World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British
Once more we didn’t know for certain where we were bound for, but
the betting was about five to four on Greece. How these things leak
out is always a puzzle, but leak out they do. Sure enough we made
another little sea voyage and in about three days steamed up the
Ægean, passing many boats loaded with odd looking soldiers in khaki
who turned out to be Greek, and at last anchored outside Salonica in
a mass of shipping, French and English troopships, destroyers and
torpedo boats and an American battleship with Eiffel-tower masts.
From the sea Salonica was a flashing jewel in a perfect setting.
Minarets and mosques, white and red, sprouted everywhere from the
white, brown and green buildings. Trees and gardens nestled within
the crumbling old city wall. Behind it ran a line of jagged peaks,
merging with the clouds, and here and there ran a little winding
ribbon of road, climbing up and up only to lose itself suddenly by
falling over a precipice.
Here again the M.L.O. had not quite the Public School and Varsity
manner and we suffered accordingly. However, they are a necessary
evil presumably, these quayside warriors. The proof undoubtedly lies
in the number of D.S.O.’s they muster,----but I don’t remember to
have seen any of them with wound stripes. Curious, that.
We marched through mean streets, that smelled worse than Egypt, and a
dirty populace, poverty-stricken and covered with sores; the soldiers
in khaki that looked like brown paper and leather equipments that
were a good imitation of cardboard. Most of the officers wore spurs
like the Three Musketeers and their little tin swords looked as if
they had come out of toy shops. None of them were shaved. If first
impressions count for anything then God help the Greeks.
Our camp was a large open field some miles to the north-west of the
town on the lower slopes of a jagged peak. The tinkle of cow bells
made soft music everywhere. Of accommodation there was none of any
sort, no tents, nothing but what we could improvise. The Colonel
slept under the lee of the cook’s cart. The Adjutant and the doctor
shared the Maltese cart and the Vet. and I crept under the forage
tarpaulin, from which we were awakened in the dark by an unrestrained
cursing and the noise of a violent rainfall.
Needless to say everybody was soaked, fires wouldn’t light, breakfast
didn’t come, tempers as well as appetites became extremely sharp and
things were most unpleasant,--the more so since it went on raining
for three weeks almost without stopping. Although we hadn’t seen rain
for half a year it didn’t take us five minutes to wish we were back
in Egypt. Fortunately we drew bell tents within forty-eight hours and
life became more bearable. But once more we had to go through a sort
of camp drill by numbers,--odd numbers too, for the order came round
that tents would be moved first, then vehicles, and lastly the horses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account