Irish Voices from the First World War A blog based on PRONI sources Certificate of military service to British Empire in World War One by New Zealand volunteer, D1998/2 October 1918 to August 1919 The Armistice of November 1918 was drafted to bring about a cessation of hostilities but not to conclude the process of unconditional surrender by the German government. One of the initial difficulties in the settlement of peace after Armistice was identification by the Allies of the source of legitimate administrative authority in Germany after the abdication of the Kaiser and while the country lay on the brink of social collapse in 1919. Accordingly, the Armistice had to be prolonged three times (in December 1918 and in January and February 1919) before the Treaty of Versailles ratified the 34 clauses of the Armistice in January 1920. Numerous small-scale post-war military conflicts lingered on or erupted for more than a year after peace in Western Europe was concluded. There was a great deal of administrative work also involved in moving from war to peace. Ration book issued to demobilised servicemen during 1918 and 1919, D961/7 Document 1: News from the Macedonian Front as Allied forces bring about surrender of Bulgarian Army, Sept-Oct 1918 [D1893/14, 15] After lengthy spells of inactivity or attritional combat during 1916 and 1917 the multi-cultural Allied force based in Eastern Greece struck out north and east through the Bulgarian lines. The Allies were able to take advantage of failing morale and rising revolutionary sentiment in the Bulgarian army in the course of the Vardar offensive of September 1918. Internal pressures in the Bulgarian army broke out in mutiny and democratic protest by early October 1918 just as an Armistice was signed by the enfeebled Bulgarian regime. After a year of negotiation the Treaty of Neuilly, 27th November 1918, ratified the cession of Bulgarian territory and imposed heavy war reparations. 1st October 1918 Dr. George McCaul to his father. I at last find a few minutes leisure (after a most strenuous 12 days marching and fighting) to sit down and write you a short note. Youǯll be glad to know that up to date Iǯve escaped unscathed & that come 12 noon yesterday all fighting between us and the Bulgars has officially ceased – for the time being anyhow. I expect this news will have caused tremors of excitement in England. Turkey, isolated, can hardly carry on now. In the meantime here I am attached to the 66th Field Ambulance & busy treating ordinary illnesses/I received yesterday the first mail for three weeks including a nice interesting letter from Ada, of Sept 3rd and yourself the 4th enclosing one from Ada of the 3rd & from Mary undated. It is exciting news about Mary/I was very sorry indeed to hear your old trouble had become so acute that youǯd had to consult Mitchell of Belfast/a successful operation would make a new man of you/glad to hear from Ada that George the third is going on so famously. It is a great matter he is such a healthy youngster/Tonight I am off five miles away to give a hand at an outlying section of this Field Ambulance. I am writing this from the side of a well-known lake in Serbian territory. Have had lots of excitement with the South Wales Borderers. Lay all day of 19th in a ravine right under Johnnyǯs nose & we were shelled to blazes. Was kept busy attending the wounded. Colonel Dobbs has, I believe, put forward my name for decoration for my work on the 19th/Iǯm glad to have given him satisfaction in my work/a nicer man & finer soldier I never wish to meet. On the night of the 19th Johnny evacuated his positions and on the 20th we set off after him. It was extremely interesting passing through his positions which had resisted all our attacks for three years. The stinks were pretty awful, blackened swollen dead men, horses and mules here and there all over the battlefield. I can't tell you details of our further progress except to say that we chased his rear guard right up over mountains 6,000 feet high and across the frontier into Bulgaria. Then we came back to rest/and since yesterday there is no further war here. I hope it will last so too. We got heavily shelled by his rearguard & I had many unpleasant experiences & close shaves/for the present Iǯm safer than Iǯd be in London town (1st Oct 1918) D1893/15 George McCaul to Matthew W. McCaul Jhansi United Provinces Central India. Monday, 29th Oct 1918 I havenǯt had word of you or from you for several weeks so donǯt know whether you are still in Jhansi or in Mescho, East Africa or even in this country. So Iǯll address as of old. Iǯve been having a dickens of an interesting, busy and often exciting time of it with the 22nd Division, since Sept 7th or 8th when I left Salonica for up country. Youǯll have read of our attacks on the Dorrian front to prevent the Bulgars sending aid to their confreres further west being pressed back by the Franco-Serbs. Well, I was in all these operations with the 8th South Wales Borderers as their M.O. – including the following up of the Bulgar rearguard during his evacuation. I was lucky to come out of it all unscathed & my colonel – Colonel Dobbs (a Derry man whose brother is rector of Eglinton) recommended me for decoration with the happy result that a week ago I was officially informed from Hodgins that Iǯd gained the Military Cross. So thatǯs all right. Iǯm particularly glad for Foster & the old Dadǯs sake and also because if I ever go to Derry it will put me on a level with Crosbie & Smallseed. Also nowadays the M.C. & D.S.O. can only be worn inside the shell zone and so are more valuable than they had become lately. No base wallahs can get the M.C. nowadays. Youǯll have heard about Mary Ǯexpectingǯ – February sometime I believe! No time wasted there! In the last letter I had from Father heǯd motored to Belfast for a holiday & was stopping with Ada & was in good form. Much better with his old enemy (haemorrhoids) than heǯd been for some time. Heǯd consulted Mitchell, the surgeon, about them and was relieved the worst offender could be removed under cocaine at any time. Iǯve been having a bit of real soldiering lately. Trekking every day for a fortnight - several hours daily in the saddle. I must have covered about 170 or 180 miles altogether (about 70 of it through country no British force had ever marched along before) when I was ordered to leave the column and proceed back about 23 miles to this famous old port (Kavalla) and run a hospital or aid port here till relieved by a C.C.S. Am expecting the C.C.S. hourly but the longer it takes in getting here, the better Iǯll be pleased. I got here on night of 25th & have been very busy (being singlehanded) in running a hospital in a big tobacco warehouse belonging to my host – a Mr Arrington from North Carolina. The American vice-consul & manager of a largely American tobacco buying & exporting company. I am lucky in being billeted with him as his house is about the only house in the city the Bulgars respected & that was not pillaged & clean skinned out by them before they took their departure about a month ago. Result – Iǯm in clover, sleep in a spring bed, feed with Arrington with china & tablecloths on the table, have a bath every morning in a real bath, Oh Iǯve Ǯclickedǯ this last four days & no mistake. Moreǯs the pity of it is only likely to last another day or two. Then back to the Field Ambulance. Iǯve been trekking with but this time I motor to a railhead & re-join them by train at a Bulgar port close to the Turkish frontier. By this lucky move Iǯve been saved about 70 miles trekking & have had a few days delightful change of living conditions. At the moment I am the one & only medical man in the place so am kept pretty busy, having about 80 or 90 patients to attend to daily. Also I have to evacuate a batch of 30 or so every day by rowing boat to minesweepers in the harbour which carry them back to our advanced Base at Stavros. This fine port and harbour was treacherously handed over to the Bulgars by Constantino's tools [King Constantine of Greece, pro-Axis monarch] immediately after Bulgaria declared war. I had crossed on trek a mile or two into Bulgaria before being sent back here. It has been a most interesting experience & this trek bids fair to become historic. Address letters c/o ADMS 22nd Division. Hope this finds you well – write by return. I had a few days fever before starting on trek but I think it was only Ǯfluǯ. Cheerio – chin chin – your affectionate brother, George. Document 2: Lonely correspondence from German prisoner-of-war camp to friends in Carrickfergus [D1686/5] Though arrangements were made early in 1918 for the exchange of British and German invalided and long-term prisoners-of-war the POW population in the 230 German camps remained high until the Armistice. Hugh McKeown of Carrickfergus plaintively appeals for letters from home, probably cheered however by signs that the war was coming to an end.