The Greek army, which had been concentrated at Larissa, entered
Macedonia by the Pass and the valley of the Xerias River. The Turks
met the advancing force at Elassona but retired after a few hours'
fighting. They took their stand at the pass of Sarandaporon, from
which they were driven by a day's hard fighting on the part of the
Greek army and the masterly tactics of the Crown Prince. On October
23 the Greeks were in possession of Serndje. Thence they pushed
forward on both sides of the Aliakmon River toward Veria, which the
Crown Prince entered with his staff on the morning of October 30.
They had covered 150 miles from Larissa, with no facilities but
wagons for feeding the army and supplying ammunition. But at Veria
they struck the line of railway from Monastir to Saloniki. Not far
away was Jenitsa, where the Turkish army numbering from 35,000 to
40,000 had concentrated to make a stand for the protection of
Saloniki. The battle of Jenitsa was fiercely contested but the
Greeks were victorious though they lost about 2000 men. This victory
opened the way to Saloniki. The Turkish armies which defended it
having been scattered by the Greek forces, that city surrendered to
Crown Prince Constantine on the eighth of November. It was only
three weeks since the Greek army had left Larissa and it had
disposed of about 60,000 Turks on the way.
On the outbreak of war Greece had declared a blockade of all Turkish
ports. To the usual list of contraband articles there were added not
only coal, concerning which the practice of belligerent nations had
varied, but also machine oil, which so far as I know was then for
the first time declared contraband of war. As Turkey imported both
coal and lubricants, the purpose of this policy was of course to
paralyze transportation in the Ottoman Empire. Incidentally I may
say the prohibition of lubricating oil caused much inconvenience to
American commerce; not, however, primarily on its own account, but
because of its confusion, in the minds of Greek officials, with such
harmless substances as cotton seed oil and oleo. The Greek navy not
only maintained a very effective blockade but also took possession of
all the Aegean Islands under Turkish rule, excepting Rhodes and the
Dodecanese, which Italy held as a temporary pledge for the
fulfilment by Turkey of some of the conditions of the treaty by
which they had closed their recent war. It will be seen, therefore,
that the navy was a most important agent in the campaign, and Greece
was the only one of the Allies that had a navy. The Greek navy was
sufficient not only to terrorize the Turkish navy, which it reduced
to complete impotence, but also to paralyze Turkish trade and
commerce with the outside world, to embarrass railway transportation
within the Empire, to prevent the sending of reinforcements to
Macedonia or the Aegean coast of Thrace, and to detach from Turkey
those Aegean Islands over which she still exercised effective
jurisdiction.