COUNTRY NEAR CAKLI STATION
In the middle of October a move was made to Nevolyen and a winter scheme of work and arrangements commenced. The orders were to hold a line on the left bank from Nevolyen to Jenikoj, so on the 13th two platoons of C Company proceeded to the former to clear the village and hold it, while a similar party of the 3rd Royal Fusiliers occupied Jenikoj and some of another brigade Cuculuk. No opposition was encountered.
About this time there was established what was called an enterprise company: that is, one at a time, the companies were struck off all digging and other work, of which there was a good deal, and was kept apart solely for patrolling and minor enterprises. On the 25th October C Company, which had the first turn of this work, sent two patrols to Papalova to look out upon the enemy. About 7.15 a.m. some fifty Bulgars approached from Prosenik, but these were driven off.
The battalion remained at Nevolyen till the 14th November, and those few days were remarkable only for certain actions of minor enterprise and for scouting. For instance, on the 27th October Lieut. Renton, who was in charge of the scouts, found signs of the enemy about Prosenik and fired on one or two of them. Two days later about fifty Bulgar cavalry and thirty infantry were seen to enter Prosenik by our scouts who were well handled by Sgt. Rand but eventually had to withdraw, losing one killed, one wounded and one missing. On the last day of the month Captain Vertue took C Company out at 3 a.m. to take position round Papalova and lie in wait for hostile scouts. About 6.15 a.m. some thirty infantry with a few horsemen appeared and opened rapid but wild fire. They advanced a little and the company hoped they were coming right on, but they halted; our platoon, which had observed them, immediately opened fire with rifle, Lewis gun and grenade. Other parties, each about the same strength, appeared opposite our other platoons and similarly fired wildly, but all shortly withdrew and soon afterwards the enemy opened a small barrage between Papalova and Prosenik which apparently caught their own people, for shouting was heard and men were seen to fall. At 9.45 the company was ordered to withdraw and in doing so was heavily shelled, 2nd Lieut. Young and one man being wounded.
The 14th November took the Buffs back to billets at Orljak, where labour and training took place on alternate days for some time. On the 14th January, 1918, the regiment relieved the 3rd Middlesex in what was known as the West Line and occupied six redoubts there, on the improvement of which a good deal of labour was expended and which was the battalion home till the middle of February, when A, B and C Companies retired to Orljak on relief, and D Company, under Lieut. Bremner, became enterprise company in lieu of one of the East Surrey Regiment. This company soon got busy laying ambushes and so on and, as usual, watching Prosenik and, for a change, Kalandra as well; but on the 5th March it got rather into trouble attempting a more extensive raid with the aid of B Company and one platoon of A. Bremner left Nevolyen at 8.30 p.m. and, moving by Kalandra and dropping B Company as supports upon the way, arrived within one hundred yards of the Bulgar trenches, when a heavy fire was suddenly opened with rifle and bomb. Lieut. Asprey with four or five men got up to the wire round one of the posts and were engaged in cutting it when a bomb fell amongst them, wounding them all but one. Finding that the posts were strongly wired and the enemy alert, and being hampered by the darkness, Bremner withdrew, having Lieut. Asprey and six men wounded. The next day B Company relieved D as raiding company.
On the 27th March the Buffs moved away again, but an incident which occurred on the 13th to the enterprise company is worthy of record. Two platoons, under Captain Howgrave-Graham and Lieut. Wilson, lay up as day ambushes in the vicinity of Prosenik, and they were visited by small parties of the enemy at 9 o’clock and again at 3.30. Every effort was made to capture some of these. Wilson with five or six of his men made a sortie for the purpose, and one of the party was hit by a Bulgar who had ensconced himself in a cunning spot from which he could enfilade Wilson’s communication trench. Two stretcher-bearers went out to fetch in the wounded man, but the wily Bulgarian hit them both. This seems to have annoyed L.-Corpl. Wykes, who went out to see about matters. Of course, he too was fired on, but he managed to kill the troublesome fellow, and then, picking up the wounded Corpl. Stanley, carried him away. The enemy seeing this, opened heavy fire, but Wykes was one of those men who like to carry through any job they may undertake, so he staggered along with his comrade for a thousand yards till he reached the support sections, the shells screaming and bursting around him the whole time. Wilson, being now heavily shelled, withdrew. He was wounded in doing so, but gamely stuck to his job of commanding his men. Captain Howgrave-Graham, noticing Wilson’s withdrawal, conformed and the whole party returned to Nevolyen; the supporting platoon, however, remained at Papalova till evening. The advanced platoons had, besides Wilson, seven men wounded and Pte. Harrold, one of the stretcher-bearers, killed. L.-Corpl. Wykes was given the M.M. for his gallantry and Wilson got the M.C.
The move alluded to above was ultimately to the same neighbourhood as before, near Lake Doiran, headquarters being at a place called Grec Avance, but the march took ten days, round by Mirova, Kirkul and Alexia, and on arrival the old work of patrolling toward Cakli and its neighbourhood was undertaken anew. The men were in a number of posts, wired all round, but on the 1st June they were withdrawn a little to a second line in rear, the wire of the old position being demolished and the works destroyed. The enemy at this period were observed to be mostly about the village of Akinjali, near Lake Doiran. A great number of the Bulgarians were deserting about this time to our lines. No masses of them came over, but there was a pretty constant dribble. The old line was reoccupied and the works repaired in August.
The Greek King Constantine having been deposed, the people, under his son Alexander, had by this time definitely thrown in their lot with the allies and their armies had now been in the field against the Bulgarians since the beginning of March. The enemy was obviously losing heart, as the desertions proved. Victory was crowning the allied arms at last on the Western front, and a grand general offensive in the neighbourhood of Salonica was consequently planned to commence in the middle of September. The part allotted to the British contingent was the attack and capture of the heights to the west and to the north-east of Lake Doiran, and in this it was to be assisted by two divisions and other troops of the Greek army.
On the morning of the 15th September the English General, Sir George Milne, got orders from the French General-in-Chief of the allies that the troops were to take the offensive on the morning of the 18th. On that date the Greeks attacked and pierced the Akinjali outpost line while the British conformed; with the result that the Buffs took up position along the railway line on their front, remaining there all day, but concentrating at 10 p.m. ready for a move. The next day orders came to take up a line from Akinjali Wood to Lake Doiran, to cover the retirement of the Greeks and to dig trenches and erect barbed-wire defences. In this way four days passed, hostile cavalry being seen in Akinjali on the evening of the 21st. Our line was along the Koja Suju and at Brest. On the 23rd the regiment, being relieved, marched to Surlovo and in the evening to Doiran town. On the 25th the battalion moved to Obasi, but owing to the great congestion of the roads only reached that place at 8.30 p.m. The next two or three days were spent in more or less strenuous marching, and on the 26th the advance guard was held up by machine guns, but these were silenced and the march resumed. On the 28th the Buffs were back at Obasi and, on account of the paucity of their numbers, had to be reorganized into two companies each of two platoons. There had been recently an epidemic of what was called Spanish influenza, and both the Buffs and the Middlesex Regiment had suffered considerably.