Hospital and re-training in England (April - Sept
1918)
"We arrived safely in Southampton and I wired
home 'All's well'. We proceeded to Newport, Monmouthshire
where I spent the best time I ever had in the army.
It was now April 1918 and I heard the news that the
RGLI had been massacred at Cambrai. Within four months
my wounds were perfectly healed. I was sent on ten
days hospital leave and then to Catterick Bridge,
Yorkshire for gradual training. After six weeks, a
further ten days leave and five weeks training in
High Wycombe I was put on a draft for Salonica."
Salonica, Greece (Oct - Nov 1918)
In September 1918 British Divisions from Salonica
had sustained very heavy casualties in an offensive
intended to end the war in the Balkans.
"We left Blighty on the 14th October 1918 from
Southampton for Cherbourg then the next night entrained
for the ten day journey to Taranto, Italy. Embarked
at Taranto for Greece thence in a twelve lorry convoy
through the Golden Pass and a two day train journey
to the Salonican base called Summer Hill. I was
posted to mule transport and then shifted to D Howitzer
Battery, 27th Division. It was now November 1918
and Bulgaria and Germany had signed the Armistice."
Post-war intervention in Russia (Dec 1918 - April
1919)
"After only two months in Greece the 27th
Division was ordered to Russia. We had two boats
to carry us from Salonica and going through the
Dardanelles we saw sunken ships and had splendid
views of Constantinople. We went through the Bosphorous
to the Black Sea, arrived at Batoum, Russia on Christmas
Eve and spent Christmas Day unloading wagons, guns,
horses, ammunition, food and forage for ninety days
rations, in heavy drizzling rain. The worse Christmas
I have ever spent. We stayed in Batoum for fifteen
days chasing the Turks away then entrained for the
200 mile journey inland to Tiflis were we spent
another fifteen days doing the same thing. We then
moved 300 miles up country to Baku on the Caspian
Sea. We had not tasted bread for two months. At
Baku we met up with Allenby's army which had had
a hard time marching through Persia. Baku, as other
places, was in disorder with a mixed population
of Georgians, Armenians, Kerenskys, Bolsheviks,
Russians etc. We had rather a hot time patrolling
the towns, being fired on from time to time. One
of the main objects of the British was to guard
the oil wells, all along the railway line from Baku
to Batoum, some 500 miles, were four rows of big
oil pipes.
The place was swarming with diseases of all kinds.
After a month I was struck down with typhus and
immediately admitted to hospital where I was fed
on milk only, for three weeks. A great many died
of this disease and I was thankful to have pulled
through. Left on a Russian hospital train for Batoum
thence on the old s/s Nile for Salonica via Varna,
Bulgaria to pick up more troops. With 1,400 troops
onboard the ship anchored for two days at Constantinople.
We saw hundreds of warships there, British, French,
Japanese, American and Italian."
Return to England and demobilisation (May 1919)
On arriving at Dover Edmund and four other artillerymen
were sent to report at Woolwich. It was now May
1919. After being kept waiting in the barracks he
was eventually sent to Fovant, Wiltshire to be demobilized,
the end of an army career which had lasted from
26 July 1914 to 3rd June 1919.
Edmund returned to St. Peter's and died in that
parish in 1992 at the age of 96.
* information above on the 7th Division obtained
from the Long, Long Trail website at:
http://www.1914-1918.net/7div.htm
Interview
with Edmund Lenfesty
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