Current Information:

SDGW-CLARK

Enlisted-Walthamstow

Doiran Military Cemetery, Greece

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.

In 1916 and 1917 the Allies went on the offensive and from 24th April until 9th May, 1917, the BSF fought the First Battle of Doiran which ended in failure and cost the British over five thousand casualties. 26th Division were engaged in this operation which took place around Doiran Lake. On 24th April, 79 Brigade attacked from the lake to Petit-Couronne on the Doiran-Varder front, a very tough nut to crack. The Bulgarian defences here were formidable and the British bombardment had done little damage to them. Their trenches had been blasted from solid rock, their wire was uncut and their guns not silenced. It is difficult to understand why this sector had been chosen for an attack but General Sarrail insisted on it especially as he was not using French troops. The 12th Hampshire battalion attacked astride Wylie Ravine and when they advanced they immediately came under heavy fire, the steep and rocky sides of the ravine doubling the effect of the bursting shells as rock splinters flew everywhere. Nevertheless the right-hand company  struggled on and gained a foothold in their first objective where they immediately came under sustained and heavy fire from the front and the flanks. The left-hand company tried to reach them but were unable to make progress and eventually the entire battalion, in the early hours of the following morning, were shelled back to the sunken road which had been their starting point. Their casualties for this failed operation amounted to over 250, one of whom was Alfred Clarke.