Friday May 3rd, 1918
No parade. Cleaning up for guard. Worked hard all day.
Battle Coverage
Business as usual for both Frank and the battalion today. However the newspapers back home contain conflicting reports today about military action in Macedonia. Under the shared heading, ‘Surprise Attack on the Vardar’ both these articles appear sequentially in The Guardian on this day, 1918 :
British Inflict Heavy Losses
‘The French official report of May 1st contains the following: There was reciprocal artillery activity to the west of the Vardar and on the Dobropolje. In the course of a surprise attack successfully carried out against the enemy posts at Macukovo – eastern bank of the Vardar – the British troops inflicted heavy losses on the enemy and brought back some prisoners. British aviators bombed the enemy back areas. One enemy machine was brought down near Ghevgheli by a French aviator.’ ¹
Very Heavy English Losses
‘The Bulgarian report (transmitted by Reuter’s Amsterdam correspondent) says:- To the east of the Vardar the enemy since April 23 has concentrated the fire of a considerable number of his batteries against our positions to the south of the villages of Borgoroditza and Stoyakovo, into which he threw more than 50,000 shells. On the evening of April 29th firing, which had slackened off, grew more intense again, and a short time afterwards a force of about two English battalions attacked our positions. Having been seen in time, a sanguinary repulse was inflicted upon the enemy by our fire. The few English soldiers who succeeded in approaching the artificial obstacles were driven back. Our losses are insignificant, while the enemy’s were very heavy.’¹
The Truth of the Matter
Newspapers providing differing accounts, including enemy reports, is not unusual. Indeed during the early weeks of the Spring Offensive, newspapers, including The Guardian, often included German reports of the fighting. Their rationale was that a victor will describe proceedings more fulsomely than the vanquished.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess the veracity of the French and Bulgarian reports. To start with, the names of villages, ravines and mountains used by the two sides are different. In fact one of the key outputs from the interrogation of prisoners is a list of comparative place names. Also, the action, probably a skirmish in the scheme of things, is not reported in the history books. We do have evidence, from the Battalion diary a few days ago, of Bulgarian casualties as a result of the artillery bombardment. We also know, because of the defensive strongholds of the Bulgars, that attacks on them are costly. It is therefore probably best to assume that there is truth on both sides.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 3rd May 1918 – Saida
RE anti-malarial and screening parties commenced work. All mosquito-proof bivouacs are being erected in separate compounds in each camp.
References & Further Reading
¹ articles from The Guardian, May 3rd, 1918 on page 5