British Salonika Army
British Salonika Force British Salonika Army | |
---|---|
Active | World War I |
Country | United Kingdom |
Branch | British Army |
Type | Field army |
The British Salonika Army was a field army of the British Army during World War I. After the armistice in November 1918, it was disbanded, but component units became the newly formed Army of the Black Sea, and General Milne remained in command.[1]
First World War[]
The Army was formed in Salonika under Lieutenant-General Bryan Mahon to oppose Bulgarian advances in the region as part of the Macedonian front.[2] The army arrived in Salonika (along with French troops) on 15 October 1915.[3] In May 1916 Lieutenant-General George Milne replaced Bryan Mahon as commander of the Army. It eventually comprised two corps and as the Army of the Black Sea remained in place until 1921.[4] The dead of the British Salonika Army are commemorated by the Doiran Memorial.
Component units[]
British Salonika Force, March 1917[4]
- 22nd Division
- 26th Division
- 60th (2/2nd London) Division
- 1/1st Lothians and Border Horse
- 10th (Irish) Division
- 27th Division
- 28th Division
- 1/1st Surrey Yeomanry
GHQ Troops
- 7th Mounted Brigade
- 8th Mounted Brigade
- 16th Wing, Royal Flying Corps
Commanders-in-Chief[]
Commanders:
- October 1915 - November 1915 : General Charles C. Monro[5] (concurrent with being Commander, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force)
- November 1915 - May 1916 : Lieutenant-General Bryan Mahon[5]
- May 1916 – September 1918 : Lieutenant-General George Milne[6]
- February 1919 – November 1920: Lieutenant-General Henry Wilson (concurrent with being Commander, Allied Forces in Constantinople)[7]
- November 1920: Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Harington (continued after 1921 as GOC-in-C Allied Forces of Occupation, Turkey)
References[]
- ^ Busch, Briton Cooper (1976). Mudros to Lausanne. New York: SUNY Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7914-9811-8.
- ^ "No. 29851". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 December 1916. p. 11931.
- ^ Palmer Alan, The gardeners of Salonika, 1965, p. 11.
- ^ a b Alan Wakefield & Simon Moody, Under the Devil's Eye: Britain's Forgotten Army at Salonika 1915–1918, Stroud: Sutton Publishing (2004).
- ^ a b Encyclopedia Of World War I
- ^ Heathcote 1999, p. 210
- ^ Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
Bibliography[]
- Heathcote, T.A. (1999). The British Field Marshals 1736–1997. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 0-85052-696-5.
- Military units and formations established in 1915
- Field armies of the United Kingdom
- Field armies of the United Kingdom in World War I
- Macedonian front
- Greece in World War I