Coalition Warfare: British Soldiers in Salonika, 1915-18

Join Dr Jake Gasson as he explores the unique challenges faced by British soldiers serving on the Salonika front during the First World War.

British soldiers in Salonika served in an army that was distinctly multinational, more so than in any other theatre of the First World War. Mostly fought across parts of modern-day North Macedonia and northern Greece, the campaign brought together troops from Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Serbia and Greece, as well as contingents from across the British and French colonial empires.

For generals and politicians, fighting as part of such a diverse force created tensions when determining strategy and orchestrating battles. Soldiers of Britain’s forces in Salonika also had to learn to live and fight alongside their allies. Coalition warfare meant confronting numerous challenges, including varying values, beliefs and interests, not to mention military practices.

In this talk, Dr Jake Gasson will examine how British soldiers navigated these challenges and ultimately contributed to the defeat of the Bulgarian army in September 1918.

About the speaker

Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he works on the Second World War service records of the British and Commonwealth armies. He holds a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, focusing on the Macedonian front during the First World War, which received the André Corvisier Prize from the International Commission for Military History.