Wednesday June 5th, 1918
Dismounted guard 6am. Very cool. Cook house morning. Wrote home. Sent postcards of Salonica. Rained very hard indeed. Finished guards till 7pm. ?? visited old Greek church and orchard – got some fruit. Very nice.
La Marraine Camp
Frank is still with the 27th Kite Balloon’s at the moment and as such is not with the rest of the 13th Manchesters in the La Marraine camps. From the description in the Battalion’s Diary this morning of the new camp, it appears that he is lucky to be billeted elsewhere. The 13th is struggling with dust, flies, sand flies and too few tents. The first three are well known and well documented irritants to the BSF.
Flies
Flies were a seasonal problem in Macedonia and not restricted to the front and reserve lines. As H Collinson Owen noted, when in the Cafe Floca in Salonica town, ‘And inside the flies were buzzing merrily – or fiercely – for the heat had come early, and they were in the first flush of their spring ardour. They settled on our hands, heads and faces, tickling, biting and enraging us. They buzzed round in clouds exploring milk jugs, beer pots, sticky cakes on plates ….’ ¹
VJ Seligman, an officer with the ASC and author of at least two books on Salonica, described a scene probably more analogous to that described in the Battalion’s diary. When outlining the way both officers and men rested from the heat of summer between 11am and 4pm, he commented, ‘Perhaps the word ‘rest’ is not quite the correct term- for there are few men who can achieve it. Rather, we lie in our tents, our huts, or our bivouacs, and try to forget the flies and the heat.’ ² Unfortunately for the men of the 13th, many of them are forced to stay in the dugouts during the heat of the day because there are too few tents or other resting places.
Both these men’s experiences and those of the 13th, seem to be at odds with the information provided to the House of Commons by the Liberal MP for Banffshire, Major Waring, on conditions in Macedonia. He had served with the BSF in 1916 and 1917 and his comments were reported in The Guardian in early 1918. ‘Very great credit was due to the untiring efforts of our sanitary and medical officers. In the first year the flies swarmed and covered everything but last summer, in a camp for a mounted unit like his, there was hardly a fly to be seen. Seventy five percent of the improvement was due to the supervision of the sanitary officers, whose recommendations commanding officers were only too willing to carry out.’³
Sand Flies
Sand flies were more of a health threat than ordinary flies. They can carry disease, particularly ‘sandfly fever’. Sometimes called ‘three-day fever’ it is a viral infection with a short incubation period. Apparently it resolves itself and treatment is required only to relieve the symptoms which include fever, muscle pain and headaches. Small comfort to anyone infected with it.
It is no wonder that the combination of heat, flies and limited accommodation was exciting the Battalion leadership today.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 5th June 1918 – La Marraine
The present camp is not at all a pleasant one, it is too old and is so situated that it receives any dust that may be blowing about. The flies are very bad and there are sand flies in all the dugouts. The men are accommodated in tents as far as possible by day, but there is not sufficient for the lot so a proportion has to live in the dugouts by day.
References & Further Reading
¹ ‘Salonica & After, The Sideshow that Ended the War’ by H Collinson Owen (Editor of the Balkan News & Official Correspondent in the Near East (Hodder & Stoughton, 1919), page 1
² ‘The Salonica Side-Show’ By VJ Seligman, officer with the ASC (1919), page 68
³ ‘The Guardian’, February 21st, 1918