But all of that was
after more or less preparation. Here, the Greeks simply started off and
went over that range with only their rifles and the packs on their
backs. I know of nothing to compare with it save the taking of
Kaymakchalan by the Serbs last November in the operations which freed
Monastir. Not many in Saloniki have had much good to say of the Greek as
a soldier of late, but you may be sure that we can do with more men of
the kind that crossed that mountain range, and there is no reason why
Venizelos should not be able to bring them to us."
[Sidenote: A favorable position for observation.]
The hill from which we were to follow the action jutted out of the
mountains into the plain like the bow of a battleship. So favorable was
its position for observation--from its brow a wide expanse of mountain
and valley was spread from twenty to sixty miles in three
directions--that the British and French as well as the Greeks maintained
posts there. We found the officers in both of the Allied "O. Pips"
[signal corps talk for O.P., meaning observation post] highly
enthusiastic over the work of the Greeks in their attack of the
preceding day.
[Sidenote: The evening bulletin.]
We found two officers in the British Observation Post chuckling over the
evening bulletin, which had just been delivered to them. "You have to
read between the lines of Sarrail's 'Evening Hope' if you want to get at
the real facts," said one of them. "It's what it fails to tell you, that
you really want to know.
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