Supplement to the London Gazette, 22 Januaby, 1919, 1173
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SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 22 JANUABY, 1919, 1173 The results of these stubbornly contested guns, motor cars and stores had been found operations were to be seen in the course of the abandoned all along the line of retreat and in next few days. the mountains. By the morning of the 21st the Franco-Ser- At 8 o'clock on the morning of September bian Army had reached the line Gradista- 26th. a Bulgarian parlementaire, under a white Bosava-Dragosil and the heights of Porca flag, bearing a proposal to conclude an armi- dominating the Vardar, thus turning the flank stice, approached the British lines, and was of the enemy in my front and cutting his com- immediately conducted to my headquarters and munications down the Vardar Valley. By thence to the Allied Headquarters at Salonika. noon it was plain that a hurried retirement on Two days later the Bulgarian plenipoten- the Doiran front had begun. The depots at tiaries, Mr. Lyaptcheff, Minister of Finance, Hudova, Cestova and other places behind the General Lukoff, Commander of the 2nd Bul- lines were observed to be in flames, and numer- garian Army, and Mr. Radeff with their staff, ous explosions showed that ammunition depots passed through en route for Salonika. were being everywhere blown up. The obser- vers of the Royal Air Force reported that the In the meanwhile the advance continued. Kosturino Pass on the Strumica road, the only The Strumica Valley runs eastward towards the good line of retreat now open to the enemy, was upper Struma Valley, which it joins near blocked by masses of men and transport moving Petric, fifteen miles north of Rupel and Demir- northwards. The pilots of the Royal Air hissar. The defile of the Upper Struma Force, flying low, took full advantage of this through the Kresna and the Rupel Passes, opportunity. They bombed the Bulgar columns formed the main line of communication for and shot down men and animals with their the Bulgar forces on the lower Struma. To machine guns, causing heavy casualties and a strike at this the 16th Corps now swung east- confusion that bordered on panic. wards, sending a flank guard by way of Berovo to Pechovo on their left, while on the right the During the evening patrols reported that the Cretan Division, in conjunction with the 228th advanced trenches of the enemy were empty. Infantry Brigade, swept along the crest of the Before dawn on the 22nd the whole of the Army Belasica and down the Butkova Valley against was on the move. By nightfall the foremost troops had reached the line Kara Ogular- Rupel and Demirhissar. Hamzali-Bogdanci. Close touch was kept with It was at this time that the Royal Air the hostile rearguards which, well supplied with Force found the Kresna Pass choked by the mountain and machine guns, did all they could retreating enemy, whose Struma army was to delay our pursuit. West of the Vardar the now in danger. Again our pilots, as subse^ 27th Division advanced with the Archipelago quent reports showed, did enormous execution. Division of the Franco-Hellenic Corps on their Considerable resistance was encountered to immediate left. the north-east of Yenikoj, in the Strumica In the next few days the pursuit was pressed Valley, and on the northern slopes of the by all the Allied Armies from Doiran to Mona- Belasica Mountain, where the steep slopes stir. By the 24th the Serbian infantry, moving and the absence of water made operations very forward at an extraordinary speed, had reached difficult. The troops of the two Hellenic the line Hadzi-Seidli-Cesme Dere; their Divisions, supported by British cavalry and cavalry were approaching Stip. artillery, were slowly but surely fighting their The first of the Allies to enter Bulgaria was way forward, when at 2 a.m. on the 30th, at the Derbyshire Yeomanry, early on the morn- the moment when only fifteen miles separated ing of the 25th September. These were the my advanced troops from the Rupel Pass and leading troops of the 16th Corps under Lieu- the lines of communication of the Bulgarian tenant-General C. J. Briggs, K.C.B., Army in the Struma Valley, I was informed K.C.M.G., whom I had brought round from the that a. military convention 'had been signed right to the left of the Army. They were fol- at the Allied Headquarters and that operations lowed shortly after by the 14th Hellenic and would cease at noon. 26th Divisions, the former having replaced the The orders now received were to the effect Serres Division in the Anglo-Hellenic Army. that the British Army should move by Petric Simultaneously the 22nd Division from the and Radomir through Bulgaria to the Danube, west and the Cretan Division from the east of in the vicinity of Vidin, in order to co-operate Lake Doiran began to climb the steep slopes of with the French and Serbian Armies' in their the Belasica Range on the north of the Lake. operations against Austro-Hungary. This In the centre the 28th Division, which had advance had begun when, on 10th October, I made forced marches across from the extreme received instructions to assume the command right reached the heights of Dzuma Obasi. On of the Allied troops operating against Turkey the 26th September the 16th Corps descended in Europe, and to transfer the Army under my to the Strumica Valley and gained tEe command to that theatre of operations. Strumica-Petric road. During the night In spite of the fact that the railway had French, Hellenic and British troops stormed been totally destroyed between Doiran and and captured the towering summits of the Serres, and that practically no roads exist in Belasica. This range is over 4,000 feet above Eastern Macedonia, on the night of 30th/31st the Lake; the ascents are severe, there are prac- October, when I received the news of the tically no paths, and communication was neces- conclusion of an armistice with Turkey, two sarily most irregular. In this operation the British divisions and one French division were 8th Battalion, South Wales Borderers, under ready on the River Maritza to seize the Lieutenant-Colonel R. C. Dobbs, D.S.O., northern bridges and to occupy the town of specially distinguished themselves. Adrianople, the bridge at Ipsala was in my Up to this date thirty guns, large quantities possession, while in rear the 1st Hellenic of ammunition and three hospitals had been Corps was echeloned between Kavala and captured, while many of our wounded prisoners Drama, ready to take part in the general had been recovered; considerable quantities of advance on Constantinople..