CHAPTER X
THE “SLAVA DAY” OF THE SECONDREGIMENT
Thecompanies used to take turns at working at the ports for about three weeks, and when our turn came the men were very pleased, as they much preferred it to doing drill, and they were able to occasionally get into the town also. We were camped about a mile and a half outside the town, but I thought it was the nastiest camp that I had ever been in—a very small crowded piece of ground with no shade, so that when the weather was hot we were perfectly roasted, and when itwas wet, when you tried to climb up the narrow steep path to it, you slipped back two steps for one you went up, in the thick slippery mud.
I gave up my room in town, as our camp was close enough to walk to. I could make myself understood pretty well in Serbian by now, though, of course, I made awful mistakes, as it is by far the most difficult language I have ever come across to learn, there being no books to help one. One can only pick it up by ear; so it is no wonder if I was occasionally misunderstood.
One day I told my orderly to go and fetch my thick coat, which he would find on a chair in my room, and bring it to me in camp. He duly arrived back about an hour afterwards with the coatandthechair, which he had carried all through the town, and was much discomfited at the howls of laughter with which we all greeted him. I asked him what the land-lady had said to his removing her furniture like that, and he confessed that she had made a few remarks, but, as she spoke nothing but Italian and he nothing but Serbian, they passed lightly over his head, and he triumphantly carried out what he had taken to be my orders. He was a capital orderly, always cheerful and willing. One day he told me, in answer to some remark of mine, that as my orderly he would not have to fight. “Will you fight with us going back to Serbia, like you did in Albania?” he asked. “Why, of course I shall, Dragoutini,” I said. His face beamed. “Then I shall go with you andfight beside you,” he declared emphatically.
We went back to our camp in the hills when our three weeks were up, and to our great joy we heard that we were to embark almost immediately for Salonica.
They let us stay a day longer than was intended in order to celebrate the regimental “Slava day,” which is a great festival, and the whole regiment wasen fêtefor the whole day. The Crown Prince Alexander himself came, and a great many French and English officers and a few ladies.
It was held in a beautiful big, flat glade, just below the camp, with huge big spreading trees. There was a large marquee decorated with all the different flags of the Allies, and everybody had been busy for the last week making paths and generallybeautifying the place, and practising for the big march past of the regiment.
We had a variety of talent in our regiment; among others a young student of sculpture. Building four high pillars of clayey mud flanking the path leading to the marquee, he carved on each a beautiful bas-relief. The first one represented a haggard, weary, beaten Serbian soldier going into exile; the next a Serbian soldier re-equipped, holding his new rifle in his hand, his expression full of fierce determination, standing in a striking attitude with his face to the foe again; while on a third was the head of a woman with a look of patient expectancy on her beautiful face, representing the women who were waiting in Serbia for the return of their sons and husbands to deliver them from the bondageof the hated Austrian-Bulgarian oppressors. They were most striking figures, and some day that young Serbian soldier will become known as a very great sculptor.
It was an ideal spot for afête, and we hoped anxiously that the weather, which had looked rather threatening, would hold up. The whole regiment was astir very early, and we were all drawn up under the trees before the guests arrived.
I was talking to the Colonel, when he suddenly asked me where my company was drawn up.
“Just behind the Third,” I replied, pointing over in that direction.
“Well, come over there with me, I want to speak to them,” he said, and we went over, I wondering what he was going to say, and was more than astonished whenI found the surprise in store for me. They all sprang to attention, and then, with me standing by his side, he made them a long speech, which all the other companies round could hear also, and said that he was promoting me to sergeant on that their great regimental “Slava day.” Generally you are just promoted, and it is entered in the books in the ordinary way, and it was a very great honour to have a public sort of ceremony like that, especially on such a day. They all shouted “Jivio” three times for me when he had finished, and, though I felt extremely shy and embarrassed, I was very much pleased.
All the officers in the regiment and a great many of the men came up and shook hands with me afterwards, and congratulated me, and the Commander of thebattalion sent his orderly off for some spare stars which he had, and fixed my second ones on my shoulders there and then.
Later on the General of the First Army, who was one of the guests, when he heard I was one of his soldiers, also added his congratulations; in fact, I have never in my life had so much handshaking and patting on the back.
Presently the Crown Prince arrived and the rest of the guests. The whole regiment, headed by the band and the regimental flag, marched past him and saluted, and to see these fine healthy-looking fellows, with their swinging stride, you would never have guessed they were the same men who had gone through that terrible retreat in the Albanian mountainsand arrived at Corfu in such a deplorable condition two months before.
The guests all sat down to lunch in the big marquee, and after that there were songs, dancing, etc. The Crown Prince had to leave early, but said he would come back again later on.
I had invited two of my friends from the English hospital, and they enjoyed themselves immensely, and we all—guests, officers and men—danced the “Kolo” and all the other Serbian national dances together until evening.
Later on there was another big lunch and a great many speeches from the representatives of the English, French and Italian Allies. True to his promise Prince Alexander came back later in the afternoon, specially to chat with the soldiers, amongwhom he walked about in the friendliest manner, enquiring after their families, how they had been wounded, etc., etc. It was easy to see how popular he is with his Army, and how pleased and proud the men were as they crowded round him.
We kept it up the whole day and late that night after all the guests had gone, in spite of the fact that we should have to be astir very early next morning, as we were to embark for Salonica.
We had a very hot, dusty tramp down to the embarking stage, and I had very bad luck, as I lost my dog “Mali,” who was a most faithful little brute, though it would be hard to describe his breed. He was a stray who had attached himself to an officer and afterwards been handed over to me, and he was always at my heels,never quitting me for a moment and sleeping in my tent. Even when I was dancing the previous day he had nearly upset several people in his anxiety to keep close to me. It was only about half an hour before the boat sailed that I missed him. In the immense crowd of soldiers he had lost sight of me for a moment, and then could not trace me, and someone eventually told me that they had seen him starting back along the hot, dusty road to camp looking for me, and, as I dared not miss the boat on his account, I had reluctantly to give up the search.
The boat was a fine French Transatlantic boat, but the first day out at sea was very rough, and the men, who are anything but good sailors, lay aboutprostrate, declaring that they would rather have ten days’ continuous battle on land than one day on board ship.
However, Easter Sunday was very fine, and we all landed next day quite fit at Salonica. Our camp was up on the hills about seventeen miles from the town. It was a lovely place, and had the further advantage of having a spring of very good mineral water, which was a great luxury, as the drinking water around Salonica is not good as a rule.
The transportation of the Serbian Army from Corfu to Salonica was going on apace, and within a few weeks the whole force was safely landed without a single casualty.
The men were fully equipped down to the very last button—new English khakiuniforms, belts, rifles, water-bottles, absolutely everything.
I went home on a couple of months’ leave, leaving them full of spirits, and eagerly looking forward to the time when we could get another whack at the enemy, and march victoriously back into Serbia; and with any luck I hope some day to be able to describe how we accomplished it, and the triumphal entry into Nish which we are always talking about.
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