No, I’m not straying off topic with a post about drug smuggling, this is genuinely about four-legged equines. Mules are a rare sight in the UK so I guess, for most of us, they are something from the past – maybe an animal that frustrated or amused our grandfathers (or great-grandfathers etc.) over one hundred years ago in Macedonia. However, because of their versatility they are still very much in use around the world, particularly in hilly or mountainous country.
Continue reading “Colombian Mules”Blog
Mind the mozzies!
With family members heading off to tropical climes, I was quick to share my ‘specialist knowledge’ of anti-mosquito precautions – based entirely on reading about the BSF – and shared this splendid photo with the travellers:
Lance Corporal Harrison, 12th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, wearing protective anti-mosquito clothing as issued to troops on night duty during the summer months. Photograph taken at Bowls Barrow, 2 June 1918. © IWM HU 82035
I’m not sure how impressed they were, but I thought it gave an excellent impression of the precautions to take. So I was especially pleased to see anti-mosquito face veils at a reasonable price in a well-known hiking and outdoors shop and promptly bought one for each member of the party. I have seen them in use, although this was in the UK and – I suspect – more to humour me than a serious indication of an intention to wear them in foreign parts.
Just think how chuffed members of the BSF would have been to have these – they even look great with a slouch hat …
(of course, in proper use the veil should be tucked in at the neck!)
Well, they are on their travels and I don’t like to ask if they’ve used them yet, but I will be looking out for traces of mosquito bites on their faces when they return!
If you are travelling this summer, I hope you manage to avoid mosquitoes and midges. If not, maybe you should invest in one of these veils as a practical tribute to the BSF!
The Illustrated War News
That infallible organ of facts and certainty, Wikipedia, has this to say about the ‘Illustrated War News’, At the outbreak of the war, the magazine ‘The Illustrated London News’ began to publish illustrated reports related entirely to the war and entitled it ‘The Illustrated War News’. The magazine comprised 48 pages of articles, photographs, diagrams and maps printed in landscape format. From 1916 it was issued as a 40-page publication in portrait format. It was reputed to have the largest number of artist-correspondents reporting on the progress of the war. It ceased publication in 1918. Source
There are digitised copies of ‘The Illustrated War News’ on our SCS Digital Collection DVDs. I thought it might make an interesting occasional series to draw on the magazine and take a look at how the Salonika Campaign was reported. This report from December 27, 1916, for example, shows the Royal Engineers at work, “Among the mountains on the Balkan Front…”
The text reads: Among the mountains on the Balkan Front all military bridging for anything beyond temporary makeshift work has to be done solidly. The mountain streams are liable to freshets, a sudden rising of the water, owing to heavy rainfall or sudden thaws at the higher altitudes. The flood-water then sweeps down along the river channel in spate, as a foaming and deep torrent which carries away everything that has not been stoutly and firmly fixed. A military bridge built to withstand such conditions by some of our British Royal Engineers with the Salonika Army is shown completed in the upper illustration. At the time, the river seen was flowing in its ordinary state. In the lower, driving home one of the upright supports of the roadway is seen.
The Illustrated War News December 27, 1916.
Remembered at the Tower
The tower most associated with the Salonika campaign is Thessaloniki’s iconic White Tower but, on a recent trip to London, I discovered connections with the campaign at another iconic landmark – The Tower of London. During a visit we took a look in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula which, not surprisingly, remembers significant figures at the Tower over the centuries.
Continue reading “Remembered at the Tower”Happy International Logistics Day!
Continue reading “Happy International Logistics Day!”National Logistics Day is celebrated on June 28 every year to honor the work of the hardworking professionals in the logistics sector.
More on shorts!
The nice thing about doing these web posts is that sometimes people reply to them and so it has been with last week’s post on the shorts worn by the BSF.
Continue reading “More on shorts!”Bombay Bloomers
If you have read the latest issue of The New Mosquito (47, April 2023), you may recall that in the section on shorts on page 24 I commented that I had yet to see any images of the later pattern of shorts which had flaps to be folded down in the evening to prevent mosquitoes getting to the legs. It turns out that such an image was right in front of me – the Christmas card image on the opposite page showing a combined Yeomanry and cyclist patrol!
Continue reading “Bombay Bloomers”General Milne’s first few months…
On this day, May 9th 1916, Lieutenant General George Francis Milne succeeded Lieut-General Bryan Mahon to become overall Commander-in-Chief of British Troops in Macedonia. Five months later, in October 1916, Milne submitted a report (published in The London Gazette of December 6th) summarising “the operations carried out by the British Salonika Army since I assumed command.”
To begin with, Milne states, “…in order to keep the army concentrated, I entered into an agreement with General Sarrail [French general and overall commander of the Allied forces in Salonika] by which the British forces should become responsible for that portion of the allied front which covered Salonika from the east and north-east. By this arrangement a definite and independent area was allotted to the army under my command.”
It’s interesting to read primary sources such as this against a wider background of historical perspective and analysis. In, ‘Under the Devil’s Eye’ Alan Wakefield and Simon Moody provide the context for Milne’s comments, “The new British commander was soon tested by the Frenchman’s brinkmanship when Sarrail stated that he had orders from Paris to launch an offensive and was prepared to do so with or without British assistance. Milne realised that, with his forward troops in close contact with the French, the BSF would either be dragged into an attack, which was beyond his operational remit, or, by holding back, risk accusations of failing to support an ally. He skilfully sidestepped the issue by asking for a separate British zone of operation… Sarrail agreed to the proposal and at a stroke Milne had disengaged his troops from the French.”
That analysis gives another layer of understanding to Milne’s report of how, “…in accordance with the policy laid down in my instructions, and in order to release French troops for employment elsewhere, I began to take over the line south and west of Lake Doiran…” and explains how actions in the area made it possible, “to shorten considerably the allied line between Doiran Lake and the River Vardar and on 29th August, in agreement with General Sarrail, I extended my front as far as the left bank of the river so as to set free more troops for his offensive operations.”
Politics aside, the rest of Milne’s report is a readable account of the first few months of his command in which he gives credit to the sections of his command and the men – and women – involved in the British side of the campaign.
You can download and read Milne’s entire report here. ‘Under the Devil’s Eye’ is available here.
Featured image, General Sarrail, commander of Allied forces in Macedonia (16 January 1916 – 22 December 1917), with General Sir George Milne, commander of the British Salonika Force from 9 May 1916. Source, IWM
Spring Webinars from the WFA
Readers may well be interested in the following webinars* from the Western Front Association. To join, please register using the links below. Start time for all webinars is 8pm (UK time).
1. Monday 15 May – Delayed in the Desert: The Gaza Stalemate and Beersheba Breakthrough
In this presentation, Robert Fleming will talk about how in 1917, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George ordered the Egyptian Expeditionary Force to capture Jerusalem by Christmas. This was – arguably – a diversion from the main focus of the war on the western front. He believed this would be a good ‘Christmas Present’ for the British people. However, the route to Jerusalem was across the Sinai desert and blocked by the Ottoman defences at Gaza and Beersheba. The eventual Allied victory at the Battle of Beersheba was a grave setback for the Ottoman Empire and led to the eventual defeat of the Central Powers in what was then Palestine.
To register for this webinar, click this link: Delayed in the Desert
2. Monday 22 May – Allenby’s Checkmate: Jerusalem to Victory in the Middle East, 1918
Robert Fleming will follow up from the previous week’s talk by picking up the story after the capture of Beersheba, and exploring how Allenby skilfully mustered and mastered his resources to defeat the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Megiddo and end the war in the Middle East.
To register for this webinar, click this link: Allenby’s Checkmate
3. Monday 5 June – The Road to 11 November: War and Politics in 1918
This presentation by Prof David Stevenson will reappraise the final stages of the First World War in Western Europe, analysing the factors that led Germany to seek an armistice and led the Allies and the United States to grant one. Particular attention will be given to the turn of the tide and to the sources of Allied superiority on the Western Front; and to the interaction of political and military considerations in shaping decision-making during the ceasefire negotiations of October-November 1918.
To register for this webinar, click this link: The Road to 11 November
*Webinars are also subsequently published on the WFA’s YouTube Channel.
It’s St George’s Day!
Having celebrated the Welsh battalions of the BSF on St David’s Day and the Irish ones on St Patrick’s Day, how should I mark St George’s Day? I feel writers’ cramp coming on just thinking about typing out the names of the 52 or so English battalions of the BSF (see NM 11, April 2005) so, instead, will go for an easier option. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was formed on 23 April 1968, celebrates St George’s Day and, indeed, has an image of St George slaying the dragon on its cap badge. It was created by amalgamating four English fusilier regiments: Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and Lancashire Fusiliers. Three of these regiments provided battalions for the BSF.
Continue reading “It’s St George’s Day!”
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 