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My maternal Grandfather served with the Army Service Corps as part of the British Salonika Army from 1916/18. Like many other soldiers who served on this forgotten front he contracted Malaria (as did 162,517 others) and was evacuated home with 34,762 others. His health broken he died in 1934 when my mother was 4 years old.
The Allied Armies of the East,of which the British Salonika Army were part together with French,Italian,Serb and Greek forces, were derided by Clemanceau as the 'Gardeners of Salonika' as all they seemed to do was dig. Yet it was the offensive in Macedonia in September 1918 that caused Hindenburg to tell the Kaiser that the war was lost because of the collapse of the Macedonian Front.Like a pack of dominoes, Bulgaria then Austria fell and the whole Central Axis began to crumble.
The war began in the Balkans and in my opinion also ended there thanks to the supreme,daring and brave efforts of the men and women who gave up all to go and serve in this harsh and beautiful place.Today we remember,Ypres,Passchendaele,The Somme but not Doiran, Monastir,Struma,the Grand Couronne and the Devil's Eye.
My Grandfather was one of a forgotten army on a now forgotten front.