End of the battle of Doiran

On the morning of 9 May 1917 the second British attack on the Bulgarian positions west of Lake Dojran was drawing to a close. The assault of the British 26th Division had begun the previous evening at 9.50 p.m., under a bright moon. The aim was to straighten the line between the lake and the hill of Petit Couronné, where after the failed attack of 24 April the British were still stuck. The Scottish battalions of the 77th Brigade broke into the Bulgarian trenches in the evening but were thrown out of them. Just after midnight a battalion of the Oxford and Bucks attacked Petit Couronné. Its commander, Major Homan, set off a few minutes before the appointed time, and according to the accounts of survivors his men came under the shells of their own heavy artillery. Even so, they gained a foothold in the south-eastern corner of the Bulgarian work marked on the maps as O 4.

A night of chaos

By 2.30 a.m. none of the three Scottish battalions was still holding on in the Bulgarian trenches. The 26th Division’s command decided to renew the attack before dawn, with the help of the Gloucester and Worcester battalions from reserve. According to the British official history, a series of delays and misunderstandings then began. The battalions did not have time to deploy, the hour of attack was moved several times, and orders arrived too late or not at all. The remnants of the Black Watch battalion, with a company of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, went forward alone at 4.30 a.m. and were stopped by the wire. The Gloucester battalion attacked punctually at 5.50 a.m. and found the first trenches empty, with the bodies of Bulgarians. Meanwhile a mistaken report reached the divisional commander that the units on the right had withdrawn, and he ordered all units of the 77th Brigade to retire. It was getting light, and it was impossible to remain on the exposed slope.

On Petit Couronné the fighting lasted longer. At about 5 a.m. Lieutenant-Colonel Dene led three companies of the Berkshire battalion with the remnants of the Oxford and Bucks in a new attack and occupied almost the whole of work O 4. A party of bombers even fought its way halfway along the trench linking it to the neighbouring position. Then the fire of the Bulgarian heavy artillery fell on the summit, sparing not even their own soldiers in the neighbouring trench, and the Bulgarian infantry counter-attacked. The British held on in part of the work. Lieutenant J. B. White of the field artillery went up the hill with the infantry. He had no telephone and passed his reports to the rear with a lamp. This was, according to Falls, the only case that night in which communication with the units in the enemy trenches did not fail. White directed fire on the Bulgarian trench mortars and broke up the morning counter-attack.

Withdrawal

About 250 men remained on the summit. The positions on both sides of Petit Couronné stayed in Bulgarian hands, so there was no chance of holding out longer. At 11.50 a.m. General Gay, commander of the 26th Division, ordered them to be withdrawn. Just before noon Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson, who had replaced the wounded Dene, was mortally wounded, and command passed to Captain S. A. Pike of the Berkshire battalion. He divided the men into groups of twelve and brought them down one after another through the Tor ravine. Almost all the wounded were brought away, even those from the summit. Only four wounded men were left behind. The Bulgarians once again retook the whole hill. The British were left with only minor gains further west: during the night the 22nd Division occupied the undefended Roach Back ridge, and the 60th Division several hills in front of its line.

The reckoning

According to the British official history, during the night of 8–9 May the British lost 1,861 men, 1,743 of them in the 26th Division. In the two attacks this one division lost 3,888 men. In the following days the Bulgarian artillery deluged the new positions and the casualty list grew. According to Colonel Nedev, the Bulgarians lost 489 men in the second attack. Their 9th Pleven Division under Colonel Vladimir Vazov proved once again that it was the best unit on this front. Falls attributes the defeat to the same causes as in April: too weak an artillery, lack of communications and reserves committed too late.

On 9 May Milne did not yet intend to stop. He ordered the bombardment to continue and prepared to capture a large redoubt on the Flat Iron hill in front of the 60th Division, to help the attack west of the Vardar, which had begun that morning. During the night of 14–15 May his soldiers also occupied the Fish Back ridge. Soon, however, news came that the 60th Division was to leave Macedonia at once, and Sarrail announced that the French and Serbian attacks had ceased. Milne cancelled the planned operation and silence fell over Dojran. Vazov was soon promoted to general. The British returned to the same hills only in September 1918.