May 30 1918, Skra–Although the Allies had been fighting the Bulgarians on Greek territory in northern Greece for well over two years, actual Greek participation in the fighting had been minimal so far. Greece did not join the war until the summer of 1917, after the Allies forced King Constantine out at gunpoint, and the country was still deeply divided from the National Schism; anti-Venizelists had little or no attachment to the Allied cause. At the start of 1918, Greek forces in Macedonia were not considerably larger than they had been under Venizelos’ splinter Provisional Government of National Defense.
In the final days of May 1918, Allied artillery began bombarding Bulgarian positions on both sides of the Vardar. The Allies certainly did not have enough resources for a general offensive, but the Bulgarians did not know where (or if) any more local attack would be coming. At 4:55 AM on May 30, Greek troops from Crete and the Aegean islands (Venizelos’ political base) scaled the Skra di Legen, which dominated the west side of the Vardar as the Grand Couronné did the east. They took the Bulgarians by surprise; many machine gun emplacements were found unmanned. By noon, the whole mountain had been seized, and the Greeks held off later Bulgarian counterattacks.
The capture of the Skra di Legen was the largest Allied victory over the Bulgarians since the Greeks entered the war, removing a key obstacle to a further advance up the Vardar. It provided a great boost to Greek morale and support for the war; the Greeks were once again defeated the Bulgarians, as they had five years previously during the Second Balkan War.
