Transport, too, was so short that the Divisional Supply Trains were obliged to come down to the Base and draw their own forage. Outside the Depot every day there was a string of G.S. waggons over a mile long! The history of the Motor Transport at this period is not without interest. The first Motor Transport did not arrive until October 21, and consisted of seven lorries of 244 M.T. Company, four of which needed repair before they could be moved from the The weather was our enemy quay, and with only two motor all the time. It was bitterly drivers for the lot. The recep- cold and desperately wet and tion accorded them by folks depressing. Three weeks' alashore, tearing their hair for most continuous downpour had transport of any description, is made the dump at the railway better omitted than described. jetty and each of the Supply A few days later the rest of the Depots a foot deep in mud. company landed with a hun- Work in such circumstances dred and ten lorries all told- was doubly arduous and disand no spare parts. These heartening. A 3-ton lorry is vehicles were all converted not the most tractable of London General Omnibuses, vehicles in a foot of sticky which had already seen service mud. in France and in Egypt, and were supposed to be practically worn-out when they arrived, though as a matter of fact, many of them, like Charley's Aunt, are still running. No mercy was shown to this Company, or to 245 Company, the next to arrive. As the vehicles came off the ship, then and there the cabs and petroltanks, which had been removed for stowage purposes, were bolted on, and every lorry immediately set to work. And they continued working, with a double shift, twenty-four hours a day for five strenuous months! At that time there were three Supply Depots, each run by a temporary second lieutenant, which speaks for itself as regards the shortage of personnel. Hard though the Transport worked, it was hopelessly insufficient. If a ship were discharged on the quay for twenty-four hours, it took forty-eight hours to clear it. And some genius among the Royalists invented new pin-priok. Always round the Supply Depot there was string of some fifty Greek Army mules, to whom motor transport was a new experience. Even those who remember the early days of motor-cars and the horse at home can barely imagine the rest! These were mulespack-mules, untrammelled by carts; Macedonian mules, resentful of the presence of these strange monsters on the narrow highway. At a time when every hour was precious, the antios of these brutes caused us the greatest inconvenience and delay. And we had to swallow our knowledge that it was neither an accident nor a coincidence that led to a daily encounter! While on the subject of mules, it may be mentioned that a Mule Depot was formed immediately next door to our Base Supply Depot. Nobody ever settled the question as to which was the more appalling the smell or the flies. Neither was very good for the rations. The Depot was soon in sore need of extension, It overgrew itself much that thousands of cases had to be stored in the road. Application was made, therefore, for the mules to be removed. Colonel Messalas was very nice about it. A dozen animals were shifted next morning. Then nothing further happened for & fortnight, when the application was renewed. Colonel Messalas was even nicer this time, and his subordinates positively beamed. Quite thirty animals were ostentatiously transferred next morning. Altogether it took three months to get rid of them, and then six weeks of hard unpleasant work were required to clear away the manure. Another transport trouble was the brigandage of some of the Greek soldiery. There was only one man on each lorry, of course, as the second driver was working on the other shift. When the lorry slowed down on a hill, a Greek seldier would spring on board and pitch off a case or two, while a comrade covered the driver with his rifle. This became so serious that the French armed their men with carbines. But the British M.T. had no rifles. They had been given up in Egypt for use in the Dardanelles. Many of the men, however, bought revolvers on their own account, which were taken away when things had quieted down, and handed into the C.Q.M.'s stores for return après la guerre ! There were difficulties everywhere. For one thing, there was a lack of tarpaulins, and many supplies were damaged by rain. For another, there was a grave shortage of tyres. There was no tyre-press in the country, and when renewal was absolutely necessary, the wheels had to be sent to Egypt to have the new tyres pressed on. And all the while the weather was vile beyond words. When the Field Bakery was at last got to work, much of its first big bake was spoiled by the backs of the ovens being washed away. The Aldershot pattern supplied was useless for such weather. Perkins' Travelling Ovens were promptly demanded, but meanwhile the Field Bakery men were not exactly the happiest or most popular of mortals. No praise can be too high for the men who toiled so strenuously and so cheerfully amid such discomfort, or lay shivering in their damp tents at night. Beyond all question, it was largely due to the grit of the drivers of 244 and 245 M.T. Companies, who slithered day and night over those muddy nightmares of roads, that the heavilyhandicapped Salonica army ever got off from the starting-post for that hopeless race to Serbia at all. Amid a welter of mud and obstruction, hampered by insufficient personnel and vehicles, the A.S.C. had to cater for an army of ever-increasing numbers. Munitions had also to be handled, and likewise a thousand and one other things that are part of a modern army in the Field. There were only the worst of roads, the poorest of facilities, and all the time their work was hindered by the furtive hostility of Colonel Messalas and his merry men at a time when every minute was of value. Yet in spite of all this, the army never actually went wanting, though the possibility of running dangerously short of supplies weighed on the A.S.C. like a nightmare during the whole of this period, At the end of November supplies of tea, jam, and sugar ran very low owing to the arrivals of new troops without rations. In one instance a transport came in with troops supposed to be carrying twenty days' landing rations. Actually the men had to be issued with four days' rations while still on board! Frequently there was only two days' stock of essentials in hand, and on more than one Occasion there was nothing available for the morrow. In VI. the middle of October instructions were received from the Military Attaché that no more local purchases of food-stuffs were to be made, and that the Greek Government would not ratify any bargains, the delivery of which had not been completed. This meant that the feeding of the force must be wholly dependent on supply ships, and by the middle of December the feeding strength was 90,000 men and 25,000 horses. All the time there was a petrol shortage. Loans were obtained from the French on several are rather occasions, and the whole of the available stook in Salonica was purchased from the Standard Oil Com. pany. The circumstances of this transaction amusing. Mr Smith, the Standard Company's chief representative, was always our friend. When it was reported to him that the Obstructionists objected to him selling his stock to us, that they meant to commandeer it for themselves, and had placed sentries at the doors of his depot to prevent any more being delivered to us, like a good American he merely said "sthat 80 ?" Then he spat reflectively at the mantelpiece. (Of course he doesn't spit, really, and there wasn't any mantelpiece-but it's the sort of story that demands to be told like that!) Our Main Supply Depot was immediately behind his warehouse. So, knowing the greatness of our need, he arranged for his men quietly to push the whole of his stock over the wall on to our premises. All day long the work went on— while the Greek pro-German emissaries solemnly stood guard in front to make sure that the British were not getting any petrol! On the 26th December, however, the supply was entirely exhausted. But luckily the next day the Cazo Bonito arrived with 50,000 gallons. It ought to be clear by now that the promises of the opening words of this article have been rigidly adhered to. Nothing has been said about the Berlin-Baghdad railwayand there hasn't been a word about the fighting. Of course in the days under review there wasn't any. There was only an army getting ready in the mud and the cold, and when an army is getting ready, naturally the A.S. C. from the nature of its duties comes more to the front than usual. That is why this account has become of necessity mainly an A.S.C. chronicle. The A.S.C. stands in no need of advertisement. Rightly the glory of war is for the man who fights. The A.S.C.'s proudest testimonial is the fact that all the Army pulls its leg. Whom Tommy loves he "chips"! The record of the A.S.C. in this war has been a very fine one; it was not made the R.A.S.C. for nothing. And so far as the Salonica campaign is conoerned, it "made good" in spite of home - confusion and local obstruction and difficulty, with an efficiency, adaptability, and foresight of which it may well feel a little proud. 2 # VOL. CCV.NO. MCCXLII. DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAINS. To those who have spent long months among the snows of the Alps, the words "going down" have a magic all their own. During the winter the exhilaration of the clear air, the brilliance of the sunshine, and the stillness of the mountain solitudes hold one as by a spell. But now March was here; and the sensation of quickened vitality which spring inspires in every living creature was tingling in my veins, and brought with it an unconquerable restlessness. Looking down into the valley 4000 feet below, one knew that nature was there breaking into all its vernal beauty. White violets would be peeping from orannies in the vineyard walls, and the almond - trees, blushing fresh and fair, would be glad dening the otherwise barren fields. The charm of our life, perched as we were upon a ledge overhanging the world, suddenly failed in attractiveness, and in its place sprang up a desire for life and movement for the sights and sounds of a town, for the cry of the newsvendors, the orack of whips, or the olang of the tram-bells in the streets. The pleasure-seekers and the sport enthusiasts had left us long before, and the hotel visitors had shrunk to a little band consisting for the most part of invalids and those who bore them company. To us who still remained the ques tion of how much longer the frost would hold was of paramount interest, and we asked each other almost daily, "Have you made any plans about going down?" Around us as yet there was small sign of spring; the scene looked as wintry as at Christmas. Snow enveloped the landscape, glittering brilliantly in the sunshine, or lying grey-white in the shade. Pines and larches alone emerged, and stood in irregular clusters of greenish blackness, their gloom heightened by contrast with their surroundings. These gnarled and twisted trees, firmly rooted among the rooks, appeared so ancient and so weather-beaten that one wondered whether youth could ever have been theirs. The characteristic features in these high altitudes are curiously uniform-a study in three colours: the vivid whiteness of the slopes, the sombre tint of the firs, and, above and embracing all, the glorious blue of the heavens. Let no one think of snow as lifeless or monotonous. With the exception of the sea, nothing in nature in nature reflects the moods of the elements 80 vividly. It lies silver in the moonlight, gleams like fairy crystals under the stars, takes on & warm look from the glow of the sun, flushes in the orimson of sunset, or remains dead and shadowless beneath a threatening sky. Its tex |