The Macedonian campaign

by Luigi Villari

One fact which the operations in Greece had made clear was that the enemy were not at all inclined to carry out an offensive or were not in a position to do so. If they had had any such intention, no better occasion could have offered itself than at the moment when several Allied divisions had been withdrawn and when the troops were depressed by the unsuccessful offensive. If they did not know how greatly reduced was the strength of the Allied forces, they could not ignore the sending of troops to Greece. So favourable a chance of attacking was never likely to occur again, and at Salonica everybody was expecting an offensive which might have had disastrous results. But nothing happened, which was a proof either of disagreement between the Bulgars and Germans, or of the fact that the enemy did not feel very sure of themselves. Soon after, the divisions sent to Greece returned to the Macedonian front, and the immediate danger was over.

Salonica had now ceased to be a capital, and became once more a provincial town, but its military importance remained, inasmuch as it was still the centre of important military operations, and the hotbed of infinite political intrigues. General Pennella, after having remained only a few weeks in Macedonia, was recalled to Italy to assume the important position of Chief of Staff to H.R.H. the Duke d’Aosta (III Army), and the temporary command of the 35th Division was assumed by Brigadier-General Chiossi. On June 30th Major-General Ernesto Mombelli arrived at Salonica to take up the Command of the expeditionary force, which he held until it broke up in July 1919, He had begun his military career in the mountain artillery, had passed brilliantly through the Staff College, and then entered the Staff Corps. In Libya he had distinguished himself as a Commander of Alpine troops and afterwards of a mixed force of the three arms. Subsequently he went to Rhodes as Chief of Staff to General Ameglio. The plan of operations of the successful battle of Psitos was his. From Rhodes he was sent to Constantinople as Military Attaché, and remained there until Turkey entered the war, when he was transferred to Athens. There he had occasion to display the most valuable activity, both in counter-espionage and in affirming Italy’s steady loyalty within the Entente. In his dealings with the French and British on more than one occasion he was able to thwart the shady manœuvres of the Germans and their Royalist satellites. He had a thorough knowledge of the political and military situation of the near East, was endowed with great diplomatic tact, and was a man of the world, of high character, and imbued with all the best Italian military traditions. As Commander of the Italian expeditionary force under the orders of a foreign Commander-in-Chief his position was anything but easy, as the relations between the 35th Division and the C.A.A. had never been properly defined. Further, General Sarrail, as we have seen, was not too favourably inclined towards us, and never missed an opportunity of giving proof of his antipathy. Our expeditionary force was not complete—we had no field or medium calibre artillery, we were inadequately provided with means of transport and lacked certain materials with which the C.A.A. were bound to supply us, but which it very often would not or could not provide. There was thus constant friction, and our troops were finally convinced that General Sarrail wished to exploit them to the utmost limit without ever recognizing their merits. But General Mombelli, while defending our rights and dignity with the greatest possible energy and vivacity in his dealings with the C.A.A., succeeded in making himself popular, and in maintaining relations of great courtesy with the successive Commanders-in-Chief. With the British and Serbian Commanders, as I have said, his relations were always inspired by the greatest friendliness, especially with General Milne and Voivod Michich. In all military operations which he had occasion to carry out, he gave proof of eminent qualities as a Commander and of gallantry as a soldier. He was rigid in the matter of discipline, and devoted the greatest care to the moral and material welfare of his men. He insisted obstinately on obtaining leave for his troops, although it was claimed that such a thing was impossible for detachments beyond the sea on account of the enormous difficulties and dangers of sea transport, but he succeeded, and not a single ship transporting troops going on or returning from leave was ever torpedoed. He was relentlessly severe against all who failed in their military duties, or whose conduct was incompatible with the dignity of an Italian soldier. He had no consideration for those officers, very few in number it must be said, who neglected their men at the front.

A FLOODED ROAD.

LEAVE-PARTY FROM MACEDONIA ON THE SANTI QUARANTA ROAD.

Photo by Lieut. Landini.]

To face p. 172.

Among the incidents which occurred between the Italians and General Sarrail, there was one due to the obstruction which the latter placed in the way of the creation of our lines-of-communication posts along the Santi Quaranta road in the part which crossed the French zone. Other incidents arose on account of the attitude of the local Franco-Greek press which was subsidized by or under the strict control of the C.A.A. To the Press General Sarrail attributed enormous importance. Every day he received the journalists, and daily devoted an hour to listening to the reports of the censorship officers, even in critical moments when a Commander-in-Chief should have been occupied with very different matters. For all these reasons General Sarrail made himself ever more unpopular and impossible. As early as the beginning of 1916 the British, Italian and Russian Governments had brought considerable pressure to bear on that of France in favour of the recall of Sarrail, and it appears that the first to demand this was M. Isvolski, the Russian Ambassador in Paris, who had been informed of the complaints against Sarrail, especially those which General Dietrich had made after the autumn operations.[34] At the same time, Lord Bertie, British Ambassador in Paris, in a note to the French Government, pointed out General Sarrail’s preference for political operations, and verbally dwelt on the difficulties of the relations between him and the other Commanders, due to his own character and to his entourage. He added that he was also speaking in the name of Italy and Russia. M. Briand, then Prime Minister, at first showed annoyance and said that France refused to discuss the merits of a French General in whom she had confidence, but to this Lord Bertie replied that if Sarrail was a French General, the Army d’Orient was international. He quoted the words attributed to General Cadorna, who is reported to have said: “I shall send more troops to Macedonia when there is a General to command them.” All this made a certain impression in France, but the capture of Monastir raised Sarrail’s prestige, although the exaggerated praises lavished on him by his political friends did him harm, especially those of M. Painlevé, the Minister of Public Instruction. Criticism did not cease, and an Italian Ambassador is reported to have said that Sarrail “preferred to reap the grain harvest in Thessaly rather than laurels round Monastir.” An Italian Minister said to a French diplomat in connexion with the disagreement among the Allies in Macedonia: “All this would not have happened if you had given us a General who besides having our sympathy also enjoyed our confidence, but you have sent to Salonica, and you maintain there, a General who is merely imposed on you by your internal situation.” The real reason why Sarrail, who was not popular even in French Government circles, where he was admitted to be unsuited to his duties, continued to be supported must be sought in his political antecedents. The men at the head of affairs in France believed at that time that, after the war, there would be a strong revival of religious, Legitimist and anti-Republican feeling, and of the generals of high rank General Sarrail was the only one on whom the Government, or rather the Radical-Socialist Party, believed that it could count absolutely for the defence of Republican institutions. Sarrail, in fact, as I have said, was a FreeMason and an anti-Clerical, and during the Combes Ministry he had co-operated—the only field officer who would agree to do so—in the system of fiches de delation against officers guilty of religious practices. He was therefore so thoroughly compromised in the eyes of the Clerical, anti-Masonic, Monarchical parties, that there was no danger of his coming to an agreement with them. Naturally he was anything but popular with the enormous majority of officers of all ranks, and even those who were not fervent Clericals had no sort of regard for him. At the same time, the French Government did not wish to have him in France, because they feared him as an incorrigible intriguer and wished to keep him out of the way. For all these reasons, the Government did not dare to recall him, although they did not wish to entrust him with an important Command on any part of the front. They therefore gave evasive replies to the protests of the Allies.

Nevertheless the Allied Governments again insisted in demanding his recall. On the eve of the May offensive in 1917, Mr. Lloyd George had been given the assurance that General Sarrail would be relieved as soon as the operations were ended. This would also have given time to reconsider the whole question of the Command in the near East. At one time it had been proposed to send strong Italian reinforcements to that front with the Duke of Aosta as Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies, but the proposal was dropped. When the offensive came to an absolutely unsuccessful end, chiefly owing to the failure of Sarrail, the latter continued to hold his Command in spite of the ever-increasing irritation at his conduct on the part of all the Allies, including now even the Crown Prince of Serbia. The French Government, however, now asked that he should be left in Salonica until the Greek question had been finally settled. After the abdication of Constantine and the return of Venizelos, the British Government reopened the Sarrail question; but M. Painlevé, who had become Minister of War in the Ribot Cabinet, continued to support him. On July 25th Mr. Lloyd George said to him: “You assume the whole responsibility, but as a matter of fact, the Armée d’Orient is now condemned to immobility because the failure of the Russian offensive (that ordered by Kerensky) removes all hopes of co-operation between the Russian and Roumanian Armies and that of the Orient.” But M. Painlevé had such a fanatical admiration for Sarrail that this responsibility caused him no anxiety whatever. A few days later, on the fall of the Ribot Cabinet, Painlevé became Prime Minister.