Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918

2024 – A Year in Review

Christmas Message from Alan Wakefield, SCS Chair

On behalf of the Committee, I’d like to wish all SCS members and visitors to this site a very Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the festive period as we anticipate what 2025 will bring.

Image source: https://southwarkheritage.wordpress.com/category/guest-blogger/

The past year has certainly been eventful for the Society with changes on the Committee, the beginning of new projects and initiatives, another successful battlefield tour and the flurry of Remembrance events between late September and 11 November. I would like to thank all members for their continued support, which enables the SCS to effectively fulfil its mission of remembering, commemorating and researching those who served in the Salonika Campaign.

Given the changes in the composition of the Committee this year, I think it only right to begin with a few words about those amongst the membership who have voluntarily involved themeselves in running the Society over the past year. Andy Hutt, Keith Edmonds and Ray Brownson continue their respective work as Web Officer, Membership Secretary and Treasurer, with Keith also stepping in to edit issue No.49 of The New Mosquito to ensure another excellent edition of our journal saw the light of day. Andy continues to develop the Society’s website and I strongly encourage all members to log in and use the Members Area and in particular the White Tower Café discussion forum where members can post questions or information about any aspect of the Salonika Campaign and associated subjects. It is only through increased use that the forum and wider Members Area will prove a success. In terms of Ray’s work as Treasurer, much of his time has been taken up with, what has become, the rather frustrating task of moving the Society over to online banking. Having been involved in this saga myself, I will spare you the details, but suffice it to say a certain ‘new’ Highstreet bank won’t be getting any glowing reviews from the Society. By my time of my Chair’s Report in the April 2025 New Mosquito, I hope to be able to share news that we’ve achieved our objective!

In terms of changes to the Committee, John Taylor stood down as Secretary. I would like to thank John for his efforts and for getting involved in various aspects of Committee and wider Society life. Although stepping back from SCS administration, John is remaining active in SCS projects through his work as part of the team starting to list Salonika Campaign maps at The National Archives. John’s place as Secretary has been taken on by Chris Loader. Those of you who attended the recent AGM will have seen Chris stepping into the Secretary’s role ahead of time in John’s absence. Chris had originally thrown his hat into the ring following our call for an editor for The New Mosquito but was happy to take on the Secretary’s role when John confirmed he would step down. The reason Chris was able to step in as John’s replacement was down to our having two candidates for the role of editor, something unheard of before! Those of you who have read New Mosquito No.50 will be aware that our new Editor is James Bearman. I’m sure you will agree with me that James produced a great first edition of our journal and one that was in someways a landmark in bringing up the half century appearance of the publication. Hope you enjoyed the journal’s focus on the Salonika Reunion Association, our forebears.

In terms of the new projects and initiatives mentioned earlier, 2024 saw the inaugural award of the Philip Barnes Bursary to enable a postgrad student or postdoc researcher to visit the battlefields in Macedonia as part of the SCS’s annual battlefield tour. Our first bursary winner was Dr Jake Gasson, whose doctoral thesis examines the BSF’s struggle against boredom in Macedonia. Jake contributed four excellent ‘Stands’ to the tour covering Greek and Italian involvement in the campaign and Anglo-French relations and co-operation during the opening months of the campaign. Hopefully you have also read Jake’s piece on the SCS website covering the contested story of the French Zouaves involvement in the Second Battle of Doiran. As a final bursary contribution, we await Jake’s article in the April 2025 edition of The New Mosquito. It is fair to say Jake has set a very high bar for future bursary winners and has fully vindicated the concept of the bursary, which the Committee will discuss with the view of running it again in two or three years’ time.

Jake Gasson gives a presentation to members of the 2024 SCS Battlefield Tour

Dr Jake Gasson giving his ‘Stand’ on the Italian involvement in the Salonika Campaign.

Another much discussed project that got off the ground in 2024 was that to catalogue maps at The National Archives (TNA). As some members will be aware, TNA holds large numbers of maps relevant to the Salonika Campaign. At present, many of these sheets are not individually listed and sit under very basic references such as ‘Salonika – various maps’, with nothing to point those undertaking research to relevant folders or individual maps. In November, a team of four SCS members (John Taylor, Keith Bowen, Keith Roberts and I) undertook some initial scoping work with assistance from Dr Will Butler, TNA’s Head of Military Records. The goal is to produce some basic listings of content for TNA, whilst at the same time capturing more detailed data to share with SCS members. The initial work has indicated the scale of the task we have ahead, although the fact that sets of maps sit in a series of individually numbered files does allow the work to be broken down into relatively manageable chunks, where some quick wins can be made. With many of the maps having been photographed, it is possible to work on the project remotely, without having to visit TNA. However, seeing and handling the original material is a bonus of the project, at least in my view. So, if you like maps or simply want to help make an important set of Salonika Campaign documents more accessible, please contact me for more information about joining the project.

SCS members catalogue Salonika maps at the National Archives

SCS members cataloguing Salonika maps at the National Archives

Other successful projects in 2024 included SCS member Rob Elliott’s continued excellent work in identifying those receiving gallantry awards in the campaign. Our thanks to Rob who has now extended this work to also identify those mentioned in despatches during the campaign. 2024 also saw the results of a partnership with Great War Huts in a very successful and well-attended Salonika Study Day.

Colonel Nick Ilić MBE QGM – one of the presenters at the Salonika Study Day, 2024

Over in Greece the Society continued to cement its relationship with the village of Mavroplagia (formerly Karamudli), the village adopted by the SRA in 1951. Following last year’s visit to view the plaque presented to the village by the SRA in 1968, we returned to present the village with a SCS flag. This will be displayed in the village heritage centre alongside the plaque. A reception was organised for our arrival and the handover of the flag. A very friendly atmosphere prevailed with food, drink, speeches and singing. Thanks go to SCS member Apostolos Nalmpantis for acting as translator during the speeches. We look forward to returning to see our friends in Mavroplagia during the 2025 battlefield tour.

Remains of a loom, purchased for the village of Mavroplagia with funds from the Salonika Reunion Association in the 1950s.
The pieces of the loom are held by the Heritage Centre in Mavroplagia.

In terms of this year’s tour, my history workload was shared not only with Dr Jake Gasson, but also with First World War aviation historian Mike Kelsey. We covered much ground in visiting key locations associated with the air war over Macedonia, including the German airfield and officer accommodation at Drama, RFC/RAF airfield locations, the German bomber squadron base at Udova and the site of the kite balloon incident that led to the death of German air ace Lt Rudolf von Eschwege. We also brought the air component into discussions of ground operations at Doiran and in the Struma Valley. This was a great tour with a lot of new ground broken both in terms of locations visited and stories told. The group was a good mix of tour veterans and new travellers and, as always, good camaraderie reigned. Many thanks to Mike, Jake and members of the group who shared narratives on individual casualties commemorated in the well care for CWGC cemeteries scattered across the former BSF sector of the front.

Finally, the annual round of Remembrance activities began at the Five Nations Memorial, Polykastro, on Sunday 29 September. Here I was joined by British Defence Attache, Captain Sam Law (RN) in laying wreaths to commemorate the British war dead. The SCS tour group also laid wreaths at the Doiran Memorial and at the British section of the Lembet Road Military Cemetery. In the UK, the Society laid a wreath at The Cenotaph just prior to our annual meeting and on Monday 11 November, SCS members gathered with National Trust volunteers outside the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere to take part in what has become a very important act of Remembrance for the Society. Thanks go to our Patron, Ann Straker, for laying the majority of the wreaths on behalf of the Society, to Apostolos Nalmpantis for procuring the wreaths in Greece and for all members of the Society whose sponsorship of wreaths makes our commemorations possible. Thanks also go to Jonathan Saunders and Darren Rolfe for joining me in attending the opening of the Royal British Legion’s Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey on Thursday 7 November and to members who supported the Salonika plot at the Field through planting a remembrance cross and making a donation to the RBL Poppy Appeal.

SCS Members at the Sandham Service of Remembrance, 2024

SCS Members at the Sandham Service of Remembrance, 2024

SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield presenting the British Salonika Army plot to The Duchess of Gloucester at the opening of the RBL Field of Remembrance, 7 November 2024.

So, with the festive season now upon us, the Committee takes a short break before beginning to plan activities for 2025. It now simply remains for me to wish you all best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Let’s use 2025 to find opportunities to work and meet together to remember all those who served with the British Salonika Force and who remain at the heart of our fellowship.

Alan Wakefield
Chair, The Salonika Campaign Society

Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom

Yesterday, Dr Jake Gasson¹ presented ‘Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom’ online from the National Army Museum². If you missed the talk, or would like to listen again, you can catch it below or via this link. The talk begins at 15 minutes 24 seconds.

¹Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he is a postdoctoral researcher. He obtained a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, specialising in the Macedonian front of the First World War. He is also the first recipient of the Salonika Campaign Society’s Philip Barnes Bursary. Jake joined the Society’s 2024 battlefield visit to Greece, delivering two presentations to the tour party while there. We recently published his article on Searching for Scapegoats: The ‘unreliable Zouaves’ and the Second Battle of Doiran. Jake will also be writing a piece for the The New Mosquito in the future.

²The National Army Museum is a leading authority on the British Army and its impact on society past and present, and has hosted many free online events in the past. You can support its work here.

A Gold Medal Cyclist: the story of Sergeant Michael Henry Margiotta

Regular contributor to these pages, Robin Braysher, first wrote about Michael Margiotta on 6th October 2018 – the 100th anniversary of Michael’s death in Salonika. You can now read a much fuller account by Robin of Michael’s life and service and how he was honoured by the King of Serbia to become “A Gold Medal Cyclist” at the excellent site: Away from the Western Front.

Photograph of the grave of Serjeant Michael Margiotta, ACC, at Lembet Road CWGC Cemetery who died of dysentery on 6 October 1918. Photo by Robin Braysher, SCS Web Editor. — Sgt Michael Margiotta’s grave in Lembet Road Cemetery in Thessaloniki (Photo: Robin Braysher)

Map cataloguing work continues…

Hats off and three cheers to the valiant SCS members who have just completed their second visit to the National Archives with more maps checked, listed, and photographed. Great work!

Part of map showing sites of proposed amphibious landings along the Aegean coast and Bulgarian units available to oppose such operations.

Typical cover for a folder of Salonika maps under WO 153 series. The maps in this folder were too large to successfully photograph and work on these will have to be done onsite.

Part of map showing British artillery battery locations on part of the Birdcage defence line

Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom

Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he is a postdoctoral researcher. He obtained a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, specialising in the Macedonian front of the First World War. He is also the first recipient of the Salonika Campaign Society’s Philip Barnes Bursary. Jake joined the Society’s 2024 battlefield visit to Greece, delivering two presentations to the tour party while there. We recently published his article on Searching for Scapegoats: The ‘unreliable Zouaves’ and the Second Battle of Doiran. Jake will also be writing a piece for the The New Mosquito in the future.

Jake Gasson, battlefield presentation on SCS tour. Image source: @JakeGasson1918 on X

In the meantime, Jake is giving a talk on ‘The Battle Against Boredom’ on 13th December 2024, 12.00pm – 1.00pm where he “seeks to understand the endurance and morale of British soldiers serving in territory that today spans northern Greece and North Macedonia. While focusing on the psychological challenges presented by boredom, he will also explore the wider campaign and the nature of this often-forgotten front.”

The free-of-charge talk is available online, and in-person at the National Army Museum, but advance booking is required. For full details, please click here.

Image from NAM

Secrets of Salonika – online presentation

As part of the to the Great War Group‘s series on online talks, SCS Secretary, Chris Loader recently presented Secrets of Salonika – Insights from the battlefields of Greece & North Macedonia. That talk is now freely available at YouTube.

Chris also presents a podcast series, Salonika Secrets.

SCS volunteers catalogue campaign maps

Last week a team of volunteers from the Salonika Campaign Society began a project at The National Archives to catalogue sets of Salonika Campaign maps to allow individual sheets to be identified by researchers using TNA’s online database. More detailed information on the maps will be released on the SCS website as the project progresses.

During the first session some fascinating material came to light including hand sketched panoramas of sectors of the Birdcage Line, artillery barrage maps and water supply maps for the Struma Valley.

Many thanks to Dr Will Butler, Head of Military Records at TNA, for organising a work space and access to the maps for this first scoping session.

Searching for Scapegoats: The ‘unreliable Zouaves’ and the Second Battle of Doiran

by Jake Gasson*

As much as the malaria, harsh climate, and isolation of soldiering up-country, what came to define the Salonika Campaign in the eyes of British soldiers was the variety of Allied armies deployed to Macedonia. British, French, Italian, Serbian, Russian, and Greek troops (not to mention contingents from across the British and French colonial empires) all served alongside one another in the ranks of the French-led Armées Alliées en Orient (Allied Armies in the East). The sheer diversity of this multinational force made interallied friction an inevitability; from the generals and politicians responsible for directing the campaign down to the rank and file, who had to overcome differences in language, race, and culture to live and fight together – not to mention weather the effects of the high-level political disputes and battlefield defeats which marred the campaign.

The Salonika Army Christmas Card 1916 displaying soldiers of all Allied nations taking part in the campaign. From left to right standing: Montenegrin, British, Serbian, Italian, French Colonial Zouave, Indian, Greek. Kneeling: French Colonial Cochin Chinese, Russian, French, French Colonial. — The Salonika Army Christmas Card 1916 displaying soldiers of all Allied nations taking part in the campaign. From left to right standing: Montenegrin, British, Serbian, Italian, **French Colonial Zouave**, Indian, Greek. Kneeling: French Colonial Cochin Chinese, Russian, French, French Colonial. Image source IWM

When the British Salonika Force attacked either side of Lake Doiran on 18 and 19 September 1918, in what would become known as the Second Battle of Doiran, British troops did not go over the top alone. The Greek Serres and Cretan Divisions spearheaded the assaults of XII and XVI Corps. Both were formations of Venizelist volunteers raised by the Provisional Government of National Defence prior to Greece’s formal entry into the war the previous summer. Lieutenant General Sir Henry Fuller Maitland Wilson, the commander of XII Corps, was also assigned the French colonial troops of the 2^nd Bis Regiment of Zouaves. While part of the French Armée d’Afrique rather than the metropolitan French army, this designation reflected their institutional organisation rather than composition, with the ranks drawn from the white population of North Africa and supplemented by volunteers and drafts from France itself. After serving in some of the fiercest battles of 1914-15 on the Western Front, the 2^nd Bis Regiment had served at Salonika from the inception of the campaign, participating in the Serbian campaign in 1915, as well as the defensive and counteroffensive operations of 1916 around Florina and in the Cerna Bend.

General Bailloud, G.O.C. 156th French Division, helping Lieutenant General Sir Bryan Mahon fix a medal on a Zouave’s Coat. Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard is also present. Salonika, February 1916. Image source IWM

At Doiran, the Zouaves remained in Corps Reserve during the bloody repulse of the 22^nd and Serres Divisions on the first day of the battle. The heavy losses suffered by the assaulting formations of XII Corps left only the 77^th and 65^th Brigades available to renew the assault, despite the latter having been ravaged by the Spanish Flu. One battalion of the 65^th Brigade, the 9^th King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, was tasked with attacking Pip Ridge in conjunction with the Zouaves. In eventuality, the 9^th King’s Own attacked entirely unsupported. While moving up to their assembly point in Jackson Ravine, the main column of Zouaves came under harassing artillery fire in Doljeli Ravine, which inflicted 50 casualties, including the commander of one battalion, and led the Zouaves to scatter. Because the new battalion commander refused to advance until the shelling of Jackson Ravine had ceased, few reached their assembly point, and the 2^nd Bis Regiment played no part in the attack. Major General Sir John Duncan, commander of the 22^nd Division, attempted to halt the assault of the 9^th King’s Own but his orders failed to reach the battalion in time, who proceeded to attack through the British barrage and suffered 233 casualties.

Overall, the renewed assault on 19 September ended in another bloody failure. In all, the losses sustained by the British units of XII Corps totalled 349 officers and 5,891 other ranks. Although their efforts around Doiran tied down Bulgarian troops, enabling Allied forces elsewhere to land the knockout blow, British soldiers searched for scapegoats for their defeat. Some blamed the Greeks, but others serving in units under XII Corps severely criticised the Zouaves for failing to attack. In his report to XII Corps after the attack, Major-General Duncan noted that their failure to advance had left the left flank of the 77^th Brigade dangerously exposed. As a result, the 12^th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who had captured the position known as the Tongue, suffered from heavy machine gun fire as well as faced a Bulgarian counterattack from this direction.

Attributing blame to the Zouaves became an increasingly entrenched view in the interwar years. Cyril Falls, the British Official Historian, considered that their failure to reach their assembly positions had ‘made the task of the British troops impossible.’ In his anonymous memoir Fusilier Bluff: The Experiences of an unprofessional soldier in the Near East, 1918 to 1919, Colwyn Edward Vulliamy. labelled the Zouaves ‘unreliable’, a charge repeated when his account of the Second Battle of Doiran was republished by Sir John Alexander Hammerton in his series The Great War: ‘I Was There!’ under the title ‘I Saw the Futile Massacre at Doiran: A Plan that was Doomed to Failure’.

Almost fifty years after the Second Battle of Doiran, the culpability of the Zouaves resurfaced in the pages of The Mosquito. In 1968, Number 161 of the journal witnessed a fierce defence of the Zouaves sparked by a reprint in the previous edition of Vulliamy’s article from The Great War: ‘I Was There!’. A Colonel H.F. Heywood, who had served at XII Corps Headquarters during the battle, wrote furiously to the editor, enraged by “the slurs cast anonymously by ‘Unprofessional Soldier’ on a regiment of Zouaves”, as well as his criticisms of British officers and Milne specifically. He considered the charge of unreliability groundless given their heavy losses, having suffered severely from Bulgarian artillery fire:

“The floor of the ravine was so thickly carpeted with their corpses that two regiments which late had to cross the ravine reported that they had to walk on the bodies in order to get across.“

Heywood also invoked the example of one Zouave whose body he had come across after visiting the Devil’s Eye atop the Grand Couronné:

“His throat was slit from ear to ear. Had he refused to ‘talk’? Does ‘Unprofessional Soldier’ think him unreliable?”

Colonel H.F. Heywood’s letter rebutting the claim of ‘unreliable Zouaves’ – *The Mosquito*, Number 161, 1968

Ultimately, the British and their allies had emerged victorious in Macedonia. But such an exchange in The Mosquito reveals the persistent and deep-seated tensions evident in the conduct of coalition warfare. That alliances during the First World War extended far beyond the remit of political and military leaders is often undeservedly overlooked. On the ground, officers and soldiers had to grapple with the formidable task of turning strategic and operational decisions into battlefield success, the aftershocks of which persisted long after the guns had fallen silent.

*Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he is a postdoctoral researcher. He obtained a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, specialising in the Macedonian front of the First World War. Jake is the first recipient of the Salonika Campaign Society’s Philip Barnes Bursary.

Service of Remembrance at Sandham Memorial Chapel

Yesterday saw a joint National Trust, Salonika Campaign Society service of Remembrance at Sandham Memorial Chapel. Our thanks go to the National Trust team at Sandham for organising the event, the Rev Mark Christian for officiating and to those members of the Society attending the service.

RBL Field of Remembrance 2024

Thursday 7 November saw the opening of the Royal British Legion’s 96^th Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey. The British Salonika Army (1915-1918) plot was in its usual position, opposite St Margaret’s Church, alongside the plot for The Old Contemptibles and not far from where a senior member of the Royal Family marks the opening of the Field by planting a cross. The Salonika plot is sponsored by the Society, which maintains the tradition established by veterans of the Salonika Reunion Association and carried forward in the interim by Philip Barnes, a former Patron of the SCS.

The British Salonika Army (1915-1918) plot

This year, the Field was opened by The Duchess of Gloucester, as the Queen was unavailable due to illness. The SCS was represented by Chair, Alan Wakefield, with members Darren Rolfe and Jonathan Saunders also attending. The Duchess of Gloucester took time to speak to the representative of each plot, with Alan Wakefield outlining the work of the SCS in keeping alive the memory of all those who served with the British Salonika Force in Macedonia during the First World War.

SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, talks ‘Salonika’ to The Duchess of Gloucester

Thanks go to those members who either laid crosses of remembrance or forwarded details of commemorations to the Chair so these could be planted in the Salonika plot. We hope as many members as possible will avail themselves of the opportunity to visit the Field of Remembrance, which remains open until the evening of Sunday 17 November. The Field is always an impressive sight and an important part of Britain’s national act of Remembrance. That the SCS plays a role in this is a privilege and a mark that the Society continues with one of its founding principles, namely the remembering of all those who served with the BSF in Macedonia during the First World War, and particularly those who still lie in the soil of the Balkans.