Australians on the Salonika Front?

[tankengine888]

Hello, found an old video, australian artillery on the salonika front apparently, video linked.
http://anzacsightsound.org/videos/australian-artillery-on-the-salonika-front

If this is true, was there infantry involved, or solely artillery?

ttfn

[Acknown]

This article states that there were only individual Australians, mule drivers from 22nd and 24th Battalions, 6th Australian Infantry Brigade and medical staff in Salonika: https://salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk/2020/09/26/australians-and-new-zealanders/#more-3178. It seems that your video may be misnamed (due to the wearing of slouch hats) and shows British troops.

I also think (expert required) that the Australian artillery in WW1 wore the 'Rising Sun' badge, e.g: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205301868. The men in the video have the RA badge.

Acknown

Edited 7 May , 2022 by Acknown

[Guest]

Mate,

From my LH studies, as stated only a few singles went to assist the British, who were helping the Serbs in 1915-16.

The only others that served during the war were Australian Nurses in British hospitals (1916-18) and or the ARU (Aust Remount Unit) which took horses to there from Egypt during the war.

Elements of the 7 LHR visited there late in the war when on there way to Gallipoli in 1918

While the AIF didn't always wear an Artillery badge (the AIF worn the rising Sun) we did at times have them in older units, much like LH Regt badges were worn at times by small numbers of men.

But we never sent Artillery to Salonika, all our guns were sent to France after Anzac, even our LH were not to have there own guns, the British let there units to us.

S.B

 

[tankengine888]

6 hours ago, stevebecker said:

Mate,

From my LH studies, as stated only a few singles went to assist the British, who were helping the Serbs in 1915-16.

The only others that served during the war were Australian Nurses in British hospitals (1916-18) and or the ARU (Aust Remount Unit) which took horses to there from Egypt during the war.

Elements of the 7 LHR visited there late in the war when on there way to Gallipoli in 1918

While the AIF didn't always wear an Artillery badge (the AIF worn the rising Sun) we did at times have them in older units, much like LH Regt badges were worn at times by small numbers of men.

But we never sent Artillery to Salonika, all our guns were sent to France after Anzac, even our LH were not to have there own guns, the British let there units to us.

S.B

 

So essentially summing up both responses, 
Small amounts [probably at most 50] went to the Salonika, so it is probably incorrect. I recall some british artillery units used slouch hats, and also the video has an officer with cuff rank, which I made a thread on, attached

 

[Guest]

Mate,

Sorry I am no expert on British formations at Salonika, but numbers of British and Commonweath units also wore the Slough hat in different forms, during the war.

I know of no Aussie units that wore them with an Artillery Corps badge, while of the orginal Artillery units raised at home (for the 1st Div) did have them, but unknown if they wore them on Active service in numbers like that shown.

S.B

[FROGSMILE]

Slouch hats were first issued to British Army infantry units (including mounted infantry) during the 2nd Anglo/Boer War 1899-1902.  The introduction of that practical headgear on the veldt was much influenced by locally raised South African and Dominion units from Australia, Canada and New Zealand.  As a result of media coverage they became fashionable and iconic across the length and breadth of the then Empire.  This direct link with South Africa led to them being designated as ‘Terai hats’ in officers Dress Regulations (‘hats, slouch’ in soldiers Clothing Regulations).  

When drab khaki service dress was issued as the temperate climate field uniform in 1902, the slouch hat was designated as headgear until 1905, and there were large stocks still in store in Ordnance supply chains in Britain and India, where Gurkha and Garwhali units had adopted the hat too.  It was perhaps unsurprising that just over a decade after the Boer War a combination of Dominion units and British troops equipped for a hot dusty climate with hats issued out from store, should lead to the hat appearing in Gallipoli, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Salonika, alongside the other tropical headdress, the Wolseley sun helmet.

Edited 8 May , 2022 by FROGSMILE

[RNCVR]

Canadians tended to favour the Stetson hat....

[Keith_history_buff]

For those with a Serbian nationalist bent, there's a story that a Canadian mercenary joined the Serbian Army and fought on the Salonika front.  
The truth is somewhat different.

Lester Bowles Pearson was a student at the University of Toronto's Victoria College faculty. Having completed two years of study he enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He was in the Balkan theatre of war from 11th November 1915 to 7th March 1917. (Source: CEF service record.) That a photo of him in Salonika exists of him stood next to a Serb colleague has been "twisted" into him being in the Serbian Army, with no source-based evidence whatsoever.

The Canadian contingent was presumably similar in size, and performing similar duties, to that of the Australians. I would wager that of those present, Lester Bowles Pearson would subsequently have the highest profile of these Salonika campaign veterans, going on to become the fourteenth Prime Minister of Canada, winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and keeping Canada out of the Vietnam War.

[Acknown]

Again, the Salonika Campaign Society has an article on Canadian involvement: https://sivenas.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/the-nos-4-and-5-canadian-general-hospitals-in-salonika/.

Acknown

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

1 hour ago, Keith_history_buff said:

Lester Bowles Pearson was a student at the University of Toronto's Victoria College faculty. Having completed two years of study he enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He was in the Balkan theatre of war from 11th November 1915 to 7th March 1917. (Source: CEF service record.)

In full here:

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=562397

[Broznitsky]

Some good stuff in this thread.  Love the baseball photo!

While certainly some Canadians had Stetsons that they could wear overseas, these would be in a very small minority, limited to original former Mounted Rifle members, and some Cavalry units.

[Horatio]

On 07/05/2022 at 15:49, tankengine888 said:

Hello, found an old video, australian artillery on the salonika front apparently, video linked.
http://anzacsightsound.org/videos/australian-artillery-on-the-salonika-front

If this is true, was there infantry involved, or solely artillery?

ttfn

I too thought they were AIF at first until the cap badges caught my eye. These chaps are wearing Royal Artillery badges. AIF forces, not matter their branch of service, wore the Rising Sun badge on their slouch hats. Without a doubt these lads are British, something to take into account is that British troops regularly wore Slouch Hats on the Salonika Front from what I've seen in photographs and film reel.