well as supporting its own troops the Army Service Corps sent ten companies to help the French and Serbians, one of which was awarded a unit Croix de Guerre for its part in the final offensive. Also, the British troops were badly affected by the harsh Macedonian climate and sickness or disease killed or disabled far more than enemy fire. Although restricted in the treatments available the Royal Army Medical Corps worked hard to combat malaria and the other endemic diseases, without them scarcely a man would have been fit to fight.

The Salonika Campaign, 1915 -1918

Anglo-French forces began landing at the Greek port of Salonika (now Thessaloniki) on 5 October 1915. The troops were sent to provide military assistance to the Serbs who had recently been attacked by combined German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian armies. The intervention came too late to save Serbia and after a brief winter campaign in severe weather conditions on the Serbian frontier, the Anglo-French forces found themselves back at Salonika.

At this point the British advised that the troops be withdrawn. However, the French - with Russian, Italian and Serbian backing - still believed something of strategic importance could be gained in the Balkans.

After preparing the port of Salonika for defence, the troops moved up country. During 1916, further Allied contingents of Serbian, Italian and Russian troops arrived and offensive operations began. These culminated in the fall of Monastir to Franco-Serb forces during November. A second offensive during the spring of 1917, the British part of which was the First Battle of Doiran (24-25 April and 8-9 May 1917), made little impression on the Bulgarian defences. The front-line remained more or less static until September 1918, when a third offensive was launched. During this the British attacked at Doiran for a second time (18-19 September 1918). With a breakthrough by Serbian forces west of the river Vardar the Bulgarian army was forced into a general retreat. The campaign concluded with the surrender of Bulgaria on 30 September 1918.

The British Salonika Force was commanded by Lieutenant General George Milne from May 1916, following General Sir Bryan Mahon's posting to Egypt. At its height - late 1916 to early 1917 - it comprised six infantry divisions, grouped into two corps:

• XII Corps: 22nd, 26th, 60th Divisions
• XVI Corps: 10th, 27th, 28th Divisions

This made it a mixture of Regular, New Army and Territorial formations, with battalions of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh origin. Yeomanry (in the 7th and 8th Mounted Brigades and as Divisional and Headquarters troops) and cyclists provided the BSF's mounted element. The only crucial weakness lay in artillery, especially howitzers. 

In support were Royal Engineers; British, Maltese and Macedonian Labour Battalions; ASC, Indian and Maltese muleteers; RAMC, Canadian and volunteer medical services. Air support was provided by Nos. 17 and 47 Squadrons RFC, and No 17 Kite Balloon Section. A third squadron, No. 150, was formed during 1918. RNAS aircraft based at Stavros and on the island of Thasos also assisted with operations.

Malaria proved to be a serious drain on manpower during the campaign. In total the British forces suffered 162,517 cases of the disease and in total 505,024 non-battle casualties. With the campaign being a low priority for the War Office the assistance rendered by voluntary medical organisations, such as the Scottish Women's Hospitals, proved invaluable.