Thursday July 4^th, 1918

Reveille 2:45am. Leave camp for boat at 3:30. Embark on French boat Ammauze along with French troops. Lovely sea, escort of  Torpedo boats. Slept on deck. Macaroni and beef for dinner.

Farewell to Macedonia

Frank seems very happy at the moment.  Yesterday he admired the scenery on his journey from Sarigöl to Itea and today he admires the sea on which he will sail to Italy.  He is clearly pleased to be leaving the battlefields and plains of Macedonia – even though he is heading for the Western Front.

While Frank has only been in the country for six months, many of his comrades will have been there for over two years.  The Battalion arrived in late 1915 and participated in the bloody, unsuccessful battles of 1916 and 1917 and many skirmishes.³  It has seen its ranks depleted in warfare and decimated through illness. Ironically it will now miss the last valiant and ultimately successful battles of September 1918 in which the Bulgarians are routed and sue for peace by the end of the month.

One can only guess the mood of Frank’s long-serving travelling companions.  As Harold Lake contemplated, ‘Few of us, perhaps, have brought, or will bring, pleasant memories away from it, but that is the fault, not of the land, but of the circumstances which have made it what it is. And in spite of the things we endured in it, we shall probably remember as the years pass by that it is a country which has great beauty, grandeur, and an appealing loveliness, as one moves from place to place and learns all the variety of it.’¹

SS Amazone

Whatever its real name, the Amazone or Ammauze was identified by the BWD and Frank as a French liner.  However the only Amazone I can find in the French Navy in WWI was a submarine.  Any insight gratefully received.

Despite this confusion, a French ship serving Italian pasta and bully beef denotes a truly international effort.

13^th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 4^th July 1918 – Itea

Battalion embarked on SS Amazone, a French liner leaving the Quay on lighters at 07:00 hrs. Picked up escort at Patrol.

References & Further Reading

¹ ‘Campaigning in the Balkans’ by Harold Lake, NY, Robert M McBride & Co, 1918 (page 8)

² French Navy 1918

³ The 13th Manchesters were involved in the retreat from Serbia in December 1915.  They participated in Battle of Horseshoe Hill (South West of Doran) 10^th August 1916; Battle of Machukovo, 13^th Sept 1916 and Battle of Dojran 24^th April 1917.