The application of ‘Small Wars’ theory and experience by the British Army in Macedonia during the First World War

Abstract

ABSTRACT Historians of the British Army during the First World War have emphasised the shift from the small pre-war professional army engaged in imperial policing to the mass citizen army capable of conducting modern industrialised warfare on the European continent. That the conflict’s global dimensions led British forces beyond the Western Front to operate in conditions which bore remarkable resemblance to those encountered during the ‘small wars’ of the nineteenth century and confront comparably irregular adversaries has remained understudied, not least in how earlier experiences affected how such challenges were met. This article redresses this omission by examining how the expeditionary force in Macedonia, the British Salonika Force, was guided by institutional and individual experiences of ‘small wars’ when approaching the challenges posed by the region, not least the hostile indigenous population and comitadji irregulars.