VARDAR AND STRUMA VALLEYS

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23301, 10 April 1941, Page 6

VARDAR AND STRUMA VALLEYS

' Professor Saddler’s Description

The serious threat to Greece that will» result from a German mechanised column advancing across the Vardar plains to the north Of Salonika was emphasised by Professor W. Saddler, of Canterbury University College, in an interview last evening. Professor Saddler served with a battery of 60-pounders in the Struma valley during 1916-18 and in the Vardar valley towards the later part of 1918. The Vardar valley was broad and had good communications, Professor Saddler said. During the last war the Allies held position well up the valley in the Serbian mountains. The broad plains were never directly threatened. It was from the Vardar valley that his battery had crossed the mountains via Bogdanci into Bulgaria. Bogdanci is shown in a map elsewhere in this issue. By the time peace was declared he was near Philippopolis. Mechanised forces in the valley above Salonika might be hard to contain. . Professor Saddler could remember wa.kmg through the Rupel Pass in the Struma valley, which the Greeks have been defending against the German onslaught. The pass was a neck, about, a mile long, between steep mountains and the Struma river. It was a real death trap. The Struma valley itself was, he remembered, easy on the Bulgarian, side for horse-drawn transport. The railway had been constructed since he was there. The floor of the valley was perfectly flat, with towering mountains cn one side and high, wooded hills on- the other. < In March the valley was marshy; during April it became intensely hot. Until October thunder showers were the only rain experienced. Malaria was common in both the Struma and Vardar valleys. Except for the coastal plains and the Vardar valley, the country consisted of little valleys and huge mountains, served by second-class transport facilities.