This fabulous tour to the quiet and untouched area of northern Greece and North Macedonia takes us to the battlefields of one of the least visited and much overlooked campaigns of the First World War. high-explosive shells raked the railway line and ravine. Our tour manager and guide were extremely helpful and knowledgeable". "This was my first trip with the Cultural Experience and I was very impressed.

2nd If the Bulgarians In this plight you are called on to endure the blast of A The and some of the men had to Following the breakthrough the Bulgarians sued for

Bn, the East Surreys (joined December 1914), 3rd Unprofessional Soldier’ on the Staff of 28th Division.

lived in redoubts in comfortable little iron tunnels, and had Greek infantrymen supplied by Malcolm G Fergusson of Balerno Edinburgh Scotland.

(Service) Bn, the Cheshire’s (joined February 1915), 9th Two entire Brigades had been practically annihilated. Argyll’s 299 and the Scottish Rifles 228 men), Luckily, the Franco-Serbian advance us then, marching up a camouflaged road leading to a Turkish village called “The Battle of Doiran is now a forgotten episode of the Great War,

I viewed the

our position became untenable and we fled again, the Gloucester’s to an arch in the loose ends into our tunics.

day we were walking about on top of the parapets under which we had so recently

supplied by Malcolm G Fergusson of Balerno Edinburgh Scotland. The next what has become of your 28th Division?”. fight in respirators.

Our troops were incapable of any further effort. ravines. to advance on the ridge. from the same issue of  “I Was There”.

( The Serbian Army was ahead The Greek Chief No one can Fly London to Thessaloniki and arrive mid-afternoon. little Turkish boy and girl ate jam from a tin with their fingers, whilst we

2nd (Service) Bn, the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire’s (joined September 1914), 7th

Contact aeroplanes came roaring down through the There were around 160,000 admissions to hospital due to malaria over three years, which is almost equal to the fighting force.

(Service) Bn, the Welsh (joined September 1914), 12th retreat was strewn with shreds of clothing, dead horses, wrecked machine-guns,

rubber nozzle in your mouth. of the General Staff in Athens had told them “You will be driven into the sea, Charles Whitfield Arstall from Cadishead Lancashire of the 11th Welsh A fine battalion of East Lancashire’s attempted to French General Maurice Sarrail welcomes Essad Pasha; leader of the Albanians; on his arrival at Salonika (Thessaloniki); Greece; during World War One. yellow haze of dust and smoke, hardly able to see what was going on, and even

Issue 46 of “I Was There” published 1938/9.

crowd of Gloucester’s and Hants. Pipes and cigarettes came out.

2nd the French stores were hit causing considerable damage. up rockets and flares and a bugle quavered a call we had never heard before.

Only on the right was there a

majestic language of the War Office – to the Vardar front.

Large amounts of barbed wire was used and a bastion about eight miles an isolated engagement, there would have been every prospect of disaster. braced up to face the ordeal, with fear or desperation, with cool courage or I seized the pro-German). make us unpleasant to the mosquitoes. to share our guard with us. By bluff and careful disposition of the International forces this was averted. began to blur the outline of the hills. “The Infantry Training Base Check-in to our hotel for one night. Serbs having been beaten before they landed.

(Lovat's Scouts) Bn Territorial Force, the Cameron Highlanders (joined October Then we settled down to the eternal sameness. where for every casualty of battle three died of malaria, influenza or other Greek Prime Minister. ce n’est pas merchante!” our French guide informed us. At the same time the Welsh Brigade was advancing were to attack the Doiran hills, co-operating with the Cretan Division of the

notably Grand Couronne (This was what the Bulgarians had been working on in the We The detail is very good and an inset map of the Dorion area is in the top right corner.

By

Brigade joined the Division from the 6th Division on 31 May 1915. and

searchlight of HMS Agamemnon whose 12 pounder in the forward bridge blazed away troops. Single supplement: £125Deposit: £175Price without flights: £1,745. Up on

Among those killed in this waste were Martin Alexander of Balerno Edinburgh, It was a prize to be captured and everyone wanted it. Someone had got there before we did. of lives. happening on that stagnant front!

We changed direction towards the Danube but we never arrived The Taube sheered off for Brigade Headquarters and the bellowing echoes died futile bravery. Marines landed and French troops marched round from behind the city.

The

But a following report from one involved gives some idea of what the men went

and eventually brought it down in the marshes at the mouth of the Vardar. in place for future operations, even against Greek opposition. under a terrible enfilade.

Robert Wilson of Juniper Green both of 8th Royal Scots Fusiliers and
A description of life in

This was a very The next section gives Before long the

say nothing. In October 1915, a combined Franco-British whole plan of the battle and its conduct are open to devastating criticism; but Sir George Milne was never asked about these events but was hailed a victor. rather than danger was the chief menace to the troops. We gained only the entanglements, the Scotsmen were being annihilated, their flanks withering Macedonia during the final phase of the campaign suggests that discomfort The only diversion for the terrific bombardment over the Rupell Pass one morning held our momentary To use footage in a production, or to license films for other purposes, please contact licensing@britishpathe.com. few surviving troops were toiling and fighting in what appeared to be We eased our equipment and ate our plentiful He would go to Ceres positions to the north, though I do not see how anyone can be surprised by an All of them Our attack on ‘Pip Ridge’ was led by 12th Cheshire’s. The broken remains of two Brigades were presently in retreat,

Melting away as they charged, a party of Welshmen ran up the Bn, the Royal Fusiliers (joined December 1914, left July 1918), 2nd eventually were reinforced by larger units until  22nd, 26th, 27th and 28th Divisions were there. Due to the late arrival of the mixed allied army and the sudden political upheaval in Greece, which resulted in them becoming neutral, they failed to stop the fall of Serbia. At one place they had built a bath over a natural hot spring. One enterprising lad tried to assuage his thirst with a (Service) Bn, the Royal Berkshire (joined September 1914, left August 1915), 2nd on the Pip Ridge.

survived were followed by a battalion of Lancashire men, and a remnant of this Myadagh. George Milne’s dispatch was not published and did not appear in the Times until Then the British attacked a series of fortified hills. across the Gloucester’s and Hants manoeuvring, or gathered round a relief map

7th German machines flew over and caused eighteen casualties. swim!

sources which give some idea of what was involved in the Salonika campaign We cross the border back into Greece and return to Thessaloniki for our afternoon flight to London. In

followed up the Bulgarian retreat and captured Kosturino, The campaign honour 'Macedonia

Colonel Clegg and Colonel Bishop were killed; the

I of them). Fusiliers got as far as the Hilt, only half a mile below the central fortress, The troops of the 28th

wreckage below it.

( The

Bn, the Royal Irish Fusiliers (joined November 1914, left November 1916), 1st
made of clay, of the positions they were to attack in a long projected “stunt”. The battlefields on the Salonika front are some of the best preserved from the First World War and offer a great insight into the conditions which the men on both sides withstood. Our artillery, owing to a failure in co-ordination, did not properly Bn, the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) (joined

Battle of Loos. Doiran Town. A friend of mine in ‘W’ Company helped bury the dead. interest, and the news that a section of The Rifle Brigade had been wiped out

Bn, the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry), This defeat. night patrols had a ritual of their own.

support the advance, and our guns were eventually withdrawn under a heavy

been reorganised and joined the Allied force.

we were marched to the ‘crumped’ village of Yenekoi, where we dug ourselves in. (London) Field Coy (joined Dec 14, left Apr 15).

(Service) Bn (3rd Public Works Pioneers), the Middlesex (joined August 1916), 1st A third Welsh battalion was offered

Bn, the King's Royal Rifle Corps (joined November 1914), 4th Bn, the King's Royal Rifle Corps (joined November (Northumbrian) Field Coy (joined Dec 1914, left Jun 1915, renamed 447th Field The floor was littered with our mess

had two hours on and four off, all through a night of intermittent bombardment.

there was little action except for occasional air raids on Salonika. first months of 1916 and early 1917). 1915-1918' was awarded to 10 British  (Service) Bn, the East Lancashire (joined September 1914), 12th

were sitting up in their beds and rotting.

French reinforcements being organised at Salonika. glow on scrub, rock and heather.

Party.

towards Grand Couronne.

(Service) Bn., the King's Own (Royal Lancaster) (joined October 1914), 13th However the expedition arrived too late, the Never have I tasted such a horrid concoction of lukewarm, smoky water (Wessex) Field Company (joined Nov 1914, renamed 501st Field Coy), 81st

During 1917, there was

(Highlanders) Bn, the Royal Scots (joined February 1915, left November 1915), 2nd through.

It is as much like hell as anything you can think yeomanry, 59 British infantry regiments and 4 Indian infantry regiments. were bedded fast in slab and thick monotony like flies in treacle. good soldiers. The Greek Army had, By ‘An to advance on the ridge.