| Historical Information: |
Salonika (now Thessalonika) was occupied in October, 1915, at the invitation of M. Venizelos, by three French Divisions and the 10th (Irish) Division from Gallipoli. Other French and British forces landed-during the year, and in the summer of 1916 Russian and Italian forces joined them. In August, 1916, a Greek Revolution broke out at Salonika, with the result that the Greek National Army came into the War on the Allied side; and these contingents, with the reconstituted Serbian Army, formed the Salonika Army to which the Bulgarians yielded in September, 1918. Salonika was the base of the British Salonika Force, and it contained from time to time eighteen General and Stationary Hospitals (of which three were Canadian, although there were no other Canadian units in the Force). The earliest British burials took place in the local Protestant (or Anglo-German) and Roman Catholic Cemeteries. The British graves in the Roman Catholic Cemetery were moved into the Military Cemetery after the Armistice; but the Protestant Cemetery still contains the graves of soldiers, sailors of the Royal Fleet Reserve, Merchant Seaman, who died in October or November, 1915. The Military Cemetery (formerly known as the Anglo-French Military Cemetery) was begun in November, 1915, and British, French, Serbian, Italian and Russian sections were formed. The British section remained in use until October, 1918, although from the beginning of 1917 burials took place also in Mikra British Cemetery, on the Western side of the town. After the Armistice, graves were concentrated into it from other cemeteries in Macedonia and from Scala Cemetery, near Cassivita, on the island of Thasos. In February and March, 1917, Salonika was the scene of two severe air raids. Many of the graves just North of the Great Cross are those of men who were killed in the raids; and grave space 1606 is marked with the name of one of these men, who is known to have been buried in one of the unidentified graves. |