France and Belgium At the outbreak of the
First World War in late July 1914, Milne was commanding the divisional artillery of the 4th Division which formed part of the
British Expeditionary Force and was sent to France in August. He commanded the 4th Division's artillery at
Le Cateau on 27 August and later on
the Marne from 6-9 September and at the
First Battle of the Aisne, from 13-20 September, and lastly at the
First Battle of Ypres, fought from 3 October until 25 November. and was promoted to the rank of major general on 18 February, "in connection with Operations in the Field." Five days later, he succeeded Brigadier General
George Forestier-Walker, a fellow artilleryman, as major general, general staff (MGGS) of the
Second Army, a post he retained until July. He was later mentioned in despatches for his service during the
Second Battle of Ypres in April that year. He was then appointed
general officer commanding of the
27th Division in July, in succession to Major General
Thomas Snow, who had also commanded the 4th Division several months earlier.
Salonika Milne, promoted to temporary lieutenant-general in December 1915, was appointed to command the newly formed
XVI Corps in
Salonika in January 1916 with orders to oppose
Bulgarian advances on the
Macedonian front. When he succeeded Lieutenant General
Sir Bryan Mahon as
commander-in-chief (C-in-C) of the
British Salonika Army, Milne became overall C-in-C of British Troops in
Macedonia on 9 May 1916. As late as 3 June 1916 Milne was ordered by General
Sir William Robertson, now
Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) but formerly a classmate at the Staff College almost twenty years earlier, not to participate in any attack on the Bulgars. , commanding the Allied forces at Salonika, May 1916. The
British Government accepted the need to maintain a presence in Salonika to keep the French happy, but Robertson, who often communicated by secret letters and "R" telegrams to generals in the field, privately told Milne that he did not favour offensive operations. Milne broadly agreed with Robertson that any attempt to attack across the mountains to cut the Nis-Sofia-Constantinople railway was logistically impractical, although he did stress that his forces must either advance or retreat from the
malaria-infested Struma Valley and that the Bulgarians might be beaten if pressed hard. On 23 July he was told to " the maximum of Bulgar forces" whilst the Romanians mobilised and attacked, followed by secret messages from Robertson that he should "guard against being committed for any serious action" until it was certain that Romania was coming in. The
60th (2/2nd London) Division was sent from France as reinforcements to Salonika in December. Milne was promoted to permanent
lieutenant general on 1 January 1917. On 3 January 1917 Milne arrived at the Rome Conference independently of the French General
Maurice Sarrail. As a result of the conference Milne was placed under Sarrail's command, with right of appeal to his own government – who overruled him when he protested against Sarrail's movement of a British brigade outside the British zone. This precedent was much discussed in the next few months when
Prime Minister David Lloyd George attempted to place the BEF on the
Western Front under General
Robert Nivelle. and Lieutenant General
Charles Briggs, GOC XVI Corps of the BSF, 1917. Milne undertook numerous offensives in support of his French and Serbian allies with limited resources. His
attack at Lake Doiran in spring 1917 cost 5,000 dead and seriously wounded, one quarter of all British casualties throughout the entire Salonika campaign. Another British attack in the Struma Valley was more successful. His troops were constantly suffering from malaria. Milne was appointed a Grand Officer of the
Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus by the
King of Italy on 31 August 1917 and advanced to Knight Commander of the
Order of the Bath on 1 January 1918. Although Milne, promoted to the temporary rank of
general in June, was repulsed again at
Lake Doiran in September, French and Serbian units were successful in defeating the
Bulgarian Army at the
Battle of Dobro Pole which took place that same month. Bulgaria then signed an
armistice. ==Post-war==