World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Balkan Peninsula
With the other Allies too Sarrail’s relations were anything but
cordial. He was in constant disagreement with the British, whose
commander had succeeded in getting himself invested with the rank of
Commander-in-Chief so as to reduce his dependence on Sarrail to a
minimum. Even with the Serbs he was not on good terms. They complained
that French help had come too late to save their country from disaster,
and that the French never forgot to remind them of their debt to
France. They did not wish to take orders in matters of tactics
from the C.A.A., both because their army was commanded by the Crown
Prince who refused to accept a subordinate position, and because they
considered that they knew a good deal more about Balkan warfare than
Sarrail, and in this they were not altogether wrong. They were moreover
irritated by the fact that the French communiqués never gave sufficient
prominence to the actions of the Serbian troops, so that their G.H.Q.
ended by issuing communiqués of its own. Even with the Greeks, to whom,
after the Venizelist revolution, he always spoke “honeyed words” in
public, he was on the worst of terms, as appears from his memoirs and
articles published since the war. The street in Salonica which had been
gratefully baptized “Odos Sarrail” has recently had its name altered.
It can be fairly stated that General Sarrail stands condemned by his
own memoirs more severely than by any outside criticism. The volume
is very interesting and well written, but, as a distinguished Italian
officer stated, “on a background of undeniable truths, he has woven
a tissue of venemous untruths, with which he has sought in vain to
justify his action in the Orient.” His political intrigues, his conduct
towards the Allies, the manner in which he treated many gallant French
officers, such as General Cordonnier--to mention one case alone--all
this appears in the clearest light in his _Apologia pro vita sua_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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