Harry Odams Lands in Salonika, 1st July 1916

Sergeant Henry D. Odams, Army Service Corps, landed in Salonica on 1st July 1916 after a trouble-free crossing of the Mediterranean.

“We had orders on June 11th to be ready to embark on the 14th from Egypt, and rumours were as usual quickly afloat as to the probable destination – Salonica, France, “Blighty” and finally Russia – but from headquarters’ correspondence confirming the original order, we were apparently for Salonika. In any case, the men were immediately looking forward to a change from sand, flies and sun. They little knew what they were in for, or they would have preferred to remain where they were.

“Our troubles (if so they may be called) commenced at once, for whereas on our voyage out from England the shipping people fed the troops, on this occasion we had to feed ourselves, with the delightful variety of bully beef, biscuits and marmalade one day and marmalade, biscuits and bully beef the next. So you see we got a ‘change’. Sergeants certainly fared a little better, for I prepared for emergencies by boiling a couple of shoulders of bacon, and sent those on board, with a case of tinned fruit and 400 eggs.

“The voyage was simply delightful, as the sea was like a mill-pond, and as we passed through the Grecian Archipelago the sight was a picture: islands on one side or other all the way, and creeks between them, which appeared ideal refuges for submarines, but we were escorted all the way by the destroyers and mine-sweepers and escaped all right, arriving in harbour on Saturday, July 1st. No wonder the Greeks complied with our orders for Salonika lies on a hill side, and the harbour was simply swarming with French and English warships an within ten minutes could have blown the place to ____. We stayed on board overnight and on going to bed one of our sergeants came with the rumour of an air raid in expectation. You can judge of the shock I got at midnight when I was awakened by what I thought was a terrible explosion. I jumped out of bed and rushed to the ship’s side, where our guard was posted. I asked if anybody had been killed, and he laughed and asked me what the matter was with me. There was a strong wind on which had blown a roof off one of the buildings on the dock side, creating the noise which had disturbed me. Consoled, I returned to bed, which consisted of a small mattress on some boards in a horse-stall; not exactly first-class accommodation but after 15 months under varying conditions one does not anticipate feather beds and spring mattresses, and on-shore a bit of soft sand to plant one’s ground sheet and single blanket on becomes a luxury. We got our lorries ashore and got to camp, a few miles out, on the Sunday afternoon, in between some Greek barracks which they had just vacated, leaving us a quantity of 15lb shells but no guns to fire them with. We had French troops on either side of us, and Serbs at machine-gun practice on the mountain side – we were a cosmopolitan crush.

“On the Monday we finished our iron rations, of which we had quite a fill, and I can assure you, the change to frozen beef and baker’s bread as deeply appreciated. The next day we got orders to find a full strength convoy to carry supplies 70 kilometres towards the firing line (about 45 miles each way), and when I tell you we have had to make all the roads here (previously there was practically nothing but mountain tracks), you will guess they are not exactly asphalt pavements, and in places they are very dangerous, with here and there a mountain one side and on the other a sheer drop of hundreds of feet into a ravine, and one slip over and you may never be heard of or seen again.

“The first trip was a big test for our men, and thirst was terrible, as the nature of the atmosphere here is different from Egypt. Whether it was consuming a lot of water, I don’t know, but within a week we had over 200 down with fevers and sickness. I have had a slight attack of sunstroke, but am fit again. There is no getting to town two or three times a week as we could in Egypt; it is all bed and work here, and no-one allowed along the roads, except with a duty pass. It is all soldiers and military vehicles coming and going night and day with an occasional batch of refugees with their all packed on donkeys, making their way to heaven knows where. It makes one think of one’s own country, and its comparative safety. Right away up to the frontier it is nothing but mountains, intersected here and there with struggling villages, mostly now deserted, and one wonders when they are at peace whatever they have to live for, and what their occupation is, for there is very little cultivation, and no sign of other industry. The country swarms with insects and reptiles on the earth and eagles, vultures, etc. in the air. Mosquitoes are our biggest trouble on account of carrying various fever germs, and there is also a fly which carries the fever most of our men have suffered from – sand fly fever. I hope to collect a few souvenirs but cannot anticipate a collection of photos such as I had from Egypt, for cameras are banned here.

“These trips through foreign lands at the country’s expense may be all right in peace times, when one can move more or less without restriction, but under present conditions it is not exactly a picnic, and one needs a constitution to stand it. I was very much grieved to hear of Fred Green’s death. It is hard luck indeed, and the old saying truly applies in his case. The good die first, for he was “One of the best”, and we shall miss him when it is all over and the roll is called.”

‘The Mansfield and North Notts. Advertiser”, 25th August 1916.

Image: IWM Q 31616.