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A branch and flowers on the grounds of the South African Memorial and Museum in Longueval, France, May 2, 2013. © 2013 by John M. Shea
German pencil sketch of Lake Doiran, on the Greco-Serbian border, site of a battle in which the Bulgarians defeated the French, English, and Serbians in December, 1915, and of the Battle of Doiran in September 1918. Tents can be made out in the foreground. It looks to be dated March 30, 1916 (30 III 1916).
Map of the the Balkan Front — Germany's Southeast Front — with the mountain passes between Austria-Hungary and Romania. From the Reichsarchiv history of the wars in Serbia and Romania, Herbstschlacht in Macedonien; Cernabogen 1916.The capitals of Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Constantinople (Turkey) are prominent, as is Salonica, Greece, the Allied entry port into the country.
French General Maurice Sarrail decorating officers near the frame of German Zeppelin shot down on May 5, 1916 by naval gunners in view of the citizens of Salonica, Greece. General Sarrail commanded the Allied troops at the front that included French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian troops, as well as a battalion of Montenegrin soldiers. The Zeppelin's frame is in the background, and civilians are among the observers of the ceremony.
England's Distress: Postcard map of England and Ireland with the restricted zone Germany proclaimed around the islands, showing the ships destroyed by submarine in the 12 months beginning February 1, 1917.
"The first evening [May 7, 1917] was stormy; heavy rain clattered down on the already flooded terrain. Soon, though, a succession of fine warm days reconciled us to our new place. I enjoyed the splendid landscape, untroubled by the white balls of shrapnel and the jumping cones of shells; in fact, barely noticing them. Each spring marked the beginning of a new year's fighting; intimations of a big offensive were as much a part of the season as primroses and pussy-willows." ((1), more)
"At dusk on May 8 [1917] the British artillery thundered out once again over Doiran Town. The Bulgarian batteries replied, and all the southern end of the lake was lit by a cascade of fire and flame . . . At ten minutes to ten, two companies of the Scottish Rifles moved forward on the right flank across the Patty Ravine, but soon they were enveloped by the fog and for four hours even the battalion commander had no news of them. As other companies crept toward the Bulgarian trenches, seeking for a gap where the wire had been cut, from each of the brigade headquarters senior officers peered out, trying to discover what was happening in the smoke." ((2), more)
"Meanwhile, sixty miles west of Doiran, the weather had improved sufficiently for Grossetti to launch Sarrail's long-heralded spring offensive. At dawn on Wednesday, May 9 [1917], just eight and a half hours after the resumed British attack, the French 16th Colonial Division moved forward in the center of the Crna loop, supported by the Russian Second Brigade on the right and the Italian 35th Division to the left. At the same time, farther east, in the Moglena Mountains the Serb Second Army, under General Stepanović, assaulted hill positions south of the Dobropolje mountain, a limestone wall only half as high as the Kajmakcalan but far steeper." ((3), more)
"On Thursday morning [May 10, 1917] there was a disastrous breakdown in the Allied system of command. Sarrail had ordered a resumption of the attack at eight in the morning. And, at that hour, an Italian regiment and three companies of French infantry valiantly rushed forward and seized the German trenches. But nobody supported them. At 7:30 the attack had been canceled because not all the French units were in position. French headquarters failed to inform the Italians and were apparently unable to reach one of their own colonial battalions, as the enemy bombardment had shot away the telephone wires. It was a ghastly shambles and an error for which the Italians, already fretting about Sarrail's exercise of authority, never forgave the French command." ((4), more)
"For three years before America's entrance into the War, the German submarines had hemmed in the British Isles, destroying British shipping at a rate which threatened its complete extinction. Though boasting a Navy equal in tonnage to any other two navies in the world, the British, nevertheless, were unable to cope successfully with the German submarine peril.It is an open secret that certain statesmen of Great Britain were on the verge of despair and meditating peace overtures to Germany in that crucial month of May, 1917, when Admiral Sims' Torpedo Fleet came to the rescue and saved the Empire of Great Britain from certain disaster.'Our backs are to the wall,' the leaders of the British Admiralty informed Admiral Sims; 'our losses are twice as great as we have dared to publish to the world. We cannot hold out three months longer.'" ((5), more)
(1) German Lieutenant Ernst Jünger moved through Joncourt, France to the front on May 6, 1917, midway between the front lines of the battles of the Nivelle Offensive — the Battle of Arras and the Second Battle of the Aisne, both then grinding down. Jünger continues: 'Our sector was a semi-circular bulge in front of the St-Quentin Canal, at our rear we had the famous Siegfried Line. I confess I am at a loss to understand why we had to take our place in these tight, undeveloped limestone trenches, when we had that enormously strong bulwark just behind us.'
Storm of Steel by Ernst Jünger, page 141, copyright © 1920, 1961, Translation © Michael Hoffman, 2003, publisher: Penguin Books, publication date: 2003
(2) Along the Salonica Front extending across northern Greece and into Serbia, an Allied French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian army under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. The British attack at Lake Doiran on the eastern end of the Allied line was the opening of Sarrail's 1917 spring offensive, which would continue with the other nationalities attacking the next day.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, pp. 124–125, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(3) Along the Salonica Front extending across northern Greece and into Serbia, an Allied French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian army under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. On May 8, 1917, British troops attacked at Lake Doiran on the eastern end of the Allied line in the first action of Sarrail's 1917 spring offensive. The other national forces attacked on the 9th. A Russian brigade advanced, but was then cut off and nearly wiped out. Neither the French nor Italians made significant progress.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 126, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(4) French General Maurice Sarrail commanded an Allied Army that included French, British, Serbian, Russian, and Italian units on the Salonica Front extending across northern Greece and into Serbia. They faced a Bulgarian army supported by German troops. On May 8, British troops attacked on the eastern end of the Allied line in the first action of Sarrail's 1917 spring offensive. The other national forces attacked on the ninth, but made little progress. Sarrail tried again on the 11th with no success.
The Gardeners of Salonika by Alan Palmer, page 128, copyright © 1965 by A. W. Palmer, publisher: Simon and Schuster, publication date: 1965
(5) When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, it expanded the war zone it had declared around the United Kingdom two years earlier to cover the Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines of all Allied nations. The first American destroyers reached Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland on May 4, a division of six ships under the command of Joseph Taussig that had left Boston on April 24. Destroyers were crucial for anti-submarine warfare and convoying transports and other ships.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 295, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
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