Current Information:

Born-Marylebone

In the autumn of 1915, Allied forces landed at Salonika in Greece. They had been despatched there to deter Bulgaria from joining in the German and Austro-Hungarian attack on Serbia and they were not expected to remain long. But this was not to be. Bulgaria became allied to the Central Powers, Serbia was overrun and it was decided to keep an allied force of mainly French and British troops on the Salonika front, where they stayed for the rest of the war. At its peak, the British Salonika Force (BSF) numbered 220,000 men. During 1916 and 1917 fighting along the 250 mile front was sporadic, with long periods of inertia punctuated by incidents of sometimes intense fighting. The biggest threat to the men of the Salonika Force was not the Bulgarians but disease, especially malaria, which in the summer months was rampant in the Struma Valley, so much so that at times both sides withdrew to the hills to escape it and fighting came to a standstill.. The weather was cruel as well with boiling hot summers and freezing winters. The campaign lasted through to September 1918 when a sustained attack by French, British and Serbian troops forced Bulgaria out of the war.

During the summer of 1916 the troops in Salonika were badly affected by malaria and so many men were hospitalised that 29 Brigade of 10th Division, which included the 10th Hampshire battalion, were formed into a composite battalion which included one company from each of the four battalions. On 15th  September, this composite battalion attacked the two villages of Komarjan and Jeni Mahale. Well supported by artillery the raids were a success and both villages were captured. There was no counter attack made by the Bulgarians but this was only a raid so that evening the troops withdrew from both positions taking over twenty prisoners with them. The attackers did suffer some casualties during this operation one of whom was Oliver Nathan of 10th Hampshire who was killed in action.