Description
Bronze British War Medal, 11710 Muleteer Constandinos S. Ioannou, Macedonian Mule Corps. The Greek Cypriots who enlisted from Annexed British Cyprus to take part in World War 1.
Officially impressed: “11710 Muleteer Macedonian Mule C.”
Confirmed on the medal roll as Mr Constandinos S. Ioannou, who served in the Macedonian Mule Corps from 25th April 1918 until 28th May 1919.
Good surviving condition as most of these medals to the Macedonian Mule Corps tend to appear in very worn conditions.
The Macedonian Mule Corps was an unusual non-combatant unit formed in 1916 to assist the nearby British Salonika Army.
The men were sent to the Macedonian Front (October 1915 – 30th September 1918) and also served in the Southern Russia Intervention (Dec 1918 to April 1919).
The corps is most well known for their high number of Cypriot Muleteers, like this man, but even managed to recruit about 11% of their strength from the Muslim Turkish Cypriots of the country.
Recruiting was very successful, at one point, 20% of the total Cypriot Male Population aged between 19 and 39 years old were serving with the unit.
The only problem was that British Recruiters had misled many recruits, promising them that they would be far from the front-lines, when they would be anything but that, alongside the high wages of “90 Drachmas” per month it seemed very tempting alongside the free food and clothing. Recruiters also relied on the Nationalist “Macedonian Brothers” tactic calling back to the proud history of the Greek Cypriots through “Pro-Enosis rhetoric” which spurred many of the Cypriots to enlist.
The men and their mules had a tough time, they had only 15 days of basic training in Cyprus, followed by being sent over to Salonika for active service, where they received some specialised Mule and Weapons training.
Although they were meant to be completely unarmed, some veterans noted they were given Lee Enfield’s for self defence.
The Muleteers were tasked with many difficult jobs, they had to transport food, weapons, ammunition and water up to the front as well as taking back with them wounded soldiers, and also worked on road construction duties.
The war front in Macedonia was unforgiving, the men and their mules had to endure navigating swamps, river and mountains both during the night and under freezing cold temperatures.
After going through all this, following the end of War in Macedonia, the men had an even less appealing destination to visit, Russia, during the Southern Russian Intervention, Muleteer Iannou, happened to serve in the later part of the war and throughout the periods of the Southern Russian campaign which ended just before his discharge the next month.
