Bibliography of Books on Salonika, particularly memoirs

[MaureenE]

I have not come across a current comprehensive bibliography relating to the Salonika Campaign, so the following are some sources, particularly in respect of personal accounts.

*The FIBIS Fibiwki  page Salonica and the Balkans (First World War) contains links to many online books

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Salonica_and_the_Balkans_(First_World_War)

*"Bibliography: Reminiscences of the Salonika Campaign" from The Gardeners of Salonika: The Macedonian Campaign 1915-1918 by Alan Palmer, originally published 1965. Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=0AM1b1XzPFUC&pg=PT261

There are also further categories, other than Reminiscences, in this bibliography.

Alan Palmer’s book is regarded as a major publication on the Salonika campaign. 

 

*Select Bibliography. Archived 2007 page Salonika Campaign Society. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20070723100506/http://www.salonika.freeserve.co.uk/Select Bibliography.htm

There does not seem to be a current Bibliography on this website available to non-members. (Perhaps there is something for members only?)

*There are also some entries in

British Autobiographies: An Annotated Bibliography of British Autobiographies Published Or Written Before 1951 by William Matthews

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=HY_4aH5ihhUC&pg=PR3

 

More books to follow in the next post.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks Maureen, that's very useful. More books to search for!

[MaureenE]

The following is an alphabetical list of authors, some of whom may have been listed above, with additional comments, or additional books not listed above.

 

Burr, Malcolm

Slouch Hat  by  Malcolm Burr 1935  Review of the book  http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36189966

“Captain Burr was given the task of organizing a battalion of road-menders out of a mixed herd of refugees…”.  This is referred to as No 1 Civil Labour Battalion.

He is mentioned on an online page from No Labour, No Battle: Military Labour during the First World War by John Starling, Ivor Lee

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=GqWCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT251

 

*Casson, Stanley

Full title: Steady Drummer. [Reminiscences of the Macedonian campaign of 1916-18]. by Stanley Casson 1935

Lieut.-Colonel Stanley Casson, (Intelligence Corps.)

He was, or became,  a Reader in Classical Archaeology

https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/5NCN9 (2014) Poole on Casson.pdf

 

*Dare, Jane (pseudonym)

Letters from the Forgotten Army [i.e. the Army at Salonika] by Jane Dare 1920. Available at the British Library

 

*Darwin, Bernard

Three volumes of memoirs, Green Memories 1928 Life is Sweet, Brother 1940 Pack Clouds Away 1941. It’s unclear whether all, or just one volume relevant contain content He served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Macedonia, sources say  as a lieutenant. He was a golf professional and designed a 16 hole golf course on the Vardar marshes in Macedonia. “In his few and scanty intervals of leisure he laid out a golf course which was a very popular resort despite the mosquitos with which it was infested”  [Forbes, History of the Army Ordnance Services, where Major Darwin is also quoted.]

*Donnelly, Peter

The King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment : Macedonian front in World War One : a brief record of the actions of the 2nd and 9th Battalions in the Salonikan campaign 1915-1919  [written by Peter Donnelly]

Lancaster : King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, 1999

 

9th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in Macedonia, March 1918 to October 1918 : from the war diary of Captain Cumberland RAMC with additional details from the official battalion war diary  edited by Peter Donnelly.

 Lancaster : King's Own Royal Regiment Museum, 2000 [2002? printing]

 

*Fitch , Henry

My Mis-Spent Youth : a Naval Journal  by Henry Fitch. 1937

Dardanelles, naval mission to Serbia

 

*Hatton, Sydney Frank

The Yarn of a Yeoman  1930

Gallipoli, Salonika Allenby campaign

http://www.naval-military-press.com/yarn-of-a-yeoman.html

 

*Labaume-Howard, Catherine

From the Western Front to Salonika A French Soldier Writes Home (1914-1918) edited by Catherine Labaume-Howard. The author of the letters, Pierre Suberviolle was a car and truck driver  and later I with tanks He was in Greece, Salonika, Macedonia and Albania for 18 months.

http://www.helion.co.uk/new-and-forthcoming-titles/from-the-western-front-to-salonika-a-french-soldier-writes-home-1914-1918.html

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/review-western-front-salonika

 

*Mather, William D

'Muckydonia', 1917-1919: Being the Adventures of a One-Time 'pioneer' in Macedonia and Bulgaria During the First World War by William D. Mather 1979

The IWM catalogue entry for this book advises from 1916 Mather served in 3/4 Battalion of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment and also mentions the

8th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers), Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry

 

*Napier, H D

The experiences of a military attaché in the Balkans by  Lt.-Col. the Hon. H. D. Napier, 1924

http://www.naval-military-press.com/experiences-of-a-military-attachE-in-the-balkans-1914-1915.html

        

 

*Oswald, Gen O C Williamson

61, How some Wheels went round. (The 61st Heavy Artillery Group in the Great War.) by Brig.-General O. C. Williamson Oswald 1929

France, Salonika, Palestine.

*Packer, Charles

Return to Salonika by Charles Packer 1964. He was an artilleryman in a RFA Ammunition Column.

Review of the book https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/564/571 Balkan Studies Vol 5, No 2 (1964)

 

*Richardson, James C

The Living and the Living Dead 1923

Full title: The living, and the living dead : ruminations, whims, fancies, jokes and philosophies, with a batch of war experiences thrown in after 1914-1918. OLD SOLDIER (PSEUD.) (Author)

Western Front, Salonika

 

*Rutherford,  Nathaniel  J C

Soldiering with a stethoscope 1937 Medical Memories 1938 Memories of an Army Surgeon 1939. Not known whether one volume, or all, include Salonika.

 

*Stanley, Jeremy

Ireland's forgotten 10th : a brief history of the 10th (Irish) Division, 1914-1918, Turkey, Macedonia and Palestine  by Jeremy Stanley.

Ballycastle, Co. Antrim : Impact Publishing, 2003.

 

*Stobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie),

Miracles and adventures : an autobiography  by  M A Stobart 1935

 

*Thorburn,  A Douglas

Amateur Gunners. The adventures of an amateur soldier in France, Salonica and Palestine in the Royal Field Artillery. Recording some of the exploits of the 2/22nd County of London Howitzer Battery R.F.A. on active service. by A Douglas Thorburn 1933

Amateur Gunners : the Great War adventures, letters and observations of Alexander Douglas Thorburn / edited by Ian Ronayn Pen & Sword Military, 2014. From a description, this consists of the original book, together with additional family letters.

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Amateur-Gunners-Hardback/p/7418

 

*Vulliamy, Colwyn Edward

Calico Pie. An autobiography by Colwyn Edward Vulliamy 1940

Includes WW1 Salonika

 

*Wakefield, Alan and Moody, Simon

Under the devil's eye : Britain's forgotten army at Salonika 1915-1918, published  2004

Under the devil's eye : the British military experience in Macedonia 1915-18, published  2011.

 

*Wallace, Nisbet

The Padre Sees it Through 1939

Gallipoli Egypt, Salonika, Western Front

 

 

Fiction, Romantic novels

*Green,  Hilary

The Leonora Trilogy 2011-2012

Daughters of War, Passions of War, Harvest of War. A book review on Amazon says “meticulously researched historical novels”

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

 

 

[David Filsell]

As allways another biblio is a valuable addition. Although Not my area of interest or real knowledge, once home I can add a newly translated French work withSalonika content.

regards

David

[Jrmh]

Title: 

Some Unofficial Adventures of the Second Battalion Queen's Westminster Rifles, from 1914 To January 1918. Priv. Print., N.D.

Author: 

Mare, Adjutant.

EAN: 

X00267579

Personal Author: 

Mare, Adjutant.

 

https://elibrary.westminster.gov.uk/client/en_GB/wcc/search/detailnonmodal?qu=Adventure.&qf=LOCATION 书架位置 1%3ASEARCHROOM Archives'+Search+Room&d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_ILS%2F0%2FSD_ILS%3A101394~~0&ic=true&ps=300

 

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1500018899

 

 

[clive_hughes]

Just to lengthen the list a tad - a couple of Salonika-related books you may have missed (probably because they are in Welsh!) - 

 

Williams, R.R.,  Breuddwyd Cymro Mewn Dillad Benthyg [A Welshman In Borrowed Clothing's Dream] (Liverpool, Gwasg y Brython, 1964) (84pp. illus., small hardback).  Partly the story of the Welsh Students Company RAMC 1916-19, though as many of its members were transferred to medical duties in Salonika most of the book is set there.  The author served in this company and campaign.

 

Llwyd, Alan and Edwards, Elwyn,  Y Bardd A Gollwyd: Cofiant David Ellis [The Lost Bard: A Memoir of David Ellis] (Llandybie, Cyhoeddiadau Barddas, 1992) (164pp, illus., hardback).  The story of young poet David Ellis from Denbighshire, who served with the Welsh Students Company as above and was sent to Salonika.  On 15 June 1918 he came off duty, then literally vanished and was never seen again despite a thorough search of the surrounding area.  All his papers, money, pay book and even ID disks were left in his tent.  The authors conclude he likely committed suicide in some out-of-the-way spot whilst in a state of depression about military service and his fiancee's recent breaking off their relationship.  His fate exercised much comment in Welsh literary circles for years after the event.  In 1984 a surviving comrade "confessed" about having found his body in a lake, and burying it quietly near some recent official casualties, but his testimony has various elements which to the authors don't ring true.   

 

The nature of his disappearance meant he wasn't commemorated on any official memorial.  I seem to recall his was a recent successful IFCP case, and he is now commemorated on the Addenda panel to the Doiran Memorial.  

 

Clive

 

 

Edited 4 January , 2017 by clive_hughes
Better translation of book title

[b3rn]

Captain Heydemarck’s War Flying in Macedonia published by John Hamilton Ltd in 1938.

http://www.balkanhistory.com/war_flying_ww1.htm

[Guest]

    Might I suggest an e-mail to the Institute for Balkan Studies in Thessalonki?  This is the Greek Institute, not to be confused with it's Serbian copycat. The Greek one has a long tradition of scholarship, much of it in English-eg Its site highlights a publication-conference proceedings of 2015-on the Macedonian Campaign.- that has just been published. Worth a go- the more so given the number of books in Greek and French that must be out there and which are, in terms of bibliography, even harder to pick up

 

[keithmroberts]

    Might I suggest an e-mail to the Institute for Balkan Studies in Thessalonki?  This is the Greek Institute, not to be confused with it's Serbian copycat. The Greek one has a long tradition of scholarship, much of it in English-eg Its site highlights a publication-conference proceedings of 2015-on the Macedonian Campaign.- that has just been published. Worth a go- the more so given the number of books in Greek and French that must be out there and which are, in terms of bibliography, even harder to pick up

 

I have struggled, well for a few minutes, to find a link to the conference publication. Any chance of posting a link here please. 

 

Keith

[Guest]

     KR and  Maureene

        I too have struggled with the Institute for Balkan Studies link to the publication on their website,which does not work. I reproduce it below  . I note they have also a previous conference proceedings on much the same topic in 2002, details of which are below. And I picked up a new book, published November 2016 by Helion in this country, a translation of a large collection of French stuff 

    I will endeavour to e-mail IBS as suggested and report answer, if any

 

http://www.hist.auth.gr/macedonianfrontconference/

 

 

 The Salonica Theatre of Operations and the Outcome of the Great War. Proceedings of the International Conference organized by the Institute for Balkan Studies and the National Research Foundation “Eleftherios K. Venizelos” in Thessaloniki, 16-18 April 2002, Thessaloniki 2005, p. 446.loniki, 16-18 April 2002, Thessaloniki 2005, p. 446.

(IMXA 277), 10,00 €

 

From the Western Front to Salonika - A French Soldier Writes Home (1914-1918) the Western Front to Salonika - A French Soldier Writes Home (1914-1918)

     

 

I don't know the availability of anything from IBS in this country- They seem not to have a dedicated distributor. My best guess is that call,if anyone is interested, to the Hellenic Book Service might help. I have no connection with them but they have been around for donkeys years-used to be in Charing Cross Road.

 

Edited 4 January , 2017 by Guest
bloody technology

[Guest]

   One more recent book to add:
Dearest Mother : First World War letters home from a young Sapper Officer in France and Salonika / edited by Andrew Baines and Joanna Palmer.

John Stanhope Baines, author.

Solihull : Helion, 2015.

  Oh-and amongst a large output of scholarly literature, the following- particularly the first 2 title words- make this irresistible:

 

Fighting Asses: British Procurement of Cypriot Mules and Their Condition and Treatment in Macedonia

Varnava, Andrekos

War in History, 2016, Vol.23(4), pp.489-515

(Seriously-I draw this to the attention of young Mr. Broomfield as it might be informative on the treatment of animals as well as the war)

[keithmroberts]

Thanks GUEST - I remember Alan Wakefield mentioning the conference. I'll be visiting the battlefields with him again in April, but don't think we'll have any time to spare in Thessaloniki.  I'll point him to this topic.

 

Keith

[Guest]

      A  trawl of the BL catalogue throws up some more bits and pieces-some already mentioned.

        I return to an old grumble from a previous thread- Even this little exercise shows the pressing need for a single-site online bibliography of the Great War- preferably by unit, campaign, subject- IWM obviously can't be bothered. There is so much stuff coming out that there has to be a bibliographical mechanism that acts as an easy reference-especially to all the numerous questioners on this Forum asking about ancestors in a particular unit- What is the point of someone -as a total amateur but with goodwill- seeking,say, information on what happened to Private 123456 Bloggs, Frederick, 22nd Blankshires -and getting nowhere- if there is something out there they will never trip across-eg hypothetically- a little memoir or modern edition of letters where someone  has the information "Poor old Fred Bloggs-killed by my side today. Hit by grenade fragments-his last words were that fancied some fish and chips at Margate".  Priceless to to the descendant concerned- but the Great War is being bibliographically overwhelmed without some guiding hand to lead through the chaos.

   I went to a showing of "Battle of the Somme" done by the London Borough of Redbridge, using the cleaned-up IWM CD-IWM supplied the CD but the amount of paperwork that the audience was expected to fill (Yes,the audience, dear reader) -ethnicity, age,where did I hear,etc-literally pages of it- all this shows that IWM has lost the plot and is in the thrall of apparatchiks and jobsworths more concerned at generating the "right" statistics to justify their own existence.

 

     Oh-almost forgot-here is the list:

 

On the Salonika Front, 1916-1918. By “Home Guard” [i.e. F. Guy Ingamells]. (An extract from “Other Wars, Other Ways.”).

Norwich : Salonika Reunion Association, Norfolk & Norwich Branch, [1944]

 

Salonika Memories : 1915-1919.

G. E. Willia

[S.l] : Salonika Reunion Association, 1969.

 

Return to Salonika.

Charles Packer

[S.l.] : Cassell, [n.d.].

 

The Salonika Front / painted by William T. Wood ; described by A. J. Mann, Captain, Late Recording Officer, 22 Balloon Company.

A. J. Mann

[S.l.] : Black, 1920.

 

Sisters' quarters : Salonika / Marguerite Fedden.

Marguerite Fedden

[S.l.] : Grant Richards Limited, 1921.

 

The Ship of Remembrance : Gallipoli-Salonika / I. Hay.

I. Hay

[S.l.] : Hodder & Stoughton, [n.d.]

 

Uncle George : Field-Marshal Lord Milne of Salonika and Rubislaw / Graham Nicol.

Graham Nicol

London 23 Suffolk Rd, S.W.13 : Reedminster Publications, 1976.

 

With a woman's unit in Serbia, Salonika and Sebastopol, by I. Emslie Hutton, M. D.

Isabel Emslie Hutton, 1887-1960.

[S.l.] : Williams and Norgate, 1928.

 

The Tracks they Trod. Salonika and the Balkans, Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine revisited.

Trevor Allen

London : Herbert Joseph, 1932.

 

Greece and Great Britain during World War I : first symposium organized in Thessaloniki ... 1983 by the Institute for Balkan Studies ... and King's College in London.

Greece and Great Britain during World War I (Conference) (1st : 1983 :Salonika, Greece)

Thessaloniki : the Institute, 1985.

 

The B.S.F. Library.

Great Britain. Army. British Salonica Force.

Salonica, 1919.

 

The Salonica Side-Show / V. J. Seligman.

V. J. Seligman

[S.l.] : George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1919.

 

Poems of a private. A souvenir of France and Salonica.

T. B. Clark, Rifleman.

London : William Nicholson & Sons., [1919?]

 

The Salonica theatre of operations and the outcome of the Great War.

Thessaloniki : Institute for Balkan Studies, 2005.

 

Salonica and after : the sideshow that ended the war / Harry Collinson Owen.

Harry Collinson Owen

[S.l.] : Hodder and Stoughton, 1919.

 

The Truth about Greece. I. The Greco-Servian Treaty. II. The Landing at Salonica: a queer story, etc.

G. F. Abbott, (George Frederick)

London, 1917.

 

The song of Tiadatha ... Reprinted from the Balkan News.

Owen Rutter, 1889-1944.

Salonica, [1919]

 

Anti-malaria work in Macedonia among British troops / W. G. Willoughby and Louis Cassidy.

W. G. Willoughby

[S.l.] : Lewis, 1918.

 

The Portrait of a scholar and other essays written in Macedonia1916-1918 / R. W. Chapman.

R. W. Chapman

[S.l.] : Oxford University Press, 1920.

 

[keithmroberts]

I am hopeful that, this topic apart, the Salonika Campaign Society will soon host such a bibliography for that campaign.

The Birmingham University History Department used to have an on line bibliography for the Great War - but clearly one that was both all embracing and an the same time cross linked by interest would be a considerable undertaking, even if it ignored all the recent centenary pulp history.

 

Keith

[MaureenE]

Fiction:  The Birdcage

 by Clive Aslet

ISBN: 9781910985007  

Publication Date: 16/06/2016  Sandstone Press

From the publisher’s website  http://sandstonepress.com/books/the-birdcage

"Salonika in 1916 is a city more than half-Jewish and, until a few months ago, one of the jewels in the Ottoman crown. It is now suddenly Greek. Nominally neutral, it is filled with French, British and Serbian soldiers defending it against the Austro-German and Bulgarian forces to the north. In a city seething with intrigue, cafe society continues unperturbed and the native inhabitants make from the soldiers what money they can. Young nurses from the Women’s Hospital join seasoned soldiers, and Kite Balloonists must trade their traditional chivalry towards the enemy against the need to survive.

and

"Clive Aslet beautifully captures this Alice-In- Wonderland town in a novel bursting with comedy and drama. Brave balloonists, fiendish spies, gypsies and a bevy of nurses – there is more than a hint of Blackadder. Written with a countryman’s eye for ground, and for horses, the campaign is described in a laconic style reminiscent of the contemporary reporting. The perfect book for a Greek holiday – or to cheer you up when you get back."

Cheers

Maureen

 

[David Filsell]

Apologies for the delay. Herewith review  of the new translation of a Frenchman's experiences in Salonika which some may find background interest .

 

Catherine Labaume-Howard, (editor)

From the Western Front to Salonika: A French Soldier Writes Home, £19.95 (£19.75 direct from publisher), Helion & Company, soft back, 182pp, ills in page throughout, 6 indeces, ISBN 978-1-911096-28-3

It is impossible to know why that since the Great War so few translation French accounts - fact or fiction - war have been offered by British publishers. As War Books, the redacted translation of Jean Norton Cru’s important critique of French writing on the conflict Temoins (Witnesses) underlines those who cannot read French have missed many works of value.

Whilst From the Western Front to Salonika could hardly be judged a work of great literary merit, as far as this reviewer is concerned its publication in English was welcome change from the welter of similar British works. The view of war and the letters home of Pierre Suberrviolle are different in tone to most similar English language works; warm and vibrant, about his service on the on the Western Front, but also in often forgotten Salonika and with tanks.

A 1914 volunteer, aged 17, as one of the few recruits capable of driving he served first a transport squadron in Flanders, then in a similar role Salonika until early 1917, before teaching tank driving and entering action in late 1918. On October 15^th he was wounded, losing an eye, but gaining a Medal Militaire and the Croix de Guerre. In each of these postings he reveals much of interest in French soldier’s view of war.

While general seeking positivity, often incapable of sustaining it, Suberviolle’s highly affectionate, loving, letter’s home reveal that war behind the front lines had its very own harsh tests. This no story of front line daring do, the letters reveal the appalling conditions and the incompetence of war in Salonika, the intense cold, the heat and disease and the daily irritations of war. Frequently amusing are the writer’s regular pleas home for cash – regularly 100 Francs please here – 200 Francs please there – as a result of theft, incompetence, or women and his ludicrous attempts to disguise his financial ineptitude. First published in France in 2011 their translation into English is a worthwhile addition to all to short list of works on the French at available in English.

Regards

David

[Gallipoli Trench Rat]

Great thread and some great memoirs are listed! This is a must have book every student of the FWW should have on their shelf:

 

https://www.amazon.com/World-War-Memories-Annotated-Bibliography/dp/0810850087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488434331&sr=8-1&keywords=world+war+i+memories+lengel

 

Extremely useful reference especially when creating bibliographies for specific campaigns such as what you are attempting with Salonika.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

1 hour ago, Gallipoli Trench Rat said:

Great thread and some great memoirs are listed! This is a must have book every student of the FWW should have on their shelf:

 

https://www.amazon.com/World-War-Memories-Annotated-Bibliography/dp/0810850087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488434331&sr=8-1&keywords=world+war+i+memories+lengel

 

Professor Lengel has been by my side for many years, however he does miss out more books than he includes. Useful descriptions though.

[Gallipoli Trench Rat]

7 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Professor Lengel has been by my side for many years, however he does miss out more books than he includes. Useful descriptions though.

Very much agreed! But it is a great starting point and reference nonetheless!

[HQTANKS]

A few rarer additions

STORIES OF SALONICA      A. Griffin Tap

A  Subaltern in Serbia and some letters from the Struma valley   Capt. A. Donovan Young

Collections and Recollections of the 107th Field Comp. R.E. SALONICA

Further """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Spine titles on both vols---SALONICA

[Buffnut453]

Hi Folks,

 

'Fraid I'm asking rather than providing to this list.  Any suggestions for books with good (any?) coverage of 4th Bn, the Rifle Brigade during it's time in Salonika?  I'm guessing a general primer like the 2 "Under the Devil's Eye" books by Wakefield and Moody would be a good start and provide some needed context.  Any other suggestions?

 

Many thanks,
Mark

[Guest]

Try "The Gardeners of Salonika" by Alan Palmer. A very good account of the campaign.  Also "In Salonika With Our Army" by Harols Lake.  This book is okay but I found it vague in its writing.

 

Gerry Wood

[Buffnut453]

1 hour ago, gi.wood said:

Try "The Gardeners of Salonika" by Alan Palmer. A very good account of the campaign.  Also "In Salonika With Our Army" by Harols Lake.  This book is okay but I found it vague in its writing.

 

Gerry Wood

 

Thanks Gerry.  I'll give those a look.  Info on 4th Bn, the Rifle Brigade is pretty thin on the ground.

 

Cheers,
Mark

[Crunchy]

Mark,

 

My review of Under the Devil’s Eye is here 

 

[Buffnut453]

1 hour ago, Crunchy said:

Mark,

 

My review of Under the Devil’s Eye is here 

 

 

Hi Crunchy, 

 

It appears I've found my starting point to learn more about the Salonika Front.  Many thanks for pointing me to your thorough review.

 

Kind regards,
Mark