Mountains, Mules and Malaria: Soldiering with the British Salonika Force 1915-1918 | Alan Wakefield

Over the years, we have filmed quite a lot of speakers at the branch. These have been available to view on the WFA's YouTube channel, and can also be found as 'articles' on the WFA website. However these videos have not been separately grouped for those visiting the Yorkshire branch 'landing page' on the website.

By starting a process of loading these onto the branch page, this makes a number of talks that stretch back to about 2019 'visible'. The second of these is 'Mountains, Mules and Malaria: Soldiering with the British Salonika Force 1915-1918 given by Alan Wakefield in September 2019

In a superbly illustrated presentation, Alan explains why the British were in Salonika and what the soldiers there had to put up with.

The Salonika Campaign is very much one of the forgotten episodes of the First World War. Regarded as an unwanted sideshow the British still committed 228,000 soldiers to a multi-national Allied force in the Balkans fighting the Bulgarians. This talk sheds light on the experiences of British soldiers serving in Macedonia between 1915 and 1918. Personal accounts from letters, diaries and memoirs are used to illustrate points in the narrative.

The nature of warfare in Macedonia and the problems posed by extremes of climate and by disease are discussed in detail.