My Diary in Serbia Part 11

Several other members of different units arrived from Belgrade during the day.

At 2.30 an enemy aeroplane came over Nish. No bombs were dropped, so they had come to spy. Three French aeroplanes went after it and drove it away; they also fired on it with the aircraft guns. We heard that one of the trains from Belgrade had been fired at by the Germans and that twenty-five civilians had been killed. We had a service at the rest house at 5 o'clock. Two aeroplanes had arrived during the afternoon and were going on to Kragujevatz.

We left by the 8.30 p.m. train for Salonika.

Monday, _October 11, 1915._

It was a lovely day and most interesting journey. All along there are camps, wire entanglements and trenches. Some of the camps are amongst the trees and can scarcely be seen, as they are made of sticks and mud. The sentry guards also along the line have curious dug-outs, to which they go down by steps. The haystacks, instead of being on the ground as in England, are fixed up in trees, like huge beehives, as the ground gets so swampy. The Serbs and the Albanians look most picturesque. These must have been the regiments I saw coming along when I was staying at Uskub. We have just seen a wolf chasing a young deer; they pa.s.sed close by the train. It seems dreadful to leave this glorious country with its brilliant suns.h.i.+ne and bright colours, until we see all the horrors that are going on so near to us.

We arrived at Uskub at 7 o'clock; had breakfast at the station, and a few minutes before our train arrived 170 Bulgarian prisoners had been brought in. They were tied together in batches by ropes. I saw one or two of the nurses from Lady Paget's on the platform; they had been to see some friends off. Our train left again at 7.25; then we pa.s.sed through wonderful gorges; this of course would make the fighting very difficult.

Our next stop was the frontier Ghevghili(?). Most of the pa.s.sengers'

luggage was examined; it was also weighed, and we had to pay on ours.

We arrived at Salonika at 8.30 p.m. We found the station full of Greek soldiers; many of them were on the ground asleep. We had to leave our large luggage for the night, then we took a carriage and went to the hotel _Olympus_, where we had wired for rooms. We saw many of our English and French troops as we drove down; this of course cheered us up. We heard there were 25,000 French and 11,000 English, and that they had been detained by the Greeks, as they were expected in Serbia some days before.

On arriving at the hotel we made ourselves tidy, went down to dinner, found the room full of English and French; several of them gave us a hearty welcome as there were no English women in Salonika. One officer told us that an American, sitting at their table had insisted on it that we were Americans, and what a great deal the Americans had been doing in Serbia, and the point had been argued, so there was great excitement to know what nationality we were, and the English officers were delighted to find they were right.

We are all hoping that the Greeks will join us, and that they will all be going up to Serbia in a day or so.

Tuesday, _October 12, 1915._

Two English officers invited us out to tea to the cafe near, and were much interested in hearing all our experiences in Serbia. In the evening we went to a cinema.

Wednesday, _October 13, 1915._

We had to go and have our pa.s.sports inspected by the English, French, and Italian consuls; we got some money changed and did some shopping.

The Turkish markets are very interesting and the salesmen very amusing, and bargaining is very necessary as they begin by asking often more than double the amount they are prepared to take.

The Greek shops are very fine, full of beautiful things, and the fas.h.i.+ons quite up to date. We have a nice little Greek lady staying here from Athens; she told us it was a known fact that the Germans had lost over three million men. She also told us that seven French officers had escaped from Stuttgart; they were let out of prison as they bribed the man who was looking after them. They walked all the way from Stuttgart through Switzerland to France, having been given sufficient food for their journey, a compa.s.s and a map, and advised not to speak to any one on the way. They said they never met a man all the way through Germany; women were armed outside forts, railways and along roads; every man had gone to fight.

Thursday, _October 14, 1915._

There are eight battles.h.i.+ps in the harbour, French and English. The Greeks are mobilized, and are ready to join whichever side they think the best. They have copied the English in their uniform.

A Turkish aeroplane pa.s.sed over to-day. Our boat, the _Sydney_, has arrived in the harbour, so we went to choose our berths.

About forty boats arrived to-day with English, French, and Greek troops. We went to watch the horses and mules being unloaded at the docks; there are more mules than horses; they find them much hardier.

Friday, _October 15, 1915._

We had an interesting day; one of the doctors from Lady Paget's came to see me, then the captain from the _Abba.s.sieh_, who had brought out some of the units and knew the three sisters who were with me. He invited us to lunch on his s.h.i.+p; he had brought in troops from the Dardanelles, and was doing transport work. He told us that he had brought 1,300 and that he had only sufficient life boats for 300. In Salonika we had the Dorsets, the Norfolks, the Herefords, Royal West Kent, Royal Engineers, the Army Service Corps, and the Royal Army Medical Corps, and several other regiments that were going up to Serbia.

The captain asked what boat I had come out on to Serbia. When I said "the _Saidieh_," he said, "Why, the chief officer is now on my boat, as the _Saidieh_ was torpedoed some time ago"; and he sent for him to see us. It was very pleasant meeting again and hearing his story; he was made captain of another boat, but it had been so much damaged with sh.e.l.l fire that it could not be used.

Sat.u.r.day, _October 16, 1915._

In the afternoon the commander from the battles.h.i.+p H.M.S. _Albion_ came to have tea with us, and invited us to tea on his s.h.i.+p the following day.

We heard to-day that some of the French troops had gone up to the Bulgarian frontier; we also heard that Perot had been taken by the Bulgarians, and that the line between Nish and Uskub had been blown up.

Martial law is in force here, and pickets are all along the front. The English, French, and Greek officers all had to salute each other.

Sunday, _October 17, 1915._

This morning we went over two old Greek temples, Demetrius and St.

George; they were taken by the Turks and turned into mosques. The Turks had whitewashed all over the mosaic and marble pillars; fortunately the whitewash is crumbling away, and one can see the mosaic through.

A story is told that one of the large panels of marble is supposed to bleed when anything serious is going to happen; it is a kind of grey-red, very lovely, and the blood trickles through the cracks. The priest in Demetrius was standing with a cross and a piece of bosaliac, known to us as hyssop. The Greek soldiers were going up to him, kissing the cross, and then he sprinkled their heads with holy water with the bosaliac.

We went to see the wonderful old bridge that Hadrian, the Roman Emperor, built.

In the afternoon we went to H.M.S. _Albion_ to tea; it is a very fine s.h.i.+p, and of course of great interest to us. It has been damaged many times with sh.e.l.l fire; we went all over and it was most interesting.

Lady Paget arrived here last evening, and five of the sisters from Admiral Troubridge's unit, as they had been staying the night with her at Uskub. Two of them were returning to England with us.

Monday, _October 18, 1915._

We hear that the _Sydney_ sails to-morrow at 4 o'clock, so we made our preparations for leaving.

We have seen crowds of refugees coming into the town to-day, many of them sleeping on the doorsteps, huddled up in the corners. One poor man died on the road, and I expect many others will not survive as they had walked so many miles.

Tuesday, _October 19, 1915._

We got our luggage on our boat the _Sydney_ early, then we took a small boat out to the hospital s.h.i.+p, the _Grantully Castle_, London, as the military doctor said the matron would so much like to see us.

On arriving we were received by the matron and the English chaplain; we were taken all over the s.h.i.+p; it was beautifully fitted up, and they had every convenience. There were three of our naval men from Belgrade, two of whom had been wounded, and the other one was threatened with appendicitis. Forty English soldiers had been taken on board the night before, suffering from illnesses of different kinds.

The nine nurses were Australians, the matron English. We were invited to lunch, but could not spare the time, as we had to get back early to the hotel on account of leaving in the afternoon. We left the hotel at 3.30 and at once went on board. One of the doctors from Lady Paget's hospital is with us, two of the nurses from Admiral Troubridge's unit, six of the Scottish nurses from the women's hospital, Valievo, two French doctors, and an English lady from Bulgaria who had been teaching there for the last six years, also the military attache from Bulgaria, a naval member of Parliament who was carrying dispatches, also Brigadier General Koe, who was engaged in transport work.

We left Solonika at 5 o'clock. This boat is quite nice and beautifully clean, very different from the one we came out in. It is a French boat belonging to the Maritime Line. We had a good pa.s.sage as far as Lemnos, where we arrived at 7 p.m. General Koe got off here.

Wednesday, _October 20, 1915._

Lemnos is a barren-looking place, mountainous all round, no trees, and it is covered with the English and French camps. There is a new hospital being built at the water's edge. There is no fresh water, and experts have been sent from England to sink artesian wells. The water had to be taken out in tanks. One lady at Ma.r.s.eilles sent out s.h.i.+p-loads of soda water for the soldiers. The harbour is full of battles.h.i.+ps, chiefly French, and there are several hospital s.h.i.+ps, also many transports. The largest s.h.i.+p is the _Aquitania_ from Liverpool, with four large funnels. Mines and nets are all round us; at several points of the island guns are fixed; we could hear firing this afternoon, and we were told that at Imbros one could see the sh.e.l.ls bursting at the Dardanelles. We stayed at Lemnos eight hours; it is a lovely day and very calm.

Thursday, _October 21, 1915._