73rd AA Sect

[Philwalker72]

My Great grandfather served with the Royal Garrison Artillery from 1916 to his death in 1919. He was posted to 73rd Anti Aircraft Section in Salonika. I have found his service record on Ancestry, but can find little infromation on the Salonika campaign or his regiment. Can anyone help me with which battles he would have fought in, and how the AAS regiments were involved in the war.

His service number was 165798 Gunner Leonard Kirk. I know he was called up in December 1915, but his basic training was delayed 9 months as he was a bricklayer working on an Ammunitions factory in Leeds. He enlisted into the RFA and was transferred to the RGA. His number is very difficult to read, but was 197???. This is written above his RFA number on one sheet of his records. He was eventually posted to 73rd AAS on 11th March 1917 in Salonika. He was there until November 1918, when he was transferred to RFA. I know he was travelling back to the UK on a cattle train, when he was taken ill with bronchial pneumonia at Faenza in Italy on 28th April. He died in hospital there on the 4th May 1919. He is buried in the communal cemetery in Faenza with 53 other Commonwealth soldiers. I visited his grave in the late 80s.

I'd like to learn more about the Salonika campaign and the 73rd AAS.

Thanks,

Phil

[Rockdoc]

I can help quite a bit with this one as the AA Sections in Salonika are my baby. As you'll see from my signature, my Grandfather was with 99th AAS and I'm working on an analysis of all the War Diaries.

73rd and 74th Anti Aircraft Sections arrived at Salonika about August 1916 to join the 24th and 32nd Section which had arrived at the start of the year. They received training from Capt Orrell, O/C 32nd, and both Sections became active on 1st October - 73rd near the tumuli on the ridge NE of Dudular (about 5 miles west of Salonika) and 74th went to the area of Orljak on the Struma Valley. When they arrived, both Sections had two, 13-pdr 6-cwt AA guns but 73rd was given a third and one of the later 13-pdr 9-cwt guns. It was the only Section at Salonika to have more than two.Given the time of his arrival (though it doesn't match the War Diary) he may well have been one of the men sent to 73rd to man the third 6-cwt gun, which they took into service on 5th March BUT the Diary says that one officer and 15 men arrived to man the gun on the same day. He would have seen quite a bit action during March as it was during the time that the German bomber squadron Kampfgeschwader 1 was operating in the area, sending 10+ groups to attack the camps and dumps.

The 197*** service number is from when men who'd transferred into the RGA from the RFA and RHA were renumbered. The transfer back to the RFA is not unusual. The intention was make the best use of experienced men - there was no longer any need for the AA Sections - and many of the men were transferred to field Batteries. My Grandfather was transferred but was demobbed not long afterwards.

I can strongly recommend two books: The Gardeners of Salonika has been recently reprinted and gives a very broad history of the Salonika Front. Under The Devil's Eye is being revised with the hope of it being republished next year. That doesn't say an awful lot about AA gunnery but does give a lot of information about the British involvement.

The Salonika Campaign Society is a small but enthusiastic group and is well worth joining.

Keith

[Rockdoc]

Further to my earlier post, on 27th November 1918, 73rd's War Diary records "43 OR's who had previously served in Field Artillery Brigades posted from this Unit to RA Base Depot." All of the Sections record similar postings. They had also posted anyone with signalling experience to the Royal Engineers for redeployment about two weeks earlier.

I can find no individual mention of him in 73rd's War Diary. That's not surprising as they were only required to record officers by name, although this varies quite a bit between Sections.

Keith.