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Macedonia Update, February 2009
With input from Simon Roberts and Reuben Thorpe, MIFA, Archaeologist
Macedonia is more likely to be associated today with the Yugoslav conflict of the 1990s. Few today remember its part in the World War I Salonica Front, also known as the Macedonia Front, and even at the time better known as the 'forgotten front'. 'Muckydonia' as it was soldier's book of the period, was too small for the headline news, yet troops on the Salonika front suffered the fog of war as much as troops in Flanders, the Somme, or Verdun. Casualties were born from poor communications, malaria was endemic and life behind the lines (unlike in France and Belgium) was woefully unexciting.
The Salonica Front stretched from the Gulf of Orfano to Strumica, traversing Ohrid, Krusevo, Prilep, Gevgelia and Doiran, and even touching Skopje. The bulk of the British Doiran offensive in September 1918 was carried out by the forces of the 22nd Division. This division was made up of men from all over Great Britain but largely from Wales and the North of England. After tragic losses, 22nd Division survivors erected a memorial to their fallen comrades shortly after the war at the strong point and observation position they fought so hard to attain, which was known then as The Devil's Eye on top of Kale Tepe, or the Grand Couronne.
Open to the public
The original memorial was rediscovered among thick undergrowth and vegetation in 2007. To mark the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the British Embassy in Skopje, in conjunction with the Municipality of Doiran, decided to place a replica memorial, inspired by the original, on the site. After sweeping for unexploded ordnance by the Directorate for Protection and Rescue, the area around the memorial was cleared of undergrowth and a path and benches prepared by the Doiran Municipality. Panel boards depicting the battle at Doiran have been erected, and the original memorial can still be seen, with the new memorial above it.
The hollow in front of the 22nd Division Memorial represents part of a large bunker that has been demolished. Other bunkers and positions stood to the east and north, parts of which can be seen today. The bunker complex at the memorial site served a supply and command system of trenches and defenses. It was known to the Bulgarians as the Ferdinand and was so named to commemorate the Bulgarian victory of 1915. Images from the time clearly show the memorial fountain, which is passed on entering the newly reopened site. Dugouts and other strong points can also be seen from the memorial.
An IcoFort site
There is growing international concern about the preservation and conservation of both military archaeology and what are known as 'landscapes of conflict'. In 2005 The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) created a subcommittee, International Scientific Committee on Fortifications and Military Heritage (IcoFort) specifically tasked with dealing with the preservation of military archaeology and advising UNESCO. Much of what is termed military archaeology is encompassed by existing international conventions and European treaties on archaeology and heritage and in principle they are afforded the same status for preservation as would older remains, such as historic places of worship, historic buildings and other archaeological sites.
Macedonia is rich in landscapes of conflict from mid-19th century through to WWII. Doiran itself was not only a site of conflict, but also part of the physical remains of a momentous point in European and world history, one which led, ultimately, to the creation of modern Europe. It is part of a wider and very well preserved landscape of conflict across the entire Salonica front, with trenches and redoubts, bunkers and machine gun nest, foxholes and shell craters all still visible in the undergrowth and largely untouched by modern day development.
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