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diff --git a/old/10107-8.txt b/old/10107-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19f0b9c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10107-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7857 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of With British Guns in Italy, by Hugh Dalton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: With British Guns in Italy + A Tribute to Italian Achievement + +Author: Hugh Dalton + +Release Date: November 17, 2003 [EBook #10107] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +WITH BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY +A TRIBUTE TO ITALIAN ACHIEVEMENT + +BY + +HUGH DALTON + +SOMETIME LIEUTENANT IN THE ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY + +WITH 12 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 3 MAPS + + +_First Published in 1919_ + + +TO THE HIGH CAUSE OF ANGLO-ITALIAN FRIENDSHIP AND UNDERSTANDING + + +"Nella primavera si combatte e si muore, o soldato." + +M. PUCCINI, _Dal Carso al Piave_. + + +"So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received, each for +his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of +all sepulchres; not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a +home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to +speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the +sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone +over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, +woven into the stuff of other men's lives." + +_Funeral Speech of Pericles_. + + +"Dying here is not death; it is flying into the dawn." + +MEREDITH, _Vittoria_. + + + + +PREFACE + + +So far as I know, no British soldier who served on the Italian Front has +yet published a book about his experiences. Ten British Batteries went +to Italy in the spring of 1917 and passed through memorable days. But +their story has not yet been told. Nor, except in the language of +official dispatches, has that of the British Divisions which went to +Italy six months later, some of which remained and took part in the +final and decisive phases of the war against Austria. Something more +should soon be written concerning the doings of the British troops in +Italy, for they deserve to stand out clearly in the history of the war. + +This little book of mine is only an account, more or less in the form of +a Diary, of what one British soldier saw and felt, who served for +eighteen months on the Italian Front as a Subaltern officer in a Siege +Battery. But it was my luck to see a good deal during that time. Mine +had been the first British Battery to come into action and open fire on +the Italian Front. And, as my story will show, it was either the first +or among the first on most other important occasions, except in the +Caporetto retreat, and then it was the last. + +I have camouflaged the names of all persons mentioned throughout the +book, except those of Cabinet Ministers, Generals and a few other +notabilities. + +For permission to reproduce photographs, I wish to thank the +representatives in London of the Italian State Railways (12 Waterloo +Place, S.W.), and my friend and brother officer, Mr Stuart Osborn. + +H. D. + +LONDON, _February_ 1919 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PREFACE + +PART I +INTRODUCTORY + + CHAPTER I + THE ANGLO-ITALIAN TRADITION AND ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR + + +PART II +SOME EARLY IMPRESSIONS + + CHAPTER II + FROM FOLKESTONE TO VENICE + + CHAPTER III + FROM VENICE TO THE ISONZO FRONT + + CHAPTER IV + THE WAR ON THE ISONZO FRONT + + CHAPTER V + PALMANOVA + + CHAPTER VI + AQUILEIA AND GRADO + + CHAPTER VII + A GRAMOPHONE AND A CHAPLAIN ON THE CARSO + + CHAPTER VIII + A FRONT LINE RECONNAISSANCE + + CHAPTER IX + AN EVENING AT GORIZIA + + CHAPTER X + A CEMETERY AT VERSA + + CHAPTER XI + UDINE + + CHAPTER XII + THE BRITISH AND THE ITALIAN SOLDIER + + CHAPTER XIII + I JOIN THE FIRST BRITISH BATTERY IN ITALY + + +PART III +THE ITALIAN SUMMER OFFENSIVE, 1917 + + CHAPTER XIV + THE OFFENSIVE OPENS + + CHAPTER XV + WE SWITCH OUR GUNS NORTHWARD + + CHAPTER XVI + THE FALL OF MONTE SANTO + + CHAPTER XVII + THE CONQUEST OF THE BAINSIZZA PLATEAU + + CHAPTER XVIII + THE FIGHTING DIES DOWN + + CHAPTER XIX + A LULL BETWEEN TWO STORMS + + +PART IV +THE ITALIAN RETREAT AND RECOVERY + + CHAPTER XX + THE BEGINNING OF THE ENEMY OFFENSIVE + + CHAPTER XXI + FROM THE VIPPACCO TO SAN GIORGIO DI NOGARA + + CHAPTER XXII + FROM SAN GIORGIO TO THE TAGLIAMENTO + + CHAPTER XXIII + FROM THE TAGLIAMENTO TO TREVISO + + CHAPTER XXIV + THOUGHTS AFTER THE DISASTER + + CHAPTER XXV + FERRARA, ARQUATA AND THE CORNICE ROAD + + CHAPTER XXVI + REFITTING AT FERRARA + + +PART V +A YEAR OF RESISTANCE AND OF PREPARATION + + CHAPTER XXVII + IN STRATEGIC RESERVE + + CHAPTER XXVIII + THE FIRST BRITISH BATTERY UP THE MOUNTAINS + + CHAPTER XXIX + THE ASIAGO PLATEAU + + CHAPTER XXX + SOME NOTES ON NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS + + CHAPTER XXXI + ROME IN THE SPRING + + CHAPTER XXXII + THE FIFTEENTH OF JUNE, 1918 + + CHAPTER XXXIII + IN THE TRENTINO + + CHAPTER XXXIV + SIRMIONE AND SOLFERINO + + CHAPTER XXXV + THE ASIAGO PLATEAU ONCE MORE + + +PART VI +THE LAST PHASE + + CHAPTER XXXVI + THE MOVE TO THE PIAVE + + CHAPTER XXXVII + THE BEGINNING OF THE LAST BATTLE + + CHAPTER XXXVIII + ACROSS THE RIVER + + CHAPTER XXXIX + LIBERATORI + + CHAPTER XL + THE COMPLETENESS OF VICTORY + + CHAPTER XLI + IN THE EUGANEAN HILLS + + CHAPTER XLII + LAST THOUGHTS ON LEAVING ITALY + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Italian Troops Crossing a Snowfield in the Trentino + +Railway Bridge over the Isonzo Wrecked by Austrian Shell Fire + +Italian Mule Transport on the Carso + +No. 3 Gun of the First British Battery in Italy + +Casa Girardi and Italian Huts + +Some of Our Battery Huts near Casa Girardi + +The Eastern Portion of The Asiago Plateau + +Road Behind Our Battery Position Leading to Pria Dell' Acqua + +Chapel at San Sisto and Italian Graves + +Huts on a Mountain Side in the Trentino + +Lorries Leaving Asiago after Its Liberation + +Captured Austrian Guns in Val D'Assa + + + +LIST OF MAPS + + +Map of Northern Italy + +Map of the Isonzo Front + +Map of Val Brenta and the Asiago Plateau + + * * * * * + + +WITH BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY + + + +PART I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ANGLO-ITALIAN TRADITION AND ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR + +Anglo-Italian friendship has been one of the few unchanging facts in +modern international relations. Since the French Revolution, in the +bellicose whirligig of history and of the old diplomacy's reckless dance +with death, British troops have fought in turn against Frenchmen and +Germans, against Russians and Austrians, against Bulgarians, Turks and +Chinamen, against Boers, and even against Americans, but never, except +for a handful of Napoleonic conscripts, against Italians. British and +Italian troops, on the other hand, fought side by side in the Crimea, +and, in the war which has just ended, have renewed and extended their +comradeship in arms in Austria and Italy, in France and in the Balkans. + +During the nineteenth century Italy in her Wars of Liberation gained, in +a degree which this generation can hardly realise, the enthusiastic +sympathy and the moral, and sometimes material, support of all the best +elements in the British nation. There were poets--Byron and Shelley, the +Brownings, Swinburne and Meredith--who were filled with a passionate +devotion to the Italian cause.[1] There were statesmen--Palmerston, Lord +John Russell and Gladstone--who did good work for Italian freedom, and +Italians still remember that in 1861 the British Government was the +first to recognise the new Kingdom of United Italy, while the +Governments of other Powers were intriguing to harass and destroy it. +There were individual, adventurous Englishmen, such as Forbes, the +comrade of Garibaldi, who put their lives and their wealth at the +disposal of Italian patriots. But, beyond all these, it was the great +mass of the British people which stood steadily behind the Italian +people in its long struggle for unity and freedom. + +[Footnote 1: Even Tennyson, who was not very susceptible to foreign +influences, invited Garibaldi to plant a tree in his garden.] + +Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour, "the soul, the sword and the brain," +which together created Modern Italy, all had close personal relations +with this country. Mazzini, driven from his own land by foreign +oppressors, lived a great part of his life in exile among us, and here +dreamed those dreams, which still inspire generous youth throughout the +world. When Garibaldi visited us in 1864, he was enthusiastically +acclaimed by all sections of the nation, by the Prince of Wales, the +Peerage and the Poet Laureate, no less than by the working classes. It +is recorded that, used as he was, as a soldier, to the roar of battle +and, as a sailor, to the roar of the storm, Garibaldi almost quailed +before the tumultuous roar of welcome which greeted him as he came out +of the railway station at Nine Elms. Cavour was a deep student and a +great admirer of British institutions, both political and economic, and +in a large measure founded Italian institutions upon them. And the first +public speech he ever made was made in London in the English tongue. +These great men passed in time from the stage of Italian public life, +and others took their places, but amid all the shifting complexities of +recent international politics, no shadow has ever fallen across the path +of Anglo-Italian friendship. And indeed during the Boer War Italy was +the only friend we had left in Europe. + +Italy's membership of the Triple Alliance was always subject to two +conditions, first, that the Alliance was to be purely defensive, and +second, that Italy would never support either of her partners in war +against England. Thus, under the first condition, when Austria proposed +in 1913 that the Triple Alliance should combine to crush Serbia, +victorious but exhausted after the Balkan Wars, Italy at once rejected +the proposal. And, under the second condition, as German naval expansion +became more and more provocative and threatening to Britain, we were +able to transfer nearly all our Mediterranean Fleet to the North Sea, +secure in the knowledge that, whatever might befall, we should never +find Italy among our enemies. + + * * * * * + +The part which Italy has played during the war just ended, the great +value of her contribution to the Allied cause, and the great sacrifices +which that contribution has involved for her, have been often and +admirably stated. But I doubt whether, even yet, these things are fully +realised outside Italy, and I will, therefore, very shortly state them +again. + +When war broke out in August 1914, Italy declared her neutrality, on the +ground that the war was aggressive on the part of the Central Powers, +and that, therefore, the Triple Alliance no longer bound her. By her +declaration of neutrality, she liberated the whole French Army to fight +in Belgium and North-Eastern France, and rendered our sea communications +with the East substantially secure. Bismarck used to say that, under the +Triple Alliance, an Italian bugler and drummer boy posted on the +Franco-Italian frontier would immobilise four French Army Corps. The +Alliance disappointed the expectations of Bismarck's successors. + +But if Italy had come in at this time on the German side, she might well +have tilted swiftly and irremediably against us that awful equipoise of +forces which, once established, lasted for more than four years. There +would have been small hope that France, supported only by our small +Expeditionary Force and faced with an Italian invasion in the +South-East, in addition to a German invasion in the North-East, could +have prevented the fall of Paris and the Channel Ports, while Austria, +freed from all fear on the Italian frontier, perhaps even reinforced by +part of the Italian Army, could have turned all her forces against +Russia. Or alternatively, part of the Italian Army might have attacked +Serbia through Austrian territory, with the probable result that Rumania +and Greece, as well as Bulgaria and Turkey, would have been brought in +against us in the first month of the war. + +At sea our naval supremacy would have been strained to breaking point by +the many heavy tasks imposed upon it simultaneously in widely-separated +seas. Our communications through the Mediterranean would, indeed, have +been almost impossible to maintain. + +Many bribes were offered to Italy at this time by the Central Powers in +the hope of inducing her to join them--Corsica, Savoy and Nice, Tunis, +Malta, and probably even larger rewards. But Italy remained neutral. + +In May 1915 she entered the war on our side, in the first place to free +those men of Italian race who still lived outside her frontiers, under +grievous oppression, and whom Austria refused to give up to their Mother +Country, and, in the second place, because already many Italians +realised, as Americans also realised later, that the defeat of the +Central Powers was a necessary first step towards the liberation of +oppressed peoples everywhere and the building of a better world. Italy +entered the war at a time when things were going badly for us in Russia, +and looked very menacing in France, and when she herself was still +ill-prepared for a long, expensive and exhausting struggle. The first +effect of her entry was to pin down along the Alps and the Isonzo large +Austrian forces, which would otherwise have been available for use +elsewhere. + +She entered the war nine months after the British Empire, but her +losses, when the war ended, had been proportionately heavier than ours. +According to the latest published information the total of Italian dead +was 460,000 out of a population of 35 millions. The total of British +dead for the whole British Empire, including Dominion, Colonial and +Indian troops, was 670,000, and for the United Kingdom alone 500,000. +The white population of the British Empire is 62 millions and of the +United Kingdom 46 millions. Thus the Italian dead amount to more than 13 +for every thousand of the population, and the British, whether +calculated for the United Kingdom alone or for the whole white +population of the Empire, to less than 11 for every thousand of the +population. The long series of Battles of the Isonzo,--the journalists +counted up to twelve of them in the first twenty-seven months in which +Italy was at war,--the succession of offensives "from Tolmino to the +sea," which were only dimly realised in England and France, cost Italy +the flower of her youth. The Italian Army was continually on the +offensive during those months against the strongest natural defences to +be found in any of the theatres of war. On countless occasions Italian +heroes went forth on forlorn hopes to scale and capture impossible +precipices, and sometimes they succeeded. Through that bloody series of +offensives the Italians slowly but steadily gained ground, and drew ever +nearer to Trento and Trieste. Only those who went out to the Italian +Front before Caporetto, and saw with their own eyes what the Italian +Army had accomplished on the Carso and among the Julian Alps, can fully +realise the greatness of the Italian effort. + +It must never be forgotten that Italy is both the youngest and the +poorest of the Great Powers of Europe. Barely half a century has passed +since United Italy was born, and the political and economic difficulties +of her national childhood were enormous. For many years, as one of her +own historians says, she was "not a state, but only the outward +appearance of a state." Her natural resources are poor and limited. She +possesses neither coal nor iron, and is still partially dependent on +imported food and foreign shipping. She is still very poor in +accumulated capital, and the burden of her taxation is very heavy. + +From the moment of her entry into the war her economic problems became +very difficult, especially that of the provision of guns and munitions +in sufficient quantities, and the extent to which she solved this last +problem is deserving of the greatest admiration. Her position grew even +more difficult in 1917. After the military collapse of Russia she had to +face practically the whole Austrian Army, instead of only a part of it, +and a greatly increased weight of guns. The Austrians had 53 millions of +population to draw from, the Italians only 35. Moreover, just before +Caporetto, a number of German Divisions, with a powerful mass of +artillery and aircraft, were thrown into the Austrian scale, while from +the Italian was withdrawn the majority of that tiny handful of French +and British Batteries, which were all the armed support which, up to +that time, her Allies had ever lent her. Only five British Batteries and +a few French were left on the Italian Front. By the defeat of Caporetto +she lost a great quantity of guns and stores and practically the whole +of her Second Army, while half of Venetia fell into the hands of the +enemy, and remained in his possession for a year. The inferiority of the +Italian Army to its enemies, both in numbers and in material, was thus +sharply increased. + +But the Italians held grimly on; they turned at bay on the Piave and in +the mountains, and checked the onrush of Austrians and Germans. Then, +supported by French and British reinforcements, but still inferior in +numbers, they continued for a year longer to hold up almost the whole +strength of Austria. That winter the poor were very near starvation in +the cities of Italy, and the peasants had to cut down their olive groves +for fuel. The following spring part of the French and British +reinforcements were withdrawn to France, together with an Italian +contingent which numerically balanced the French and British who +remained in Italy. + +The Austrians also lost their German support and sent some of their own +troops to France, but they retained their numerical superiority on the +Italian Front. In June they launched a great attack on a seventy-mile +front, which was to have made an end of Italy; but the Italians beat +them back. Then four months later, after an intense effort of +preparation, Italy, still inferior in numbers and material, struck for +the last time and utterly destroyed the Austrian Army in the great +battle which will be known to history as Vittorio Veneto. The Austrians +lost twice as many prisoners and four times as many guns at Vittorio +Veneto as they had taken at Caporetto. + +The war on the Italian Front was over, the Austrian Army was broken +beyond recovery, the Austrian State was dissolving into its national +elements, which only tradition, corruption and brute force had for so +long held together. Italy, heroic and constant, had endured to the end, +and with her last great gesture had both completed her own freedom, and +given their freedom to those who had been the instruments of her +enemies. + + + +PART II + +SOME EARLY IMPRESSIONS + + +CHAPTER II + +FROM FOLKESTONE TO VENICE + +On the 6th July, 1917, I arrived at Folkestone armed with a War Office +letter ordering my "passage to France for reinforcements for Siege +Artillery Batteries in Italy." I had a millpond crossing in the +afternoon, and that evening left Boulogne for Modane. + +Next morning at 2 a.m. I was awakened from frowsy sleep by a French +soldier, laden with baggage, who stumbled headlong into the railway +carriage which I was sharing with three other British officers. We were +at Amiens. I was last here ten months before, when my Division was +coming back from rest to fight a second time upon the Somme. I did not +sleep again, but watched the sunrise behind an avenue of poplars, as we +passed through Creil, and the woods of Chantilly shining wonderfully in +the early morning light. I spent that day in Paris and left again in the +evening. + +Next morning, the 8th, I awoke at Bourg in High Savoy. Here too the +poplar dominates in the valleys. We ran along the shores of Lake Bourget +and up the beautiful valley of the Arc in misty rain. We arrived at +Modane at 10 a.m., and I was booked through to Palmanova, a new name to +me at that time. The train left an hour later and, as we lunched, we +passed through the Mont Cenis tunnel and slid rapidly downwards through +Alpine valleys, charming enough but less beautiful than those on the +French side of the frontier. Very soon it became perceptibly warmer, +electric fans were set in motion and ice was served with the wine. + +I found that I had six hours to wait at Turin before the train left for +Milan. My fleeting impression of Turin was of a very well-planned city, +its Corsi spacious and well shaded with trees, its trams multitudinous, +its many distant vistas of wooded hills and of the Superga Palace beyond +the Po a delight to the eye. But I found less animation there than I had +expected, except in a church, where a priest was ferociously declaiming +and gesticulating at a perspiring crowd, mostly women, who were +patiently fanning themselves in the stifling, unventilated heat. I was +an object of interest in the streets, where the British uniform was not +yet well known. Some took me for a Russian and some little boys ran +after me and asked for a rouble. A group of women agreed that I was +Spanish. + +The train for Milan goes right through to Venice, so, being momentarily +independent of the British military authorities, I decided to spend a +few hours there on my way to the Front. + +The carriage was full of Italian officers, chiefly Cavalry, Flying Corps +and Infantry. It is their custom on meeting an unknown officer of their +own or of an Allied Army to stand stiffly upright, to shake hands and +introduce themselves by name. This little ceremony breaks the ice. I +saw many of them also on the platforms and in the corridor of the train. +The majority, especially of their mounted officers, are very elegant and +many very handsome, and they have those charming easy manners which are +everywhere characteristic of the Latin peoples. + +Nearly all Italian officers speak French. In their Regular Army French +and either English or German are compulsory studies, and a good standard +of fluent conversation is required. In these early days my Italian was +rather broken, so we talked mostly French. At Milan all my companions +except one got out, and a new lot got in. But I was growing sleepy, and +after the formal introductions I began to drowse. + + * * * * * + +I woke several times in the night and early morning, and, half asleep, +looked out through the carriage window upon wonderful sights. A railway +platform like a terrace in a typical Italian garden, ornate with a row +of carved stone vases of perfect form, and vines in festoons from vase +to vase, and dark trees behind, and then a downward slope and little +white houses asleep in the distance. This I think was close to Brescia. +Then Desenzano, and what I took to be the distant glimmer of Lake Garda +under the stars. Verona I passed in my sleep, having now crossed the +boundary of Lombardy into Venetia, and Vicenza and Padua are nothing +from the train. At Mestre, the junction for the Front, all the Italian +officers got out, and I went on to Venice. + +Except for three British Naval officers I was, I think, the only +foreigner there, and a priest, whom I met, took me for an American. +Everything of value in Venice, that could be, was sandbagged now for +fear of bombs, and much that was movable had been taken away. I spent +three hours in a gondola on the Grand Canal and up and down the Rii, +filled with a dreamy amazement at the superb harmonies of form and +colour of things both far away and close at hand. And even as seen in +war-time, with all the accustomed life of Venice broken and spoiled, the +spaciousness of the Piazza S. Marco, and the beauty of the buildings +that stand around it, and at night the summer lightnings, and a +rainstorm, and a café under the colonnade, where music was being played, +will linger always in my memory. All the big hotels were closed now, or +taken over by the Government as offices or hospitals, and the gondolas +lay moored in solitary lines along the Grand Canal, and even the motor +boats were few and, as a waiter said to me, "no one has been here for +three years, but the people are very quiet and no one complains." + + + +CHAPTER III + +FROM VENICE TO THE ISONZO FRONT + +I left Venice next morning by the 5.55 train, and reached Palmanova at +half-past ten. As one goes eastward by this railway, there is a grand +panorama of hills, circling the whole horizon; to the north and +north-east the Carnic Alps and Cadore, their highest summits crowned +with snow even in the full heat of summer; eastward the Julian Alps, +beyond the Isonzo, stretching from a point north of Tolmino, down +behind the Carso, almost to Fiume in the south-east; and yet further +round the circle to the southward the mountains of Istria, running +behind Trieste and its wide blue gulf, whose waters are invisible from +this railway across the plain. + +Of Palmanova I will write again. This was the Railhead and the +Ammunition Dump for the British Batteries. I stayed there that day +scarcely an hour, and then went on by motor lorry to Gradisca, the +Headquarters of "British Heavy Artillery, Italy." Here I lunched and was +well received by the Staff, who were expecting no reinforcements and +were astonished at my coming. It was decided, after some discussion, to +attach me temporarily to a Battery which had one officer in hospital, +slightly wounded by shrapnel. I continued my journey in another motor +lorry after lunch. Gradisca lies on the western bank of the Isonzo, +which is crossed close by at Peteano by a magnificent broad wooden +bridge, the work of Italian engineers. Gradisca had not been badly +damaged, the Austrians having made no great resistance here against the +Italian advance in May 1915, but Peteano had been laid absolutely flat +by Austrian twelve-inch guns. It had been utterly destroyed in half an +hour's intense bombardment some months before, and many Italian hutments +in the neighbourhood had been destroyed at the same time. + +Within sight of this bridge, at a distance of a quarter of a mile, is +the confluence of the Vippacco with the Isonzo. From this point the road +follows the Vippacco to Rubbia, the Headquarters of Colonel Raven, who +commanded the Northern Group of British Batteries. which I was now +joining. The five Batteries of this Group, known as "B2," were all in +positions on or near the Vippacco, firing on the northern edge of the +Carso, and eastward along the river valley. The southern Group, "B1," +were on the Carso itself and operating chiefly against the famous +Hermada, a position of tremendous natural strength, directly covering +Trieste. B2 had the more comfortable and better-shaded positions, but +B1, though their guns were among the rocks and in the full heat of the +sun, were in easy reach of the sea, and had a Rest Camp at Grado among +the lagoons. + +Raven's Group, B2, formed part of an Italian Raggruppamento, or +collection of Groups, under the command of a certain Sicilian Colonel +named Canale, a dapper little man who generally wore white gloves, even +in the front line. He was a fearless and capable officer and did all in +his power for the comfort of our Batteries. + +From Rubbia I drove in a car to the Battery. As I left the Group +Headquarters, a number of wooden huts at the foot of the wooded slopes +of Monte San Michele, which rise upwards from the road, I went under the +railway which in peace-time connects Gorizia with Trieste. It is useless +now, being within easy range of the Austrian guns, which have, moreover, +broken down the high stone bridge on which the line crosses the +Vippacco. A young Sicilian Sergeant accompanied me as a guide and +pointed out Gorizia, some six miles away to the north, a +widely-scattered town, very white in the sunlight, lying at the foot of +high hills famous in the history of the war on this Front, Monte +Sabotino, Monte Santo, Monte San Gabriele, of which there will be more +for me to say hereafter. + +The gun positions of my new Battery were situated just outside the +little village of Pec, inhabited mostly by Slovene peasantry before the +war, now all vanished. The village had been much shelled, first by +Italian and then by Austrian guns, and there was not a house remaining +undamaged, though several had been patched up as billets and cookhouses +by British troops. Another of our Batteries had their guns actually in +the ruins of the village, but ours were alongside a sunken road, leading +down to the Vippacco. The guns themselves were concealed in thick bowers +of acacias, the branches of which had been clipped here and there within +our arc of fire. I doubt if anywhere, on any Front, a British Battery +occupied a position of greater natural beauty. The officers' Mess and +sleeping huts were a few hundred yards from the guns, right on the bank +of the Vippacco, likewise hidden from view and shaded from the sun by a +great mass of acacias, a luxuriant soft roof of fresh green leaves. Our +Mess, indeed, had no other roof than this, for there was seldom any +rain, and, as we sat at meals, we faced a broad waterfall, a curving +wall of white foam, stretching right across the stream, which was at +this point about seventy or eighty yards wide. Innumerable blue +dragon-flies flitted backwards and forwards in the sunlight. Though the +weather was warm, it was less hot than usual at this time of year, and +the surroundings of our Mess reminded me vividly of Kerry. In the first +days that followed I could often imagine myself back in beautiful and +familiar places in the south-west corner of Ireland. Only Italian +gunners coming and going, for several of their Battery positions were +close to ours, and the Castello di Rubbia across the water, slightly but +not greatly damaged, broke this occasional illusion. + +These Italians took us quite for granted now, and that evening I began +to learn about their Front. Things were pretty quiet at present on both +sides, but greater activity was expected soon. I made the acquaintance +of Venosta, an Italian Artillery officer attached to the Battery. He was +from Milan, a member of a well-known Lombard family, and had a soft and +quiet way with him and a certain supple charm. At ordinary times he +preferred to take things easily, and was imperturbable by anything which +he thought unimportant. But in crises, as I learned later on, he could +show much calm resource and energy. + + * * * * * + +I woke next morning to the sound of the Vippacco waterfall, and the +following day I got my first real impression of this part of the Italian +Front. The Battery was doing a registration shoot and I went up in the +afternoon with our Second-in-Command to an O.P. on the top of the Nad +Logem to observe and correct our fire. It was a great climb, up a stony +watercourse, now dry, and then through old Austrian trenches, +elaborately blasted in the Carso rock and captured a year ago. The Nad +Logem is part of the northern edge of the Carso, and from our O.P. a +great panorama spread out north, east and west, with the sinuous +Vippacco in the foreground, fringed with trees. From here I had pointed +out to me the various features of the country. The play of light and +shade in the distance was very wonderful. Our target that afternoon was +a point in the Austrian front line on a long, low, brown hill lying +right below us, known officially as Hill 126. The Austrians some days +before had sent us an ironical wireless message, "We have evacuated Hill +94 and Hill 126 for a week so that the British Batteries may register on +them." They evidently knew something of our whereabouts and our plans! + +Coming back we stopped at the foot of a hill on which stands the +shell-wrecked monastery of San Grado di Merna, a white ruin gaunt +against the darker background of the Nad Logem. Here a new Battery +position was being prepared for us, only three hundred yards behind the +Austrian front line, but admirably protected by the configuration of the +ground from enemy fire. An Italian drilling machine was at work here, +operated by compressed air, drilling holes in the rock for the insertion +of dynamite charges, and, by means of gradual blasting, gun pits and +cartridge recesses and dug-outs were being created in the stubborn rock. +Here a heavy thunderstorm broke and we sheltered in the Headquarters of +an Italian Field Artillery Brigade, likewise blasted out of the mountain +side. I returned with Venosta. I asked him to show me the famous +Bersagliere trot, and by way of illustration we doubled along the road +for about half a mile. On the British Front the spectacle of two +officers thus disporting themselves for no apparent reason would have +caused much remark and amusement. But the Italians, whom we passed, +seemed to see nothing remarkable in our behaviour. They are, perhaps, +more tolerant of eccentricity than we are. + +It may be of interest at this point to say a few words about some of +the special characteristics of the Italian Army. Every modern Army has +adopted a distinctive colour for its war-time uniform, chosen with a +view to minimising visibility. Thus we wear khaki, the French +horizon-blue, the Germans field-grey. The Italians have adopted an olive +colour, commonly spoken of as "grigio-verde," or grey-green. + +The various Italian Corps, Regiments and Brigades wear distinctively +coloured collars on their tunics which, except in the case of the +Arditi, fit closely round the neck. For example, the Granatieri, or +Grenadiers, who both in their high physical standards and military +prestige resemble our own Guards Battalions, wear a collar of crimson +and white. The colour of the Artillery is black with a yellow border, +that of the Engineers black with a red border. Of the Infantry, the +Alpini collars are green and the Bersaglieri crimson, the bands of +colour being shaped in each case like sharp-pointed flames turning +outwards. For this reason the Alpini are often called the "fiamme +verdi," or green flames, and the Bersaglieri "fiamme rosse," or red +flames. The Infantry Brigades of the line, who bear local names,--the +Avellino Brigade, the Como Brigade, the Lecce Brigade and so +forth,--have each their distinctively coloured collars. + +These local names mean very little, for, as a matter of policy, men from +all parts of Italy are mixed indiscriminately together in each Brigade. +The Parma Brigade, for example, will contain only a few men from Parma, +and them by chance. One of the objects of this policy is to help to +break down those regional barriers, which still linger owing to +historical causes, between different districts of Italy. It is often +remarked that men from many parts of Italy know more of foreign +countries than of other parts of their own country, and most of the +numerous local dialects are hardly intelligible to men who live far from +the districts where they are spoken. Ordinary Italian, which is in fact +the local dialect of Rome, is, as it were, the _lingua franca_ of the +whole country, but the great majority of Italians speak not only Italian +but one, or sometimes several, local dialects, and the latter are used +by all classes in their own homes. Some of these dialects differ widely +from Italian. In many remote districts some of the peasants cannot speak +Italian at all. + +The Alpini and the two Sardinian Brigades, Cagliari and Sassari, are +exceptions to the rule mentioned above. The Alpini are in peace-time +recruited entirely from the men who dwell in the Alps, though I believe +that during the present war a certain number of men from the Apennines +have also been included in Alpini Battalions. The Alpini are specially +used for warfare in the mountains. They wear in their hats a single long +feather. Closely attached to the Alpini are the Mountain Artillery, +armed with light guns of about the same calibre as our own +twelve-pounders. They too are recruited from the mountaineers and wear +the Alpino hat and single feather. The Alpini have a magnificent +regimental spirit and, in my judgment, are the equals of any troops in +the world. + +The Cagliari and Sassari Brigades, two of the best in the Italian Army, +are composed entirely of Sardinians. When in the front line they use the +Sardinian dialect on the telephone. Even if the Austrians succeed, by +means of "listening sets," in overhearing them, it hardly matters, for +it is not likely that anyone in the Austrian front line will understand! + +The Bersaglieri, another famous Italian Regiment, are recruited from all +parts of Italy, but only from men of high physical fitness. They +correspond roughly to the Light Infantry of other Armies, and always +drill and march to a very quick step, even when carrying machine guns on +their shoulders. Their hats decked with a mass of green cocks' feathers +are familiar in illustrations. The Bersagliere Cyclist Companies, used +for scouting purposes, form part of the Regiment. The Bersagliere +undress cap is a red fez with a blue tassel. + +The Arditi, or Assault Detachments, correspond to the German +Sturmtruppen. They were instituted in the Italian Army in 1917. They +also consist of picked men, and undergo a special training to accustom +them to bomb-throwing at close quarters and to other incidents of the +assault. In the course of this training casualties often occur. Only +young unmarried men of exceptionally good physique can become Arditi. +They are only used in actual attacks and never for the purpose of merely +holding trenches. They therefore spend a large part of their time behind +the lines and receive, I believe, extra pay and rations. They are armed +with rifles and _pugnali_, or small daggers, and wear a low-cut tunic, +with a black knottie and a black fez. On each lapel of their tunic they +wear two black flames, similar to the crimson flames on the collars of +the Bersaglieri. They are, therefore, known as "fiamme nere," or black +flames. + +A large proportion of Arditi are Sicilians, and their fighting quality +is very high. Certain detachments of Bersaglieri are also classified as +Assault Detachments and wear low-cut tunics like the Arditi. + +The Italian Mountain and Field Artillery are excellent; their Heavy +Artillery is handicapped, in comparison with ours, by its smaller +ammunition supply and fewer opportunities for prolonged practice, but +its methods are scientific and its personnel very keen and capable. The +Italian Engineers have done much wonderful work, to which I shall refer +later. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WAR ON THE ISONZO FRONT + +From Monte Nero to the Adriatic the distance is, in a straight line, +some 35 miles. Allowing for the curves of the actual line, the length of +Front is between 40 and 50 miles. This portion of the Italian and +Austrian lines is commonly spoken of as the Isonzo Front. It is not like +the Front in the higher Alps, where, as on the Adamello, trenches are +cut in the solid ice, where the firing of a single gun may precipitate +an avalanche, where more Italians are killed by avalanches than by +Austrians, where guns have to be dragged up precipices and perched on +ledges fit only, one might think, for an eagle's nest, where food, +ammunition, reinforcements, wounded and sick have all to travel in small +cages attached to wire ropes, slung from peak to peak above sheer drops +of many thousand feet, where sentries have to stand rigidly stationary, +so as to remain invisible, and have to be changed every ten minutes +owing to the intense cold, where Battalions of Alpini charge down snow +slopes on skis at the rate of thirty miles an hour, where refraction and +the deceiving glare of the snow make accurate rifle fire impossible even +for crack shots,--the Isonzo Front is not so astounding and impossible a +Front as this, but it is yet a very different Front from any on which +British troops are elsewhere fighting in this war. + +It is a country with a strange beauty of its own; it is, in its own +measure, rough and mountainous, and it is within sight of other and +loftier mountains to the north-west. At my first view of it I remembered +a speech of Carlo, the hero of Meredith's _Vittoria_, concerning Lombard +cities away on the other side of the Trentino, "Brescia under the big +Eastern hill which throws a cloak on it at sunrise! Brescia is always +the eagle's nest that looks over Lombardy! And Bergamo! You know the +terraces of Bergamo. Aren't they like a morning sky? Dying there is not +death; it's flying into the dawn. You Romans envy us. You have no Alps, +no crimson hills, nothing but old walls to look on while you fight. +Farewell, Merthyr Powys...." To me those words were always recurring on +the Italian Front. "Dying here is not death; it's flying into the dawn." +I would have liked to have them engraved on my tombstone, if Fate had +set one up for me in this land, whose beauty casts a spell on all one's +senses. + + * * * * * + +The Isonzo Front is divided into two parts by the Vippacco river, which +flows roughly from east to west and joins the Isonzo at Peteano. Of +these two parts the northern is three times as long as the southern. The +northern part was held by the Italian Second Army, under General +Capello, the southern by the Italian Third Army, under the Duke of +Aosta. In the north the Isonzo runs through a deep ravine, with Monte +Nero rising on its eastern side. Monte Nero is some 6800 feet high. The +Alpini took it by a marvellous feat of mountain warfare in the first +year of the war. South of Monte Nero, also on the east bank of the +river, lies the town of Tolmino, the object of many fierce Italian +assaults, but not yet taken. Here the Isonzo bends south-westward and +continues to flow through a deep ravine past Canale and Plava, with the +Bainsizza Plateau rising on its eastern bank. This Plateau is of a +general height of about 2400 feet, and is continued south-eastward by +the Ternova Plateau, rising to a general height of about 2200 feet. +Bending again towards the south-east, the Isonzo flows out into the +Plain of Gorizia. Here stand Monte Sabotino and Monte Santo, the western +and eastern pillars of this gateway leading into the lower lands. East +of Monte Santo, along the southern edge of the Plateau, stand Monte San +Gabriele and Monte San Daniele. Here the Plateau falls precipitously +down to the Vippacco valley, only the long brown foothill of San Marco +breaking the drop. + +Gorizia has scattered suburbs: Salcano to the north, in the very mouth +of the gorge, the fashionable suburb in days before the war; Podgora to +the west, on the other side of the Isonzo, industrial. The Isonzo Front +was the only possible field for an Italian offensive on a great scale, +and the possession of the Carso, of the Bainsizza and Ternova Plateaus +and of Monte Nero are as essential to the future security of the +Venetian Plain as the possession of the Trentino itself. The frontiers +of northern and north-eastern Italy were drawn according to the methods +of the old diplomacy after the war of 1866, when Bismarck, seeking to +keep Austria neutral in the next war on his schedule, that with France, +willingly sacrificed the interests of his Italian Allies. For half a +century Lombardy and Venetia have lived under the continual threat of an +Austrian descent from the mountains, both from the Trentino, thrust like +a wedge into the heart of Northern Italy, and across the Isonzo from the +east. Nor has this threat been remote. When Italy was plunged in grief +at the time of the Messina earthquake, the Austrian General Staff almost +persuaded their Government that the moment had come to strike her down +into the dust, and recover Lombardy and Venetia for Francis Joseph and +Rome for the Pope. And so to-day an Italian Army fighting on the Isonzo +Front fights in continual danger of having its line of communications +cut by an Austrian offensive from the Trentino. + +The population of the Trentino is indisputably Italian. East of the +Isonzo the people are mainly Italian in the towns and mainly Slovene in +the country districts. It has been the deliberate policy of the Austrian +Government to plant new Slovene colonies here from time to time and to +render life intolerable for Italians. But, even so, the population is +still sparse, and all the country is infertile, except for the Vippacco +Valley, which, though wretchedly cultivated hitherto, would richly repay +the application of capital and modern methods. Here, I think, is a clear +case where strategic considerations, which are definite, must prevail +over racial considerations, which are dubious. These lands must be +Italian after the war, if, with even the dimmest possibility of war +remaining, Italians are to have peace of mind. Nor does a strong +defensive frontier for Italy here imply a weak defensive frontier for +her eastern neighbours. For the tangle of mountains continues for many +miles further east. + + * * * * * + +Venosta told me that, when they took San Michele in July 1916, the +Italians lost 7000 in killed alone, seasoned soldiers of their old Army, +whom it has been hard to replace. But when San Michele fell, they swept +on and took Gorizia and all the surrounding plain at one bound, and, in +the same offensive, Monte Sabotino. This victory has a special +significance in modern Italian history, for it was the first time that +an Army composed of men from all parts of United Italy fought a pitched +battle against a great Army of Austria, Italy's secular enemy and +oppressor. Monte Cucco and Monte Vodice were taken in the offensive of +May 1917, and here, as at Monte Nero, the Alpini performed feats of arms +which, to soldiers accustomed to fighting on the flat, must seem all but +incredible. In one case twenty Alpini climbed up a sheer rock face at +night by means of ropes, and leaping upon the Austrian sentries killed +and threw them over the cliff without a sound, so that, when the main +body of Alpini, climbing by hardly less difficult paths, reached the +summit, they took the Austrian garrison in the rear and by surprise, and +the heights were theirs. + +Monte Santo was still Austrian when I came, though the Italians held +trenches half-way up. On the summit the white ruins of a famous convent +were clearly visible. Here some of the bloodiest Infantry fighting of +the whole war took place in May 1917. The Italians were on the top once +in the full flood of that offensive, but could not hold it. Four gallant +Battalions charged up those steep slopes only to find that the Artillery +preparation had been insufficient and that the convent wall had not been +destroyed. Austrians poured out from deep caverns in the rock, where +they had taken refuge during the bombardment, and threw down bombs from +the top of the wall upon the Italians below. For these there was no way +round and no question of retreat, so they all died where they stood, +struggling to climb a wall thirty feet high, clambering upon one +another's shoulders. + +South of the Vippacco we held the Volconiac and Dosso Faiti, but not +Hill 464, though this had been taken and lost again, nor yet the hills +further east, nor any of the northern foothills of the Carso, except +Hill 123. To the south again the Hermada had proved a great and bloody +obstacle. + + * * * * * + +Three striking characteristics of the warfare on this Front impressed +themselves upon my mind--first, the shortage of ammunition; second, the +enormous natural strength of all the Austrian positions; third, the +work of the Italian Engineers. + +Judged by the standards of warfare in France and Flanders, both Italians +and Austrians were very short of ammunition. For Italy, a young and poor +country, possessing neither coal nor iron and thrown largely on her own +resources for manufacturing munitions of war, this was no matter of +surprise. It was astonishing that the Italian Artillery was so well +supplied as it was. But, to bring out the contrast, one may note that, +whereas in Italy "fuoco normale" for Siege Artillery was six rounds per +gun per hour, in France at this time a British Siege Battery's +"ordinary" was thirty rounds per gun per hour. And one may note further +that the number of Siege Batteries on a given length of Front in France +was, even at this time, more than four times as great as the +corresponding number on the Italian Front. The Austrians to some extent +made up for their small quantity of guns and shells by a high proportion +of guns of large calibre. Their twelve-inch howitzers were disagreeably +numerous. It resulted, however, that neither Italians nor Austrians +could afford to indulge in continuous heavy bombardments, such as were +the rule in France. There was here on neither side a surplus of shell to +fire away at targets of secondary importance, and therefore there was +less destruction than in France of towns and villages near the lines. +Ammunition had to be accumulated for important occasions and important +targets. Thus battles were still separate and distinct in Italy, with +perceptible intervals of lull, less apt than in France to become one +blurred series of gigantic actions. So too counter-battery work on a +great scale was not practised on either side out here, partly for +reasons of ammunition supply, and partly for technical reasons connected +with the nature of the ground. For in a good _caverna_ one was perfectly +safe, though outside high explosive produced not only its own natural +effect, but also a shower of pieces of rock, thus combining the +unpleasant characteristics of high explosive and shrapnel. One of our +gunners had his ribs broken by a blow from a large piece of rock, though +standing three hundred yards away from where the shell burst. But often +after a heavy bombardment it was found that the enemy had been sitting +quietly in _caverne_, ready to emerge with his machine guns when the +attacking Infantry advanced. Aeroplanes also were less numerous than in +France. And, when I arrived, gas was not much employed on either side. + +In the second place, I was deeply impressed with the natural strength of +the Austrians' positions. Almost everywhere they held high ground. On no +other Front in this war have stronger positions been carried by assault +than San Michele, Sabotino, Cucco, Vodice, Monte Nero, and, in the end, +Monte Santo. No one who has not seen with his own eyes the heights which +Italian Infantry have conquered, backed by no great Artillery support, +can realise the astounding things which the Italians have performed. The +Italian Infantry have died in masses, with high hearts and in the +exaltation of delirium, crumpled, rent and agonised, achieving the +impossible. + +And in the third place I would say something of the work of their +Engineers. Italian Engineers are famous all the world over, but they +have done nothing more magnificent than their swift building of +innumerable roads, broad and well-laid and with marvellously easy +gradients, both in these inhospitable and undeveloped border lands +beside the Isonzo, and along the whole mountain Front. They have made +possible troop movements and a regular system of supply under the most +difficult conditions. It is a work worthy of the descendants of the old +Romans, who by their road building laid the foundations of civilisation +throughout Western Europe. And only second to their road making, I would +place the work of the Italian Engineers in blasting _caverne_ and gun +positions and trenches in the rock, an invaluable and unending labour. + +We British Gunners spent our first Italian summer in khaki drill tunics +and shorts[1] and Australian "smasher hats." When these hats were first +issued, one Battery Commander declared them to be "unsoldierly" in +appearance and asked for permission to return them to the Ordnance. But +this was not allowed. The men stood the heat well, though at the +beginning, before they had got accustomed to the change of climate, +there was some dysentery. I myself, a few days after my arrival and +before I had a smasher hat, had a touch of the sun and lay about all day +cursing the flies. But next day I was all right again. + +[Footnote 1: Next summer the introduction of mustard gas made it unsafe +to leave our knees uncovered.] + +Our rations at this time were a special Anglo-Italian blend; less meat, +bacon, cheese and tea than in the British ration, but macaroni, rice, +coffee, wine and lemons from the Italian. It was a good ration and no +one suffered from eating a little less meat than at home. In order to +check the spread of dysentery, it was ordered by the medical authorities +that no meat was to be eaten at midday. + +We were not doing a great deal of firing when I came, though we had +always to be prepared to come suddenly and quickly into action, +especially at night. Most of our prearranged daylight shoots were +observed from an O.P. in a ruined house at S. Andrea, on the plain just +outside Gorizia, where one had a fine view southwards of the Tamburo and +of the whole boundary ridge of the Carso from Dosso Faiti to the Stoll. +Observation was beautifully easy on these high hills and in this clear +air. What worlds away is this country with its wonderful cloudless +sunshine from the dismal flat lands of the Western Front! Said one +enthusiast of ours, "This is a gunner's heaven!" The Austrians fancied, +I think, that we had our O.P. in Vertoiba, which is north of S. Andrea, +for they shelled this frequently, but S. Andrea seldom. They shelled +Vertoiba heavily, I remember, all one afternoon, while I was on duty at +S. Andrea and while the Italian Staff were present in large numbers for +two hours to watch our shooting. I remember thinking what a fine bag +they would have got if they had lifted about four hundred yards! The +Italian Staff were always most complimentary and enthusiastic over the +work of our Batteries. + +We had taken part in the Italian May offensive, the results of which had +been claimed by the _Daily Mail,_ with characteristic good taste and +sense of proportion, as a "great Anglo-Italian victory." Our part had +been more justly described by General Cadorna, who in a special Order of +the Day had said that "amid the roar of battle was clearly heard the +voice of British guns," and in his summary of the results of this +offensive, which lasted from May 12th to May 30th, after remarking that +the number of Austrians taken prisoners was 23,681 men and 604 officers, +and that, in addition, at least 100,000 Austrians had been put out of +action, continued as follows, "Our brave Infantry fought indefatigably +for eighteen days, without pause and without proper food supplies, on +difficult ground, in almost mid-summer heat, impetuous in attack and +tenacious in defence. Most effective at all times was the fraternal +co-operation of the Artillery, Siege, Field or Mountain, one Field +Battery not hesitating to push right up to the firing line. Excellent +help, too, was lent by ten Batteries of medium calibre of the British +Army and by the guns of the Italian Navy." + +Cadorna had inspected our Batteries soon after their arrival in Italy, +and we had been visited and officially welcomed on behalf of the Italian +Government by the Minister Bissolati, perhaps the most vivid and vital +personality in Italian politics, and a wise counsellor, whose advice has +more than once been disastrously ignored.[1] + +[Footnote 1: From the outbreak of war in August 1914, Bissolati strongly +advocated Italian intervention on the side of the Allies. When Italy +declared war, he enlisted in the ranks of the Alpini, although over +military age, was decorated for valour and seriously wounded. He then +became Minister for Military Supplies, and acted as a connecting link +between the Cabinet at Rome and the High Command.] + +Addressing at Pec detachments from a number of British Batteries on the +29th of May, Bissolati had said: "Officers and men of the British Force, +I bring you the greetings of the Italian Government and the thanks of +the Italian people. I greet you not only as an Italian Minister, but as +a comrade in arms, for I consider it the greatest privilege of my life +to have been in this war a soldier like yourselves. Our hearts beat with +joy to see you here, because there is no Italian, however humble his +station, who does not know how great is the debt of Italy to Britain for +the brotherly help afforded her during the tragic vicissitudes of the +glorious story of her Resurrection. We all remember how your fathers +helped to create the Italian nation.... To-day we find ourselves +fighting side by side in the same campaign, we to redeem this territory +from the Austrian yoke, you to maintain the liberty of your national +existence from the German menace, both of us, moreover, to set the whole +world free from the peril of falling under the dominion of that race, +hard in temper as a granite rock, which finds in the Austro-Hungarian +Empire a willing ally in its rapes and aggressions. I am here, then, to +thank you, not only as an Italian, but as a man, and I am filled with +joy at the thought that the British, even as the Italians, are showing +themselves to be, now as always, the champions of justice, and the +defenders of liberty and right. The sacrifices which we are making +together, the mingling of our blood upon the battlefield, will render +even stronger the agelong, traditional friendship between our two +nations. + +"Viva l'Inghilterra! Viva l'Italia!" + + + +CHAPTER V + +PALMANOVA + +During my first month in Italy I lived a nomadic life. I was only +"attached" to a Battery, and really nobody's child. July 17th to 22nd I +spent at Palmanova in charge of an Artillery fatigue party which was +helping the Ordnance to load and unload ammunition, and from August 2nd +to 10th I was in charge of another working party of gunners at Versa, a +fly-bitten, dusty little village, which our medical authorities had +stupidly selected as a site for a Hospital, though there were many +suitable villas in more accessible and agreeable places not far away. +But in this first month I was lucky in being able to multiply and vary +my impressions of the Eastern Veneto. + + * * * * * + +I rode down to Palmanova from Gradisca on a motor lorry. What a country! +The white houses, the white roads, the masses of fresh green foliage, +chiefly acacias, the tall dark cypresses, the cool blue water of the +Isonzo, the blue-grey mountains in the distance, and on their summits +the sunshine on the snow, which is hardly distinguishable from the +low-lying cloud banks in an otherwise cloudless sky. + +Italian troops, dusty columns marching along the road, throw up at me an +occasional greeting as the lorry goes by. Long lines of transport pass +continually. "Sempre Avanti Savoia!" "Sempre Avanti Italia!" I find my +eyes wet with tears, for the beauty and the glory and the insidious +danger of that intoxicating war-cry; for the blindness and the +wickedness and the selfish greed that lurk behind it, exploiting the +generous emotions of the young and brave; for the irony and bitter +fatuity of _any_ war-cry in a world that should be purged of war. + + * * * * * + +And so I came to Palmanova to supervise the loading of shell, in the +company of Captain Shield and another Ordnance officer. Shield had +travelled much and mixed with Italians on the borders of Abyssinia. He +told me that with no other European race were our relations in remote +frontier lands more harmonious. They and we have, he said, a perfect +code of written and unwritten rules to prevent all friction. He told me, +too, of a young Englishman out there, quite an unimportant person, who +had a bad attack of sun-stroke and whose life was in great danger. The +only hope was to get him through quickly to the coast, and the shortest +road lay through Italian territory. So application was made to the +Italian authorities for a right of passage, which they not only granted, +but mapped out his route for him, for it was difficult country and +unfamiliar to our people, and sent a guide, and had a mule with a load +of ice waiting for him at every halting-place along the road, and so +saved his life, treating him with as much consideration and tenderness +as they could have been expected to show to a member of their own Royal +Family. + + * * * * * + +Palmanova lies just within the old Italian frontier, a little white town +surrounded by a moat, which in summer is quite dry, and by grassy +ramparts shaped like a star. It was first fortified by the Venetian +Republic four hundred years ago, and again by Napoleon. It can be +entered only through one of three gates, approached by bridges across +the moat, from the north, south-east and south,--the Udine Gate, the +Gradisca Gate and the Maritime Gate. Each gate is double, so that you +pass through a small square court, almost like a well, and at each gate +you can see the remains of an old portcullis and drawbridge. Each is +topped by two slender towers, and is wide enough to allow only one +vehicle to pass at a time, and at each there is a guard of Carabinieri +in their grey lantern-hats, to stop and examine all questionable +traffic. + +From the ramparts you can see the Carnic and the Julian Alps, sweeping +round the Venetian plain in a great half circle. To the north the +mountains seem to rise sheer out of green orchards and maize fields, but +to the east there is a gradual slope of less fertile uplands, where the +Austrians in the first days of war on this Front would not face the +onrush of the Italians in the open, but fell back hurriedly to the more +difficult country behind. At night all the inhabitants sit out on the +ramparts, talking of the hot weather and the war, and watching the +searchlights winking on the hills. + +In the centre of the town is a large Piazza, planted round with myrtles +which smell strong and sweet in the sun, and at midday an old woman sets +up a stall here and sells the newspapers of Rome and Milan, Bologna and +Venetia. In one corner of this Piazza is a restaurant, where one can +play billiards and dine well and cheaply. A youth serves here who has +been rejected for the Army because of defective eyesight. He speaks a +little French and a little German and a very little English, and in +moments of excitement words from all these languages come tumbling out +together, mixed up with Italian. He has, I am sure, an Italian-English +phrase book, which he consults hurriedly in the kitchen, for, whenever +he sets a new course before one, he shoots out some carefully prepared +and usually quite irrelevant sentence, and watches eagerly to see if one +understands. In another corner of the Piazza stands a campanile with a +peal of those absurd little jangling bells, which are among the most +characteristic charms of Italy. Down a side street is the Albergo Rosa +d'Oro, where for a week I was billeted. The padrone, a little round man, +is always smiling. He thinks the war will last three years more and +seems pleased at the prospect, for the town and the district round are +full of soldiers, and he must be making great profits. But his wife, +when one speaks of the war, says "it _must_ end soon; we must go on +hoping that it will end soon." + +The station, where my fatigue party worked, lies outside the town. When +the Austrians provoked war in 1914, they had special trains waiting here +to carry away the Italian troops who, they hoped, would go and fight for +them against the Russians,--a poor fool's dream! In normal times it must +be a quiet place with little traffic. But now there is continual +movement, Infantry going up to the front line and often waiting for +hours at the station, and other Infantry coming back to rest, goods +trains of enormous length passing through, motor lorries loading and +discharging, driven very skilfully though sometimes very recklessly, +horse and mule transport in great variety, both military and civilian, +some of the horses wearing straw hats with two holes for the ears, and +carts drawn by stolid, slow-moving oxen. With all this coming and going, +and with a temperature of over a hundred degrees in the shade, the +Albergo della Stazione does a great trade in iced drinks! + +I made the acquaintance of two families in this town. At Signor +Lazzari's any British officer was always welcome after dinner for music +and talk and light refreshments. An Italian General was billeted there +and two or three Italian officers of junior rank. A Corporal with a +magnificent voice, an operatic singer before the war, came in to sing +one night, and a Private from his Battalion played his accompaniment. In +Italy, as in France, the art of conversation and a keen joy in it, are +still alive, perhaps because Bridge is still almost unknown. Signor +Lazzari's handsome and charming daughter was an admirable hostess. + +At Signor Burini's I was also most hospitably received and drank some +very excellent champagne. I used to talk to his three little girls in +the evenings on the ramparts. Signor Burini's mother remembered +Garibaldi's visit to Palmanova in 1867, the year after Venetia was +liberated from the Austrian yoke and added to United Italy. She was +speaking of this one evening to Shield and he said, "It rained very +heavily that day, didn't it?" Whereat the old lady, much astonished and +evidently suspecting him of some uncanny gift of second sight, replied +that indeed it did. But the truth was that he had been reading an +account of this historic occasion in a local guide book, which related +that, just as Garibaldi came out on a balcony to address the crowd, a +heavy thunderstorm broke and the Hero of the Two Worlds only said, "You +had all better go home out of the rain." + + * * * * * + +It can still rain at Palmanova. + +One day while I was there the temperature rose to 105 degrees in the +shade, but in the evening a cool breeze stirred the dust and I sat +outside the Albergo Rosa d'Oro, talking with various passers-by. About +nine o'clock bright lightning began to fill the sky, but, as yet, no +rain. And then about eleven, just after I had gone to bed, came a +tremendous drenching thunderstorm and a great whirlwind. And then, very +suddenly, all became quiet again, save for the rain-water pouring off +the roofs into the street below. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AQUILEIA AND GRADO + +On July 22nd, the day before I returned from Palmanova to my Battery, +Shield and I and two lorryloads of men made an expedition in the +afternoon to Aquileia and Grado. Aquileia, at the height of the old +Roman power, was a great and important city, on the main road eastwards +from the North Italian plain. It was destroyed and sacked by Attila and +his Huns in the year 452, and again in 568 by Alboin and his Lombards. +It was the fugitives from Aquileia and the neighbouring towns, who, +taking refuge in the lagoons along the coast, founded upon certain +mudbanks in the fifth century the city which was destined to be Venice. +And it was at Grado in the year 466 that the foundations of Venetian +constitutional history were laid by the election of tribunes to govern +the affairs of the community inhabiting the lagoons. + +The two chief features of Aquileia to-day are a museum of Roman +antiquities, which I had not time to visit, and a large church, with a +bare interior, but with a magnificent eleventh century mosaic floor, one +of the best examples of its kind in Italy. The interior of the church +was decorated with flowers in shell cases, to signify its reconquest by +the Italians, who intend to make here a great national memorial when the +war is over. Beside the church, at its eastern end, stood a glorious +group of very tall cypresses, one of the best groups I have ever seen, +and opposite the western entrance was a charming little avenue of young +cypresses, planted since the reconquest. We stayed for half an hour at +Aquileia and then went on to Grado. + + * * * * * + +On the way Shield told me the story of how the British Batteries came to +Italy. Our own War Office, as the habit of the tribe is, had wrapped the +whole thing up in mystery, and the Batteries were christened "the +British Mission" to a destination secret and unnamed. Passing through +the South of France and up the Arc Valley to the frontier, with the +gunners sitting on their guns in open trucks in the sunshine, the +trains were loudly cheered by the French who, in that part of the +country, had seen few of the sights of war. Once in Italy the official +attempts at mystification mystified nobody. The engine-drivers at Modane +hoisted Union Jacks on their engines and kept them flying all the way. +Everyone knew who we were and where we were going, and at every station +where the trains stopped there were official welcomes and immense crowds +cheering like mad. At Turin our guns were wreathed in flowers and at +Verona the station staff presented a bouquet to the General, on whose +behalf Shield made a suitable reply in Italian. + + * * * * * + +Grado lies on several islands, in its own lagoons. The Austrians were +developing it, in a haphazard way, as a watering-place before the war, +and there are several large hotels and the beginnings of a Sea Front. +The canals are filled with fishing boats with brown sails, which seldom +put to sea now for fear of mines. + +One approaches Grado by a steamer which starts from a little cluster of +houses on the mainland known as Belvedere, and takes one down a long +channel through a maze of 'wooded islands, one of which is now the +Headquarters of an Italian Seaplane Squadron. The islands are thickly +clothed with tamarisks and pollarded acacias and stone pines, and are +reputed to be somewhat malarial. There is a long beach at Grado, where +all the world bathes, and the water is deliciously warm, with a bottom +of hard sand. Lying in the water, I could see right round the Gulf of +Trieste as far as Capodistria, and straight opposite to me lay Trieste, +the Unredeemed City of Italy's Desire, very clear against a background +of hills. Through glasses I could even distinguish the trams running in +her streets. I could easily fancy her scarcely a mile away across that +sheet of blue sunlit sea. Thus must she often have appeared to Italians +fighting and dying by sea and land to reach her, who remained ever just +out of reach. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A GRAMOPHONE AND A CHAPLAIN ON THE CARSO + +The Battery moved up to its new position on the edge of the Carso on the +night of July 25th. The guns were drawn by Italian tractors. It was a +long business getting the guns out of their gun pits, as we had not much +room for turning, and a still longer one getting them into the new pits, +after unhooking the tractors, down a steep slope and round two +right-angle turns. Owing to our nearness to the front line no lights +could be used and the night was darker than usual. For hours the gun +detachments were at work with drag ropes, lowering, guiding and hauling, +and the monotonous cry, that every Siege Gunner knows so well, "On the +ropes--together--heave!" went echoing round those rocks till 2 a.m. next +morning. + + * * * * * + +This new position of ours was only three hundred yards from the +Austrians, though we had between us and them the river Vippacco and a +high hill, a spur of that on which the ruined monastery of S. Grado di +Merna stood. The trenches here ran on either side of the Vippacco. An +Italian Trench Mortar Battery had been here before us and, it was said, +had been shelled out. But our gun pits, blasted out of the hillside, +were almost completely protected against hostile fire, except perhaps +from guns on S. Marco, which might, with a combination of good luck and +good shooting, have got us in enfilade. Only howitzers capable of +employing high-angle fire could usefully occupy such a position, and, as +it was, our shells could not clear the crest except at pretty large +elevations. It resulted that we could not hit any targets within a +considerable distance of the Austrian front line, but this, we were +told, did not matter. We were here, we were informed, "for a special +purpose" and for action against distant targets only. There was an +orchard on the flat just behind our guns, a little oasis of fertility in +that barren land, and wooden crosses marking the graves of some of the +Italian Trench Mortar Gunners, who had preceded us. + +Italian Field Artillery were in position all around us, and were firing +a good deal by night. For the first few nights, with their guns popping +off all round, and with blasting operations in full swing, an almost +continuous echo travelled round and round the stony hillsides and made +me dream that I was sleeping beside a stormy sea breaking in endless +waves on a rocky coast. Blasting was going on all day and all night in +this neighbourhood. One of our officers was walking one morning on the +back of the Carso, out of view of the enemy and anticipating no danger, +save the stray shell which is always and everywhere a possibility in the +war zone, when suddenly the face of an Italian bobbed up from behind a +rock with the warning, in English, "Now shoots the mine!" and +disappeared again. The Englishman ran for his life and took shelter +behind the same rock, and a few seconds later there was a heavy +explosion, filling the air with flying fragments, unpleasantly jagged. + +Our officers' Mess and sleeping huts were about two hundred yards from +the guns and a little higher up the hill, just above one of the +magnificent newly-made Italian war roads, along which supplies went up +to Hills 123 and 126 and the Volconiac and Dosso Faiti. Just outside our +huts and opening on to the road was a broad, natural terrace, with a +fine view backwards over the plain. Several times, during our first week +in this position, the Austrians shelled a British Battery at Rupa about +a mile in rear of us and an Italian Battery alongside it. It was very +hot and dry and they had been given away by the huge clouds of dust +raised by the blast of their guns firing. The Austrians shelled them +with twelve-inch and nine-four-fives, getting magnificent shell bursts, +which some of us photographed, great columns of brown-black smoke, +rising mountains high, in the shape of Prince of Wales' feathers, and +hanging for about ten minutes in the still air. But very little damage +was done, and after a short interval both Batteries opened fire again. + +From this terrace of ours we had fine views of fighting in the air. On +August 2nd we saw an Austrian plane brought down by two Italians, who +dived down upon him from above, firing at him with machine guns as they +swept past him. The Austrian, who was flying high, gradually seemed to +lose his head and hesitate in what direction to fly, then he began to +turn over and over, recovered for a moment, but finally lost all control +and came down nose first into his own trenches, just across the river. +Another evening, about ten o'clock, a whole squadron of Austrian planes +came over, flying in regular formation and signalling to one another +with Morse lamps. They were going, it appeared, to bomb Gradisca. They +were heavily shelled by the "archies" as they came over us, and several +fragments of shell fell on our terrace. The night sky was full of starry +shell-bursts, and a dozen of our searchlights fussily got busy. Then +suddenly all our artillery, as it seemed, began to go off, and for about +five minutes there was a deafening burst of fire from guns of all +calibres. And then all grew suddenly quiet again. Perhaps it was a raid, +perhaps only the fear of one. + +One day an Italian plane dropped some booklets into the Austrian +trenches, and some were blown back into our own lines. They contained +photographs of Austrian prisoners of war in Italian camps, very +contented apparently, and explanations in German, Magyar and various +Slav tongues, showing "men who yesterday were living from hour to hour +in peril of death, now waiting happily and calmly in perfect safety for +the war to end, when they shall return to their homes to embrace once +more their wives and little children. Here you will be able to recognise +many of your friends." A good propaganda to induce desertions and +surrenders! The Italians generally had the mastery over the Austrians +in the air. Their machines, and especially their Capronis, could always +be distinguished from the Austrians' by the deeper hum of their engines. + +Venosta had a gramophone, which played most evenings after dinner on the +terrace, chiefly marches and martial music and Italian opera. Italy's +Libyan war, whatever else may be said of it, has produced one +magnificent marching song, "A Tripoli," which deserves to live for ever. +Fine, too, even on the gramophone, are the "March of the Alpini," the +"March of the Bersaglieri" and the famous "Garibaldi's Hymn." I met an +English doctor once, who had heard this last played in Rome on some +great occasion with some of the old Garibaldian veterans in their red +shirts marching in front of the band. He had felt a lump in his throat +that day, he said. When Venosta's gramophone played, the Italians +encamped near by clustered round the edge of the terrace in obvious +enjoyment, and sometimes one or two would dash indignantly down the road +to stop limbers and carts, which were making a rattle on the stones. + + * * * * * + +Our Mess was a great centre for visitors, both English and Italian, we +being at this time the British Battery in the most advanced and +interesting position. Among our visitors, especially on Sundays, was a +Chaplain, whom I will call Littleton, who used to conduct our Church +Parades. In the British Army, and I believe in most others, the +principle of compulsory religious observance is still intermittently +enforced, when it does not interfere with the still more important +business of fighting. I liked Littleton very much in many ways, but +sometimes he infuriated me. He was lunching with us one day and +describing how for some months in France, during some murderous +fighting, he was attached to an Infantry Battalion. "I have never in my +life enjoyed myself more," he said, "than during those months." I could +not help asking, "What did you enjoy, seeing the poor devils getting +hit?" I told him afterwards that I knew he did not really delight in +spectacles of agony and bloodshed, but that "enjoy" seemed to me an +unfortunate word to use. + +On another occasion I attended, in the capacity of Orderly Officer for +the day, one of Littleton's Church Parades and heard him preach. It was +clear that he was troubled by a suspicion that the war and the details +of its development had discredited in some minds some of the ideas of +which he was the professional exponent. He made a brave struggle, +however, against this tide of unreason. "God does not make things too +easy for us," he explained, "He gives us the opportunities, and if we +choose not to use them, that is our fault. A loving father sets up a +tremendously high standard for his son, and judges him severely, not in +spite of, but because of, his love for him. In God's sight, three or +four years of war may be tremendously worth while." + +Then we sang a hymn. I felt inclined to sing instead a song, written by +a soldier who was wounded in France:-- + + "The Bishop tells us, 'when the boys come back + They will not be the same; for they'll have fought + In a just cause: they led the last attack + On Anti-Christ; their comrades' blood has bought + New right to breed an honourable race. + They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.' + 'We're none of us the same!' the boys reply. + For George lost both his legs; and Bill's stone blind; + Poor Jim's shot through the lungs and like to die; + And Bert's gone syphilitic; you'll not find + A chap who served there hasn't found _some_ change.' + And the Bishop said 'The ways of God are strange!" + +It was hard for such a limited intelligence as mine, especially in this +unending Italian sunshine, to imagine that it could seriously be worth +while to burn down a whole real world, in order to roast a probably +imaginary pig. I found it very hard to believe, with the Chaplains, that +the war was purifying everyone's character, and I was particularly +sceptical as regards some of the elderly non-combatants who were unable +to realise at first hand "the Glory of the Great Adventure." + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A FRONT LINE RECONNAISSANCE + +Every day, in our Group, some officer carried out a Front Line +Reconnaissance. This officer was chosen in rotation from the Group +Headquarters and the various Batteries. Colonel Raven, our Group +Commander, often carried out these Reconnaissances himself. Of all +British officers at this time serving in Italy, he had, I think, the +greatest understanding of the Italians. He had travelled in Italy in +peace-time and had studied Italian history. He fully appreciated the +difficulties against which the Italian Army had to contend, and its +military achievements in spite of them. He enjoyed social intercourse +with Italians, and his invariable and slightly elaborate courtesy was, +in an Englishman, remarkable. For, as Mazzini once said, an Englishman's +friendship, when once secured, holds very firm, but it is manifested +more by deeds than by words. But Colonel Raven had the gift of +sympathetic imagination, and he had also in full measure the Allied +spirit. + +The purpose of these Reconnaissances was twofold: first, to report on +matters of military importance, any notable activity by the enemy, the +direction and nature of hostile fire upon our trenches, the effects of +our own fire, when not otherwise ascertainable, the precise position on +the map, especially after any action, of our own and of the enemy's +lines, including saps, advanced posts and the like; second, to maintain +a real contact and spirit of comradeship with the Italian Infantry and +to seek to give them confidence in the efficiency and promptitude of +British Artillery support. Under the first head, valuable information +was frequently brought back, and under the second I believe that, so far +at least as our Group was concerned, the personal relations between the +Artillery and the Infantry were exceptionally good. Hardly ever did we +receive complaints that our guns were firing short, though such +complaints are often made, and often quite groundlessly, when the +Infantry lack confidence in the Artillery behind them. + +At one time thin-skinned persons among us used to complain that +Italians who passed them on the roads used to call out "imboscato!" +Imboscato is a term very frankly used in the Italian army, generally +though not necessarily as a term of reproach. It corresponds with the +French "embusqué," one who shelters in a wood, for which we in English +have no precise equivalent. It is used by an Italian to indicate one who +runs, or is thought to run, less risk of death than the speaker. It is +chiefly used of men in the non-combatant services or in posts well +behind the fighting front, including the Higher Staff and especially the +junior ranks attendant on them. It is used also in jest by Italian +patrols going out at night into No Man's Land, of their comrades, whom +they leave behind in the front line trenches. Personally I was never +called an imboscato, nor were any of my brother gunners, except once or +twice when riding in side-cars or motors miles in rear of our guns. And +to Infantry marching along dusty roads under an Italian sun there is +something very irritating in a motor car dashing past, with its +occupants reclining in easy positions, its siren hideously shrieking, +and blinding dust-clouds rising in its wake. + +German propaganda was insidiously active in Italy throughout the war, +and spread many lying stories with the object of discrediting the +British. Among these was one, the details of which do not matter now, +concerning the fact that only British Artillery, and no British +Infantry, had at that time been sent to Italy. Our Reconnaissances, +involving our visible and daily presence among the gallant succession of +Italian Brigades, who held the blood-stained line on the Carso and +across the valley of the Vippacco, were the most fitting reply which we +could make to German propaganda. + + * * * * * + +I made my first Front Line Reconnaissance on July 27th, two days after +we had moved forward to our new Battery position. That day I visited the +trenches on the Volconiac, starting in the early afternoon and getting +back at nightfall. I took with me as a guide a young Italian gunner, a +Neapolitan by birth, who had been a waiter in an Italian restaurant in +New York before the war. He had been in the Austrian offensive of 1916 +in the Trentino, where all the guns of his Battery had been lost and +nearly all his comrades killed or captured. + +From the Battery position we followed the road behind Hill 123, up a +glorious valley, whose sides were thickly wooded with pines, gradually +thinning under the destruction wrought by Austrian shell fire and the +Italian military need for timber. The only other vegetation here was a +little coarse grass. On the lee side of Hill 123, sheltered from +Austrian fire, was a whole village of wooden huts, admirably +constructed, capable of housing several Battalions. At the head of the +valley, the road, a good example of the war work of the Italian +Engineers, turned sharply up the hillside, securing tolerable gradients +by means of constant zigzags--tolerable that is to say for men on foot +and for pack mules, for wheeled transport could not proceed beyond this +point. It was a steep climb and I perspired most visibly right through +my thin tunic. Three-quarters of the way up we stopped and got a drink +of water from the Infantrymen in charge of the water barrels. There are +no springs or streams on the Volconiac or on Dosso Faiti. All water has +to be pumped up from below through pipes, and at the point where we +rested, water barrels were being continually filled from the pipes and +then hauled on by hand, on sleighs, for the remainder of the ascent. +Water was also carried up from this point by individual soldiers in the +fiaschi, or glass bottles encased in plaited straw, in which Italian +wine is sold. + +Just below the crest we entered the trenches, which were held at this +time by the Florence Brigade. The construction of these trenches was +very interesting. They were all blasted in the rock, and many drilling +machines were at work as I passed along them, increasing the number of +_caverne_, or dug-outs, and deepening those already in existence. Here +and there, where the trenches were rather shallow, they were built up +with loose rocks and sandbags filled with stones. + +One of my objects was to get a view of the Austrian trenches and barbed +wire on the Tamburo, in order to observe from closer quarters than was +possible from any of our O.P.'s the effects of our recent bombardments, +and to verify or disprove a report that certain new defensive works were +being constructed by the enemy at night. Our own trenches here were on a +higher level than the enemy's, and the bottom of the valley between the +Tamburo and this part of the Volconiac was in No Man's Land, as was a +relatively short slope on the Tamburo and a relatively long slope on the +Volconiac. The latter slope was very steep, but thickly clothed with +pines, most of which were now shattered by shell fire into mere dead +stumps. Even these stumps, however, made it difficult to get an +uninterrupted view of the Tamburo, and I had to go some miles along the +trenches, gazing through numerous peepholes, before I reached a point +from which I could satisfy myself that our bombardments had been +effective and that the reported new works were indeed real. Having got +this information, I smoked a pipe and talked with an Italian company +commander in a rocky dug-out, and then started to return. + +Things were quiet on this sector of the Front that afternoon, though +Italian Field Guns were bursting shrapnel from time to time over the +Tamburo. As I went along the trenches I was several times greeted by +Italians who had been in America, "Hullo, John! How are you? How d'you +like this dam country?" This type brings back with it across the +Atlantic the frank, almost brutal, familiarity of a new and democratic +civilisation. It contrasts oddly with the quieter ways of those Italians +who have lived all their lives in Italy, amid one of the oldest and most +mature civilisations of the world. + +On our way down the hill we passed a seemingly endless string of pack +mules coming up, laden with food and ammunition. Always at evening this +wonderful system of supply was visibly working, triumphing over +tremendous natural difficulties. We passed, too, a party of about fifty +men hauling up on long ropes a heavy drilling engine, the sort of labour +of which British fatigue parties have, luckily for themselves, no +experience. Mists came down from the mountains as we descended, and +rainstorms threatened, but did not break. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN EVENING AT GORIZIA + +On the first day in August I had been doing some observation at S. +Andrea in the afternoon, and, this duty over, I got permission to walk +into Gorizia and visit the section of the British Red Cross stationed +there, several of whose members I knew. It is a longer walk than one +would think, for S. Andrea is practically a southern suburb of Gorizia, +which, however, straggles over a large area of country. The railway +bridge across the Isonzo is broken down by shell fire and so are two +other bridges,--all three of stone,--but these could be soon repaired, +if we made a big advance. It would be wasted labour to repair them now, +for the Austrians would only break them down again. The Italians have +run up a low, broad wooden bridge, sheltered from Austrian view behind +one of the broken stone bridges. From time to time the Austrians hit +this bridge, and then the Italians quickly make it good again. To be +able to cross the Isonzo at this point is a convenience, but not a +military necessity, for all movement of troops and supplies into Gorizia +can be carried out on the left bank of the river and across bridges some +miles further down-stream. + +The suburbs of the town were badly knocked about, but the centre was not +at this time much damaged. Gorizia lies in a salient of the hills, with +the Austrians looking down upon it from the tops of most of them. But, +still hoping to win it back, they do not shell it heavily or often. +There are special reasons, too, for their forbearance. For Gorizia is a +sort of Austrian Cheltenham, whither Austrian officers retire in large +numbers to pass their last years in villas which they take over from one +another's widows. So the Austrian officer class has a sort of vested +interest in the preservation of the place. So also have certain Hebrew +Banks in Vienna, which hold mortgages on a great part of the land in and +around the city, which just before the war was being rapidly developed +as a fashionable Spa. It is a well laid out town, with large public +gardens and good buildings, architecturally very like the larger Italian +towns on the other side of the old frontier, Udine for example, but with +a certain element of a heavier and more _rococo_ style, the Viennese. +There is still a fairly large civilian population in the town, and one +restaurant still keeps open. + +I found the British Red Cross in the Via Ponte Isonzo, in what had once +been a big boarding-house, with a large untidy garden behind. Most of +those stationed there were motor ambulance drivers, about twenty in +number, some too old to fight, some rejected for health, some Quakers, +unwilling to kill, but willing to risk their own lives on behalf of the +wounded, others again boys under military age, who go, as soon as they +can, to the Navy or the Flying Corps. It is brave and nervous work they +do, driving ambulances in the dark, without lights and under fire. + +After dinner I sat out in the garden in the twilight and talked with an +old acquaintance of mine, who has had a large share in the organisation +and daily work of the British Red Cross in Italy. The Italians, he said, +are really beginning to feel their feet, as a united nation, in this +war. Men of all classes from all parts of Italy are meeting and mixing +with one another as they have never done before, and the old +_regionalismo_ is being rapidly undermined. He himself has almost ceased +to think critically of the past or speculatively of the future, but just +lives and works in the present. As to the state of the world after the +war, he is very confident, provided we go on fighting long enough. +Nothing that happens at home is of great importance, all the pressure is +on the Fronts. Everything is looking now in the direction of democracy. +Even Russia, in the long run unconquerable, has got her good out of the +war already, whatever miseries and transitory anarchy she may have yet +to undergo. In England and elsewhere many of the present political +leaders are vile, but we shall all know what we want the world to look +like, and to _be_ like, after the war, and new leaders will arise and +lead us. When the survivors of our smitten generation have grown old, +there must be a peace of hearts, as well as a peace of arms, between the +young of all lands. But our generation can never make personal +friendships again with Germans, seeing that they have killed nearly all +those who mattered most to us, and that we have to spend the rest of our +lives without them. + + * * * * * + +He motored me back to the Vippacco bridge at Rubbia. When next I heard +of him it was a month later at the height of the Italian offensive. He +had been severely wounded on the Bainsizza Plateau. + +The British Red Cross did splendid work in Italy and made a big +contribution to Anglo-Italian friendship and understanding. They began +their operations in Italy in September 1915, and were thus the first +Englishmen to "show the flag" on the Italian Front. Thousands of +Italians will gratefully and affectionately remember them till the end +of their lives. More even than the British fighting troops who came +after them, the British Red Cross will remain a historic legend in Italy +in the days to come. + + + +CHAPTER X + +A CEMETERY AT VERSA + +I was at Versa, as I have already said, from the 2nd to the 10th of +August, to supervise a party working on the hospital. I walked one +evening down the village street, where in the light of the sunset an +Italian military band was playing to a mixed crowd of soldiers and +civilians. Just outside the village I came to the gates of a cemetery, +where six tall cypresses stand like sentinels on guard over the graves +of many hundreds of Italian dead. This was at first a civilian +graveyard, but all the dead have Italian names, except one Kirschner, +and even he was called Giuseppe and has an Italian inscription on his +tombstone. For this is Italia Redenta, in this one little corner of +which a great company of Italian youth have already laid down their +lives. And now the graves, in long straight rows, have filled one newly +added field, and begun to flow across a second, and soon from the Field +Hospitals in the village more dead will come. + +Here, as in our war graveyards in France, no religious dogma or +supernatural hope intrudes upon the little wooden crosses. On these, for +the most part, you can read only the bare conventional attributes of +each little handful of dust, which has passed through its quivering +agony into the still sleep of decay,--its name and regiment, its +civilian home, the place and date of its death. A few have more than +this. Here lie the two brothers Bellina in one grave, with a cross at +their head and another, rougher and larger, at their feet, announcing +simply, "I due fratelli," "the two brothers." And here is a tombstone +engraved with an anchor, for one who, very early in the war, was hit +while fording the Isonzo in face of the enemy's fire. "Al Pontiere +Guazzaro Giuseppe che valorosamente sfidando le infide acque dell' +Isonzo cadeva colpito dal piombo nemico. 25 Giugno 1915."[1] And here is +another inscription, typical of that Latin sense of comradeship, which +is more articulate, though not necessarily more profound, than ours. +"Sottotenente Arcangeli Antonio, con commossa memoria," the officers of +his Battery, "il loro orgoglio infinite quì eternano." "In deeply moved +remembrance they here place upon eternal record their infinite pride in +him." It is poor stuff in English, but a vivid and quite natural tribute +in Italian. + +[Footnote 1: "To the Sapper Giuseppe Guazzaro, who fell, while bravely +defying the treacherous waters of the Isonzo, struck down by an enemy +bullet, 25th June, 1915."] + +Where the sun went down, the sky was a sea of rose red and golden green, +studded with little long islands of dark cloud, and on the edge of this +sea the evening star twinkled like a tiny illumined boat, dancing, a +blaze of light, upon the waves. To left and right the cloudbanks were a +deep purple blue, fast fading into the dim warm grey of an Italian +night. East and north the mountains that bound the plain, silent +witnesses of Italy's great struggle, were hidden in the dusk, and the +cypress sentinels stood up sharp and black against the darkening sky. +The band had ceased to play and one heard only the chirp of +grasshoppers, and across an orchard the soft sound of Italian speech, +and the distant song of two soldiers in the village street. But the warm +air, which just now was throbbing with a military march, seemed to be +throbbing still with an aching longing that happier days may come +swiftly to this land of beauty and pain, so that the sacrifice of all +these dead shall not be wholly waste. + + * * * * * + +Not many miles away, as the sun was setting, an Austrian shell burst in +a British Battery, and three hours later through the dark under faint +stars an ambulance lorry brought to us the bodies of four British +gunners, whose dust will mingle with Italian dust, under Italian skies, +for ever. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +UDINE + +I first saw Udine on the 5th of August. I was still on duty at Versa, +but the conversation in the R.A.M.C. Mess bored me, particularly at +meals; it was all sputum and latrines, gas gangrene and the relative +seniority of the doctors one to another. There was nothing to keep me at +Versa, for my gunner fatigue party did not in truth need any +supervision. So I determined to go to Udine. I started, walking, about +10 a.m. It was not too hot. I walked about three miles and then picked +up a lorry. One can generally get a ride on an Italian lorry if there is +any room, by waving one's stick at the driver, shouting out one's +destination, and looking agreeable. This one took me to Mogaredo and +then stopped. I then walked another three miles to a point near +Trevignano. Here I was within ten miles of Udine and picked up another +lorry which took me the rest of the way. It was driven by a Triestino +who, seeing what was coming, had left the Unredeemed City just before +Italy declared war. His face was very sad, and he made a gesture of +weeping, drawing his fingers downwards from his eyes across his cheeks, +though his eyes were dry. "How long?" he asked. "How long before Trieste +will be free?" + +We approached Udine through a long avenue of plane trees, planted under +Napoleon. It is a gay little town, with arcaded streets, clustering +round a hill on the top of which stands a Castello, with a memorial +tower to the martyrs of 1848, and on the hill slopes public gardens full +of cypresses. Udine was at this time a nest of British newspaper +correspondents. I began to make their acquaintance in the afternoon. +First an Anglo-Italian lady from Rome, whom I met sitting out behind the +Hotel Grande d'Italia under the shade of trees. She was evidently +something of a figure here and received several callers, all ladies of +Udine, as we sat drinking coffee. One of these, on learning that I was a +gunner, took out a locket and handed it to me. It contained a picture of +a marvellously handsome boy. It was her eldest son, killed three months +before in Cadore, a Lieutenant in a Mountain Battery. He was only +nineteen. His mother began to weep as she handed me the locket, and it +was the lady from Rome who told me these things. Then the mother cried, +between her sobs, "E troppo crudele, la guerra!" And as I handed the +locket back, I thought of the unmarried childless parson in khaki who +considered that "three or four years of war may be tremendously worth +while." + + * * * * * + +Later I met and dined with two of the male correspondents of the London +Press. Conversation, in the sense of a mere flow of talk, is never +difficult with newspaper men. They are among the most articulate of the +British, although much that they articulate is only patter. These two +had plenty of miscellaneous information, much of which I received in a +sceptical spirit, but I learned some interesting facts, which I verified +from other sources later on. Chief of these was the effect produced +upon Young Italy by the personal gallantry of the poet D'Annunzio, who, +when he is not flying at the head of the Italian bombing planes against +Pola, is making fiery orations to the Infantry in the front line and +distributing among them little tricolor flags bearing his own autograph. + +Having talked till midnight, I found a bedroom at the Croce Malta, where +I slept for four hours. Then I got up and dressed and walked to the +railway station, where I drank coffee and ate biscuits. A train was due +to leave for Palmanova, the nearest station to Versa, at 5.30 a.m. As I +waited for it on the platform, I looked out at the station lights, a +dull orange under their dark shades, and at the red signals beyond, four +in a vertical line, and beyond again at the dim outlines of houses and +dark trees against a sky, at first a very deep dark blue, but slowly +lighting up with the beginning of the dawn. The train did not start till +nearly seven. By this time it was quite light, and the sun had turned +the distant Cadore into a ridge of pink grey marble, very sharply +outlined against the morning sky, and in the middle distance, just +across the maize fields which run beside the railway track, rose the +_campanile_ of some little village of Friuli, like a stick of shining +alabaster. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BRITISH AND THE ITALIAN SOLDIER + +The sending of ten British Batteries to Italy had something more than a +military significance. Otherwise the thing was hardly worth doing. It +was evident that here was an international gesture. An effort was being +made to promote a real Anglo-Italian understanding, to substitute for +those misty and unreal personifications--"England" to an Italian, +"Italy" to an Englishman--real personal knowledge and a sense of +individual comradeship in a great cause. Our task, in short, was not +only to fight, but also to fraternise. But would we fraternise +successfully? For it has been said, not without some truth, that +"England is an island and every Englishman is an island," and in the +early days I was doubtful what sort of personal effect we should +produce, and what sort of personal impressions our men would bring away. + +When I got back to the Battery from Versa I began to take stock of my +own impressions so far, and to notice, in the letters which I had to +censor, the drift of general opinion. It was surprisingly satisfactory. + +"Some of these Italians," writes one gunner, "are the finest fellows you +could wish to meet. Our men get on very well with them." "The Italians," +writes another, "are very good soldiers and nice chaps. We get on well +together." "The other night," writes a third, "I was out laying +telephone wires in a graveyard. We saw some Italian soldiers carrying a +tombstone for their Lieutenant who had recently been killed. The +Italians look after their graves very well. A Sergeant, who had spent +most of his life in England, asked us in and gave us some coffee and +cognac which was jolly acceptable. He asked if we had any old English +papers, as he was forgetting all his English, as he had been away from +England for five years." And a fourth writes, "The great majority of +these Italians have been in different parts of America" (this of course +is a wild exaggeration!), "they are very delighted to have a chat. In +fact I think the Italian people are very sociable. Nearly all the boys +can begin to make themselves understood." These tributes are obviously +sincere. They occur in the midst of good-natured grumbles about the +heat, and the monotony of macaroni and rice and stew, and of requests +for "more fags" and of hopes that "this business will soon be over." + +The fact that so many Italians, having lived in England and America, can +speak English and know something of us and our ways, accounts for much. +For a foreign language is the Great Barrier Reef against the voyages of +ordinary people towards international understanding. And the country +counts for something, too. Its natural obstacles compel admiration for +an Army which has achieved so much in spite of them. And I am sure that +no British gunner, however inarticulate, who has served in Italy, and +especially those young fellows who, when war broke out, stood only on +the threshold of their manhood, with their minds still wide open for new +impressions, has not felt some sort of secret thrill at the astounding +and incomparable beauty of this country, the very contemplation of +which sometimes brings one near to weeping. + +I recall, for instance, a tough old Sergeant Major, with twenty-seven +years' service with our Artillery all over the world, an utterly +unromantic person. He and I were bringing back my working party on the +10th of August from Versa to Rubbia in a lorry. The men were singing +loudly, and greeted an Italian sentry on Peteano bridge with cheerful +cries of "Buona sera, Johnny!" And the Sergeant Major suddenly observed +to me that "this must be a fine country in peace-time," and went on to +praise the mountains, and the rivers, and the trees, especially the +cypresses, and the surface of the roads, and some town behind the lines, +Udine I think, which was "very pretty" and "quite all right." The +Italians, too, were "all right," which from him was most high praise. +And then, as though half ashamed of having said so much, he added, +rather hastily, "But there's nothing to touch the old country after all. +I think I shall settle down there when this war's over. I've had about +enough of foreign parts." + +And what do the Italians think of us, I wonder? I only know that they +treat us always with great friendliness, and show great interest in our +guns and all our doings. So the international gesture has, I think, +begun already to succeed. And its success will grow. For those British +graves, which we shall leave behind us--some are dug and filled +already--will tell their own story to the future. They will be facts, if +only tiny facts, both in British and Italian history, and "far on in +summers that we shall not see," bathed in the warm brilliance of Italian +sunshine, they will bear witness to Anglo-Italian comradeship across +the years. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +I JOIN THE FIRST BRITISH BATTERY IN ITALY + +On the 15th of August arrived an operation order indicating our targets +in the first and second phases of the great Italian offensive, which had +been long expected, and also the objectives of the Infantry. The day on +which the offensive was to begin was not yet announced. Six more British +Siege Batteries, giving us now three British Heavy Artillery Groups, had +arrived on the Carso and in the Monfalcone sector about a fortnight +before. The French too had sent a number of Heavy Batteries, which were +in position on Monte Sabotino and elsewhere north of the Vippacco. But +the counsel of wise men had been disregarded, and no French or British +Infantry, no complete Allied Army Corps, had been sent to the Italian +Front, where a big military success could have been more easily obtained +and would have had greater military and political results at this time, +than anywhere else. + +On this day I walked to and from S. Andrea, returning to the Battery in +the evening greatly perspiring but with an enormous appetite. Large +numbers of Infantry were going up the Vallone and the Volconiac in the +dusk. Italian Infantry march in twos on either side of a road, not in +fours on one side as ours do. + +The Austrians shelled a good deal this evening, and put a lot of gas +shell into Merna. + + * * * * * + +On the 17th I was transferred to another Battery. It was the eve of the +offensive, and my new Battery was an officer short, while my old Battery +was again at full strength, the officer who had been in hospital +wounded, when I arrived in Italy, having now returned. I joined my new +Battery about midday. They were in position on the Vippacco, close to +the former position of my old Battery. I was destined to stay with them +for seventeen months, till after the war was won, and I came to identify +myself very completely with them, and to be proud to be one of them. + +This had been the first of all the British Batteries to come into action +in Italy, and had fired the first British shell against Austria. The +Major in command had the reputation of being the most efficient British +Battery Commander in Italy, and, so far as my experience of others went, +he deserved it. He was a Regular soldier, and had served with a Mountain +Battery in India, a service which requires and breeds a power of quick +decision, by no means universal among Garrison Gunners of the Regular +Army. Personally he was a most delightful man, at his best a very +amusing talker, a pleasant companion and an excellent Commanding +Officer. Few officers whom I have met took as much thought and trouble +as he for the material welfare of his men. From his junior officers he +combined a demand for high efficiency with a sometimes wonderful +solicitude for their comfort, health and peace of mind. He never asked +any of us to do more, or even as much, as he did willingly himself, and +if anything went wrong in the Battery, which it seldom did, he never +hesitated, in dealing with higher authorities, to take all the blame. He +had been twice wounded already, once on the Somme and again in the +Italian May offensive. Later on he was wounded a third time. + +Captain Jeune, the Second-in-Command, was also a Regular, but very +young. In mind and manner he was older than his years, and he knew his +work as a military professional extremely well. Some found him +truculent, but he never displayed any truculence to me. + +On my arrival I became Senior Subaltern of the Battery. The three Junior +Subalterns, Darrell, Leary and Winterton, provided a variety of +companionship. Darrell was a man of business, a most capable officer, a +good Mess Secretary, and very easy to get on with. Leary was a +dark-haired Irishman, who had originated in the County Limerick. He was +a good mathematician, but in conversation was apt to be long-winded, and +had a wonderful capacity for making a simple matter appear complex. He +had been, by turns, a civil engineer and an actor, and had a fine +singing voice. As an officer he was infinitely laborious and +conscientious, but with a queer disconcerting streak of Irish +unaccountability. One never quite knew what he would do, if left alone +in charge of anything. + +Winterton was a good-looking boy, who would have gone up to Cambridge in +1915, if there had been no war. Instead he enlisted in the Horse +Artillery, became a Corporal, and went to the Dardanelles as a Despatch +Rider. Having spent several months in hospital at Malta and nearly died +of dysentery, he came back to England and was given an Artillery +Commission. He was a gallant youth but just a little casual, with rather +a music-hall mind, but good company, if one was not left alone with him +too long. + +There was also attached to the Battery at this time an Italian Artillery +officer, whom I will call Manzoni, a Southerner, small and very dark. He +had taught himself to speak excellent English though he had never been +in England. He was an intelligent observer and an amusing companion, and +we became great friends. + +The personnel of the Battery was splendid, and I do not believe that in +any other Battery the spirit of the men was better, nor the personal +relations between officers and men on a sounder and healthier footing, +than with us. + +Some Battery Commanders proceed on the principle that even the most +experienced N.C.O. cannot be trusted to perform the simplest duty, +except under the eye of an officer, however junior. The Battery in this +case becomes helplessly dependent on the officers. If they go out of +action, so does the whole Battery. Other Battery Commanders, of whom my +new Major was one, proceed on the principle that as many N.C.O.'s as +possible should be able to do an officer's work, so that the Battery +should be able to continue in action without any officers at all if +necessary, and also be able to adapt itself readily to a sudden change +from stagnant to open warfare. This principle is universally applied in +the French Artillery, where, apart from its evident wisdom, it has been +necessitated by the great shortage of officers. My own Major used to +train all our best N.C.O.'s with this object in view and, when satisfied +of their competence, used to give them in normal times considerable +responsibilities in the working of the Battery in action. The result was +that we had as capable and reliable a set of "Numbers One" and +"B.C.A.'s" as could be found anywhere.[1] The men thoroughly appreciated +the amount of trust reposed in them and never failed us. Furthermore, +when I joined the Battery there was hardly a man who was not a trained +specialist, either as a Signaller, Gunlayer or B.C.A. + +[Footnote 1: A "Number One" is the Sergeant or other N.C.O. in charge of +a gun and its detachment when in action. A "B.C.A." (or Battery +Commander's Assistant) assists the officer on duty in the Command Post +in locating points on the map, in making numerical calculations, and in +other miscellaneous duties.] + +Seventeen months later, only the Major, Leary and myself, out of the +officers in the Battery when I joined, still remained with it, and +death, wounds, sickness, promotion and commissions from the ranks had +taken from us many of our best N.C.O.'s and men. But through all the +varied experiences of those long months, there had been a continuity of +tradition and an unchanging spirit. We were still, for me and for many, +the First British Battery in Italy. + + +PART III + +THE ITALIAN SUMMER OFFENSIVE, 1917 + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE OFFENSIVE OPENS + +On the 18th of August I got up at half-past four in the morning. There +was a mist in the air, which cleared away as the day grew warmer. The +big bombardment in what the journalists called the Twelfth Battle of the +Isonzo began at six o'clock and went on continuously all day. Once the +thing was started, I had little to do except to change occasionally the +rate of fire,--"_lento_," "_normale_," "_vivace_," "_celere_" and +"_double vivace_" by turns. The first part of the day I was in charge of +the Right Section of the Battery and sat most of the time on a wooden +bench at a table under a tarpaulin among the acacias. By my side sat a +telephonist in communication with the Battery Command Post, some four +hundred yards away to the left, beyond the Left Section. My only other +apparatus was a megaphone, a notebook and pencil, and a pipe. +Occasionally I would go and stand by one of the guns, to check the +gun-laying and to see that the guns were recoiling and coming up again +without undue violence. One had also to guard against a dust cloud being +raised by the blast of the guns, thus giving away our position to the +enemy. To prevent this, we formed a chain of men every half hour to pass +water-buckets from hand to hand, from the river just behind us down the +sunken road, to lay the dust in and around the gun pits. But under an +Italian August sun the ground soon grew parched and dusty again. + +The Austrians did not shell much till the evening, when they nearly hit +our Mess and shell-shocked a man of another Battery in the road close +by. But the Italian bombardment all day was very heavy, and our guns and +theirs were to go on firing all night. Just before midnight I relieved +the Major in the Command Post, and he and the rest of the officers went +to bed. So I sat there wakefully among the acacias, awaiting any sudden +orders from the Group to switch or lift to new targets, or to vary the +rate of fire. Every now and then I took a walk round the Battery to see +that all was working correctly, and every hour the N.C.O.'s in charge of +each gun brought in their fired tubes to the Command Post and reported +how many rounds had been fired in the preceding hour and how many tubes +misfired. + + * * * * * + +It was a clear, starlight night, up above the multitudinous flashes of +British and Italian guns. At close quarters these flashes were +blindingly bright, and flung up showers of red sparks. In the intervals +of a few seconds between flashes, if one stood with one's eyes fixed on +the guns, the stars seemed blotted out in an utterly black darkness. A +long bombardment is one of the most boring things in the world by reason +of its intense monotony, and because in a queer half-unconscious way it +begins, after many hours, very slightly to fray the nerves. Listening +and watching in the small hours, and from time to time directing, I +found myself able, with almost discreditable elastic-mindedness, to call +up at will any of the aspects of modern war,--its utter and inherent +wickedness, its artistic and scientific majesty, its occasional moral +justification against the oppressor, its ultimate blank insanity. But I +would not have liked to be an Austrian yesterday or this morning. The +Italian Infantry attacked on our sector at 5.30 a.m. There was a +tremendous crescendo of gunfire at this time. The Major relieved me in +the Command Post at 5 o'clock, and urged me to go to bed, but I did not +feel inclined to sleep. Instead I went up about 6 o'clock through Pec +village to an O.P. on a hillside beyond, to see what could be seen. But +all the Front was hidden in a thick mist, made thicker by the smoke, +shot through with innumerable momentary flashes. All round us thousands +of guns were going off, filling the air with a deafening and continuous +roar. A telephonist was with me who had been through a good deal of the +Somme fighting, and had found the Italian Front, in times of lull, a +little uneventful. But this morning he was full of appreciation. "This +is something like it, isn't it, Sir?" he said. Being able to see +nothing, I went back to bed for some hours and spent the afternoon at a +Battery O.P., which had been specially arranged for this offensive, in +an Italian reserve trench just off the Pec-Merna road. + + * * * * * + +The bombardment continued through the 19th and 20th and 21st of August, +now with guns firing independently, now with salvos or rounds of Battery +fire, now with individual guns being ranged afresh from some O.P., with +hardly an hour's interval of silence. How little the individual soldier +knows of what is happening at these times! Conflicting rumours of +varying credibility came in to us during those three days, rumours of +big advances both to the north and to the south. But on our own sector +we knew that no permanent advance had been made, for we were still +firing a good deal on old "Zone 15," one of our first day's targets, and +on that damned Hill 464, the most important of the first objectives of +the Infantry. + +Before this offensive began I had slept in a hut above ground, but the +Major had now insisted that I should sleep in a small dug-out half-way +up a steep bank, at the bottom of which our Mess Hut stood in an orchard +stretching down to the river bank. The Austrians shelled us +intermittently, but without doing any damage. In the small hours of the +21st I was dozing in my dug-out, where I had been reading Lowes +Dickinson's _Choice Before Us_, a congenial book at such a time, with +nine-tenths of which I was in complete agreement. I then heard a series +of Austrian "4.2's" come sailing over my dug-out and burst just at the +foot of the bank. They made miserable bursts in the soft earth, so small +as to make me suspect gas shells for a moment, but this suspicion did +not worry me, for no one was sleeping at the bottom and gas cannot run +uphill. Next morning I found a shell hole fifteen yards from the Mess +Hut, another on the path and several others among the trees. They were +"double events," with a shrapnel and time fuse head and a high +explosive and percussion fuse tail, but neither head nor tail had been +of much effect. There was very heavy firing that morning, but less in +the afternoon. Great gloom prevailed on our sector, where we were back +again in most of our first positions. The Infantry were reported to be +unable to make headway against machine guns on Hill 464 and the Tamburo. +To the south, on the Carso, the ruins of the village of Selo had been +taken, but not much else. + +But, though we did not know it then, the Italian Army in those first +three days had won magnificent successes to the north of us. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +WE SWITCH OUR GUNS NORTHWARD + +On the 22nd of August we got for the first time definite news of the +Italian advance on the Bainsizza Plateau. The day was rather hotter than +usual, and on our own sector there was still no appreciable progress. +Hill 464 had been won and lost three times since yesterday morning, and, +to the south of it, Hill 368 also had been won and lost again. Up there +it must be a vain and shocking shambles. It was claimed for Cadorna's +communiqués, I think justly, that at this time no others were more +moderate and truthful. No point was claimed as won, until it was not +merely won but securely held. + +The Italian Battery beside us were moving north that night to the +Tolmino sector and next day our Left Section was to move out into a +position in the open, in order to switch north and shell S. Marco, which +we could not reach from our present gun pits. S. Marco, being north of +the Vippacco, was in the area of the Italian Second Army, commanded by +Capello, which had been performing the great feats of these last days. +It was clear that, for the moment, the main Italian effort was being +made to the north. + +Indeed by the 24th all the British guns of our Group were pointing +north-eastward, firing at S. Marco and neighbouring targets. British +casualties and those of the Italian Heavy Artillery had been very light, +the Austrian having concentrated practically all his Artillery fire, in +addition to his machine guns, on the Italian Infantry, amongst whom +there had been hideous slaughter. + +But in the early morning of the 23rd an Austrian shell killed a Sergeant +and two men in one of our Batteries. The Sergeant was torn into several +pieces, one of which landed on the top of the Officers' Mess and another +in a gun pit 150 yards away. One of his legs could not be found, so they +had to bury what they could, an incomplete set of torn fragments. But +three or four days later the smell of the lost limb came drifting down a +ravine above their guns, and following the scent, they found it, black +with flies among the stones. + +In my old Battery, too, four hundred cartridges went up with a direct +hit, and the Austrians then shelled the smoke with unpleasant effect. A +twelve-inch shell also burst very close to the Battery's Mess, killing +a number of Italian telephonists next door. + +Throughout these days, periods of very heavy firing alternated with +periods of comparative quiet. + + * * * * * + +On the 25th a party of nearly thirty British officers and men, a +procession of two cars, three side-cars and twelve motor bicycles, went +up Podgora Hill. The Italian Second Army, to whom we were strangers, +watched us with interest as we went past in a cloud of dust. On the top +of Podgora Hill was a series of O.P.'s, known collectively as Maria +O.P., hollowed out of the rock, approached through rock passages, and in +front a wide rocky platform commanding a splendid panorama. At our feet +was a precipitous descent, clothed with acacias, at the bottom Podgora +with its gutted factories, then the broad stream of the Isonzo, and +Gorizia on the further side. To the left we could see the Isonzo winding +down out of the mountains, between Monte Sabotino and Monte Santo, the +latter hiding from our sight the Bainsizza Plateau. In the centre of our +view rose the great mass of San Gabriele; Italian patrols were out on +its southern slopes, clearly visible through field-glasses. Then Santa +Catarina and the long low brown hillside of San Marco. Away to the right +the flat lands of the Isonzo and Vippacco valleys, and beyond these +again the northern ridge of the Carso, from Dosso Faiti to the Stoll, +beautifully visible. On the right everything seemed quiet, but there was +tremendous Allied shelling of San Gabriele, Santa Catarina and San +Marco. French Gunners also were here with fifteen-inch guns firing on +San Marco, and two of their officers were at Maria O.P. that day. It +was symbolic that from this height, for the first time on the Italian +Front, Gunners of the three Western Allies were looking out eastward +together toward the Promised Land. + +The enemy trenches on San Marco lay out of view behind the crest, and +our registration point, a white house on the top of the ridge, was +almost completely blown away by a big French shell while we were +watching, and waiting our turn to fire. We saw another shell burst in +the Isonzo just above Gorizia, causing a huge waterspout. Colonel Canale +arrived while we were firing. His white gloves were a little soiled, and +he seemed rather worried and more serious than usual. He was +disappointed at the stoppage of the offensive on the Carso. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE FALL OF MONTE SANTO + +Even when our guns were turned against San Marco, we continued to man +Sant' Andrea O.P., for one could get good general observation to the +northward from the other side of the ruined house which was the old +O.P., and most of the trenches on San Marco were invisible except from +aeroplanes. I spent the night there several times during the August +offensive, watching by turns with one of our Bombardiers, to whom I +explained that wars were made by small groups of wicked men, generally +also rich, sitting and planning in secret. I proposed to him the need +to shell such groups, while they were yet forming, with the shrapnel of +public opinion. + +It was also at Sant' Andrea that I met a young Lieutenant of Italian +Field Artillery, a Sardinian from Cagliari. He had still the face of a +child, and he had, too, that perfect self-possession and that wonderful, +soft charm which are so often found together in the Italian youth. I +think of him often with affection, and with an eager hope that he passed +unharmed through all the vicissitudes which were to follow. + +He and I spent many hours together, watching those bloody, memorable +hills. I met him first on the 24th of August, and we drank a bottle of +Vermouth together, and discussed with enthusiasm many subjects. We even +worked out in detail a scheme for the interchange of students, for +periods of a year at a time, between Italian and British Universities +after the war. We then turned to modern history and I noticed that he +did not respond as much as I had expected to the name of Garibaldi. He +held the historical theory that, broadly speaking, there are no really +great men, but only lucky ones. He put forward in support of this view +the distribution of death, wounds and decorations in this war. This +theory of history has in it larger elements of wholesomeness and truth +than has, for instance, the pernicious bombast of Carlyle. I told my +Sardinian friend that I had once heard it said by a most learned man +that, if Rousseau had never lived, the world would not look very +different to-day, except that probably there would be no negro republic +in the island of Haiti. This saying pleased him and he was inclined to +think it plausible. + +He told me that day that Monte Santo was reported taken, but the news +was not yet sure. + + * * * * * + +I saw him again three days later and by then all the world knew that +Monte Santo had fallen. For Cadorna in his communiqué of the 25th had +cried: "Since yesterday our tricolour has been waving from the summit of +Monte Santo!" Already we could see the flashes of Italian Field Guns in +action near the summit. All day I was buoyant, exhilarated, and as +absorbed in the war as any journalist. + +Victory has an intoxicating quality in this bright clear atmosphere, and +among these mountains, which it has, perhaps, nowhere else. All day +there seemed to be in the air a strange thrill, which at evening seemed +to grow into a great throbbing Triumph Song of the Heroes,--incomparable +Italians, living and dead. The emotion of it became almost unbearable. + +"Our tricolour is waving from the summit of Monte Santo!" + +Here on the night of the 26th there occurred a scene wonderfully, almost +incredibly, dramatic. The moon was rising. Shells passed whistling +overhead, some coming from beyond the Isonzo toward the Ternova Plateau, +others in the opposite direction from Ternova. Rifle shots rang out from +beneath Monte Santo, along the slopes of San Gabriele, where the Italian +and Austrian lines were very close together, where no word on either +side might be spoken above a whisper. Suddenly there crashed out from +the gloom the opening bars of the Marcia Reale, played with tremendous +_élan_ by a military band. The music came from Monte Santo. On the +summit of the conquered mountain, the night after its conquest, an +Italian band was playing amid the broken ruins of the convent, standing +around the firmly planted Italian flag. It was the Divisional Band of +the four Regiments which had stormed these heights. On the flanks of the +mountain, along the new lines in the valley beneath, along the trenches +half-way up San Gabriele, Italian soldiers raised a cry of startled joy. +Below the peak an Italian Regiment held the line within forty yards of +the enemy, crouching low in the shallow trenches. Their Colonel leaped +to his feet and his voice rang out, "Soldiers, to your feet! Attention!" +All along the trench the soldiers, with a swift thrill of emotion, +sprang to their feet. Then again the Colonel cried, "My soldiers, let us +cry aloud in the face of the enemy, 'Long live Italy! Long live the +King! Long live the Infantry!'" Loud and long came the cheers, echoing +and re-echoing from the rocks, taken up and repeated by others who heard +them, first near at hand, then far away, echoing and spreading through +the night, like the swelling waves of a great sea. + +The Austrians opened fire on Monte Santo. But the music still went on. +The Marcia Reale was finished, but now in turn the Hymn of Garibaldi and +the Hymn of Mameli, historic battle songs of Italian liberty, pealed +forth to the stars, loud above the bursting of the shells. And many +Italian eyes, from which the atrocious sufferings of this war had never +yet drawn tears, wept with a proud, triumphant joy. And as the last +notes died away upon the night air, a great storm of cheers broke forth +afresh from the Italian lines. The moon was now riding high in the +heavens, and every mountain top, seen from below, was outlined with a +sharp-cut edge against the sky. + +Four days after, not far from this same spot, General Capello, the +Commander of the Italian Second Army, decorated with the Silver Medal +for Valour some of the heroes of the great victory. Among these was a +civilian, a man over military age. It was Toscanini, Italy's most famous +musical conductor. It was he who, charged with the organisation of +concerts for the troops, had found himself in this sector of the Front +when Monte Santo fell, and, hearing the news, had demanded and obtained +permission to climb the conquered mountain. He reached the summit on the +evening of the 26th and, by a strange chance, found his way among the +rocks and the ruins of the convent, to the place where the band was +playing. His presence had upon the musicians the same effect which the +presence of a great General has upon faithful troops. They crowded round +him, fired with a wild enthusiasm. Then Toscanini took command of what +surely was one of the strangest concerts in the world, played in the +moonlight, in an hour of glory, on a mountain top, which to the Italians +had become an almost legendary name, to an audience of two contending +Armies, amid the rattle of machine guns, the rumble of cannon, and the +crashes of exploding shells. + + * * * * * + +"Our tricolour is waving from the summit of Monte Santo!" + +If the souls of poets be immortal and know what still passes in this +world, be sure that the soul of Swinburne sings again to-day, from hell +or heaven, the Song of the Standard. + + "This is thy banner, thy gonfalon, fair in the front of thy fight. + Red from the hearts that were pierced for thee, white as thy + mountains are white, + Green as the spring of thy soul everlasting, whose life-blood is light. + Take to thy bosom thy banner, a fair bird fit for the nest, + Feathered for flight into sunrise or sunset, for eastward or west, + Fledged for the flight everlasting, but held yet warm to thy breast. + Gather it close to thee, song-bird or storm-bearer, eagle or dove, + Lift it to sunward, a beacon beneath to the beacon above, + Green as our hope in it, white as our faith in it, red as our love." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE CONQUEST OF THE BAINSIZZA PLATEAU + +The Italian advance on the Middle Isonzo in the early days of the August +offensive reached a depth of six miles on a front of eleven miles. The +Italians had swept across the Bainsizza Plateau, and had gained +observation and command, though not possession, of the Valley of +Chiapovano, the main Austrian line of communication and supply in this +sector. This advance and the resumption of the war of movement raised, +for the moment, tremendous expectations, which were destined, alas, to +die away without fulfilment. + +The passage of the Isonzo, here a deep cleft in the mountains, from +Plava to above Canale, had been accomplished by the combined skill and +valour of Infantry, Artillery and Engineers. The preliminary work of the +Engineers in roadmaking on the western side of the river had been, as +always, worthy of the highest praise. A great mass of bridging material +had had to be accumulated in the valley, alongside camouflaged roads. +The Austrians must have been on their guard, but it seems probable that +they did not expect a big attack to be made here. For they were fully +conscious of the natural strength of their positions. + +First to cross the river on the night of the attack were boats carrying +Engineers and detachments of Arditi. As they crossed, the river gorge +was full of mist and they were not detected. But when the work of +bridging began, and sounds of hammering and the dragging of planks into +position could be clearly heard, suddenly all along the further bank the +Austrian machine guns began to spit fire, and red rockets went up +calling for the Artillery barrage. Many boats were hit and sank, and the +Bridging Detachments suffered severe casualties. One bridge, half built, +was set on fire, and one could see dark shadows, lit up by the glare +amid the darkness, darting forward to extinguish the flames. Fourteen +bridges were thrown across under heavy fire, and, as the Infantry began +to cross, Platoon after Platoon, the Austrian Machine Gunners fired at +the sound of their footsteps, and many Italians fell, especially +officers leading their men. But the crossing went on and, when dawn +broke, the attackers had a firm footing on the left bank of the river. +They swept round the flanks of those machine guns which had not yet been +put out of action, and making use of the subterranean passages which the +enemy had pierced in the cliffs for sheltered communication between the +higher and the lower levels of the mountain, began to pour forth upon +the crest of the ridge which overlooks the river. Then, as the advance +continued, the Austrian right wing above Canale gave way in confusion +and the Italians pressed forward on to the Bainsizza Plateau. + +But their difficulties were tremendous. When they left the valley of the +Isonzo behind them, they entered a waterless land, without springs for +some four miles. In the early stages of the battle all water for the +troops had to be brought up by mules, and likewise all food, ammunition +and medical supplies, until the Engineers could get to work with +road-building on the left bank of the river. The Bainsizza Plateau +itself, lying amid a mass of barren mountains, contains woods, pastures, +springs, small villages, a few roads and many tracks. The Italians swept +over it on the 21st and 22nd of August, but soon found themselves once +more in difficult country. In the days that followed the advance was +slower and more spasmodic, but it still continued. By the 27th, 25,000 +Austrian prisoners had been taken, together with a great quantity of +material, and several whole Austrian Divisions had ceased to exist. + +It had been a wonderful feat of arms, finely conceived by the Staff, +magnificently executed by the rank and file. It opened out a great vista +of new possibilities, but, for the moment, it was over. Before any +further advance was practicable, the positions won had to be +consolidated, roads had to be built, dumps and stores of every kind to +be moved forward. + + * * * * * + +In a village on the Bainsizza Plateau, half wrecked by shell fire, two +old peasants were sitting outside their house. Austrian shells whistled +through the air and burst a few hundred yards away. "These are not for +us," said one of the old men to an Italian soldier, "the shells and the +war are for the soldiers, not the civilians." + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FIGHTING DIES DOWN + +On the 28th of August the offensive was really beginning again. We were +firing on San Marco at a slow rate from six a.m. for an hour, then +"vivace" from seven till noon, and at noon we lifted and continued +vivace. San Marco was not rocky, and the trenches there should be +bombardable into pulp. In the early morning from Sant' Andrea the hills +all round were clearly outlined, except where some long belts of +motionless, white, low-lying cloud partly hid the Faiti-Stoll range. +Later, with the sun up, a warm haze hid everything. Firing continued +heavy till six p.m., and then slowed down. The attack on San Marco had +failed. + +Next day there was a good deal of shelling and some torrential showers. +We set fire to some woods on the lower slopes of San Daniele, with a +high wind blowing. + + * * * * * + +The Battery's good luck continued. On the 30th, while my Gun Detachment +were at breakfast, a 5.9 burst in their shelter trench, at the moment +unoccupied, and covered every one with showers of loose earth. All the +breakfast vanished, and our shells were thrown about like driftwood in a +storm. But no ammunition was exploded and no one was hurt. Raven, who +had been up Sabotino that day, told us that "San Gabriele is tottering." +Our offensive seemed to have completely come to an end on the Carso and +in the Vippacco Valley. But we were still hammering away at San Marco +and San Gabriele, at intervals of a few days at a time. On the 2nd of +September San Gabriele was still "tottering," on the morning of the 4th +it was reported taken, on the 6th we heard that it had been taken, lost +and retaken, the Arno Brigade having distinguished themselves by some +wonderful bombing. Cadorna's objective now, it was said, was Lubiana, +and not Trieste. The Major and I both agreed that the Entente ought to +put every available man and tank on to this Front and go for Vienna. On +the 8th Raven told us that the top of San Gabriele was held, but not the +lower slopes nor Santa Catarina, which were still precariously supplied +from behind San Marco. A few days later we lost the top of San Gabriele, +and the attack upon it was not renewed. + +Then followed quiet times, except for activity by Austrian Trench +Mortars against our trenches on Hill 126. We established direct +telephonic communication from the Battery to the Infantry Brigade +Headquarters in order to provide rapid retaliation, and we made several +Reconnaissances to try to locate Trench Mortars in the tangle of broken +ground through which the enemy line ran. + +On the 17th we were warned to be ready to move at short notice to the +neighbourhood of Monfalcone, for a big push against the Hermada in three +weeks' time. Battery positions were chosen, but we never went. Instead a +rumour began to spread that all British Batteries were leaving Italy and +going East. It was said that the War Office had the wind up about the +Turks. An international tug of war was going on behind the scenes. On +the afternoon of the 28th we were told on high authority that our +movements were still undecided, but the Battery was inspected that day +by General Capello, the victor of Bainsizza, who looked like an Eastern +potentate, and was heard to say that he wanted as many British Batteries +as he could get, to increase the gun power of the Second Army. That +evening, however, our fate was said to be unofficially decided. We, with +the rest of Raven's Group, five Batteries in all, were to stay in Italy, +the other two Groups were to go away. It was not till the 3rd of October +that we received definite orders on the subject. The other Groups went +to Egypt and a couple of Batteries, after three months of doing nothing +in Cairo, came back to Italy again. They had at any rate found a little +employment for some of our surplus shipping and they had missed some +queer experiences in Italy meantime. + +It was also announced that we were not moving down to Monfalcone, but +were probably remaining in our present positions for the winter. We +therefore began systematically to prepare winter quarters. The Italian +Corps Commander in a special Order of the Day expressed his satisfaction +that our Group was remaining under his command. + + * * * * * + +On the 5th I got up at four o'clock in the morning and carried out a +Front Line Reconnaissance with Sergeant Cotes, the No. 1 of my gun, and +Avoglia, an Italian Sergeant Major attached to our Battery, rather a +sleek person, who had been a _maître-d'hôtel_ at Brighton before the +war. We went along the front line trenches on Hill 126, recently +captured. These trenches ran beside the river and were now in fine +condition, great repairs and reconstruction having been carried out +during the past three weeks. It was here that Austrian Trench Mortars +were active. They were firing when we arrived and caused some +casualties. As it grew light, a strong Austrian patrol was seen moving +about in No Man's Land, and it was thought that a raid might be coming. +The order "Stand to" was given, and the Infantry came swarming out of +their dug-outs, a crowd of youths, some very handsome, with almost +Classical Roman features, and older men, sturdy and bearded. They +densely manned the parapet, with fixed bayonets and hand grenades. The +machine gun posts were also manned. But nothing happened! + +A little later an Austrian was seen to emerge from cover in No Man's +Land, about a hundred yards away from us, and run towards our trenches, +throwing away his rifle and shouting some unintelligible words. He was +sick of the war and wanted to surrender. But a young Italian recruit, in +the trenches for the first time, quivering with excitement and eagerness +to distinguish himself, not realising the man's motive, fired at him +through a peephole. He missed, but the Austrian turned and doubled back +like a rabbit to his own lines, where I suppose he was shot, poor brute, +by his own people. I was standing quite close to the young recruit when +he fired. No one rebuked him, but a Corporal patiently explained things +to him. We smiled at one another, and I wished him "auguri" and went on +up the hill. + +The Austrian snipers were busy, and another Italian standing close to +me, looking out slantwise through a peephole, was shot through the jaw. +He was bandaged up, profusely bleeding, and went stoically down the +hill, supported by a companion, leaving a red trail along the wooden +duck-boards that paved the trench. + +I went down two saps which the Italians had pushed out, one to within +twenty yards, the other to within ten yards, of the Austrian front line. +Here every one spoke in a low whisper or by signs. They warned me to +keep well down, as the Austrians hated khaki worse even than +"grigio-verde," as one is always apt to hate third parties who butt in +against one in what one conceives to be a purely private quarrel. + +But I went back armed with some useful information regarding the +position of those Austrian Trench Mortars. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +A LULL BETWEEN TWO STORMS + +From the beginning of October the Battery were hard at work on their +winter quarters. We had two large dining and recreation huts for the +men, one for the Right Section and one for the Left, fitted up with long +wooden tables and benches. These huts were dug into the bank, one on +either side of the road leading up from the Battery position to Pec +village. The dug-outs were improved and made watertight and the +Officers' Mess and sleeping huts were moved up from the river bank into +the Battery position itself. Everything was very comfortable and handy. + +We maintained close relations with an Italian Battery next door +commanded by a certain Captain Romano. His men helped us in putting up +our huts, which were of Italian design, and we had frequent exchanges of +hospitality. Romano was a Regular officer, about 28 years old, with +twinkling brown eyes and a voice like a foghorn even when speaking from +a short distance away, but a fine singer. He had a wonderful collection +of photographs, was a good Gunner and popular with his men. + + * * * * * + +On the 9th I spent the night in Lecce O.P. on Hill 123, overlooking +Hills 126 and 94. It was named after the Lecce Brigade who made it, one +of the best Brigades in the Italian Army. When they were in front of +us, we saw a good deal of them. Now the Parma Brigade were holding the +line and the British officer in the O.P. used to take his meals at the +Brigade Headquarters. Things were rather active that evening. At +half-past five in the afternoon the enemy opened a heavy bombardment, +increasing to a pitch of great fury, on our front and support trenches. +Our own lines down below me were blotted out from sight by dense clouds +of crashing, flashing smoke. Just before six the Italian Brigadier asked +me for a heavy barrage from all the British Batteries. A big +counter-bombardment was now working up from our side. I spoke on the +telephone to Raven, who told me that all our Batteries were firing +"_double vivace_." At a quarter past six the Austrians attacked. There +was a terrific rattle of Italian machine gun fire, almost drowning the +sound of the heavier explosions, and a stream of rockets went up from +our front line calling for more barrage. The attack was beaten off by +machine guns and hand grenades. A few Austrians reached our parapet, but +none got into our trenches. + +Firing died down about a quarter to seven, and the Brigadier came up to +the O.P., very pleased with the support we had rendered, and asked that +a slow rate of fire might be kept up. Later on an Austrian telephone +message was overheard, which suggested that the attack was to be renewed +just before dawn, after a gas attack. We kept on the alert, but nothing +happened. Two of our Batteries went on firing at a slow rate all night. +When dawn broke, it was evident that our bombardment had been very +destructive. The enemy's trenches were knocked to pieces; uprooted +trees, planks, sandbags and dead bodies lay about in confusion. It was +thought that owing to our fire some Austrian units, which were to have +taken part in the attack, could not, and others would not, do so, in +spite of a special issue of rum and other spirits. I saw also, +motionless amid the Austrian wire, a figure in Italian uniform, one of a +patrol who had gone out four nights before, and had not returned. + +On the 12th I went out with a Sergeant, a Signaller and Corporal +Savogna, a Canadian Italian, on a Front Line Reconnaissance on the +northern side of the Vippacco, in the Second Army area. The day was +wonderfully clear and we could see the everlasting snows beyond Cadore. +We went through Rupa to Merna and, being evidently spotted, were shelled +with 4.2's and forced to proceed along a muddy communication trench knee +deep in water. At Raccogliano Mill we visited the Headquarters of the +Bergamo Brigade, which was holding the line. A guide took us along the +front line, which had been considerably advanced here in August and +September, and again by a successful local attack a few days before. We +went down one _Caverna_ in which, on the occasion of this last attack, a +Magyar officer and 25 men surrendered. The Austrian sentry, also a +Magyar, had been fastened by the leg to the doorpost outside the +entrance to the dug-out. In the Italian bombardment one of his feet was +blown away, but his own people had done nothing for him. Now his dead +body lay out in the open behind the new Italian front line. + + * * * * * + +On the 14th Jeune went on leave to England, no one having any +expectation that anything of importance was likely to happen in the +near future. In his absence I acted as Second-in-Command of the Battery. + +On the 19th we heard that the Italian High Command was preparing another +big offensive from the Bainsizza against the Ternova Plateau, and the +same day the Intelligence Report contained the information that a series +of German Divisions had been seen detraining at Lubiana since the +beginning of October, and that, owing to the Russian collapse, a +thousand Austrian guns had been moved across from the Russian to the +Isonzo Front since the middle of September. We had noticed a perceptible +increase in the enemy's Artillery activity for some time, but this, we +thought at the time, was purely defensive. There had also been a week of +heavy rains, but the Vippacco, after rising rapidly and threatening to +flood us all out, fell eighteen inches in one night. It swept away a +number of Italian bridges, however, from Merna and Raccogliano further +up stream, and we saw pieces of these rushing past in the swift current. + +On the 21st the Major and I motored to Palmanova and bought some winter +clothing at the Ordnance. An Austrian twelve-inch howitzer, whom we had +christened "Mr Pongo," was shelling all day at intervals, chiefly in the +back areas. An unpleasant beast, we agreed, who wanted smothering! + +On the 22nd it was evident, from the Austrian shelling, that quite a +number of fresh heavy howitzers, both twelve- and fifteen-inch, had +appeared behind the Austrian lines. A few, no doubt, of those thousand +guns from Russia! Listening to their shells whistling over one's head +like express trains, and to their (happily distant) deep crashes on +percussion, one realised very vividly the immediate military effects of +the Russian collapse. We heard that the Italian offensive was not coming +off after all. + +On the 23rd we heard that a big Austrian attack was expected last night +and might come that night instead. We received orders to clean up and +prepare, in case of necessity, the old position at Boschini on San +Michele, which the Battery had occupied when they first arrived in +Italy. This, I thought, seemed rather panic-stricken. Romano's Battery +had similar orders. It would be annoying to leave our present position +after all the work put into it to make it habitable for the winter. But +I noted that the atmosphere was tinged with apprehension. + + + +PART IV + +THE ITALIAN RETREAT AND RECOVERY + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE BEGINNING OF THE ENEMY OFFENSIVE + +On the morning of October 24th soon after nine o'clock the enemy +launched a big attack against the Third Army Front, especially violent +between Faiti and the Vippacco, and renewed it in the afternoon. But he +gained no ground. All through the previous night and all that day till +evening the bombardment on both sides was heavy. We had not fired during +the night but began at seven in the morning and went on throughout the +day. A message came in that the enemy would probably shell Batteries for +four hours with gas shell, starting with irritant gas and going on to +poison. He had already employed these tactics up north, as we learned +later. Gas alert was on all night and we were listening strainedly for +soft bursts. Heavy rain came down steadily all day, and everything was +drenched and dripping. The spaces between our huts filled with water, +and needed continual baling out. But when gas was expected, one welcomed +heavy rain[1] and high winds and loud explosions from bursting shells. + +[Footnote 1: It was not till a later date that gases were employed, the +effects of which were increased by rain.] + +Between nine and ten p.m. I heard a series of soft bursts just across +the river and arranged with Romano's Battery for mutual alarms if any +gas should come too near. An hour later I was relieved in the Command +Post and turned in. As I was undressing, I heard the wind rising again +and the telephonists next door baling out their dug-out. We were keeping +up a desultory fire all night to harass any further attacks that might +be attempted. The Major, who had been out on a Front Line Reconnaissance +that morning in the neighbourhood of Merna, had come in for some very +heavy shelling and returned very weary. + + * * * * * + +The next day, the 25th, was at least fine; it was even rather sunny. We +did a little firing, but not much, between seven a.m. and two p.m. Enemy +planes came over continually, flying very low, about thirty in the +course of the morning. They attacked one of our observation balloons, +which descended rapidly as they approached, and I think got down safely. +Italian anti-aircraft guns brought down one of them. Whenever we shelled +Mandria, a little village up the valley, a plane came over. Evidently +they had something there as to which they were sensitive, perhaps a +General's Billet! + +At half past ten the Italians ditched a lorry full of ammunition just at +the top of the road from the Battery position to Pec village, in full +view of the enemy on Hill 464. At this time the village was being +heavily shelled by 5.9's, and our cookhouse on the outskirts was all but +hit, shells bursting all round it in a circle. Showers of bricks and +lumps of earth and masonry rose high in the air. One shell hit the +Artillery Group Headquarters of Major Borghese and I saw all his office +papers going up, a cloud of shreds, shining in the sun. I laughed and +said to myself, "There goes a lot of red tape!" I saw Borghese himself +later in the day limping along with a stick; a chunk of one of his +office walls had fallen on his foot. + +The enemy meanwhile had begun to shell the lorry, methodically as their +idiotic habit was, with one shell every five minutes. It was too near us +to be pleasant, so the Major took out a party and hauled it out of their +view under cover of a bank. But this took some time. Leary stood by with +a stopwatch calling out the minutes. At the end of every fourth minute, +the party ran for cover. Then a few seconds later we heard the next +shell coming. The Major was hit on the hand once by a shell splinter +which drew blood, but nothing more serious than this happened. + +About two o'clock a big bombardment worked up again, and the Volconiac +and Faiti became a sea of smoke and flame. This went on till dusk, we +firing hard all the time. More enemy planes came over, one even after +dark, a most unusual thing, flying very low indeed, under a heavy fire +of anti-aircraft Batteries and machine guns from the ground. Our planes +had been very scarce all day. They had nearly all gone north. For the +time being we had quite lost the command of the air in this sector. + +The two British Batteries who were furthest forward had orders to move +back that night to reserve positions on San Michele. The Italians were +going to horse their guns, for it was said that the majority of the +tractors had gone north too. This move looked rather panicky, I thought. + +Many red rockets went up in the early evening from Volconiac and Faiti. +The enemy were making another attack. Then a little later tricolour +rockets, red, white and green, went up. This was the signal that the +attack had been beaten off and that the situation was quiet again. The +firing died down about seven. We fed and put up for the night an Italian +officer, whose Battery used to be here, but had moved north yesterday. +He had just come back from a gas course at Palmanova. From a newspaper +which he had I saw that a strong offensive had begun on the afternoon of +the 23rd to the north of the Bainsizza Plateau. Either the attacks here +were only holding attacks, or the attack to the north was a feint and +the real thing was to be here. Anyhow, I thought, it is their Last +Despairing Great Cry! I turned in just after midnight. The night was +still and there was a bright moon and stars. A thick mist lay along the +Vippacco, just behind the trees. The air was damp and cold. It seemed +pretty quiet for the moment all along the Front. + + * * * * * + +I had a troubled night. In the early morning we were bombarded with gas +shell and had to wear respirators from a quarter to three till four +o'clock. We were firing from five till six and again steadily from a +quarter past seven onwards. We got orders to move back that night to +Boschini, on San Michele. I thought this a great mistake. Later in the +day our move was cancelled, as the two forward Batteries which pulled +out last night would not be in action on San Michele till to-morrow. +They had been last heard of stuck fast in a crush of traffic at the +bottom of the hill at Peteano. A strong team of horses were straining +their guts out in vain attempts to pull an Italian twelve-inch mortar up +the hill. It was this which had caused the block. Those two forward +Batteries _might_ have lost their guns in a quick retreat, I thought, +but hardly we. It seemed to be feared, however, that the two bridges +across the Vippacco might go. + +That day we were shelled heavily with every kind of weapon, from +fifteen-inch downwards, especially the Left Section in the afternoon. We +had, as usual, marvellously good luck, and only had one casualty, and +that a slight wound. The spirit and endurance of the men were wonderful. +Enemy planes were over all day; we counted twenty-two between daybreak +and four p.m. Some hovered overhead and ranged their guns on us. Several +times we put our detachments under cover and ceased fire owing to the +shelling. My own gun was half buried by a great shower of earth kicked +up by a 9.45, which pitched right on top of the bank in front of us. But +Cotes, my Sergeant, and myself, crouching under cover of the girdles, +were quite unhurt. The rest of the detachment had been ordered down into +their dug-out. Another time the enemy neatly bracketed our Command Post +with twelve-inch, and several of us within were uncomfortably awaiting +the next round. But luckily for us he switched away to the right. + +We had to fire hard most of the day, especially in the afternoon and +evening. It had been exhausting and almost sleepless work for the +detachments for several days past, for Darrell and a working party of +forty were away preparing the reserve position on San Michele, and we +had hardly any reliefs for the guns. The Major, too, looked very tired +and frayed, but, whenever our eyes met, he gave me a smile of +encouragement and leadership. That evening, during a short break in the +firing, he asked me, since he himself could not leave the Command Post, +to go round and "buck the men up" and thank them on his behalf for the +way in which they had behaved. "So long as the Major's pleased, we're +satisfied," said one man. Another, a Bombardier who afterwards got a +Commission, and had been with Darrell on a reconnaissance on Faiti a few +days before and had nearly been killed on the journey, said, "Well, Sir, +we were thinking of the boys in the Front Line today." And well he +might, for it had been a hellish bombardment up there. After delivering +my message to the men, I walked up and down the road in front of the +guns for a few moments in the short silence, realising how the Alliance +of Britain and Italy was burning itself more deeply than ever into our +hearts in these days of trial. + +That night the enemy attacked again, and we lost Faiti and Hill 393, and +had to fire on them. I heard afterwards from the Group that Colonel +Canale, when he gave the order to fire on 393, was almost weeping on the +telephone. Next day we counter-attacked and retook Faiti, but 393 +remained in Austrian hands. Rumours and denials of rumours came in from +the north. It was said that we had lost Monte Nero and Caporetto, and +that German Batteries had kept up a high concentration of gas for four +hours on our lines in the Cadore. And we knew that the Italian gas masks +were only guaranteed to last for an hour and a half in such conditions, +and that each man only carried one. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +FROM THE VIPPACCO TO SAN GIORGIO DI NOGARA + +On the 27th the rumours became bad. The German advance to the north was +said to be considerable and rapid. Orders came that all the British +Batteries were to pull out and park that night at Villa Viola, behind +Gradisca, "for duty on another part of the Front." Probably, we thought, +we were going north. "The gun concentration up there must be awful," +said the Major. I told Cotes that we were probably going into the thick +of it, and his eyes shone with pride. He was a fine fellow. That day the +sun was shining, and the Italian planes in this sector seemed to have +regained command of the air. For the moment there was a little lull in +the firing, but we felt that some big fate was looming over us. I went +away to my hut for five minutes and wrote in my diary, "I here put it on +record once more that I am proud to fight in and for Italy. I repeat +that dying here is not death, it is flying into the dawn! If I die in +and for Italy, I would like to think that my death would do something +for Anglo-Italian sympathy and understanding." + +In the early afternoon the Major went down to Headquarters. He rang me +up from there to say that two guns were to be pulled out at once, and +the other two to double their rate of fire. No. 4 gun was now engaging +two different targets with alternate rounds and different charges. + +When the Major came back, he called all the men together and said. "I am +not going to conceal anything from you. The situation is serious. The +Italians have had a bad reverse up north. But there is no need for +anyone to get panicky. We shall pull out and go back to-night. That is +all I know at present. When I know more, I will tell you more. One gun +will remain in action till the last. No. 2 is the easiest to get out, so +I have chosen her for the post of honour." As the men scattered, I heard +several saying, "Good old No. 2!" + +The Major told me that the Austrians were almost in Cividale, staggering +news. Tractors and lorries were to come and take away our guns and +stores in the evening. But the number of tractors was very limited and +Raven was doubtful if enough would come in time. The whole Third Army +was retreating, and three British Batteries, ourselves, the Battery in +Pec village and the Battery at Rupa, would be the last three Batteries +of Medium or Heavy Calibre left on this part of the Front. + +All through the afternoon and evening Italian Infantry and Artillery +were retreating through Pec. Some looked stolid, others depressed, +others merely puzzled. But a little later a Battalion came along the +road the other way, going up to be sacrificed on Nad Logem. They halted +to rest by the roadside, full of gaiety and courage. They cheered our +men on No. 2 gun, who were pumping out shells as fast as they could. +"Bravi inglesi!" cried the Italians, and some of our men replied, "Good +luck, Johnny!" Unknown Italians were always "Johnny." + +As the dark came on, ammunition dumps began to go up everywhere; the +Italians were deliberately exploding them, and great flashes of light, +brighter than even an Italian noonday, lit up the whole sky for minutes +at a time. Romano's Battery next door to us threw the remains of their +ammunition into the river, and pulled out and away about 6.30. They were +horse-drawn and did not need to wait for tractors. We wished each other +good-bye, and hoped we might meet again some better day. We too got +orders to destroy all ammunition we could not fire, as there would be no +transport to take it away. So we gave No. 2 a generous ration and heaved +the rest into the waters of the Vippacco. + +No. 2 went on firing ceaselessly. So did one gun of the Battery in the +village, and one gun at Rupa. That Battery, being the furthest forward, +was in the greatest danger of the three. About 7 o'clock our first +tractor arrived and took away No. 1 gun with Winterton and Manzoni. +Enemy bombing planes came over frequently. One came right over us and +then turned down the Vallone, and there was a series of heavy +explosions, and great clouds of brownish smoke leapt up beneath her +track. + +Why, I kept asking myself, didn't the fools shell Pec village, where a +crowd of men and guns were waiting for transport? Why didn't they put +over gas shell? Why didn't they bomb us? Evidently there were no Germans +_here_! About a quarter to nine No. 2 finished her ammunition, and we +pulled her out. The other three guns had gone now and the other two +British Batteries were clear, all but two lorries. Just after nine +o'clock our last tractor came along and took off No. 2, with Darrell in +charge of her. How the Italians had managed to get all these lorries and +tractors for us, I don't know, for, in the Third Army as a whole, they +were terribly short of transport. Many made the criticism that we should +have kept out in Italy our own transport. But the Italians certainly did +us very handsomely, at the cost of losing some bigger guns of their own. + +After the last British gun had ceased to fire there was for about five +minutes an eerie stillness, as though all our Artillery had gone and +theirs was holding its fire. And then an Italian Field Battery opened +again on the right of Pec. For over an hour now I had been expecting, +minute by minute, to see the enemy Infantry come swarming along the Nad +Logem in the dusk, cutting off our retreat, for I knew we had nothing +but rear-guards left up there. But they did not come! + +Only the Major and I and about forty men were left now, and we had been +told that there would be no more transport. So we destroyed everything +that we had been unable to get away, and the Major informed Headquarters +of the situation and then disconnected the telephone and the men fell in +and we marched away. We were just in time to see an Italian Field +Battery come into Pec at the gallop, the gunners all cheering, unlimber +their guns, take up position and open fire. It was a smart piece of +work, done with a real Latin gesture. How enfuriating it was to be +leaving these wooden huts of ours and these good positions, on which +had been spent so many hours of labour, where we could have passed such +a comfortable winter, going forth now none knew whither! Old Natale, one +of the Italians attached to us, chalked up in German on the entrance to +one of the huts, "You German pigs, we shall soon be back again!" But at +that moment I did not feel so sure. Natale was afterwards lost in the +retreat, and was reported by us as "missing." But one of our men saw him +again six months later with an Italian Battery and said he looked +several years younger! + +We passed Campbell, the Medical Officer, standing outside his dug-out on +the road. He was waiting for the last of the other Batteries' parties to +get away. He told me afterwards that we were out only just in time. +Within half an hour of our going, the Austrians fairly plastered the +position with shells of all calibres. They shelled the road a little as +we went along, but not too much. As we passed the railway embankment at +Rubbia, we saw and spoke to some Italian machine-gunners in position, +whose orders were to hold up the enemy till the last possible moment. +They were quite calm and determined, those boys, knowing perfectly well +that, by the time the enemy came, the Isonzo bridges would have been +blown up behind them. I dragged myself on with an aching heart. One who +retreats cuts a poor figure beside a rear-guard that stays behind and +fights. + +We crossed the Isonzo at Peteano, and took a short cut across the fields +to Farra. In the crowd and the dark we were jostled by some Italian +Infantry. We hailed them and found that they were our old friends, the +Lecce Brigade. The Major made our men stand back. "Pass, Lecce," he +said. "Good luck to you!" We marched on through Farra to Gradisca, both +blazing in the night. The towns and villages everywhere in this sector +had been deliberately fired by the retreating Italians, in addition to +the ammunition dumps. The whole countryside was blazing and exploding. I +thought of Russia in 1812, and the Russian retreat before Napoleon, and +Tchaikovsky's music. + +It began to rain, but that made no difference to the burning. In +Gradisca burning petrol was running about the streets. Earlier in the +evening there had been a queer scene here. The Headquarters of the +British Staff had been at Gradisca, and the Camp Commandant had made a +hobby of fattening rabbits for the General's Mess. When the time had +come that day to pack up and go, it was found that the lorries provided +were fully loaded with office stores, Staff officers' bulky kit and +20,000 cigarettes, which the General was specially proud of having saved +from his canteen. There was no room for the Camp Commandant's rabbit +hutches, so these were opened and the fat inmates released, to the +delight of the civilians and Italian soldiery in Gradisca, who knocked +them over or shot them as they ran. I heard this from a gunner, who was +officer's servant to one of the Staff and witnessed the scene. + +A few miles away, at the Ordnance Depôt at Villa Freifeldt, thousands of +pounds' worth of gun stores stood ready, packed in crates, to be +removed. But no transport came for them, and they were abandoned and +fell into Austrian hands. For lack of them, our Batteries were +afterwards kept out of action for several weeks. Whoever ordered these +things seems to have thought it more important to save the Staff's kit +and the General's cigarettes. + +Just before we entered Gradisca, we passed a Battalion of the +Granatieri, the Italian Grenadiers, all six foot tall, with collar +badges of crimson and white, coming up from reserve to fight a +rear-guard action. I had seen them a few days before in rest billets and +admired their appearance. And in their march that night and in their +faces was scorn for fugitives and contempt for death. The Major said to +me, as they swung past us, that _that_ Battalion could be trusted to +fight to the end. And they did. Some of our men met a few of their +survivors at Mestre a week later. Nearly the whole Battalion had been +killed or wounded, but they had held up the Austrian advance for several +hours. + +On the further side of Gradisca we passed a great platform, which had +been erected a few weeks before for the Duke of Aosta's presentation of +medals for the Carso offensive. It was here that the Major had received +the Italian Silver Medal for Valour. The platform looked ironical that +night, still decked with bunting, limp and drenched now by the rain, and +lit up by the flames of the burning town. We reached Villa Viola about +11.30 p.m. It was to have been a rendezvous, but there was no one there. +Only the rain still falling. About midnight we entered an empty house, +and threw ourselves down upon the floor to sleep. + + * * * * * + +We had slept for less than an hour, when we were hurriedly awakened. The +Italians had orders to set fire to the house. Meanwhile Savogna, our +Canadian Italian Corporal, had just returned from scouting for us, and +reported that parties from the other Batteries were in a house half a +mile away. We marched off again through pouring rain, our path lit up by +the flames, which in places thrust their long tongues right across the +road. The wind blew clouds of smoke in our faces. The air was full of +the roaring of the fires, the crackle of blazing woodwork, the crash of +houses falling in, the loud explosions of ammunition dumps and petrol +stores, which now and again for a few seconds lighted up the whole night +sky for miles around with a terrific glare, and then died down again. +Far as the eye could reach the night was studded with red and golden +fires. Everywhere behind the front of the retreating Third Army a +systematic destruction was being carried out. The Third Army was +retreating in good order, unbroken and undefeated, retreating only +because its northern flank was in danger of being turned. The Third Army +was proving to the enemy that its movements were deliberate and governed +by a cool purpose. The enemy should advance into a wilderness. + +Again I seemed to hear in the air the music of "1812," and the bells of +burning Moscow ringing out loud and clear above the triumph song of the +invader. + + * * * * * + +Our men marched doggedly on, some looking puzzled and full of wonder, +others tired but cheerful, others with expressionless, uncomprehending +faces. But in the faces of a few I read a consciousness of the +tremendous tragedy of which we formed a tiny part. We found the other +Batteries in a house not yet marked down for burning. The house was +crowded out already and all the best places taken, such as they were. +There were pools of water everywhere on the floor. Officers of the Group +were there, knowing nothing, awaiting the appearance of Colonel Raven. +All our party got in somehow and lay down to sleep. But half an hour +later we were roused again. Raven had come and ordered that all should +push on to Palmanova. + +Some of our men were sleeping very heavily and were hard to waken. When +we started it was still raining. The roads were crowded with traffic, +including many guns. Our own went by with the rest, Winterton, Darrell, +Leary and Manzoni with them. Each Battery party marched independently, +the easier to get through blocks in the traffic. The Square at Palmanova +had been fixed as the next rendezvous. + +The stream of refugees with their slow-moving wagons drawn by oxen, or +their little donkey carts, or trudging on foot carrying bundles, became +gradually thicker and more painful. For we were back now in country that +yesterday or the day before had fancied itself remote from the battle +zone. I remember one elderly peasant woman, tall and erect as a young +girl, with white hair and a face like Dante, calm, beautiful and stern. +She was alone, tramping along through the mud. And she had the walk of a +queen. + +At Versa we halted for a few minutes at the Hospital. All the wounded +had been evacuated.[1] Campbell was lying on a bed in one of the empty +wards, snatching a little rest. He had seen the last British troops away +from Pec and had then followed on a motor-bicycle. I went into the old +R.A.M.C. Mess to see if any food or drink was left. The question of food +was beginning to be serious for the whole retreating Army. Italian +troops were clearing out everything. I found a wine bottle half full, +and took a deep drink. It was vinegar, but it bucked one up. I handed +the bottle to an Italian, and told him it was "good English wine." He +drank a little, saw the joke, smiled and passed it on to an unsuspecting +companion. I got a little milk which I shared with the Major and some of +our men. Then we resumed the march. + +[Footnote 1: One wounded British soldier, who had been in an Italian +Field Hospital which was not evacuated in time, was taken prisoner by +the Austrians. He told me, when he was released a year later, that the +Austrians bayoneted the Italian wounded whom they found in this +hospital, but spared the British, and, on the whole, treated them well.] + +We reached Palmanova about 7 a.m. It was now the 28th of October. We met +Raven in the Square, where were also collected a British General and his +Staff officers. They were standing about, with a half lost look on their +faces. There was no evidence of decision or any plan. The General was +smiling, as his habit was. The Staff Captain was telling someone, in a +hopeless voice, that he had heard that the Italians were going back to +the Tagliamento. Just as we arrived, the Italians began to set fire to +the town. Dense clouds of black smoke, fanned by a strong wind, began to +pour over our heads. Flames were soon roaring round houses, where three +months ago I had been a guest. But the inmates had all gone now. Food +and drink was being sold in the shops at knock-down prices. The Italian +military authorities were requisitioning all bread, and issued some to +us. The Major ordered it to be kept in reserve. + +I went round the town and into the Railway Station looking for our guns. +But there was no sign of them. I came back and slept for an hour amid +some rubble under the archway inside one of the town gates. The town was +burning furiously. Our men, wet to the skin, sheltered themselves from +the smoke and the cold wind in the dry moat outside the walls. + +Then the order came to move on. We formed up and started with the rest. +Nobody knew whither. Some said Latisana, but no one knew how far off +this was. The men had no rations except the bread obtained at Palmanova, +and no prospect, apparently, of getting any. The Supply Officers of the +A.S.C. might as well have gone to Heaven, for all the use they were to +us during those days of retreat. It was raining again and the roads were +blocked. We proceeded slowly for a mile or two, and were then turned off +the road into a damp, open field, which someone said was a "strategic +point." Here a number of different Battery parties collected. We were to +wait for the guns. The downpour steadily increased, the field rapidly +became a marsh, and there was no shelter anywhere. Raven walked up and +down, puffing at this pipe, taking the situation with admirable calm. It +was at this time that I personally touched my bedrock of misery, both +mental and physical. For there seemed to be nothing to be done, and, +what most irked me, there were so many senior officers present that I +myself could take no decisions. Then some of our guns arrived, and were +halted at the side of the road to wait for the rest. But this made the +traffic block worse, and they had to move forward again, and the idea +of getting them all together was abandoned. + +Raven then gave the order to the rest of us to move on. There were some +vacant places in various cars and lorries at this point and some +footsore men were put in. The Major insisted, in spite of my protests +that I preferred to walk, that I should get into one of the cars, which +I shared with Littleton, the Chaplain who had thought that war "might be +tremendously worth while" and three junior officers from Raven's +Headquarters. I was, in truth, pretty done at this stage, chiefly +through want of sleep, compared to which I always found want of food a +trifling inconvenience. It was now about 4 p.m. and we could only make +very slow progress. A rendezvous had been fixed by Raven at Foglie, +where rations were to have been distributed. But there was no one and no +rations there, and it seemed that Raven had taken the wrong road. The +enemy were said to be advancing from the north at right angles to our +only possible line of retreat, and the chances seemed strongly in favour +of our all being cut off. + +An Italian doctor ran out into the road and stopped our car, almost +beside himself with despair. He had been left in charge of a number of +severely wounded cases, without any food, medical necessities or +transport. But we had no food and could do nothing to help him, except +promise to try to have transport sent back to him from San Giorgio di +Nogara. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +FROM SAN GIORGIO TO THE TAGLIAMENTO + +We reached San Giorgio about 9 p.m. and here I got out of the car, which +two of Raven's Staff took on to try and arrange for transport to be sent +back for the Italian wounded. Having slept for an hour or two in the +car, I felt quite a different being and fit for anything. Stragglers +were coming in from the various Batteries' dismounted parties, and I +collected nearly a hundred of these men into a hall on the ground floor +of an Italian Field Hospital. They lay about on the stone floor, +sleeping like logs. Upstairs a panic had spread among the wounded that +they would be abandoned. Men were crying with terror and struggling to +get out of bed. Campbell, who had now joined us, went up and helped the +Italian medical personnel. Soon afterwards ambulances of both the +Italian and British Red Cross began to arrive, and the hospital was +quickly cleared. From one British Red Cross Driver I got a large box of +Cabin biscuits, which I distributed among our men, some of whom were +ravenously hungry. I also found a tap of good drinking water in the main +street and here we refilled all available water bottles, including those +of several men who were too fast asleep to waken. + +The question then arose what to do with these stragglers. I went to the +station, but found that no more trains were running. Latisana was said +to be only "a few kilometres" away. It was in fact more than twenty. I +discovered that it was on the Tagliamento and I supposed that, once +across the river, we should be momentarily safe from risk of capture, +and, if ammunition was forthcoming, our Batteries might once more come +into action. Meanwhile we should push on as soon as possible. On the +other hand the men were very tired, having been marching for twenty-four +hours, with only a few short breaks. A few hours' sleep now might be +worth a lot to them later on. + +Several civilians came up to me and asked when the Germans would be +here. "This is my house," one old man explained, pointing to a small +house near the Hospital, "and I shall have to leave everything if I go +away. But I cannot stay....," and he began to cry. + +In the early hours of the 29th I put some of our most footsore +stragglers on to lorries going in the direction of Latisana. The rest +marched off under Henderson, one of the officers from Raven's +Headquarters, who had come with me in the car to San Giorgio. Meanwhile +I was keeping a look-out for our guns in the dense columns of traffic +slowly crawling past. I saw guns belonging to other Batteries, and was +told that some of ours were further behind. It was just getting light, +when a tractor appeared drawing two of our guns and one belonging to +another British Battery, which we had picked up on the road a long way +back with only three gunners in charge of it, and which would certainly +have been lost, if we had not taken it in tow. But, as the result of +this additional load, our tractor had been breaking down all the way +along, and had fallen almost to the rear of the retreating column. It +had a damnable and useless accumulator, but there was no means of +changing this. With the tractor and guns were Winterton, Darrell, and +Leary, also the Battery Quartermaster Sergeant and two of our lorries. +They told me Manzoni was well on ahead with the other two guns and I +told them that the Major and the bulk of the dismounted party must also +be a good distance ahead, as stragglers from this party had appeared +here many hours before. + +We were now the last British guns on the road, a post of honour which we +continued to hold. I was delighted to find that I was now entitled, by +reason of seniority, to take command. I sent on the two lorries with +Winterton and Darrell, to get in touch as soon as possible with the two +guns in front and the Major's party. Leary and I remained behind with +the tractor and its load. We had about thirty men with us and a small +quantity of rations, including a little tea. We moved on slowly and got +stuck in a bad block of traffic at San Giorgio cross roads. Here we had +to remain stationary for several hours. The dawn was breaking and we +made some tea. + +About 5 a.m. I got tired of sitting still and walked about half a mile +down the road to find out the cause of the block. I began to control and +jerrymander the traffic and at first annoyed an Italian officer, who was +there with the same object as myself; but I persuasively pointed out to +him the benefits to both of us, if we could only succeed in getting a +move on, and he then calmed down and began to help me. In the end we +both manoeuvred our own transport into a moving stream, and went +forward smiling. + +We went along at a fine pace for several miles and then our tractor +stopped and wouldn't start up again. Whereupon there came to our +assistance a young man named Rinaldo Rinaldi, a skilled and resourceful +mechanic, who was driving a tractor in rear of us. He patched up our +engine and got us going again. But we kept on breaking down after +intervals never very long. Time after time Rinaldo Rinaldi came running +up, smiling and eager to help. He patched us up and got us going six +times. But at last he had to pass us and go on. For he, too, was drawing +guns. I shall never forget Rinaldo Rinaldi and the cheerful help he gave +us. In the end he left us an accumulator, but it was not much better +than our own. + +Enemy planes now began to appear in the sky, some scouting only, others +dropping bombs. They did more damage to the wretched refugees than to +the military. What chances they missed that day! Once or twice, when we +were stationary, I gave the order to scatter in the fields to left and +right of the road. But they never came very near to hitting us. They +flew very high and their markmanship was atrocious. + +Atrocious also was our tractor! Finally, when it broke down and we had +no fresh accumulator, we had to unlimber the front gun, attach drag +ropes to the tractor, haul vigorously on the ropes until the engine +started up, then back the tractor and front limber back to the guns, +limber up, cast off the ropes and go ahead again. We did this three or +four times in the course of an hour, and enjoyed the sense of +triumphing over obstacles. But it was very laborious, and the intervals +between successive breakdowns grew ominously shorter and shorter. And +the last time the trick didn't work, though we had all heaved and heaved +till we were very near exhaustion. We were fairly stuck now, half +blocking the road. Great excitement, as was only natural, developed +among those behind us. + +I sent forward an orderly with a message to the Major, describing our +plight and asking that, if possible, another tractor might be sent back +from Latisana to pull us. This message never reached the Major, but was +opened by another Field officer, who sent back this flatulent reply. "If +you are with Major Blinks, you had better ask him whether you may use +your own discretion and, if necessary, remove breech blocks and abandon +guns." I was not with Major Blinks, and I neither knew nor cared where +he might be. Nor had I any intention of abandoning the guns. I +determined, without asking anyone's permission, to use my discretion in +a different way. + +I saw, a little distance in front, an Italian Field Artillery Colonel in +a state of wild excitement. He was rushing about with an unopened bottle +of red wine in his hand, waving it ferociously at the heads of refugees, +and driving them and their carts off the road down a side track. A queer +pathetic freight some of these carts carried, marble clocks and +blankets, big wine flasks and canaries in cages. The Colonel had driven +off the road also a certain Captain Medola, of whom I shall have more to +say in a moment, and who was sitting sulkily on his horse among the +civilian carts. The Colonel's object, it appeared, was to get a number +of Field Batteries through. He had cleared a gap in the blocked traffic +and his Field Guns were now streaming past at a sharp trot. But he was +an extraordinary spectacle and made me want to laugh. Treading very +delicately, I approached this enfuriated man, and explained the helpless +situation of our guns, pointing out that we were also unwillingly +impeding the movements of his own. I asked if he could order any +transport to be provided for us. He waved his bottle at me, showed no +sign of either civility or comprehension, only screaming at the top of +his voice, "Va via, va via!"[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Away with you, away with you!"] + +I gave him up as hopeless, and went back to my guns, intending to wait +till he had disappeared and things had quieted down again, and then to +look for help elsewhere. But the Latin mind often follows a thread of +order through what an Anglo-Saxon is apt to mistake for a mere hurricane +of confused commotion. Within five minutes Captain Medola came up to me +and said that the Colonel had ordered him to drag our tractor and guns. +Medola was in command of a Battery of long guns, and had one of these +attached to a powerful tractor on the road in front of us. To this long +gun, therefore, we now attached our tractor, useless as a tractor but +containing valuable gun stores, and our three guns. It was a tremendous +strain for one tractor, however strong, to pull, and we decided a little +later to abandon our own tractor and most of its contents. + +Medola, having handed over his horse to an orderly, who was to ride on +ahead and arrange for a fresh supply of petrol for his tractors, of +which there were three, mounted the front of the leading tractor and I +got up beside him. He rendered us most invaluable help in a most willing +spirit and at considerable risk to himself. For he undoubtedly had to go +much more slowly with us in tow than he could have gone if he had been +alone. + +We saw another Battery of Italian heavy guns going along the road, +heavier than either ours or Medola's. They were an ancient type, which +we had seen sometimes on the Carso, and not of very high military value. +But their gunners took a regimental and affectionate pride in those old +guns. They had neither tractors nor horses, but they had dragged their +beloved pieces for thirty miles from the rocky heights of the Carso, +along good roads and bad, up and down hill, through impossible traffic +blocks, down on to the plains as far as Palmanova, with nothing but long +ropes and their own strong arms. They had forty men hauling on each gun. +At Palmanova new hauling parties had been put on, who dragged the guns +another thirty miles to the far side of the Tagliamento at Latisana. And +as they hauled, they sang, until they were too tired to go on singing, +and could only raise, from time to time, their rhythmical periodic cry +of "Sforza!... Sforza!"[1] + +[Footnote 1: "Heave!... Heave!"] + +As we passed through Muzzano, the town and road were heavily bombed. The +bell in the campanile jangled wildly and weeping women crowded into the +church, as though thinking to find sanctuary there. Others stood gazing +helplessly up into the sky. Here I saw some Italian Infantry, mostly +young, who were delighted to be retreating. "Forward, you militarists!" +they cried to us as we passed. "This is your punishment! How much longer +do you think the war is going to last? What about Trieste now?" They +spoke with joyful irony, as though the conquest of Trieste had been a +slaves' task, imposed upon unwilling Italy by foreign imperialists. They +were the only Italian troops I saw during the retreat, who showed any +sign of being under the influence of "defeatist" or German propaganda. + +The stream of refugees steadily thickened on the roads. More than once I +got down and ran on ahead, calling out with monotonous refrain to the +drivers of civilian carts to keep well over to the right of the road, so +as to let the guns pass. They all did their best to obey, poor brutes, +and we gained some useful ground in that endless column. + +At nightfall we were still eight or nine kilometres from Latisana. The +traffic block grew worse and worse, and there were too few Carabinieri +to exercise proper control. We stuck for hours at a time, with nothing +moving for miles, three motionless lines of traffic abreast on the road, +all pointing in the same direction. Tired men slept and wakeful men +waited and watched and cursed at the delay. Behind us, far off, we could +hear the booming of the guns, which seemed from hour to hour to come a +little nearer, and flashes of distant gunfire flickered in the night +sky. Back there the rear-guards were still fighting, and brave men were +dying to give us time to get away. It seemed just then that their +sacrifice might be in vain. What a haul the Austrians would have here! + +And behind and around us burning villages were still flaming in the +dark, and throwing up the sharp black outlines of the trees. + + * * * * * + +Afterwards I heard of some of the deeds that had been done "back there." +I heard of the charges of the Italian Cavalry, of the Novara Lancers and +the Genoa Dragoons, crack regiments, full of the best horsemen in Italy, +who had been waiting, waiting, all the war through, for their chance to +come. Their chance had come at last, the chance to die, charging against +overwhelming odds, in order that Italy, or at least the glory of her +name, might live for ever. One commanding officer called all his +officers around him and said, "The common people of Italy have betrayed +our country's honour, and now we, the gentlemen of Italy, are going to +save it!" and then he led the charge, and fell leading it. It was a +fine, aristocratic gesture, though the prejudices of his class partly +blinded him. + +Near Cervignano Italian Cavalry charged the massed machine guns of the +enemy and, when the horses went down, the men went on, and then the men +went down, all but a few, and those few for a moment broke the line and +held up the advance, and gave to the mass of the retreating troops just +that little space of extra time, which spans the gulf between escape and +destruction. + +And away up north on Monte Nero, left behind when the rest of the Army +retired, Alpini and Bersaglieri resisted for many days, and aeroplanes +flew back and dropped food and ammunition from the skies for them. And +when their ammunition was all shot away, that garrison came down into +the plains, and a few survivors fought their way through with bombs and +bayonets back to the Italian lines. + +And many other such deeds were surely done that will never be known, +because the men that did them died out of sight of any of their comrades +who survived. + + * * * * * + +In the small hours of the 30th of October, I left our guns in Leary's +charge and determined to walk on to Latisana, to see if I could not find +some person in authority and get something done to move things on. I had +only gone a little way when I met Bixio, a Captain of Mountain +Artillery, attached to Raven's Headquarters. He had come back to see how +far behind our rearmost guns were. I saw him several times during the +retreat. He did fine work more than once in creating order out of +confusion. He looked a magnificent, almost a Mephistophelian, figure, +with his dark features, his flashing angry eyes, his air of decision, +his sharp gestures, his tall body enveloped in a loose cloak, his Alpino +hat, with its long single feather. He told me that all traffic along +this road into Latisana had been stopped for the past three hours, in +order to let traffic from the north get on, for it was from that +direction that the advance of the enemy was most threatening. + +I walked on and found a British Red Cross Ambulance stuck in the block. +I talked for a few moments to the driver, who gave me a piece of cake +and some wine. When I reached Latisana, I found traffic pouring through +along the road from the north. I crossed the bridge over the Tagliamento +and looked down at the broad swift current, glistening beneath. Hope +leapt again within me at the sight. Here, at last, I said to myself, is +a fine natural obstacle. We shall turn here and stand at bay, and the +invader will come no further. + +I had been told that there were some huts on the right hand side, just +over the bridge, where our men would be, where the A.S.C. would have +delivered rations and the Staff had fixed a rendezvous. I, therefore, +expected to find the Major and our dismounted party, or at least someone +from another Battery, or some of either Raven's or the General's Staff. +But there was nothing there; no British troops, no rations, and no +Staff! Only the never ending rain, and a confused stream of Italian +troops, chiefly Field Guns, hurrying across the bridge. + +There was nothing to do but to go back. The sentries on the bridge tried +to stop me, but I insisted that I must see some Artillery officer in +authority. They directed me to the Square, where I found Colonel Canale, +controlling the movements of Batteries, looking straight before him out +of uncomprehending, heavy eyes, like one crushed under a weight of +bitter humiliation. He asked where our guns were. I told him they were +getting near now, but stuck fast in the traffic. He said it was +forbidden to let through traffic on that road at present, but he would +do what he could. I asked if there were any new orders. "No," he said, +"only forward across the bridge, and then push on as fast as possible to +Portogruaro." I left him, and found three of our stragglers from the +Major's party, asleep on the floor of a forge. I told them to cross the +river and wait on the Portogruaro road for myself and the guns. I asked +an Italian Corporal if there was anywhere in Latisana where one could +get a drink. He said he thought not, but gave me a bottle full of cold +coffee, brandy and sugar in about equal proportions. It was a splendid +drink, but a little too sweet. + +I walked back along the road towards the guns. Some houses on the +outskirts of the town were burning furiously. The traffic was beginning +to move forward along our road, very slowly and with frequent halts. I +had two overcoats with me when we started from Pec. Both were long ago +wet through, and I was wearing over my shoulders at this time a blanket +lent to me by Medola. This, too, was thoroughly drenched by now. In the +fields on either side of the road Infantry were lying out in the rain, +asleep, dreaming, perhaps, of Rome or Sicily or the Bay of Naples. The +dawn of another day was breaking, cold, damp and miserable, symbolic of +this great weary tragedy. + + * * * * * + +I had not gone far when I met four of our men carrying on a stretcher +the dead body of the Battery Staff Sergeant Artificer. He had dropped +asleep on one of the guns and, as the tractor moved on, he had fallen +forward, head downwards, beneath the gun wheel, which had passed over +him, along the whole length of his body, crushing him to death. They +said he died before they could get him out. He was a good man and a very +skilled worker, full of pluck and spirit. The last thing he had done for +me was to get everything ready for rendering the guns unserviceable in +case we should have to abandon them. There was no chance of decent +burial for him here, but I had his body placed upon an empty trench +cart, which was being towed by a lorry of another Battery, and put two +of our men in charge of it. They buried him the next day or the day +after in a cemetery near Portogruaro. + +About 7 a.m., as I was still making my way back through the traffic +towards our guns, it was reported that enemy cavalry patrols had been +seen to the north of the road, and that shots had been exchanged. For a +moment there was some panic and confusion, but a scheme of defence was +quickly organised. No one had supposed that they could yet be so near. I +found Bixio rallying some Infantrymen, with eloquent words and great +gestures, and an Italian Infantry Major, calm and smiling, was putting +out a screen of machine gunners and riflemen across the road itself and +along a hedge five hundred yards to the north of it. All was in +readiness for putting our guns completely out of action. There would be +nothing else to do, if the enemy appeared, for we had no gun ammunition, +and it was impossible to get on, until the whole traffic block in front +of us had been shifted forward. But I told Bixio that I should do +nothing to the guns, unless there was some evidence that the enemy was +really approaching with a superiority of force over our own. + +The enemy, however, did not at that time reappear and the best bit of +hustling traffic management that I had yet witnessed during the retreat, +now took place. The northern road was at last clear at Latisana, and the +authorities turned their attention to us. A breakdown gang appeared and +a number of new tractors and lorries with refills of petrol. Civilian +carts whose drivers remained, were ordered to drive on, those which had +been abandoned were overturned to one side into the ditches, and dead +horses and wreckage due to bombing or the brief moments of panic were +likewise thrust off the road. Relays of fresh drivers took over all the +lorries and tractors which would still go. The rest went into the ditch +on top of the dead horses and derelict carts. The heavier loads which +single tractors had been pulling were split up between two or more. In a +surprisingly short time the whole mass began to move. + +Here I parted from Medola, who had been a very good friend to us. Our +three guns got a new tractor to themselves and I got up beside the +driver. And so at last we entered Latisana. Our new driver was immensely +enthusiastic, but very excited. He told me that he had had two brothers +killed in the war and had applied, when the retreat began, to be +transferred from Mechanical Transport to the Infantry. That morning, he +said, he had heard General Pettiti, who was our Army Corps Commander, +give the order that all the British Batteries must first be got across +the river and only then the Italian. I said that I saw no good reason +for this preference, but that anyhow he was driving the last three +British guns. This pleased him tremendously. By now I was wrapped up in +a new and dry Italian blanket, which I had taken from an abandoned cart +by the roadside. + +Our tractor, less enthusiastic than its driver, broke down continually. +It was rumoured that the bridge had been blown up already, and there +were wild screams of despair from a crowd of women, who came running +past us. At last we turned the last corner and came in sight of the +Tagliamento. The bridge was still intact. Italian Generals were rushing +to and fro, gesticulating, giving orders. General Pettiti sent a +special orderly to ask me if mine were the last British guns. I told him +yes. Our tractor broke down three times on the bridge itself. But at +last we were over. One of our party had an Italian flag and waved it and +cried "Viva l'Italia!" Not long after, the bridge went up, with an +explosion that could be heard for miles around. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +FROM THE TAGLIAMENTO TO TREVISO + +I heard later that the Major and his party had reached Latisana the +previous day. Winterton had joined them near Muzzano. They had marched +for forty-eight hours practically without food and with only some three +hours' rest in stray halts. They had been magnificent, but they were +utterly done, and the Major, who had been most done of all, told me +afterwards that it had made him cry to watch them hobbling along,--some +of them men too old or of too low a medical category to have passed for +the Infantry,--and to hear them singing, + + "What's the use of worrying? + It never was worth while. + So pack up your sorrows in your old kit bag, + And smile, smile, smile!" + +The spirit of the men in the retreat from Mons was not finer than the +spirit of those men of ours. + +At Latisana they got on board a train for Treviso. It was about the +last train that was running. + + * * * * * + +My party, though they were longer on the road, were at least able to +ride a great part of the way on the tractors and guns. + +Once across the Tagliamento, our tractor not only continued to break +down every few hundred yards, but also developed the unpleasant habit of +catching fire. Twice we put the fire out with the squirts and chemicals +provided for the purpose, and a third time with mud. I determined not to +risk a fourth time, and so pulled on to the side of the road and halted. +I sent on the Battery Sergeant Major on a passing lorry to Portogruaro +with a note to the Major asking that another tractor might be sent back, +and I also sent Avoglia to the nearest Italian Headquarters to see if he +could raise a tractor there. We were halted at the top of a hill on the +road running along the western bank of the river. We were indeed +literally "across," but we should have provided a splendid target for +enemy Artillery advancing on the further side. A good system of trenches +ran alongside the road, and these were now manned in force by Italian +Infantry. Field Guns also had come into position behind them. Our men +took advantage of the enforced halt to collect fuel, light fires and +make tea. We were still halted here at nightfall. + +Soon after dark some Italians came up and told us that we were blocking +the road, which was not true, as we were well to the side. However, as +neither Avoglia nor the Sergeant Major had yet returned with a new +tractor, and as the Italians said that they would pull us on, I +cordially agreed to the attempt being made. They attached a tractor with +a heavy lorry in tow to our inflammatory tractor and our three guns. +They asked that an attempt should be made to start up our tractor also, +but I succeeded in persuading them that this was inexpedient. They then +started up their own tractor only. To my great surprise, we began to +move. It was a magnificent machine, and forged ahead splendidly, +contrary to all the laws limiting its capacity, rumbling and backfiring +under the unwonted strain, for miles through the gloom. + +Then the moon began to rise. The night, for the first time since the +retreat began, was fine and clear. We could only go slowly and broke +down now and then. But all went pretty well, until we swung our long +train a little too sharply round a corner in the road, and the last two +guns got ditched. While we were trying to get them out, a British Major, +whom I will call Star, appeared on the scene. He came from Portogruaro +with the news that five new tractors were on their way back, and that +some other British guns were ditched further ahead. I therefore thanked +the officer in charge of the Italian tractor and lorry for all he had +done for us and advised him now to go on and leave us, as our position +was tiresome but no longer critical. This he did. + +The moonlight was now bright as day, and one of Star's promised tractors +arrived and finally succeeded in getting out our ditched guns. + + * * * * * + +Star had painted a bright picture of Portogruaro. All the British guns, +he said, were parked together in the Piazza and there was a large +granary close by, full of happy men with plenty of rations and straw. +So, it seems, some imaginative person had told him. We reached +Portogruaro in the small hours of the 31st of October. The moon had set +and it was very dark. Several of us made a most careful search in the +Piazza. But there were no British guns there, no granary, no straw, no +rations. I halted the guns just outside the gate of the town and told +the men to turn in and sleep. Soon after daybreak we all woke feeling +very hungry. I issued practically all that remained of our rations, a +little bully, a little biscuit and a very little tea. + +Wanting a wash and, still more urgently, a shave, I went into a house +and asked for the loan of some soap and a towel. A number of terrified +old women gathered round me, in doubt whether to fly or to stay. I +advised them to stay, for I took for granted at this time that the +Tagliamento line would hold. They pressed upon me coffee and bread, and +I heard them repeating over and over again to one another my assurances +that the enemy was still far away and would never get as far as +Portogruaro. It was hard not to cry. + +Star arrived during the morning and took charge. There was no need, he +said, to hurry on. We had better rest here for a day. He arranged for us +all to draw rations from the Italian Comando di Tappa. Treviso was to be +our next stopping place. We were disturbed a little during the morning +by enemy planes dropping bombs on the town, but none fell very near us. + +In the afternoon we moved on and parked our guns near the station along +with those of the other British Batteries, which had arrived before us. +Bombing raids continued and were more serious that afternoon than in the +morning. One bomb fell on a house, which was full of men from one of the +other Batteries, and caused a number of casualties. It was only by good +luck that a number of my own men were not in that house at the time. +Fortunately I had had words, as two tired men will, with one of the +officers of the other Battery, about the joint use of the kitchen, and +my men, when I asked them, had decided that they preferred, as always, +to "run their own show" and not "pig in with other Batteries." To that +attitude of independence some of them probably owe their lives. + +In the afternoon Raven turned up, and said that he had arranged for us +to go on to Treviso by train. We loaded our guns on to trucks, and +waited several hours in the station yard for the promised train. It was +cold and wet and more bombers came over us. They had bombed the station +for the last three nights, I heard. But nothing hit it while we were +there. The train left at 9.30 p.m. Leary and another officer and I tried +to share one wet blanket. We were too wet and cold to sleep. I walked up +and down the carriage trying to get warm. They bombed the railway +several times during our journey, and once, when a bomb fell near our +train, there was a rumour that the engine driver had gone away and left +us standing. But it was quite untrue. We crawled along, with many stops. +It seemed a quite interminable journey. But at 8 o'clock next morning, +the 1st of November, we came to Treviso. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THOUGHTS AFTER THE DISASTER + +We hung about for a while in the station, nobody knowing what was to +happen next. Then Leary and I went off to try to find some food. We had +been living just lately on ration biscuits and a tin of Australian peach +jam. There was not much left at the Buffet, where we found Bixio, but we +got a little salami and some eels and wine and coffee. Meanwhile our +train had gone on to Mestre, owing to a mistake between two railway +officials, and had to return next day. Leary's feet were so bad that he +could hardly walk. I got them dressed for him by the Italian Red Cross, +but he could walk no better afterwards. The Villa Passi, the British +Headquarters, was several miles off. An enemy plane came over and bombed +Treviso, when we were in the station square, trying in vain to find a +conveyance. But none of the bombs fell very close to us. At last we +hailed a British lorry, which took us to Villa Passi, and then on to +Carbonera, where odds and ends of Batteries had been turning up for +several days past. The Major was very delighted to see us, a rumour +having got about that we and the last guns had been left on the wrong +side of the Tagliamento, when the bridge went up. He had almost given up +hope of seeing us again. + +Then I went to bed and slept for hours and hours. Next morning from my +window I could see the Alps lying very low on the horizon, like a ball +of fluffy snow. The sun was shining and a fountain was playing in the +garden. I could hardly realise that we had reached, for a moment at +least, a place of peace, where there was no more fighting or retreating. +Our men were worn out, most of them, and slept like logs. They had been +sorely tried. Their pluck and endurance had been splendid. But they got +no message of thanks or praise from the British General who at that time +nominally commanded us. This distinguished man I had last seen in the +Square at Palmanova, amid the smoke and flames, with his car standing +close at hand ready to push off, and he had arrived at Treviso in good +time. He was now comfortably installed at the Villa Passi, and the day +some of our footsore men limped into Treviso, he was lunching with his +Staff, all bright and polished and sleek, in the Hotel Stella d'Oro. + +We all expected, for days, that he would call a parade and address the +men who had saved what he used to call "his guns," or at least that he +would send some message. But he made no sign, except to open a canteen +for the sale of the 20,000 cigarettes, which some intelligent +subordinate had saved in preference to valuable gun stores now in +Austrian hands. + + * * * * * + +The day after my arrival I read a newspaper for the first time for over +a week, but the news was very bad and the retreat still continuing. The +Austrians were across the Tagliamento in strong force at several points. +I tried to reason and make distinctions, but my brain was still too +tired to answer the helm, so I left it. We ate hot polenta and drank +wonderful coffee, having established our Battery Mess in the porter's +lodge at the entrance to the Villa Lebreton, and persuaded the porter's +wife to cook for us. All the Battery had discovered the polenta at the +porter's lodge and our men crowded the kitchen at all hours of the day. +We all appreciated good food after the short rations of the retreat. + +Conversation was intensely depressing when not utterly trivial. I +remember walking round and round the vegetable garden at the back of the +Villa with an Italian friend of mine, trying both to face the facts and +to draw some comfort from them. It was an impossible task. My friend was +full of despair and bitterness. "The fruits of thirty months of war all +lost in two days," he said, "and much more lost besides! What will all +the mothers think, who have lost sons on San Michele and Monte Santo? It +is a common thing in Italy now for families to have lost four or five +sons. What will the mothers of Italy think of this? Would not any of +them be justified in shooting Cadorna? The Third Army should not have +been ordered to retire. They should have counter-attacked instead. But +now would it not be better to make peace at once? Is there no man who +will rise up and say, 'Stop, stop, stop this bloody business now, before +it gets any worse?' Some of our soldiers looked quite pleased to be +retreating. Poor children! They thought the war was over and they were +going home. There is a frightful danger that the leaders,--the generals +and the politicians at Rome,--will say 'fight on!' but the rank and file +will go on breaking. 'We are fighting for Trento and Trieste!' they used +to say, and now they say 'we are organising the defence of the Piave +line!' The Regular soldiers never want the war to end. And soon they +will be distributing medals for the retreat. Medals!" + +I could find no words worth saying to him in reply. "What will they be +saying about us now in London and Paris?" he went on. "They will be +saying," I replied, "that help must be sent to you," but my answer I +know sounded flat and empty. "Yes," he said bitterly, "perhaps _now_ you +will send some of your generals and your troops to Italy. And so you +will put us under orders and under obligations to you, and we shall +become your slaves. Italians are used to being looked upon as the slaves +of other nations." "No," I said, "all that is over. Those of us who know +the facts, know what Italy has done and suffered for the Alliance in +this war. It will not be forgotten. Moments of supreme crisis such as +this test the value and the depth of an Alliance. And ours will stand +the test." + +But that day he was inconsolable. For Italy was wounded and bleeding, +and the dramatic swiftness and horror of the disaster had bent her pride +and almost broken it. But, though the future seemed black as a night +without stars, the hope of a coming daybreak remained strong in the +hearts of a few. But the struggle ahead would be cruelly hard. What had +Italy left to offer those who would still fight in her defence? Still, +as of old, + + "Only her bosom to die on, + Only her heart for a home, + And a name with her children to be, + From Calabrian to Adrian Sea, + Mother of cities made free." + +Yet this was a rich reward when, a year later, the dawn broke in all +its glory. + + * * * * * + +I turned over and over in my mind in the weeks and months that followed, +as fresh evidence accumulated, the meaning and the causes of the +disaster of Caporetto, and gradually I came to definite and clear cut +conclusions. It was the Second Army that had been broken, and in the +course of the retreat had almost disappeared. It was a common thing to +hear the Second Army spoken of as a whole Army of cowards and +"defeatists." Many foreign critics, with minds blankly ignorant of +nearly all the facts, seemed to think that the whole business could be +accounted for by a few glib phrases about German and Socialist +propaganda, or the supposed lack of fighting qualities in the Italian +race. Yet it was this same Second Army, which in those now distant days +in August had conquered the Bainsizza Plateau, amid the acclamations of +all the Allied world. Whole Armies do not change their nature in a +night, even when worn out with fighting and heavy casualties. The thing +was not so simple as that. + + * * * * * + +In fixing responsibility for Caporetto, one must draw a sharp +distinction between responsibility for the original break in a narrow +sector of the line, and responsibility for not making good that break, +before the situation had got hopelessly out of hand. In the former case +the responsibility must rest partly upon the troops and subordinate +Staff charged with holding that narrow sector and partly upon the High +Command; in the latter case the chief responsibility, and a far graver +one, must rest upon the dispositions of the High Command. This was the +view apparently taken by the Commission appointed by the Italian +Government to investigate the whole question, for the three chief +Generals concerned were not only removed from their commands, but given +no further employment and placed upon half-pay. + +The original break was due to many causes. The great mass of German +Divisions and Artillery was concentrated in the Caporetto sector. This +fact should have been known to the High Command, and if the Italian +troops holding the line at this point were, for various reasons, of poor +quality, this also should have been known to the High Command, whose +duty it is to know the comparative fighting power of different units. +The High Command, when the battle started, claimed that they had known +beforehand when and where the blow was coming, that all preparations had +been made and that they were fully confident of the result. Such boasts +have been made by other High Commands on other Fronts, on the eve of +other disasters, and even after them. They greatly deepen the +responsibility of those who make them. + +The German Batteries on the Italian Front had a much larger supply of +ammunition than the Austrians, including a large quantity of "special +gas" shell. Many Italian troops, both Infantry and Artillery, subjected +to prolonged gas bombardment, found the gas masks provided by the High +Command quite inadequate. It was left for General Diaz some months later +to order the equipment of the whole Italian Army with the British box +respirator. + +The number of guns lost by the Second Army was very great. I am told +that one reason for this was the fact that the High Command had for some +weeks been preparing a further big offensive against the Plateau of +Ternova, had concentrated an abnormal number of Batteries on the Second +Army Front, and had pushed the majority of the guns much further up than +would have been justified, if an enemy offensive had been expected. +Then, having made these preparations, the High Command hesitated and +began to change its mind. But the disposition of the forward Batteries, +thoroughly unsound for defensive purposes, was not appreciably altered, +and a quite small enemy advance sufficed to make enormous captures of +guns. + +When the attack developed, some of the troops in the Caporetto sector +unquestionably turned and ran, as troops of every great Army in this war +have at times turned and run, under conditions of greater or less +provocation. Then the High Command apparently lost its head, and +attempted to issue to the world a communiqué of a character unparalleled +in the history of this war, naming and cursing, as traitors to their +country, certain particular Infantry Brigades. This document was very +properly suppressed by the Italian Government. + +But where were the reserves which the High Command should have had ready +to repair the broken line? And where were the plans for retreating to +prepared positions only a short distance behind? It was well known, and +indeed it used to be another boast of the High Command, that a local +reverse would be of no great importance, seeing that there were no less +than twelve prepared lines between the Front, as it then ran, and Udine. +I have seen some of those lines with my own eyes. I know what great and +patient labour went to the making of them, and I know how strong they +were. But, when the moment came to make use of them, no one outside the +charmed circle of the High Command was in possession of the plans for +their defence, and for falling back upon them in an orderly and +systematic manner. It has been said that these plans could not have been +made known beforehand to the Subordinate Commands for fear they should +fall into the hands of spies. That would have been a small misfortune +compared to what actually befell.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In fairness to General Capello, the Second Army Commander, +who had been highly and deservedly praised for the Bainsizza victory in +August, and who was one of the generals removed from his command after +Caporetto, it should be stated that on the latter occasion he was away +from the Front on leave.] + +When, owing to the omissions of the High Command, the break in the line +was swiftly widened and the whole defensive scheme of the Second Army +collapsed, it is true that confusion and panic began to spread through +the Second Army like fire through dry grass. But it is not within the +power of common soldiers, and especially of simple unlettered peasantry, +such as most of these soldiers were, to repair the blunders of bad Staff +work, and to make for themselves, on the spur of the moment and in face +of deadly peril, plans which trained brains should have elaborated long +before, at leisure and in safe secluded places. When leadership fails, +the best troops fail too. But let one who comes of a nation, none of +whose troops have ever acted as those troops of the Italian Second Army +acted in those dreadful days, throw the first stone at Italy. That +nation will be hard to find. It is not of this world. Those who know +the Italian soldier know that no soldier in the world responds more +readily to loyal trust, to common kindliness and to efficient and +inspiring leadership. British and French officers, who have had +opportunities of judging, know this as well as Italians. But the Italian +High Command denied these things to the Italian soldier.[1] It is due to +him and to the good name of Italy, which has been damnably traduced by +prejudiced and ignorant men, that the truth should be spoken. + +[Footnote 1: Among other charges which may be brought against the High +Command at this time are, first, their failure to make adequate +provision for the amusement and relaxation of the troops when in rest, +such as the Y.M.C.A. and various concert parties provided for British +troops, to combat inevitable war-weariness; second, failure to increase +the most inadequate scale of rations; and, third, the attempt to apply, +with strange disregard of the very different spirit of the Italian +people, some of the worst and most brutal traditions of German +discipline. All this was altered later by General Diaz and the Orlando +Ministry.] + +The dark and tragic story of the Italian retreat is lit up by many deeds +of heroism, wherein the Italian soldier showed all his accustomed +valour. And it was only by the valour of the Italian soldier that the +retreat was stayed on the Piave line, which the High Command pronounced +to be untenable and wished to abandon, but which the Cabinet at Rome, +pinning their faith to the qualities of the Italian soldier rather than +to the opinions of the High Command, ordered to be held at all hazards. +And the Cabinet at Rome was right. The Italian line stiffened and stood +upon the Piave, while the Allied reinforcements were still on the +further side of the Alps. If only Lloyd George and Bissolati had had +their way, and these reinforcements had been sent a few months earlier, +if only we had been able to put a British Army Corps, with its full +complement of aircraft, guns and shells, against the Hermada, if only we +had had half a dozen tanks to send down the Vippacco Valley, what a +different story there would have been to tell! + + * * * * * + +We ourselves were out of the first stages of that great defence. We had +no ammunition, and we were terribly short of gun stores, though the bare +guns had all been saved. And our men were very short of steel helmets +and box respirators, and the boots and clothing of many were in a +pitiful condition. But a small supply of ammunition came through from +France, and it was decided to send one Section of the Battery into +action on the Piave and the remainder back to Ferrara to refit. All gun +stores and men's equipment were to be pooled, and those going back were +to be stripped for the benefit of those going forward. I remember very +vividly our Battery parade on the morning of the 4th of November, when +we had to take from some men their greatcoats and even their caps, +tunics and boots, in order to make up some sort of equipment for the +Right Section which was going forward with the Major. I was put in +command of the Left Section, stripped bare for its journey to Ferrara. + +The evening before our departure I walked up and down the avenue outside +our Villa and talked with Venosta, who had done splendid work in the +retreat. He had heard from the survivors of a Cavalry Regiment, who had +passed back along the road an hour before, that a Turkish Division was +in Udine, and Turkish cavalry in Palmanova. Bulgarians also were said to +be on this Front, raping, after Serbs, Greeks and Rumanians, Italians +also. It was said that Turks had been on Faiti and Volconiac at the end. +I had no sure evidence of this, but, if it was true, the Turks' +notorious incapacity for an offensive would help to explain our +surprising escape. What we had needed, all through the days of the +retreat, was enough rain to swell the rivers and make heavy the roads. +What we had got, after the first three days, was brilliant sunshine. The +stars in their courses seemed to be fighting against Italy. "Dio uno ed +unno!" said one Italian bitterly. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +FERRARA, ARQUATA AND THE CORNICE ROAD + +We reached Ferrara at 5 a.m. and drove in lorries from the railway +station past the Castello of the d'Estes to the Palestro Barracks, the +Depôt of the 14th Regiment of Italian Field Artillery. Here we were to +be lodged by the Italian military authorities. We were received with +every consideration and great hospitality. Our men had excellent +quarters in the Barracks. Our officers were invited to have their meals +in the Italian Artillery officers' Mess, which was a large and +comfortable place and where the food was not only good, but very much +cheaper than could have been got outside. The Colonel also offered to +put riding horses at the disposal of any of us who should care to ride. +I was much struck by the sensible lack of ceremony of this Italian Mess, +by comparison with similar Depôt Messes in our own Army. There was no +waiting in the anteroom for senior officers who were late, no asking +permission of senior officers to leave the table early. Within the hours +fixed for meals everyone came in and out as they pleased. There was no +special table for the Staff, no rule against bringing evening papers +into dinner, no aloofness, no pomposity. The only un-English formalities +were the habit of turning and bowing as one left the Mess, if a number +of officers were still present, and the universal Italian custom by +which a newcomer at his first appearance would walk round and shake +hands in turn with all those whom he did not know and introduce himself +to them by name. + +We were also invited to become members during our stay of the Circolo +Negozianti, or Merchants' Club, of Ferrara. This Club had spacious +premises in an old Palazzo, and was the warmest place in the town, +having a most efficient system of central heating. + +Ferrara is spread over a large area relatively to its population; it has +broad streets and very few slums. But it has come down in the world +since the Renaissance. Degenerate descendants of the d'Estes of that +time stripped many of the Palazzi of their artistic beauties and sold +them to help pay their debts. Ferrara is a city of old Palazzi, street +after street of them, inhabited mainly now by well-to-do peasants, who +take a pride in keeping up their exteriors. One of the most interesting +sights in the city is the Palazzo Schifanoia, now used as a museum and +containing frescoes by Cossa and Cosimo Tura. But what most appealed to +me was the superb western façade of the Cathedral. + +In peace time Ferrara is prosperous, though a little isolated from the +main currents of Italian life. It is the chief centre of food +distribution for this part of the country, and is well known for its +bakeries. It is also an important centre for the hemp export trade. + +After two days at Ferrara I was chosen to go to Arquata Scrivia, a +little town on the main line north of Genoa. This had been selected as +the Base for the British Forces in Italy, and I was to get in touch with +the Ordnance people there, to give them a list of our really urgent +requirements and try to hasten their delivery, so as to get us back into +action as soon as possible. Siramo, an Italian Artillery officer who was +attached to us for _liaison_, accompanied me. + +The ordinary passenger train for Bologna was three and a half hours +late. Special trains were coming through every ten minutes from Treviso +and Venice packed with refugees, going southwards. The organisation of +the Italian railways at this time for clearing the refugees from the +righting zone was exceedingly good. Siramo thought that, if Venice had +to be abandoned, the Germans and Austrians would not damage it. I felt +no such security. That night we stopped at Milan. Wild stories of +"tradimento" were in the air. It was being said, for instance, that two +Generals of the Second Army had been marched through their troops in +handcuffs under a guard of Carabinieri. It was also officially +announced that Diaz had replaced Cadorna in command of the Italian +Armies. + +Next day we reached Arquata amid the tumble of the Ligurian Hills, whose +sides were clothed with chestnuts and oaks and vine terraces. We found +British Staff, Sanitary Sections and Ordnance already in possession. The +Ordnance were occupying a large villa just outside the town. My old +friend Shield, whom I had known at Palmanova, was there, but most of the +others were new arrivals from France. They were surprisingly full of +cheerfulness, as _imboscati_ are often apt to be, even when things are +going badly at the Front. The Italian disaster evidently meant very +little to them; they hardly realised it at all. They were the first +cheerful people I had seen since the retreat began, and it was no doubt +good for Siramo and myself to be cheered up. But it grated on both of us +a little. + +At my first interview I got the impression that the Ordnance were +surprisingly efficient and would be very prompt in giving us what we +wanted. But I gradually discovered that they really possessed very +little of what they first promised me, and that nothing was known for +certain as to when further stores would arrive. I telephoned to Ferrara +that the immediate prospects were poor, and was told in reply to wait +three or four days and see how much turned up. Having pestered various +Ordnance officers to the limit of their endurance, I therefore decided +to go away for two days. + +Siramo went for two days to his family at Turin and I took the train to +Genoa, arriving in the early afternoon. After lunch I set out to walk +eastwards along the Cornice Road. It was a relief to my thoughts and +feelings to be quite alone. The day was windy and sunless and rather +cold, but the warm and audacious colouring of the Villas and the little +fishing villages seemed almost to draw sunshine out of the dull sky. I +stopped at Sturla and drank two cups of coffee and ate some biscuits, +and decided to walk on to Nervi. It was now near the hour of sunset and +the sun, having kept invisible all day, half broke through the clouds, +turning them first red and then golden. So the sky was when I came to +Quarto dei Mille, with its monument looking out to sea, that historic +place whence Garibaldi and the Thousand set sail for their great +adventure, the liberation of Sicily and Naples, and the unification of +Italy, with British warships following them, some say by chance, so that +the enemies of Italy dared not interrupt their passage. + +Then said I to myself, standing all alone at Quarto, "Italy will not be +defeated, nor even mainly saved from defeat by foreign aid. The +strongest and best of her children will pull her through, even though +they be not all the nation. But the rest will do their share also, and +will follow, when the bravest lead. How young, and how uncertain of +herself as yet, is Italy! And yet, how lovable, how well worth serving!" +The Germans with their "special gas" and with other factors in their +favour, counted on breaking, not only the line of the Second Army, but +the morale of the Italian people. For a moment they seemed to have +succeeded. In the darkest days I talked with many whose stuffing seemed +all gone. But then, with the promise of Allied help, with the sight of +even a handful of new French and British uniforms, and under the spell +of the oratory of their statesmen and their journalists, things began to +change and Italian hearts grew brave again. + +The Italians are a mercurial people. If they are more easily cast down +by defeat than we British, they are more easily encouraged by even the +distant prospect of victory, and they react to influences that would +leave us unmoved. The coarse insults of the enemy press were everywhere +angrily quoted, and the national spirit rose to a red glow of passion. +The Socialists Turati and Treves,--the latter the author of the famous +phrase, "nessuno in trincee quest' inverno,"[1]--who before Caporetto +had criticised the war as aggressive, imperialist and unnecessary, said +now that all Italians must unite and fight on to drive back the invader +from Italian soil. And cool brains, such as Nitti and Einaudi, +reinforced all this with logical demonstrations of the economic +impossibility of a separate peace, with the enemy Powers strained to the +utmost by the blockade and Italy dependent on the Allies for shipping, +food and coal. The Germans would have done far more wisely, if, instead +of attacking, they had aimed only at holding the Italian Army along its +old line. + +[Footnote 1: "No one in the trenches this winter."] + +I walked on from Quarto to Nervi and, as it was getting dark, I decided +to take a tram for the last few kilometres. But all the trams were +standing still, the current having been switched off for several hours. +So I stood on the step of a tram and talked to the conductor about the +war, and tried to cheer him up by telling him that the Germans were on +their last legs, and were making their last great effort, and that the +Allies had only to hold together a little longer, and throw sufficient +force against the enemy here in Italy, in order to see a far bigger and +more precipitate and disastrous retreat than Caporetto, and next time in +the other direction. All this I not only said, but firmly believed (and +it all came true within a year). At first he was very despondent, but he +warmed up as I proceeded, and began to gesticulate again and regain +animation and compliment me on my Italian. And then the current also was +restored, and the tram moved on, and we came to Nervi, where I dined +well and slept at the Albergo Cristoforo Colombo. I am not in general an +admirer of palm trees, but they are sometimes impressive in the dusk, +towering over one's head, as they do at Nervi, in the long mixed avenue +of palms and orange trees which leads down to the station from the town. + +Next morning I got up early and walked back towards Genoa along the Via +Marina. The sun was shining on the sea and the dark rocks, the stone +pines and the great aloes and the brightly coloured villas. There was an +exhilaration in the air and I was in the midst of beauty, and, for the +first time for many days, I was for a little while really happy. Later +on I took a tram back to Genoa, and walked up to the tall lighthouse on +the further side of the town, and looked westward at the great curve of +the shore, beyond the breakwater and the sands. + +In some of the stations along the line were placards, "Long live great +old England," "Welcome to the valiant British Army," "Vive la France," +"Vive la victorieuse Armée de Verdun." The first of the Allied +reinforcements were arriving. + +At Arquata station I met an advance party of the Northumberland +Fusiliers. They told me that they had been quite moved by their +wonderful welcome on the way through Italy and by all the hospitality +shown to their officers and men at the stations where they had stopped. +It gave me a queer thrill to see British Infantrymen again after many +months, and this time on Italian soil. + + * * * * * + +After various orders and counter-orders I left Arquata for Ferrara on +the 16th, with two truckloads of stores. But this was only a very small +proportion of the minimum which we required. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +REFITTING AT FERRARA + +I got back to Ferrara on the evening of November 17th, and shared a +bedroom with Jeune, who had returned from leave in England, having +missed all our most unpleasant experiences. Our brother officers of the +Italian Field Artillery were very hospitable and courteous to us through +those weeks of waiting. We could do nothing till the Ordnance sent us +gun stores from Arquata, and these dribbled in very slowly, a few odds +and ends at a time. + +I often went out riding on the Piazza d'Arme and along the ramparts and +in the country round Ferrara with Italian officers. Days were still very +anxious, and the news from the Front not always good, and one rather +avoided talking about the war. But one evening at dinner I succeeded in +piercing the polite reserve of a little Captain who was sitting next to +me. "Italy should have made it a condition of her intervention," he +said, "that the other Allies should have sent troops to the Italian +Front. Also more guns and war material. Italy, at the beginning of her +war, had many heroes but few guns. The other Allies, equally with Italy, +are without statesmen. Your Lloyd George is energetic, but----! The +British are not really at war with Austria. They have soft sentiments +towards her and don't want her to lose too much. The Jugo-Slav +propaganda was at its height, and was being encouraged in Paris and +London, at the very moment when Italy was being pressed by the French +and British to enter the war. + +"We have made too many offensives on our own, unaided. Cadorna should +have refused, but he went on and on. He sacrificed thousands of lives +uselessly. He demanded too much of his troops. He did not understand +them. This last disaster was caused by Croats and Bulgarians, who spoke +Italian perfectly, having lived among us and taken degrees at our +Universities, getting through our lines in the first confusion, dressed +in Italian uniform, and sending false telephone messages and signals in +our own cipher, ordering a general retreat.[1] It was men from ----,[2] +who first ran away at Rombon and Tolmino. It has been often proved in +the history of our country that those men have no courage. Italians have +too little unity." + +[Footnote 1: I heard this story many times and I believe this was one of +the causes of the rapid increase of the first confusion. The Austrians +had tried this trick without success against the Third Army on the +Carso, as had the Germans against us in France. There must obviously be +a certain amount of confusion already existing, if the trick is to have +any chance of succeeding.] + +[Footnote 2: A certain province in Italy, not his own.] + +He went on to speak of economic difficulties. "Italy is poor," he said, +"and the Allies are rich. Yet coal costs four times as much in Italy as +in France, and shipping is hardly to be had. Our Government has never +driven hard enough bargains with the other Allies. After all, Italy came +into the war as a volunteer, and not under the conscription of old +treaties. But the Allies give her no credit for this. The French, since +the war began, have recovered all their old 'blague.' They talk +incessantly of what they have done, and despise everyone else. But look +how unstable they are politically! They change their ministries, as +often as some men change their mistresses. The Pope, too, is an enemy of +Italy and a friend of Austria. He aims at the restoration of his +temporal power. Many of the priests went about, both before and after +Caporetto, trying to betray their country. Some told the soldiers that +God had sent the disaster of Caporetto to show them the folly and the +sinfulness of loving their corruptible country here below in poor +earthly Italy, better than the incorruptible country of all good +Catholics, God's eternal kingdom in the skies!" + +He spoke bitterly, as was not unnatural. + +I made the acquaintance also in the Mess of a Medical Officer, named +Rossi, in peace time a University Professor of Nervous Pathology, who +was now in charge of a hospital for "nervosi," or shell-shock cases, +four miles outside the town. One afternoon Jeune and I accepted an +invitation to visit this hospital. We drove out to it in a carrozza, +accompanied by Rossi and a young woman, who went there daily to teach +some of the illiterate patients to read and write. + +No one can begin to understand what modern war means without some +personal acquaintance with shell-shock cases. They are, especially for +non-combatants, the most instructive of all the fruits of war, much more +instructive than dead bodies or men without limbs. And then, having +watched and talked or tried to talk with a variety of these still living +creatures, let any man, even a profiteer or a theologian, look into his +heart and ask himself whether he really agrees with the Chaplain, whom I +have already quoted, that "three or four years of war may be +tremendously worth while." + +It needs a greater pen than mine to do justice to all we saw that +afternoon, for we went through all the wards and saw all the sights +there were to see. We saw a young Lieutenant, with large staring eyes, +sitting up in bed. When we approached him, he jumped round in his bed +very violently, as though his body had been shot out of a gun, and went +on staring at us, speechless and with eyes full of wild terror. We saw +two soldiers in the corner of a ward, their heads wobbling in perfect +rhythm, ceaselessly from side to side, like the pendulum of a clock, +with dead expressionless faces. We saw men cowering beneath their bed +clothes, trembling with an endless terror. We saw a man who for months +had quite lost his speech, and was now just able to whisper, almost +inaudibly, "papa" and "mama," a middle-aged man with a beard. We saw a +man with frightened eyes, like a child in a nightmare, with many of the +outward signs of having been gassed, struggling for breath, +gesticulating feebly, trying to ward off some imaginary blow. He had not +been gassed, but wounded in the head. He was alone in a blue ward, where +all our faces looked yellow. We saw a youth lying asleep, white as a +sheet and with hardly any flesh left on his bones. He had been asleep +for two months without ever waking. We saw a splendid, tall, bearded +man, a Cavalry Captain, with a deep voice and a firm handgrip, who could +realise the present, but had forgotten all the past. We saw a multitude +of minor "tremblers," and men undergoing electrical treatment for +paralysis and stiffness of various limbs. One little man, another +University Professor, who was almost paralysed in both legs, tried to +advance to meet us and nearly fell forward on the ground at our feet. I +spoke also to a young man with a paralysed back and left arm. I said I +hoped he would soon be better. "Yes," he said, "I hope soon to go back +to the Front." For a moment I thought this was irony addressed to a +countryman of Mr Lloyd George. But it wasn't. He really meant it. We +went into the Convalescents' Mess. There were about twenty present, +smiling and very gentle and quiet, like men who were not yet quite sure +of the world. One elderly man, a Medical Captain, said to me, very +softly, that it was a great pleasure to see visitors from the outside, +"especially our Allies." At that moment I could easily have wept. Such +sights as I had seen did not physically sicken, nor even much horrify, +me. They just tautened all my nerves and made me feel that all my +questions were impertinent, and all my good wishes flat and empty, and +that I resembled a visitor to a Zoo. + +On the way back to Ferrara we talked of literature and Rossi, basing +himself chiefly on Wells and Kipling, said that the English, judged by +their modern writers, seemed to be a race "logical, but a little +isolated." + +Two days later the Major and the Right Section of the Battery came to +Ferrara, being replaced on the Piave by a section of another Battery. On +the 1st of December British Infantry, belonging to the XIVth Corps, +moved into the lines for the first time, taking over the Montello +sector, to the south of the Italian Fourth Army. This sector was to be +held by British troops for four months, but it is worth while again to +emphasise the fact that nearly a month had now elapsed since the great +Retreat had been brought to an end by the unaided effort of Italian +troops. The situation now seemed well in hand, and a further break not +at all likely. + +There had been a striking scene in the Italian Chamber about this time, +when the Prime Minister, Orlando, announced that high military opinion +had been opposed to the holding of the Piave line, recommending a +further retreat to the line of the Mincio, or the Adige, or even the Po, +which would have involved the surrender of Venice, Padua, Vicenza and +Verona. But the Cabinet at Rome had rejected these recommendations and +ordered that the Piave line should be held at all costs, and the valour +of the Italian common soldier had triumphed over the forebodings of the +generals. + +On the 8th, our re-equipment being at last complete, we were warned to +join the XIth British Corps on the arrival of our transport. The end of +our stay at Ferrara was now in sight, and our last days were full of +partings. The Major told me how one morning a little old man, apparently +an artisan, ran after him down the road and, speaking excellent French, +said how fine the British soldiers looked, and how splendid the news of +the capture of Jerusalem was, and then insisted on his going into a café +and drinking a glass of vermouth with him and, on parting, held his hand +for several moments, gazing into his eyes with a look of affection and +pride. + +On the 9th a little ceremony took place in the Artillery Mess, where the +British officers presented a silver cup, suitably inscribed, to their +brother officers of the Italian Artillery. There was a large gathering. +My own Major, who was in command of British troops at Ferrara, made the +presentation, and the Italian Commandant made an eloquent reply. + +On the 10th I told the page boy at the Circolo that the future of the +world was in the hands of himself and the rest of the young, and that +they must see to it that there were no more wars. This speech made him +open his big brown eyes a bit wider! I had often talked to this boy +before, and he was, I think, rather interested in me, thinking me no +doubt a queer and unusual sort of person. He used to steal moments to +come and enter into conversation with me when none of the older club +servants were in sight. If any of them appeared in the distance, he used +to pretend that I had called him for the purpose of ordering a drink, +and bolt to the bar. + +On the 11th another presentation ceremony took place, this time at the +Circolo. Those of us who had enjoyed honorary membership here presented +to the Club two small silver clocks. The Major again made a short speech +and the President of the Club replied, expressing the hope that the +hours might be short, which these clocks would record before the hour of +final victory. The cordiality of all the members of the Club at this +meeting was very memorable. One old gentleman of 76 years of age told me +that I was the very image of his son who was serving at the front in the +Artillery, and with tears in his eyes kissed me on both cheeks. "Permit +this sign of affection," he said, "seeing that here we are in the midst +of friends." + +That afternoon a few of us had tea for the last time at Finzi's, a +favourite haunt of mine between the Castello and the Cathedral. After I +had said a few words of farewell, Signor Finzi said to me, in one of +those perfectly turned compliments which Italians always pay to +foreigners endeavouring to speak their language, "Lei parla la lingua di +Dante,"[1] and Signora Finzi gave to each of us a small Italian flag. + +[Footnote 1: "You speak the language of Dante."] + +That night our transport arrived, and our departure was fixed for the +following morning. The 12th of December was a day that I shall vividly +remember for the rest of my life. We left Ferrara about 1 p.m. after +one of the most enthusiastic demonstrations I have ever seen. That +morning the town had been placarded far and wide with the following +poster:-- + +_Comitato di Preparazione Civile._[1] + +CITTADINI, + +Stamane alle ore undici e trenta (11.30) gli Artiglieri inglesi +muoveranno dal Quartiere Palestro diretti alia Stazione Ferroviaria. +Essi partono verso il fronte, per difendere cogli eroici soldati +d'Italia e di Francia il conteso e sacro suolo della patria, per +combattere la barbaria tedesca, che tenta invano di avanzare contro il +baluardo offerto dai petti dei soldati di tre nazioni. + +CITTADINI, + +Vi invitiamo ad accorrere ed a portare il vostro saluto ai fedeli e +valorosi Alleati. Essi debbono sentire che i vostri cuori palpitano, con +loro, di speranza e di fede. + +FERRARA. 11-12 dicembre 1917, +IL PRESIDENTE AVOGLI. + +[Footnote 1: _Committee of Civilian Preparation._ + +FELLOW CITIZENS, + +This morning at 11.30 a.m. the British Gunners will march out from the +Palestro Barracks to the Railway Station. They are leaving for the +Front, to defend alongside of the heroic soldiers of Italy and France +the disputed and sacred soil of our country, and to combat the German +barbarians, who strive in vain to advance against the rampart which is +formed by the breasts of the soldiers of three nations. + +FELLOW CITIZENS, + +We invite you to be present and to salute our brave and faithful Allies. +They should be made to feel that your hearts, in unison with theirs, +throb with hope and faith.] + +By eleven o'clock a large crowd was already gathering outside the +Barracks. At half-past we marched out into the street. In front of us +went the municipal brass band, gay with cocks' feathers, and +school-children carrying four banners on long flagstaffs. There was +tumultuous cheering and clapping from a dense crowd. Flowers were +showered upon us, and a very handsome girl gave me a bouquet of red +roses. The band played impossible march music, so that we weren't able +to keep much of a step. + +But the enthusiasm was intense. Spectators thronged all the windows +overlooking our route, and the cheering crowd stretched thick and +unbroken along both sides of the street all the way. I noticed a +specially enthusiastic group on the steps of the Castello, and several +busy photographers. In between the efforts of the band our men sang. +Outside the station we marched past the Italian General Commanding the +District. Then we were halted and the General made a speech. I happened +to look round, and found standing beside me, looking up at me, wide-eyed +and wondering, the page boy from the Circolo, whom I had harangued on +the destiny of the world's youth, and afterwards tipped. The band was +playing over and over again, at short intervals, God Save the King, the +Marcia Reale, the Marseillaise, the Brabançonne and the Marcia degli +Alpini. Whenever any of these national anthems was played, all the +troops stood at attention, and we officers at the salute. + +Then a little man with a black beard and an eager manner stepped forward +and mounted a chair, and on behalf of the Association of Italian +Teachers wished us good luck. He spoke in English. He told us that his +wife was "an Englishman," and recalled the names of Garibaldi and +Gladstone, Palmerston and Cavour. He then presented to the Major an +Italian Flag, which was handed to our Battery Sergeant-Major to be +carried at the head of the troops as they marched into the station. Many +Italian officers were present to say personal good-byes, and an immense +crowd was on the platform cheering and singing, and distributing gifts +and refreshments to our men. One gift was a little piece of tricolour +ribbon, which an old woman gave to one of us. It had a note pinned to it +addressed "to a brave British soldier," saying that she had a son at the +Front who always carried just such a little piece of ribbon as a +talisman, cut off the same roll, and that it had always kept him safe, +and that it would keep the British soldier safe too. The note was signed +"Tua Madrina" ("your god-mother"). + +At last it seemed that everyone was aboard, and the train started. But +it was then discovered that the Major, Jeune and Manzoni had been left +behind, not expecting the train to start so soon. They had chased it for +a hundred yards down the line, but failed to catch it up. So the +stationmaster telephoned to Rovigo to stop the train there till the +three missing ones arrived, which they ultimately did, riding on an +engine specially placed at their disposal. So ended our stay at Ferrara, +in a blaze of wild enthusiasm. And I believe that, collectively, we left +a very good impression behind us. + + + +PART V + +A YEAR OF RESISTANCE AND OF PREPARATION + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +IN STRATEGIC RESERVE + +Our train reached Cittadella shortly after dusk. We interviewed a +British R.T.O., who had only taken up his duties five minutes' before +our arrival, and so not unnaturally knew nothing about us. The Major +proposed that the train should be put into a siding and that we should +spend the night in it. This was done. We went into Cittadella, but found +everything in complete darkness, most of the houses sandbagged, and all +shops, cafés and inns closed at dusk by order of the military. We +succeeded, however, in getting a meal of sorts, and then went back to +the train and turned in early. We were woken up a little after midnight +by two British Staff officers, who were very vague and ignorant, but +told us to go next morning to San Martino di Lupari, a little village +midway between Cittadella and Castelfranco. This we did and found pretty +good billets. Monte Grappa loomed over us to the north, deep in snow. I +did not go into Cittadella by daylight, but only saw its battlemented +outer walls. + +Then for a few days nothing happened, except that everyone seemed to +have caught a cold. We were now part of the XIth British Corps, who were +concentrated in the surrounding district and formed for the moment a +strategic reserve, which might be sent anywhere according to the +development of the situation. If nothing particular happened, we should +probably go into the line south of the XIVth British Corps on the Piave. +If, on the other hand, the Italians were driven back in the mountains to +the north of us, or were forced to retire down the Brenta Valley,--and +this danger had not yet quite passed,--we should move up the mountains +and take over part of the Italian line, with the French probably on our +right. We received tracings of several possible lines of defence, on the +plain itself and on the near side of the mountain crest, described as +the "Blue Line," the "Green Line," etc., which we were required to +reconnoitre with a view to finding Battery positions and O.P.'s. They +were all very awkward lines to defend, as the enemy would have splendid +observation and we practically none at all. + +On the 15th the Major went out in the car reconnoitring to the east. He +met some Alpini on the road to whom he said, "Fa bel tempo,"[1] and they +replied, "Le montagne sono sempre belle;"[2] also an old man who had +never seen British soldiers before, and was tremendously excited and +pleased, and shouted with joy. + +[Footnote 1: "It's beautiful weather."] + +[Footnote 2: "The mountains are always beautiful."] + +On the 16th the Major went out again with Jeune and myself to look for +Battery positions for the defence of the line at the foot of the +mountains. We went through Cittadella and Bassano, then southwards along +the Brenta to Nove, and then back through Marostica and Bassano. Bassano +is a delightful old town, with many frescoes remaining on the outer +walls of the houses, and a beautiful covered-in wooden bridge over the +Brenta. + +Marostica charmed me even more. Its battlemented walls are like those of +Cittadella and Castelfranco, but in a better state of preservation and +more picturesque, running up a rocky foothill behind the town and coming +down again,--a most curious effect. These Alpine foothills for shape and +vegetation are very like the Ligurian hills north of Genoa and round +Arquata. + +At San Trinità, just outside Bassano on the road to Marostica, is a very +fine cypress avenue. There was a possible Battery position here. I +noticed also a row of cypresses standing at intervals of about fifty +yards along a hillside, dark and tall amid a mass of grass and rocks and +brown fallen leaves. The weather was clear and cold, but the snow had +shrunk to subnormal on the foothills. The Weather God was still +favouring the enemy. It was very still, though occasionally shells burst +over the Grappa. But the hills muffle the sounds beyond them. + +On the way back we passed a Battalion of Alpini marching up, many of +them very young. I thought of the Duke of Aosta's latest message to the +undefeated Third Army: "A voi veterani del Carso, ed a voi, giovani +soldati, fioritura della perenne primavera italica."[1] Splendid +Alpini! They are never false to their regimental motto, "di quì non si +passa!"[2] They never fail. But nearly all the first Alpini, who went +forth to battle in May 1915, are dead now. + +[Footnote 1: "To you, veterans of the Carso, and to you, young soldiers, +flower of the eternal Italian spring."] + +[Footnote 2: "No one passes here!"] + +On the 20th I went out in a side-car with Winterton to look for +positions in the hills above Marostica. Reconnaissances of the back +lines were now to be discontinued, a sign, we hoped, of diminishing +apprehension and an improving military situation. At San Trinità on the +way back we collided with an Italian wagon and had to stop for repairs. +A number of Italians gathered round, one of whom I discovered to be a +priest, conscribed to serve with the Medical Corps. I bantered this man +in a friendly way about secret drinking and the confessional and women +and paradise, causing uproarious delight among the bystanders. And the +priest took it all in excellent part. + +On the 22nd we heard that, irrespective of the movements of the rest of +the Corps, a special Group of Heavy Artillery was to be formed, +including ourselves, to be lent to the Italian Fourth Army in the +mountains. There began to be rumours of an offensive on our part. + +On the 23rd we made a reconnaissance up the mountains to look for +positions. We started through Bassano, which the Austrians had begun to +shell the day before with long range guns, starting a trickling, pitiful +exodus of terrified civilians. Just before reaching Marostica we struck +up a valley running northwards past Vallonara. The road soon began to +rise more steeply. It was a war road, broad and of splendid surface, one +of those many achievements of the Italian Engineers, which entitles them +to rank easily first among the engineers of the great European +Armies.[1] Before the war this road had been in parts a mere mule track, +in parts non-existent. We went through a number of little Alpine +villages, Crosara, Tortima, Fontanelli, Rubbio. We had soon risen more +than three thousand feet above the plain, which lay far beneath, spread +out gloriously like a richly coloured carpet, green, white and brown, +through which ran two broad, twisting, silver threads, the rivers Brenta +and Astico. There had been more than a hundred bends in the road up to +this point, but the gradient was never uncomfortably steep. Snow lay +thick on the higher levels and the pine and fir trees were all +snow-crowned. Sometimes the road ran along the edge of rocky gorges, +dropping sheer for hundreds of feet below, with a great mountain wall on +the other hand rising sheer above us. The air grew perceptibly colder as +we mounted higher. + +[Footnote 1: I have seen it stated, by an impartial authority, that +there has been no roadmaking in war time to compare with that of the +Italians on the Alpine and the Isonzo Fronts and in Albania, since the +Napoleonic wars. A distinguished British engineer, with great experience +of roadmaking in many countries, has also told me that in his opinion +the Swedes are the best roadmakers in the world, the Italians a close +second, and the rest of the world some way behind.] + +We turned out of view of the plain over undulating snow fields and down +a long valley and came out on a small plateau, screened by a gradual +ridge from the eyes of the enemy. Here we provisionally chose a Battery +position close to a small solitary house, known as Casa Girardi, on the +edge of a pine wood. All round Italian guns were firing in the snow. We +went on to Col. d'Astiago, which would be our probable O.P. The summit +commanded a wonderful view of the high mountains to the northward, +Longara and Fior, Columbara and Meletta di Gallio, and the sheer rock +face of the Brenta gorge, and the stream far below, and the great mass +of the Grappa rising beyond. + +As we came down, lorry loads of Italian troops passed us going up, +Alpini, Bersaglieri, Arditi and men of the 152nd Infantry Regiment. They +cheered us wildly as they passed, waving their caps and crying, "Avanti! +Avanti! Viva l'Inghilterra! Viva gli Alleati!" And as the string of +lorries turned round and round the spiral curves of the road, now high +above us, they were cheering and waving still, until they disappeared +from view. + + * * * * * + +The Battery ate their Christmas dinner at San Martino, though the air +had been thick with talk of an immediate move. On this, as on other, +occasions the Major made an excellent speech, in the course of which he +said: "You will be going very soon into a place where, before this war, +no one would have dreamed that Siege Artillery could go. You were the +first British Battery to be in action in Italy, and you will probably be +the first British Battery to be in action in the Alps. We shall be very +uncomfortable, at any rate for a time, but we shall pull through all +right, as we always have before. It will be an honour to be proud of, +and an experience to remember for the rest of our lives. And I know that +whatever happens to us in this coming year, you will all behave as +splendidly in the future as you have always done in the past." + +The enemy was doing a good deal of night bombing at this period. Treviso +and Padua were attacked with great persistency, so much so that the +British G.H.Q. decided to move from the latter city to some smaller and +more peaceful place. We used to hear the bombing planes coming over +nearly every night and explosions more or less distant. They bombed +Bassano, Cittadella and Castelfranco, the latter especially because the +French had their Headquarters there. But luckily they left San Martino +alone, thinking it too small to worry about. There seemed to be no +anti-aircraft defences anywhere. But our Air Force soon mitigated the +nuisance by raiding their aerodromes, and brought down a number of +hostile planes in air fighting. + +Our Staff again brought themselves into notice at Christmas by altering +our official address from "B.E.F. Italy" to "Italian Expeditionary +Force." I heard that the distinguished General, who introduced this +reform, estimated that it would hasten victory by several months. But +the stupid soldiers and their stupid relatives at home, having got into +the habit of using the abbreviation "B.E.F.," shortened the new address +to "I.E.F.," and the stupid postal people began to send the letters to +India! And then the distinguished General had to issue another order, +pointing out that "this abbreviation is unauthorised" and that "this +practice must cease." + +In the midst of such excitements the New Year began, and the Major was +awarded the D.S.O. for work on the Carso. He was as delighted as a +child, and I too was very glad. This decoration, even more than most +others, has been much too freely dished out during this war among quite +undeserving people, who have simply made an art of playing up to their +official superiors. The Major, however, had always been something of a +thorn in the side of various Headquarters, and seldom hesitated to speak +his mind both to, and of, Colonels and Generals and Staff officers +generally. For this reason, and also for others, I consider that he +deserved a D.S.O. a great deal more than many who received one. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FIRST BRITISH BATTERY UP THE MOUNTAINS + +The Major's words were soon to come true, after many of those delays and +conflicting orders of which the victims of war time "Staff work" have +profuse experience. On the 7th of January we moved up the mountains into +the position previously selected near Casa Girardi. We were the first +British Battery to go up. Two others and a Brigade Headquarters were to +follow, when it had been seen how we got on. When in doubt, try it on +the dog! + +It began to snow as we came into Marostica, and we had great difficulty +with the lorries even on gentle gradients. The roads were frozen hard +and in places very slippery. We managed, however, to reach Casa Girardi +before nightfall and found that our advance party had put up some wooden +huts, and cut some trees for fuel. All that night the snow came down in +clouds, but the next day, and the next few following, were very fine. +The sun shone all day long from a cold, cloudless sky upon a waste of +flashing snow, with here and there trees sticking out of it, and strange +red morning lights in the sky behind it, and sweeping winds across it, +and in the sunset the white hillsides slowly changed to a mauve pink. It +was a scene of wonderful beauty. But the temperature was ten degrees +below zero one day at noon, and the next day twenty-four below zero at 9 +a.m. and nine above zero at noon. + +These conditions were disconcerting to good shooting, the lower +temperatures not having been contemplated by those who compiled our +range table in England. But we got all four guns satisfactorily +registered by the second day, to the evident pleasure of the Italian +Colonel under whose command we were temporarily placed. This man had a +somewhat ferocious appearance and a reputation for great rudeness, both +to his superiors and his subordinates in the military hierarchy. It was +said that, but for this, he would long ago have been a General. To us, +however, he showed his politer side, patting the Major on the back and +repeating several times "buon sistema, buon sistema!" + +The physical discomfort of those early days was great, but we were full +of buoyancy and health. Everything froze hard during the night, one's +boots, one's clothing, if damp when taken off, the ink in one's fountain +pen. In the morning water poured into a basin froze hard in a couple of +minutes and the lather froze on one's face before one had time to shave. +The Major, breaking through one of the most fundamental traditions of +the British Army, announced that no one need shave more than once in +three days. The morning after our arrival we had a discouraging +breakfast. No fire could be got to burn and no tea had been made. There +was nothing to eat except a few very hard ration biscuits and some eggs +boiled hard the night before, and now frozen through and through. One +cracked the shell and found icicles beneath, and miserably held +fragments of egg in one's mouth until they thawed! + +But gradually, by patient work and organisation, these early troubles +were surmounted. The whole Battery had been provided with Italian +greatcoats and other Italian mountain equipment,--white Alpine boots +lined with fur, alpenstocks, spiked snow grips, which could be fastened +on to one's boots like skates, and white clothing to put on over the top +of everything else, to render us invisible against a snowy background. I +used to hear some amusing comments in the Battery on our Alpine +situation. "This is the sort of thing you see pictures of in books, +but...!" "I suppose folks would pay quids in peace time to see this!" + +"Why, it's like a blooming Cook's tour!" + +Being the first of the British who had been seen in these parts, we were +objects of great interest to the Italians, who used to collect in crowds +to watch our guns firing. We became great friends with the members of a +mixed Mess not far away, consisting of two Anti-aircraft Batteries and +the personnel in charge of a large ammunition dump. Between this Mess +and our own there were frequent exchanges of hospitality. + +One day an Italian General's car skidded into a ditch close to our +position. We supplied a party of men to get it out again and the +General, thanking us, asked if there was anything we wanted. The Major +told him that we should like two or three more huts and two good stoves +for cooking. A few days later these were delivered by the Italian +authorities. Our own Brigade Commander, who had now followed us up the +mountains with his two other Batteries, noticed these things and asked +how we had come by them. When we told him, he seemed displeased, and +next day we got an official letter to inform us that "it has come to +notice that British units have in some cases recently been approaching +the Italian authorities direct.... This practice is irregular and must +cease.... Indents must be submitted through the proper channels." We +smiled and obeyed. But we kept our huts and stoves which were better +than any which we should have been likely to get "through the proper +channels." + +We were very short of water except snow water, there being only one +waterpoint for all troops within several miles. Here there was a long +queue waiting most of the day. It is probably not generally known that +it takes ten dixies full of snow, when melted down, to make one dixie +full of water. For this and for hygienic reasons snow water was not much +use to us. We were not at this time required to fire very much, but we +were warned to get acquainted with the surrounding country, as an action +of some importance might be coming off before long. This provided the +occasion for several reconnaissances. + +On January 15th the Major and I went up Monte Costahmga, a few miles to +the west. It was a ziz-zag, scrambling track, and it was thawing enough +to make everything rather unpleasant. But we gained some, useful new +knowledge. + +On the 24th, Jeune, together with an Italian officer, a telephonist and +myself made a long day of it. Starting early, we were on the top of +Costalunga about 9 o'clock, were given a guide by an Italian Field +Battery on the summit and went on, along a mountain road commanding a +magnificent view, to Cima Echar. Here was a good O.P. from which I got +my first sight of Monte Sisemol and Asiago, of which part of the +_campanile_ was at that time still standing. But it was brought down by +Italian shell fire very soon afterwards. I remember thinking that the +whole Asiago Plateau should be easy to retake, if we only brought up +enough guns. Later on I began to realise that it would not be as easy as +it looked. + +It was impossible to get telephonic communication with the Battery from +Cima Echar, so we could not, as we had hoped, do from there some +registrations on wire and trench junctions on Sisemol, which were among +our allotted targets. We therefore went back to Costalunga, where the +Italian Field and Mountain Batteries along the crest were firing away +with great vigour, and after an excellent lunch, which had been +hospitably prepared for us, went down again into the valley and walked +several miles further west to Monte Tondo. + +I noticed at lunch, as on several other occasions lately, a change in +the Italian attitude to good weather. They no longer hoped that it would +break and so prevent further Austrian offensives. They hoped it would +continue and so permit offensives of their own. Their morale was rapidly +rising. We had, indeed, received the previous day the artillery portion +of an elaborate offensive plan, but no date had yet been fixed for it. + +We climbed up Monte Tondo and down the other side and made our way to an +O.P. in a front line trench. For fifty yards of the way there was a +break in the trench line and we had to run across the open through +knee-deep snow. But the Austrians didn't fire. From this O.P. we had +again a fine view of Asiago and the country round it. After delays +connected with the telephone, we succeeded in registering two targets. +While we were firing, all the woods and houses grew rosy in the sunset. +It was dark when we finished. We went back with a Major of the Pisa +Brigade, a quiet, spare little man, of great energy and exhausting speed +of movement. He gave us coffee and showed us maps at his Brigade +Headquarters and then sent us on to the Regimental Headquarters, further +down the hill, where they gave us rum punch, believing, as all Italians +do, that an Englishman is never happy unless he is drinking alcohol. We +got back to the Battery in the moonlight. + +On January 27th the long expected action began, and our Brigade lost one +of its best officers, who was hit in the head in the front line O.P. on +Monte Tondo. His steel helmet and the skill of Italian doctors just +saved his life, but he was permanently out of the war. The Italians put +their best doctors right forward in the advanced dressing stations. All +that day we bombarded enemy Batteries and cross roads and barbed wire. +Next morning the Italian Infantry carried Col Valbella and Col d'Echele +by assault. The day after they took also Col del Rosso, and beat back +very heavy counter-attacks. The Sassari Brigade and a Brigade of +Bersaglieri specially distinguished themselves. It was an important and +useful success. It considerably improved our line between the Asiago +Plateau and Val Brenta, it deprived the enemy of the secure use of the +Val Frenzela, and it was the first offensive operation of any importance +undertaken by the Italians since the great retreat. Its success went to +prove that the Italian Army had been effectively reorganised, and that +its morale was again high. + +From my sleeping hut and from the Battery Command Post I used to hear +for days afterwards the Italian Infantry singing in great choruses, far +into the night. There was triumph in their songs, and there was ribaldry +and there was longing. I thought I knew what dreams were in their +hearts, and, if I was right, those dreams were also mine. + +The advance left us a long way behind the new front line, and we +expected to move our guns forward; indeed we selected and asked to be +allowed to occupy a very good position behind Montagna Nuova. But this +was not allowed, and we stayed where we were for another six weeks. It +snowed a great deal and we fired very little. But we had plenty to do to +keep pathways dug between the guns and the huts; often we had to clear +these afresh every hour. + +During this time I made the acquaintance of several interesting +Italians and Frenchmen. Among these was Colonel Bucci, who had been +attached the year before to the Staff of one of the British Armies in +France. He was now in command of a Regiment of Field Artillery, +including a group of Batteries known as the Garibaldian Batteries, which +were always placed at their own request in the most forward positions. I +heard that, when he took over this command, he sent for all his officers +and said, "Now here we are, some old men and some young men and two or +three boys, and we are all here for the same purpose and I hope we shall +all be always the best of good friends. But, as a matter of convenience, +someone has got to be in command of the others, and I have been chosen +because I am the oldest." + +He used to tell an amusing story of an encounter he had in France with a +British officer from one of the Dominions, who walked into his bedroom +late one night, after a liberal consumption of liquor, and said he +"wanted the fire" and asked if Bucci was "that Portuguese." Bucci, +having persuasively but vainly asked him to go away, got out of bed and +genially taking him by the shoulders,--he is a powerful man,--ran him +out into the passage. Whereat the British officer, surprised and +protesting, said, "You have no business to treat me like that. Don't you +see that I am a Major and have three decorations?" pointing to his left +breast. "Yes," said Bucci, "and I am a Colonel, and I have some +decorations too, but I don't wear them on my nighty, and I want to go to +sleep." + +He had been in Gorizia before Caporetto, and had kept, as a melancholy +souvenir, the maps showing the line of his own Regiment's retreat. "I +call it the Via Crucis," he said. "I want to go back. I want to see an +advance across the Piave with Cavalry and Field Artillery. I want to +advance at the gallop. I have applied to be sent down there." He was a +natural leader of men, and I felt that I would willingly follow him +anywhere. + +We saw a good deal too of the officers of a French Observation Balloon. +One of their officers was a tall man, promoted from the ranks, with big +upturned moustaches, a delightful smile and twinkling eyes. He smoked +more cigars than any man I have ever met. He smoked them, like some men +smoke cigarettes, one after another all the evening, with no interval +between. He came from Marseilles. Another was from Auvergne, always most +elegantly dressed. He never smoked at all, for he was very proud of his +white teeth. He spoke Italian and German, but no English. A third was a +little blonde Alsatian business man. He was usually rather quiet, but +one evening I saw him roused, when someone had said something that +displeased him about Alsace. Then he showed us that he could be eloquent +when he chose. + +They are very implacable, these Frenchmen. Undoubtedly Clemenceau spoke +in their name, when he said, "my war aim is victory." Another Frenchman +said to me once, "when Clemenceau is speaking, no one dares to +interrupt, for they know it is the voice of the soldier at the Front +speaking." And one can scarcely wonder that they are implacable. In +Alsace-Lorraine and in the occupied territories of Northern France, they +say that it is known with complete certainty that the daughters and +wives and widows of many French officers and men have been compelled to +take up their abode in brothels, and there to await at all hours of the +day and night the visits of their country's enemies. Is it surprising +that certain French Regiments, knowing these things, never take +prisoners? And can one fail to admire, even if one does not +unconditionally agree with, the soldier who would fight on and on, until +everyone has been killed, rather than accept anything less than a +complete victory? + +It is all but impossible for a foreigner to measure the spiritual +effects upon a proudly and self-consciously civilised Frenchman of these +unpardonable, brain-rending, heart-stabbing provocations. But the +statesman at home who, drawing good pay and living in comfort far behind +the Front, is ever ready to declare that his country "shall continue to +bleed in her glory" is a less admirable spectacle. It is his business to +conceive some subtler and more comprehensive war aim than bare military +victory, and to make sure that, when he has died safely in his bed and +been forgotten, other men shall not have to do over again the work which +he complacently bungled. A fighting soldier, who risks his life daily, +may speak brave words, which are indecent on the lips of an _imboscato_, +whether military or civilian. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ASIAGO PLATEAU + +About the middle of March the British Divisions moved up from the +Montello to the Asiago Plateau, and all the British Heavy Artillery was +concentrated in the Asiago sector. We, therefore, moved six miles to the +west and found ourselves in support of British, and no longer of +Italian, Infantry. Our Brigade ceased to be a "trench-punching" and +became a "counter-battery" Brigade. Most of our work in future was to be +in close co-operation with our own Air Force. + +My Battery was destined to remain here, with two short interludes, for +seven months. It was in many ways a very interesting sector. The British +held the line between the Italians on their left and the French on their +right. To the right of the French were more Italians. The move had +amusing features. One compared the demeanour of the lorry drivers of +different nationalities. The scared faces of some of the British the +first time they had to come up the hundred odd corkscrew turns on the +mountain roads, taking sidelong glances at bird's eye views of distant +towns and rivers on the plain below, were rather comical. Even the +self-consciously efficient and outwardly imperturbable French stuck like +limpets to the centre of the road, and would not give an inch to Staff +cars, hooting their guts out behind them. The Italian drivers, on the +other hand, accustomed to the mountains, dashed round sharp corners at +full speed, avoiding innumerable collisions by a fraction of an inch, +terrifying and infuriating their more cautious Allies. But I only once +saw a serious collision here in the course of many months. + +The Asiago Plateau is some eight miles long from west to east, with an +average breadth of two to three miles from north to south. On it lie a +number of villages and small towns, of which the largest is Asiago +itself, which lies at the eastern end of the Plateau and before the war +had a population of about 8000. Asiago was the terminus of a light +railway, running down the mountains to Schio. The chief occupation of +the inhabitants of the Plateau had been wood-cutting and pasture. In +Asiago were several sawmills and a military barracks. Army manoeuvres +used often to take place in this area, which gave special opportunities +for the combined practice of mountain fighting and operations on the +flat. It was moreover within seven miles of the old Austrian frontier. +Asiago was hardly known before the war to foreign tourists, but many +Italians used to visit it, especially for winter sports. + +Across the Plateau from north to south ran the Val d'Assa, which near +the southern edge, having become only a narrow gulley, turned away +westwards, the Assa stream flowing finally into the river Astico. The +Ghelpac stream, which flowed through the town of Asiago, joined the Assa +at its western turn. Apart from these two streams the Plateau was not +well watered. In summer, when the snows had melted, water was even +scarcer on the surrounding mountains. All our drinking water had to be +pumped up through pipes from the plain. + +The Plateau was bounded at its eastern end by Monte Sisemol, which +stands at the head of the Val Frenzela, which, in turn, runs eastward +into the Val Brenta near the little town of Valstagna. Sisemol was of no +great height and was not precipitous. It had a rounded brown top, when +the snow uncovered it. But it was a maze of wire and trenches, and a +very strong point militarily. There had been very bitter fighting for +its possession last November and it had remained in Austrian hands. + +At the western end the Plateau was bounded by the descent to the Val +d'Astico. On the northern side of the Plateau rose a formidable mountain +range, the chief heights of which, from west to east, were Monte +Campolungo, Monte Erio, Monte Mosciagh and Monte Longara. This range was +thickly wooded with pines, among which our guns did great damage. I +always more regretted the destruction of trees than of uninhabited +houses, for the latter can be the more quickly replaced. This range was +pierced by only four valleys, through each of which ran roads vital to +the Austrian system of communications, the Val Campomulo, the Val di +Nos, the Val d'Assa and the Val di Martello. The Austrians had also a +few roads over the top of the mountains, but these were less good and +less convenient. + +Along the southern side of the Plateau ran another ridge, less +mountainous than the ridge to the north, and completely in our +possession. This ridge also was thickly wooded, and pierced by only a +few valleys and roads. The road we came to know best was the +continuation of the wonderful road up from the plain, through Granezza +to the cross-roads at Pria dell' Acqua, and on through the Baerenthal +Valley to San Sisto. Thence it led through the front line trenches into +the town of Asiago itself. At Pria dell' Acqua, a most misleading name, +where there was no water, but only a collection of wooden huts, another +road branched off westwards, running parallel to the front line, behind +the southern ridge of the Plateau. + +The Italian Engineers had created a magnificent network of roads in this +sector of the Front. Before the war there had been only one road into +Asiago from the plain. Now there were half a dozen, all broad and with a +fine surface, capable of taking any traffic. And, in addition, there +were many transverse roads, equally good, joining up and cutting across +the main routes at convenient points. + +When the British troops took over this sector in March, the whole +Plateau, properly so called, was in Austrian hands. It had been taken +last November in the mountain offensive which followed Caporetto. At one +perilous moment the Austrians had held San Sisto and their patrols had +passed Pria dell' Acqua, but they had been thrown back by Italian +counter-attacks to the line they now held. Our front line ran along the +southern edge of the Plateau, and, on the right, along the lower slopes +of the southern ridge, just inside the pine woods. On the left, further +west, it ran mostly on the flat and more in the open. Where the Val +d'Assa turned west, our front line ran on one side of the shallow gulley +and the Austrian on the other. The Austrian front line was completely in +the open. The first houses of Asiago were only a few hundred yards +behind it. + +From the defensive point of view our line was very strong, and the +trenches, particularly at the eastern end, very good, deeply blasted in +the rock. The wooded ridge, running close behind our front line all the +way, completely hid from the enemy all movement in our rear. He could +get no observation here except by aircraft. Even movements in our front +line, owing to the trees, were largely invisible at a distance, and, +owing to the lie of the ground, large parts of No Man's Land could be +seen from our own trenches, but from nowhere in the enemy's lines, with +the result that we were able to post machine guns, trench mortars and +even, for a short time, a field battery there, without being detected, +until these weapons had served their immediate purpose. Our systems of +transport, supply and reliefs of the troops in the line could, +therefore, be carried out at any hour of the day or night with almost +complete disregard of the enemy. His intermittent shelling of the roads +was perfectly blind and haphazard and seldom did us any damage. + +He, on the other hand, was in a very undesirable situation. Not only was +his front line all the way in full view from our various ground O.P.'s, +but a long stretch of flat country several miles broad behind his front +line was equally in view. Only a few small folds in the ground were +invisible from all points along our ridge. We could see also most of the +nearer slopes of the northern ridge, though here the thick woods and +breaks in the hillside gave him greater opportunities for concealment. +Taking into account, therefore, ground observation only, we had him at a +tremendous disadvantage. He dared not move nor show himself in daylight +behind his line, and was compelled to carry out all his supply and troop +movements at night, or during fogs that might lift at any moment. One +French Battery did no other work except sweep up and down his roads +throughout the hours of darkness, and it is obvious that the probable +damage done in this way was far greater than anything he could hope to +do to us. + +Taking into account the possibilities of observation from the air, the +balance in our favour became even greater. We had a strong superiority +in the air, whenever it was worth our while to enforce it, partly +because our airmen were individually superior to the Austrians, and +partly because we had more and better machines. Our pilots often flew +over the northern ridge, both to observe and to bomb, but the enemy +seldom crossed the southern ridge. His anti-aircraft Batteries were, +however, at least as good as ours, and, in my opinion, better. + +Most of our pre-arranged counter-battery shoots were carried out with +aeroplane observation against enemy Batteries situated in the thick +woods on the slopes of the northern ridge, the airman flying backwards +and forwards over the target and sending us his observations by +wireless. But it was often necessary to spend more than half of the four +hundred rounds allotted to a normal counter-battery shoot in destroying +the trees round the target, before the airman could get a good view of +it. Flying, however, was always difficult on the Plateau, especially +during the winter, and more difficult for our men than for theirs, since +there were no feasible landing-places behind our lines. Our nearest +aerodromes were down on the plain, and a big expenditure of petrol was +required to get the airman up the mountains and actually over the +Plateau, and also to get him down again. The time during which he could +keep in the air for observation was, therefore, very limited. Weather +conditions on the Plateau, moreover, were often very unfavourable for +flying even in the spring and summer. The practical importance of our +superiority in the air was thus smaller than might have been expected. + +From the defensive point of view, then, our position was pretty strong. +But the sector was important and might at any time become critical, and +much depended upon its successful defence. For the mountain wall that +guarded the Italian plain had been worn very thin in this neighbourhood +by the Austrian successes of last year. An Austrian advance of another +few miles would bring the enemy over the edge of the mountains, with the +plain beneath in full view. Further defence would then become extremely +difficult and costly, and the whole situation, as regards relative +superiority of positions and observation, now so greatly in our favour, +would be more than reversed. We were too near the edge to have any elbow +room or freedom of manoeuvre. Our present positions were almost the last +that we could hope to hold without very grave embarrassment. It would +have seemed evident, then, that to obtain more elbow room and security, +we should not be content with a defensive policy, but should aim at +gaining ground and thickening the mountain wall by means of an early +local offensive, even if larger operations were not yet practicable. + +But, from the offensive point of view, our position presented great +difficulties. To make only a small advance would leave us worse off +than now. Merely to go out into the middle of the Plateau, merely to +reoccupy the ruins of Asiago, would be futile, except for a very slight +and transitory "moral effect." To carry the whole Plateau and establish +a line along the lower slopes of the northern ridge would be no better. +We should only be taking over the difficulties of the enemy in respect +of his exposed positions, while he would escape from these difficulties +and obtain an immunity from observation nearly as great as that which we +now possessed. No offensive would benefit us which did not give us, at +the very least, the whole of the crest of the northern ridge. And to aim +at this would be a big and risky undertaking, involving perhaps heavy +casualties and large reserves. We had only three British Divisions in +Italy at this time, the 7th, 23rd and 48th, two of which were always in +the line and one in reserve. The French had now only two Divisions in +Italy and the Italians, when the German advance in France became +serious, had sent to France more men than there were French and British +left in Italy. The large fact remained that, since the military collapse +of Russia the previous year, the Austrians had brought practically their +whole Army on to the Italian Front and established a large superiority +over the Italians, both in numbers and in guns. Considerable Italian +reserves had to be kept mobile and ready to meet an Austrian offensive +anywhere along the mountain front or on the plain. There was not likely +to be much that could be safely spared to back up a Franco-British +offensive on the Plateau. None the less, the value of a successful +offensive here was recognised to be so great, that it was several times +on the point of being attempted in the months that followed. But it did +not finally come, until events elsewhere had prepared the way and sapped +the enemy's power of resistance. + +This, however, is anticipating history. In March, when we first arrived, +we moved into a Battery position in the pine woods behind the rear slope +of the southern ridge. Our right hand gun was only a hundred yards from +the cross-roads at Pria dell' Acqua, disagreeably close, as we +afterwards discovered. For the enemy had those cross-roads "absolutely +taped," as the expression went. In other respects the Battery position +was a good one. Being an old Italian position, it had gun pits already +blasted in the rock, though they were not quite suited to our guns and +line of fire, and we had to do some more blasting for ourselves. In the +course of this, a premature explosion occurred, wounding one of our +gunners so severely that he lost one leg and the sight of both his eyes +and a few days later, perhaps fortunately, died of other injuries. He +was a Cornishman, very young and very popular with every one in the +Battery. We missed him greatly. In this same accident Winterton was also +injured, and nearly lost an eye. He went to Hospital and thence to +England, and saw no more of the war, for the sight of his eye came back +to him but slowly. + +The Italians had also blasted some good _caverne_ in the position, and +these we gradually enlarged and multiplied, till we had cover for the +whole Battery. Being on the side of a hill, and our guns not constructed +to fire at a greater elevation than forty-five degrees (the Italians had +fired at "super-elevations" up to eighty), we had to cut down many trees +in front of the guns. But this clearance hardly showed in aeroplane +photographs, as there were already many bare patches in the woods. We +had perfect flash-cover behind the ridge and were, indeed, quite +invisible, when the guns were camouflaged, even to an aeroplane flying +low and immediately overhead. From our position we could shoot, if +necessary, right over the top of the northern ridge, on the other side +of the Plateau. And this was good enough for most purposes. + +We prepared another position, which was known as the "Forward" or +"Battle Position," at San Sisto, about four hundred yards behind the +front line. This position we never occupied, but we should have done so, +if an offensive had come from our side while we were still on the +Plateau. San Sisto, I was told, was once the centre of a leper +reservation. There is a little chapel there, but no other buildings. +This chapel was used by the R.A.M.C. as a First Aid Post. One day I saw +a shell go clean through the roof of it, but there was no one inside at +the time. + +The Battery O.P. was a glorious place, up a tall pine tree on the summit +of Cima del Taglio, a high point to the east of the Granezza--Pria dell' +Acqua road. This O.P. had been built by the French. It was reached by a +strong pinewood ladder, with a small platform half way up as a +resting-place. The O.P. itself consisted of a wooden platform, nailed to +cross pieces, supported on two trees. It was about fifteen feet long and +four feet broad and some ninety feet above the ground. At one end of the +platform a hut had been erected, with a long glass window, opening +outward, on the northern side, and a small fixed glass window on the +western. The other end of the platform was uncovered. When the weather +was bad one could shelter in the hut and imagine oneself out at sea, as +the trees swayed in the wind. The O.P. was well hidden from the enemy by +the branches of the trees. The view was superb. Immediately below the +thick pine forest sloped gradually downwards, the trees still carrying a +heavy weight of snow. Among the trees patches of deep snow were visible, +hiding rocky ground. Beyond lay the Plateau, studded with villages and +isolated houses, with the ruins of Asiago in the centre of the view, +and, to the left of it, the light railway line and its raised +embankment, along which the Austrian trenches ran. And beyond, more +pinewoods on the northern ridge, and beyond, more mountains, one snowy +range behind another, up to the horizon. The visibility was often poor +and variable from one minute to another. Great clouds used to sweep low +over the Plateau, blotting out everything but the nearest trees, and +then sweep past, and Asiago would come into sudden view again, and the +sun would shine forth once more upon the little clusters of white +houses, some utterly wrecked, some mere shells, others as yet hardly +touched by the destruction of war. The prosaic name of this O.P. was +"Claud." + +There was another O.P. called Ascot, which we used sometimes to man at +the beginning. It was on, or rather in, Monte Kaberlaba, just behind the +front line, approached through a communication trench and then a long +tunnel through the rock, named by our troops the Severn Tunnel. This +tunnel was full of water and many worse things, and it was impossible to +clean it out properly. The unfortunate telephonists off duty had to +live and sleep in it. The O.P. was a cramped, little, stinking place at +the far end of the tunnel, shared with the Italians, undoubtedly visible +and well known to the enemy, and with practically no view. The Major, by +his usual skilful diplomacy, soon arranged that we should man Claud +permanently, but Ascot never. + +My only pleasant recollection of Ascot is that once, about midnight, as +we were keeping watch together, a young Italian gunner from the Romagna +sang to me. + + "'Addio, mia bell', addio!' + Cantava nel partir la gioventù, + Mentre gl' imboscati si stavano + Divertire, giornale in mano + E la sigaretta. + Per noi l'assalto + Alla baionetta! + Come le mosche noi dobbiam morir, + Mentre gl' imboscati si stanno a divertir."[1] + +[Footnote 1: + + "Good-bye, my darling, good-bye!" + Sang the young men as they went away, + While the imboscati were standing about + To amuse themselves, with a newspaper in their hand + And a cigarette. + For us the bayonet charge! + Like flies we must die. + While the imboscati stand about to amuse themselves. + +This is one of many front line versions of a patriotic drawing-room +song. It has an admirable tune.] + +He sang me also another longer song, composed by a friend of his, which +is not fit for reproduction. + + * * * * * + +We experienced great variations of weather on the Plateau. When we first +arrived in March the snow was in full thaw, and every road a sunlit, +rushing torrent. We climbed about at that time in gum boots. Later it +snowed again heavily and often. Sometimes for several days running we +were enveloped in a thick mist, and then suddenly it would clear away. +Once, I remember, it cleared at night, and one saw the full moon rising +through the pine trees into an utterly clear, ice-cold sky, and under +one's feet the hard snow scrunched and glittered in the moonlight. +British, French and Italian Batteries were all mixed together in this +sector. On our left came first another British Battery, then two French, +one in front of the road and one behind it, then another British, then +an Italian. On our right, slightly more forward, the Headquarters of an +Italian Heavy Artillery Group, in front of them a British and an Italian +Battery, one on each side of the road leading past Kaberlaba to the +front line. To the right of the Italian Headquarters, across the San +Sisto road, was a French Battery, with two Italian Batteries in front of +it. To our own right rear was one Italian Battery and two French, and in +rear of them, back along the road to Granezza, our own Brigade +Headquarters. + +This mixture was a good arrangement, stimulating friendly rivalry and +facilitating _liaison_ and exchange of ideas. Our relations were +specially cordial with the Italian-Group Headquarters and with one of +the French Batteries on our left. The Italian Major commanding this +Group was a Mantuan and he and I became firm friends. It was in his Mess +one night, in reply to the toast of the Allies, that I made my first +after-dinner speech in Italian. I do not claim that it was grammatically +perfect, but all that I said was, I think, well understood, and I was +in no hesitation for words. + +Not till the end of May did Spring really climb the mountains, and the +snow finally vanish, and then the days, apart from the facts of war, +were perfect, blue sky and sunshine all day long among the warm aromatic +pines and the freshness of the mountain air. Here and there, in +clearings in the forest, were patches of thick, rich grass, making a +bright contrast to the dull, dark green of the pines, and in the grass +arose many-coloured wild flowers. + +The Italians have buried their dead up here in little groups among the +trees, and not in great graveyards. There was one such little group on +the hillside in the middle of our Battery position, between two of our +gunpits. There was another in the middle of our forward position at San +Sisto, and another, where some thirty Bersaglieri and Artillerymen were +buried, in the Baerenthal Valley. It was here one day that an Irish +Major, newly come to Italy, said to me, "I don't want any better grave +than that." Nor did I. It was a place of marvellous and eternal beauty, +ever changing with the seasons. It made one's heart ache to be in the +midst of it. It was hither that they brought in the months that followed +many of the British dead, who fell in this sector, and laid them beside +the Italians, at whose graves we had looked that day. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +SOME NOTES ON NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS + +For a week or two in May an Italian Engineer officer messed with us. He +had a sleeping hut on the hill just behind us, and was in charge of a +party of men who were working on British Field Artillery positions. His +men were on British rations and did not altogether like them. They would +have preferred more bread and less meat and jam, and they missed their +coffee. Our tea they did not fancy. The first time it was issued to +them, they thought it was medicine. "Why do the English give us +_'camomila'_?" they asked their officer, "we are not ill!" + + * * * * * + +I have had, at one time and another, much gay and delightful intercourse +both with Frenchmen and Italians, which has led me to certain +speculative comparisons and to many dangerous generalisations, some of +which I will venture tentatively to set down here. But it is difficult +to find forms of words which are not mere journalism. + +Italian humour is more primitive and uproarious than French, and the +Italians seem to present fewer barriers to intimacy, but the proportion +of rational discussion is larger in the conversation of the French. Both +the French and the Italians combine natural and easy good manners with +great punctiliousness in small matters of etiquette. Only very arrogant +or very boorish people find it difficult to get on well with either. + +It is idle for any wideawake observer to deny that a certain antipathy +exists between the French and the Italians. Both, I think, generally +prefer the British to their Latin brothers, and I have heard both say +unjust and absurdly untrue things about the other. Their antipathy is +rooted partly in temperament, partly in history, and partly in that +ignorance and lack of understanding which accounts for nine-tenths of +all international antipathies. As Charles Lamb said, in an anecdote +which President Wilson is fond of quoting, "I cannot hate a man I know." +It is sometimes said that the French and the Italians are too much alike +to be in perfect sympathy. The Frenchman has at times an instinct to be +what an Englishman would call "theatrical," which instinct the +Englishman himself hardly possesses at all. But in the Italian this +instinct is even stronger than in the Frenchman, and he gives it freer +play. Thus the Frenchman often notices the Italian doing and saying +things which he himself dislikes, but which it needs a deliberate effort +of self-repression on his part not to imitate. The Englishman has no +inclination to do and say such things, and is, therefore, more tolerant +of them than the Frenchman, thinking them either charming or merely +"queer," according to his temperament. + +If the French are the more admirable, the Italians are the more lovable; +if the French are the more creative, the Italians are the more +receptive. In the French, though not so much in the Italians, one does +find that "sheer brutality of the Latin intellect," which, since the +French Revolution, has dethroned many previously dominant ideas and +institutions. One finds in the French a tradition of limpid precision, +of concise and ordered logic, while the Italians are still groping +rather turgidly among those great abstract ideas which the French handle +so easily. The spirit of France shines with the hard splendour of the +noonday sun, of Italy with the soft radiance of the light of early +mornings and late afternoons. + +The French are proud and sometimes intolerant, the Italians tolerant and +often diffident. It has been truly said that in every modern Frenchman +there is still something Napoleonic, however subconscious it may have +become. One could never be surprised if, in the midst of conversation, a +Frenchman should suddenly draw himself up and cry "Vive la France, +monsieur!" But one does not expect an Italian in like circumstances to +cry "Viva l'Italia!" In general, the French are the more tenacious and +clear-visioned in adversity, but none are more irresistible in success, +nor more conscious of its drama, than the Italians. + +The low birth-rate of France, as compared with Italy, is a fact of deep +and permanent importance. In years to come the French will grow more and +more negligible, numerically, in world politics, but the French spirit +is immortal and unconquerable. It will penetrate the hearts of the best +men for ever, and ideas characteristically and originally French will +continue to mould the world's thought and action till the end of time. +The Italians on the other hand will play in future history a greater +part numerically, and moreover, by a greater intermarriage with other +races, will continue to produce fine and generous human types, not +wholly Italian. Italians will continue to show a shining example to the +world by reason of their gaiety and charm of character, their mental +subtlety, which with time will grow less involved and more lucid in +expression, by their art of life, even now not much inferior to the +French, by their sensitiveness to beauty, by their capacity for +enthusiastic appreciation, and by their technical genius in applied +science. + +Italy is a naturally democratic and peaceable polity, and her present +imperfections will diminish rapidly with the increase of her national +maturity and stability. She will be a sane and healthy element in the +future international order. + +In some respects, as in their indifference, sometimes excessive, to +foreign opinion, the French resemble the British, just as, in their +excessive sensitiveness on this point, the Italians resemble the +Americans. This is the contrast between age and youth, between nations +with a continuous tradition of centuries behind them and nations born or +reborn only yesterday. + +There remains the larger contrast between the Latins on the one hand and +the Anglo-Saxons on the other. At first sight it is the latter who are +the more realistic and the more practical, the former who are the more +effusive, idealistic and poetical. But, as Mr Norman Douglas admirably +puts it in _South Wind_, "Enclosed within the soft imagination of the +_homo Mediterraneus_ lies a kernel of hard reason. The Northerner's +hardness is on the surface; his core, his inner being, is apt to quaver +in a state of fluid irresponsibility." The comparative method of +approach to the institution of marriage among Latins and among +Anglo-Saxons illustrates this truth. And it serves also, perhaps, for an +example that, in the midst of the terrors of war, the dim project of a +League of Nations, the only hope of the world, first took shape in the +minds of Anglo-Saxon dreamers and not of Latin realists. The Latin often +thinks more clearly, but not always more profoundly, than the +Anglo-Saxon. The currents on the surface are not always the same as the +currents in the deep. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +ROME IN THE SPRING + +I was at Rome in May. Of the many things and persons I saw there, not +much is relevant here. But there is an intoxication and a beauty and a +sense of wonder in Rome in the Spring, as great as I have found at any +time elsewhere. Rome grew upon me, rapidly and ceaselessly, during the +few days that I spent there, and sent me back to the mountains, clothed +with their pinewoods and their graves of much brave youth, uplifted in +heart and purified in spirit. + + * * * * * + +Early one afternoon in the Piazza Venezia I fell in with two Italian +officers, an Alpino and an Engineer, both wounded and not yet fit to go +back to the Front. We rapidly made friends, and, having drunk beer +together, we took a carrozza and drove to the Villa Borghese Gardens, +where we walked and sat for several hours. Then we went back to the +Piazza Venezia, and walked in the neighbourhood and contemplated the +monuments. My friends said that Rome was the capital city of the world, +and praised also the giant memorial to Italian Unity and Victor Emmanuel +II., which, still unfinished, dominates the Piazza, and indeed a large +part of the city. This memorial is, I believe, condemned by the greater +part of foreign aesthetic opinion, the Germans alone conspicuously +dissenting. Personally I like it in the fading light from close at hand, +and in a bright light from a distance, as one sees it, for instance, +from the Pincio. + +We spoke a little, but not much, of the war. They were both for fighting +on till final victory, whatever the cost, and both spoke with admiration +of the inflexible and stubborn spirit of the British nation. Very +wonderful too is the spirit which animates the Alpini. My Alpino friend +had been wounded in the leg last August at Rombon, and still walked +lame. He told me of incidents which he had witnessed, of Alpini charging +across and through uncut enemy wire, with the wounded and the dying +crying to their comrades, "Ciao![1] Ciao! Avanti!" He sang me also +certain songs of the Alpini, in one of which they sing that in the +Italian tricolour the green stands for the Alpini,[2] the white for the +snow on their mountains and the red for their blood. O these "fiamme +verdi," who can talk and sing themselves into such transfigured +ecstasies, as to turn, death and pain almost into easy glories! + +[Footnote 1: "Ciao" is a colloquialism, much the same as our own "so +long," or "good-bye and good luck!" It is an intimate word, used only +between friends at parting.] + +[Footnote 2: The regimental colours of the Alpini are plain green, worn +on the collar.] + +The three of us dined at a little restaurant near the Pantheon, and my +friends wrote their names and a greeting to my wife on a post card, and +an old man at the next table ordered a bottle of wine, in which we all +drank the health of the Allies, and a party at another table began to +sing, and went on singing for nearly an hour. We stayed in that +restaurant talking till eleven p.m., when the lights were turned out, +and then my friends demanded that we should make another "giro +artistico," which terminated beneath Trajan's Column, where in the warm +air we sat and talked for half an hour more, and separated about +midnight, I having had eight hours of continuous practice in the use of +the second person singular of Italian verbs. + + * * * * * + +Next day I lunched with my friends the Marinis, at their charming Villa +on Monte Parioli, and in the afternoon Signor Marini offered to act as +my guide to places of interest. We took the tram to the Piazza del +Popolo, which was laid out in 1810 under the French Empire, perfectly +circular and symmetrical, thus differing from the more Italian of Roman +Piazzas, such as the elongated and quite unsymmetrical Piazza di Spagna. +We passed along the broad embankment beside the Tiber and through the +Square of St Peter's. Just outside the gates of the Vatican, my guide +pointed out to me the little shabby building occupied by the Giordano +Bruno Society, symbolic of the brave defiance thrown out, all down the +ages, by poverty and the spirit of freedom and intellectual honesty, in +the face of wealth and power and oppression, intellectual bondage and +the dead weight of tradition. + +My guide thought that, out of the wreck of her material defeat and +disaster, Russia would perhaps give a new spiritual religion to the +western world, to take the place of old forms now dead, and historic +organisations which, having lacked the audacity and the wisdom to remain +poor when riches were within easy reach, had now become visibly and +irremediably detached from the life of the people. He did not fear, as +some did for France, a clerical revival in Italy after the war. For the +Italian branch of clerical power had shown itself in the hour of Italy's +deadly peril to be largely lacking in Italian patriotism, and to have +been scheming for the maintenance, if not the expansion, of Austrian +dominion, and, perhaps, for the re-establishment by the aid of Austrian +and German bayonets, or Turkish, if it had been necessary to solicit +them, of the Temporal Power of the Papacy over Italian citizens and +Italian soil. I saw one of the Swiss mercenaries of the Papacy gazing +forth a little contemptuously through a door of the Vatican upon the +secular outer world. + +From St Peter's we drove up the Janiculum, stopping on the way at the +convent of S. Onofrio, where Tasso passed the last three weeks of his +life and where a Tasso Museum has been accumulated. Very admirable is +the equestrian statue of Garibaldi on the Janiculum, both as sculpture +and for its details of intention, such as that sideways turning of his +head, looking down hill at the Vatican, as though saying, "Non ti +dimentico,"--"I do not forget you, my old enemy." The view of Rome from +this point is magnificent, the best that I have seen, though the view +from the Pincio only just falls short of it. + +Thence, passing outside the old city walls through the Porta San +Pancrazio, we stood on ground made memorable by Garibaldi's defence of +the Roman Republic in 1849, and went down, past the. Pope's monument to +the French who died fighting to defend his Temporal Power against the +Garibaldini, into the beautiful garden of the Villa Pamfili. "Attendono +il finale risorgimento,"[1] says the Pope's Italian version on the +monument. It is an ironical phrase in view of the history of the next +twenty years. "They did not have long to wait," I said, "a bird in the +hand is worth two in the bush." And my guide said, I thought well, of +the French that they are a people of great gifts and of most generous +mind, but that their rulers have often showed "un po' di volubilità, un +po' di fantasia." + +[Footnote 1: "They await the final resurrection." But "risorgimento" to +most Italians suggests modern history more than theology.] + +We visited last of all the Depôt of the Bersaglieri in Trastevere, where +is also the famous Bersagliere Museum. Here we were received and shown +round with great courtesy by the Colonel commanding the Depôt, a +handsome man with most sad eyes, but full of great regimental pride in +this creation, intimately and characteristically Italian, of General La +Marmora. + +In the Museum, among much that was trivial, I found much that was +interesting and even deeply moving: the relics of Enrico Toti, an artist +who, having only one leg, joined the Bersaglieri Ciclisti as a volunteer +at the beginning of the war, and rode up mountain tracks on a bicycle +with a single pedal, and died, after acts of the greatest heroism and +after sustaining for many hours grave wounds, crying with his last +breath "Avanti Savoia!", upon whose dead body and brave departed spirit +was conferred the most rare Gold Medal for Valour; photographs of all +the Bersaglieri, who since the foundation of the Regiment have won the +Gold Medal, some twenty of them, hanging together on one wall, all dead +now; the steel helmet of a Bersagliere Major, killed on the Carso, while +leading his men; this is all that they found of him, but it has three +holes through the front, sufficient proof, said the Colonel, that he was +not going backward when he died; a menu card, signed by all the officers +of a Bersagliere Battalion, who dined together on the eve of the +victorious action of Col Valbella last January, in which they played a +worthy part. + +The Colonel told me that his own son was killed and is buried beyond the +Isonzo, near Cervignano. It had been suggested to him that he should +have the body brought home, but he preferred to leave it where it fell. +"C'è un' idea che è morta lì," he said, "It is an idea which has died +there. Some day, if I live, I shall make a pilgrimage thither, but the +Austrians may, by now, have destroyed the grave." + +Outside in the courtyard, where the Colonel took leave of us, I saw many +young Bersaglieri, the latest batches of recruits, mere boys. "They are +splendid material," he said, with a military pride, not without a +half-regretful tenderness, "one can make anything out of them." They +were, indeed, incomparable human stuff, whether for the purposes of +peace or war. They seemed to have the joy of the spring in their eyes, +just as that middle-aged Regular soldier had in his the sadness of +autumn. And amid all the beauty of Rome in the spring, I was haunted by +the grim refrain, "Nella primavera si combatte e si muore, o +soldato,"--"In the springtide men fight and die, young soldier." + + * * * * * + +I went away from Rome strengthened in my previous judgment that the +Italians are not a militarist nation. There was no sign of the +militarist, as distinct from the military, spirit at the Bersagliere +Depôt. The relations of the Colonel and Signer Marini illustrated this. +They had never met, nor, I think, heard of one another before. Yet this +little civilian seemed to find it quite natural to march into a military +barracks without any preliminary inquiries, to walk upstairs and +straight into the Commanding Officer's office and, not finding the +Commanding Officer there, to send a message into the Officer's Mess, +and, the Commanding Officer having come out, to present his card, +without any appearance of servility or undue deference, and to ask to be +taken round. And the Colonel seemed to see nothing odd in these +proceedings, but placed himself at once at our disposal and showed us +everything and talked without aloofness and without reserve to both of +us. I could not help thinking that things would not have happened quite +like this at the Depôt of a crack regiment in most other European +capitals. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE FIFTEENTH OF JUNE, 1918 + +I happened to be the officer on duty in the Battery Command Post on the +night of June 14th-15th. There had been a thick fog for several days and +not much firing. No one expected anything unusual. The Battery was much +below strength owing to the ravages of what the doctors in the mountains +called "mountain fever" and the doctors on the plain called influenza. +We had, if I remember rightly, about forty men in Hospital owing to this +cause alone. I myself had a touch of it, but, thinking I could probably +count on a quiet night, I refused the offer of a brother officer to take +my place, coldly calculating that a few nights later, when it would be +my turn to take his duty, I might have more to do. But my hopes of much +sleep were soon dispersed. + +Orders came in from Brigade for an elaborate counter-battery shoot with +gas shell, in two parts, one between 11 p.m. and midnight, the other +between 2 and 3 a.m. We had never fired gas shell from six-inch +howitzers before, though we had been warned that we should soon be +required to do so. We had no gas shell in the Battery, but we were +informed by Brigade that a sufficient quantity would arrive by the time +the shoot was to begin. In fact, however, the first consignment of gas +shell was not delivered in time to enable us to take part in the first +part of the bombardment, and I was told not to fire high explosive +instead, as that would tend to disperse the gas which other Batteries +would be simultaneously firing on the same targets. The method adopted +on this and later occasions, when gas was used, was that a number of our +own Batteries should concentrate for, say, five minutes at the fastest +rate of fire possible on a particular enemy Battery, then all switch +together to another enemy Battery, and so on, all coming back together +on to the first enemy Battery after an interval sufficient to lull the +human elements forming part of the target into a delusive sense of +security and a return to slumber without their masks, or, alternatively, +to make them wear their masks continously for prolonged hours of +expectation, thus subjecting them to much discomfort, depriving them of +sleep, lowering their morale, and making them likelier victims for fresh +forms of devilment in the morning. War is a filthy thing, and must be +stamped out ruthlessly. The facts of gas will have helped to drive this +simple conviction into many a thick, egotistical, unsensitive head. But, +as has been wisely said, you cannot half make a war of the modern sort, +you cannot let a faint savour of regret hang about all your actions, and +enervate your will. And, in plain, brutal truth, our employment of gas +was a big factor in determining and hastening the end. Of the military +efficiency of our gas tactics we had much evidence later on. + +We joined in the second part of the gas bombardment in the early hours +of the 15th of June, and, when this was nearly over, I got orders to +fire at my leisure ten rounds of high explosive at "Archibald," which +was our code name for a certain Austrian searchlight, which used to +sweep round the country from the summit of Monte Mosciagh on the far +side of the Plateau. So I fired the ten rounds, and the officer at one +of the O.P.'s, whom I had previously warned of my intention, reported +that Archibald had gone out after the fourth round, and that, judged by +the flashes of their explosions, all the rounds had seemed pretty near. +It was now nearly half-past three, and, conscious that I had a high and +rising temperature, I determined to lie down and get a few hours' sleep. +Some of the gas shell which had been intended for the first part of the +bombardment, but had arrived about four hours too late, was still being +unloaded from lorries on the road outside. But I asked a Corporal to +look after this, and send the unloading party to bed as soon as they had +finished. + +I had just fallen asleep when the Corporal awakened me. Were the men, he +asked, to go on unloading the shell? Still half asleep, I asked why not? +He said that the road was being shelled. I pulled myself together and +went to the door of the Command Post. Not only the road, but the whole +Battery position and apparently the whole area for some distance round, +was being bombarded very violently. So I ordered every one to take +cover. It was just 3.45 a.m. + +I thought for a moment that this was merely Austrian retaliation for our +first use of gas and for the shots at Archibald. In fact, it was the +beginning of the big Austrian offensive, which had long been +prearranged. During the last few days the Austrians had brought up a +large number of new guns to our sector, and had placed a number of them +right out in the open. And owing to the thick fog our airmen had been +able to see nothing. The bombardment continued with great fury for +several hours, with guns of all calibres, but fortunately mostly small, +with shrapnel, high explosive, and gas, chiefly lacrimatory, but mixed +with a certain quantity of lethal. Luckily we had pretty good cover, +mainly _caverne_ blasted in the rock. The Command Post itself was proof +against anything less than a direct hit from a pretty heavy shell. It +was also supposed to be gas proof, but was not. I collected about half a +dozen men in it who had nowhere else to go, including two A.S.C. lorry +drivers. + +Early on, a young Bombardier was hit rather badly in the leg just +outside. We brought him into the Command Post, bandaged his wound and +laid him on the camp bed, on which I had been hoping to get some sleep, +and there left him till the shelling should abate and it should be +reasonably safe to carry him to the dressing-station a quarter of a mile +away. He lay there, I remember, looking like a little tired cherub, and +another Bombardier sat beside him and tried to persuade him to go to +sleep. They were very great friends, those two boys, both signallers, +and inseparable both on and off duty. The one who was not wounded went +out that same morning and spent hours repairing telephone lines under +very heavy fire, for which act he won the Military Medal. The other, +months later, when his wound was healed and he had returned to the +Battery, also won the Military Medal for gallantry on the Piave. + +The conduct of the two lorry drivers afforded a strong contrast in +psychology. One, a man of middle age, was superbly cheerful. "They can't +keep this up much longer," he said several times with a placid smile, +"they haven't the stuff to do it." The other, though younger, was a +bunch of visible nerves. A shell exploded just behind the Command Post +and violently shook the whole structure and a storm of stones hit the +log framework. He collapsed on the floor, and was convinced for a couple +of minutes that he had been hit, and for some time after that he was +suffering from shell shock. + +Such illusions come easily at such times. A gas shell made a direct hit +on one of our smaller dug-outs. A Sergeant inside was badly gassed. They +put him for the moment in a gas-proof shelter, higher up the hill, and +several hours later I saw him being carried away on a stretcher, +apparently lifeless. But he finally pulled through. A gunner who was +with him in the dug-out came running into the Command Post crying out +that he also was gassed. I made him lie flat on the floor, and told him +to keep as quiet as he could. And then I watched his breathing. It was +clear after a minute or two that, if he had had a breath of gas at all, +it was only of the slightest. But, when I told him this, he was very +unwilling to believe me. Another man was hit just outside, and lay on +the ground screaming like an animal in pain. Him, too, we carried into +the Command Post, and, later, on a stretcher to the dressing station. + +Meanwhile all the telephone lines had gone owing to the shelling, +cutting us off from Brigade, other Batteries and O.P.'s. But +intermittent communication was maintained by runners, and signallers +were out, hour after hour, mending breaks in the line and showing their +invariable gallantry. Till about six o'clock our orders were to lie +low, to keep under cover and not to open fire. The rain of shells +continued without slackening. We were wonderfully lucky to get off as +lightly as we did. It is one of the most extraordinary phenomena of war, +how many shells can fall in a position of no great size, and yet do very +little damage. It was estimated, and I think quite soberly, that at +least two thousand rounds were pumped into our Battery position that +morning. + +It was soon after six that we got orders, passed along from the next +Battery up the road, to open fire on our "counter-preparation target." +This was a sign that the advance of the Austrian Infantry had either +begun, or was thought to be imminent. They attacked, in fact, about a +quarter to seven on our sector. Their synchronising was faulty, as +between the different sectors attacked. Some went forward earlier and +others later than had been intended. They were all newly equipped and +were carrying full packs and blankets on their backs. They had been told +by their officers that this was to be the last great offensive of the +war, that they were going to drive us headlong down the mountain side, +that after two days they would be in Verona, and after ten days in Rome. +They were not told that they had British troops in front of them. They +came forward bravely and with great determination, in five successive +waves. + +On the British left Divisional Front, to the west of us, they gained a +large initial success, and pushed us back well behind our first line of +guns. Here for some time the situation looked serious. But next day +strong counter-attacks by British and Italian troops restored the line, +our lost guns were retaken and the retreating Austrians suffered great +slaughter and demoralisation. + +On the British right Divisional Front, in support of which our Brigade +was operating, the British 23rd Division fought a fight worthy of their +high reputation. Forced back for a while from their front line trenches, +after a prolonged and intense bombardment and by an overwhelming +superiority of numbers, they never even fell back to their support line. +But, turning on the enemy who was advancing along and astride the San +Sisto road, they drove him back and re-established their own front line +within six hours of the first attack. It was here that a boy Colonel, a +Sherwood Forester scarcely twenty-one years old, won the V.C. and fell +severely wounded. When things looked black, he had organised the defence +and the subsequent counter-attack, collecting together British +Infantrymen of several Battalions, together with British Artillerymen +and Italian Machine-Gunners and Engineers, welding them into a coherent +force and making swift, yet well thought out, dispositions which did +much to save the situation. + +On the right of the British, the French Infantry, though furiously +assaulted, never, I believe, budged an inch. On the right of the French, +the Italians were momentarily driven from Col Valbella, Col del Rosso +and Col d'Echele, which they had won in January, but retook all three a +few days later. + +But we in the Battery knew nothing of all this at the time. We knew only +that we had to open fire on our counter-preparation target. The gunpit +of our No. 1 gun near the cross-roads was in low-lying ground, now so +full of gas that one could hardly see one's hand before one's face. +Fortunately we could achieve the rate of fire required by using three +guns only, so we left No. 1 out of action for the time. The enemy's +bombardment, as far as we were concerned, was beginning to slacken a +little, but was still heavy. The Major, out on the road with a signaller +mending wire, was hit in the face with shrapnel. It turned out, happily, +not a serious wound, but at the time it looked less hopeful. He went +down the mountains in the same Field Ambulance with the young Colonel of +the Sherwood Foresters, of whom I have already spoken. + +There was an abandoned Field Ambulance in the road, half in the ditch, +with the engine still running. The driver had found the shelling too hot +to stay. There was no one inside it, but we got a couple of stretchers +from it. And we had need of them. No. 4 gun, my own gun, which was +nearest to the road, suffered most severely. Seven of the detachment on +this gun were hit, not all at once but, what is apt to be much more +demoralising, at intervals of a few minutes. A Bombardier was in charge +of the gun that day, no senior N.C.O.'s being available. He showed a +very wonderful coolness and courage. Shells were bursting all round the +gunpit, and sometimes in the gunpit itself. But the rate of fire never +slackened. Every now and again the cry was heard "another casualty on +No. 4!" and stretcher bearers would start down the road from the Command +Post. But, each time, almost before they had started, came the deep +report of another round fired. No casualties and no shelling could +silence her. At one time this Bombardier had only two other men to help +him work the gun. And both of them were as undismayed as he. He won the +Military Medal for his gallantry that day, and I was very proud of him +and of No. 4. + +The Brigade Chaplain appeared in the course of the morning and gave a +hand in carrying the wounded away on stretchers. It was outside his +official work and I give him all credit and respect for the help he gave +us. But one N.C.O. in the Battery, with the plain speaking that comes +naturally in the face of common danger, said to him, "Well, Sir, we +never thought much of you before, either as a man or as a preacher, but +we're glad to see you here to-day doing your bit." + +The Austrian gunners had a fine sense of discrimination in their +targets. The wooden hut, in which I and two of my brother officers used +to sleep, had been hit two or three times that day, and much of our kit +had been destroyed. So had both volumes of Morley's _Rousseau_, which +were on a shelf over my bed, leaving behind only a few torn and +scattered pages. Much damage had also been done to a collection of +Pompeian photographs of great historical interest. But Baedeker's +_Northern Italy_, which lay alongside, had not been touched! + + * * * * * + +The God of Battles also discriminates delicately. He takes the best and +leaves the worst behind. There died that day, struck by a shell at the +foot of our tree O.P. on Cima del Taglio, one of the finest +personalities in the Battery, a signalling Bombardier who had worked for +some years on a railway in America and, just before the war, as a +railway clerk in the Midlands. He was the father of a young family, +thoughtful and capable, and loyal without subservience to those of +higher military rank, in so far as he judged them to be worthy of his +loyalty. I remember one night at the beginning of the year, when we were +keeping watch together among the snows at Col d'Astiago, with the sky +cold and clear and full of stars, and when he and I talked in complete +understanding and agreement of the waste of war and the deeper purposes +of life and the need to build up a better world. Now he is buried in the +beautiful Baerenthal Valley, along which runs the road from Pria dell' +Acqua to San Sisto and Asiago. + +As that day ended, which the Italians always afterwards spoke of as "il +giorno quindici" (the fifteenth day), the firing on both sides in our +sector slackened, though our guns were seldom silent for more than an +hour at a time, and the Austrians still carried out sudden bursts of +vicious fire in our neighbourhood. But that night, and the next day and +the next, we began to get through information of what had been happening +all along the line. And when, a week later, the whole tale could be +told, it was evident that no great offensive on any Front during this +war, prepared with so great elaboration and carried out with so great +resources, had ever quite so blankly failed, as the great Austrian +offensive from the Astico to the Sea. And the effect upon the +self-confidence and morale of the Italian Army and of the Allied +contingents was correspondingly great. For, to speak frankly, this +offensive had been awaited with much apprehension and anxiety, with the +memory of Caporetto not yet faded and in view of the success of the +German offensive in France. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +IN THE TRENTINO + +The Austrian offensive on the mountain sector, from the Astico to Monte +Grappa, had been obviously and decisively broken by the 18th of June. +But there was still danger on the plain, particularly in the Montello +sector, where the Austrians were established in strong force west of the +Piave. A flying Brigade of British Heavy Artillery was hurriedly formed +and sent down the mountains. Of this Brigade my own Battery formed part. +Our general function was to reinforce the Italian Artillery in what was +at the moment the most critical sector of the whole Front, our +particular function to destroy by shell fire the Piave bridges behind +the Austrian troops. But when we arrived we found that the emergency had +already passed. The bridges had already been destroyed by airmen and +Italian Artillery, and the Austrian forces had either been driven back +across or into the river by Italian counter-attacks, or had been cut off +and compelled to surrender. We, therefore, came back to the Plateau +without firing a round. + +But we did not remain there long. The idea of a mobile Artillery of +manoeuvre was much talked of at this time, and early in July a Brigade +consisting of three British Siege Batteries, my own included, was moved +westwards up into the Trentino. We travelled all the way by road, +through Verona up to Brescia, "the eagle that looks over Lombardy," and +thence beside Lake Idro, up the Val Chiese, past Storo into the Val +D'Ampola. + +All this last stretch of country is famous in Italian history as the +scene of Garibaldi's campaign of 1866, which, had it not been +interrupted by the course of events elsewhere, would probably have +hastened the liberation of Trento by more than half a century, and +greatly modified the problems of Italian policy in recent years. The +story is well known of the recall of Garibaldi, which reached him at the +moment of victory at Bezzecca, and of his famous reply, a model of +laconic self-discipline, in the one word "Ubbidisco"--"I obey." The +little town of Bezzecca lay this July behind the Italian lines, but in +full view and easy range of the Austrians. A company of Arditi was +billeted here, with whom I lunched one day, returning from a front line +reconnaissance. The Piazza had been renamed by the Italians "Piazza +Ubbidisco," and under cover of darkness they set up one night on the +mountain side just above the town a memorial stone to Garibaldi and his +volunteers of 1866, a provocative target for Austrian gunners. + +No other British troops, except these three Batteries of ours, ever +fought in the Trentino. It was a proud distinction and a very memorable +experience. The natural scenery was superb, a series of great mountain +ranges, uneven lines of jagged peaks, enclosing deep cut valleys, the +lower slopes of the mountains densely wooded, the higher levels bare +precipitous rock. The Austrian front line ran along one ridge of peaks +and ours along another; between ran a deep valley, all No Man's Land, +into which patrols used to climb down at night, often with the aid of +ropes. One mountain mass, a continuation of Cima d'Oro, was partly in +our possession and partly in theirs, and up there by night among the +rocks patrols grappled for the mastery, poised high above the world, and +in these struggles men sometimes slipped, or were thrown, to crash to +death thousands of feet below in the Val di Ledro. + +This country was Austrian before the war, though inhabited wholly by +Italians, and Italian troops had conquered it with extraordinary feats +of endurance and daring in their first great onrush all along their old +frontiers in the spring of 1915. But now a big advance here by either +side, in the face of carefully prepared opposition, seemed almost +inconceivable, except as the result of some wide turning movement, +hinging on some point many miles away. + +The special military problems presented by warfare in such country were +numerous and difficult. Our guns had to be dragged into position up a +rough mountain track, which at some points was too narrow and at others +too weak to allow the passage of a six-inch howitzer without much +preliminary blasting and building up. Our first gun to go up took +twenty-four hours of continuous labour between the time of starting up +the track and the time of arriving in position, a distance of only about +two miles of zig-zag. No tractor or other power engine could be used +here. The only force available was that of men hauling on drag ropes, +and a party of sixty Italian gunners reinforced our men. + +What may be called the problems of pure gunnery were still more +difficult. British Heavy guns had never fired under such conditions +before and, for the benefit of such of my readers as may be practical +Artillerymen, it may be interesting to remark that for one of our +targets the angle of sight, properly so called, worked out at more than +twenty degrees, while the map-range elevation was only about fifteen. +The devising of an accurate formula for correction of elevation for a +large "_dislivello_," as the Italians shortly call it, which in English +means a large "difference of level" between a gun and its target, is one +of the most intricate problems of theoretical gunnery, or, for that +matter, of theoretical mechanics, involving, among other factors, the +various shapes and sizes of projectiles, their comparative steadiness +during flight, the resistance of the air, and the effect of other +atmospheric conditions and of the force of gravity. + +There was a splendid opportunity for systematically testing various +rival formulae in the Trentino, but it was allowed to slip. Among +gunners, as among other classes, and especially among Regular Army +gunners, the so-called practical man sees little value in scientific +experiments, which do not produce large, obvious and quick returns. We +fired many hundred rounds in the Trentino and I have no doubt that they +were tolerably effective. But most of them were fired at night, with no +observation possible, and we were often restricted in our registrations +by daylight to four rounds a section per target, from which no really +reliable conclusions could be drawn.[1] + +[Footnote 1: We could get no help from Italian range tables, which were +not merely for different guns and ammunition, but were drawn up on +different principles from our own.] + + * * * * * + +We were billeted in the village of Tiarno di Sotto, where the Mayor +under the Austrian regime, an Italian by race, was still carrying on his +duties. "But I shall have to disappear, if the Austrians ever come +back," he said with a smile. It was a tremendous climb from our billets +to get anywhere, the least tremendous being to our Battery position, +straight up the nearest mountain side. A very active and energetic man +could get up in a quarter of an hour. It used to take me twenty minutes. +The weather, moreover, was hot, though considerably cooler than on the +plains. + +Some Czecho-Slovaks were billeted in the next house to ours, but, owing +to lack of a common language, we were unfortunately unable to talk to +them. They were well-built fellows, and gave one an impression of great +tenacity and intelligence. And I know that they were fine fighters. But +they had not the gaiety of the Italians, partly perhaps because they +were exiles in a strange land, and must so remain till the day of final +victory, which might then have seemed still infinitely remote. An +amusing incident happened one evening. Four officers had deserted from +the Austrian lines and surrendered to the Czecho-Slovaks; it was one of +their military functions to induce surrenders. Two of these officers +were themselves Czecho-Slovaks, the third a Jugo-Slav and the fourth an +Italian from Istria. They were very hungry and were in the midst of a +good meal, in the presence of a Czecho-Slovak guard, when a Corporal and +two gunners from our Battery, passing outside the house and hearing some +language being spoken within, which they recognised to be neither +English not Italian, rightly thought it their duty to enter and +investigate the matter. The deserters were astonished to see these +unfamiliar looking persons, speaking a strange tongue and wearing a +uniform which they had never seen before. But they were still more +astonished to learn that they were British. They seemed hardly to be +aware that the British were at war with Austria, much less that any +British troops had been within hundreds of miles of them. The incident +closed in much mirth and friendliness. + +In the village were also billeted many Italian troops, who used to fill +the night with song, long after most of us had gone to bed:-- + + "'Addio, mia bell', addio!' + Cantava nel partir la gioventù," + +which is never very far from the lips of any Italian soldier, and those +endless _stornelli_, which to an invariable tune they multiply from day +to day. + + "II General Cadorna + Mangiava la bifstecca; + Ai poveri soldati + Si dava castagna secca,"[1] + +[Footnote 1: "General Cadorna used to eat beefsteak. To the poor +soldiers they gave dried chestnuts."] + +or + + "Il Re dal fronte Giulio + Ha scritto alla Regina, + 'Arrivato a Trieste + Ti manderò una cartolina,'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: "The King has written to the Queen from the Julian Front +'when I get to Trieste, I will send you a picture post card.'"] + +with its sardonic variant or sequel, + + "Il General Cadorna + Ha scritto alla Regina + 'Se vuoi veder Trieste, + Compra una cartolina.'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: "General Cadorna has written to the Queen, 'if you want to +see Trieste, buy a picture post card.'"] + +Many of the others are for various reasons unprintable, though many are +extremely witty and amusing. Even those which I have quoted were +nominally forbidden by the High Command to be sung, but the prohibition +was not very rigorously enforced. And General Cadorna, after all, had +now passed into history. Of his successor I never heard any evil sung, +though I remember once hearing a great crowd of soldiers and civilians +at Genoa shouting monotonously. + +"Viva, viva il Generale Dia!" + +The refrain of the _stornelli_ was onomatopoeic, and was intended to +represent the sound of gunfire. + + "Bim Bim Bom, + Bim Bim Bom, + Al rombo del cannon." + + * * * * * + +What a theatrical country Italy is! I remember being out in the streets +of Tiarno one evening with a stream of song issuing from almost every +house, and looking up at the full moon riding high over the towering +peaks that locked in our valley and all but shut out the night sky. I +could hardly believe that it was neither a stage setting nor a dream. + +I remember another day, when I did a great climb above Bezzecca to carry +out a front line reconnaissance, and arrived limp and perspiring to +lunch at the Headquarters of an Italian Artillery Group, high, high up, +looking out upon a glorious and astounding view. And in the afternoon I +took my first ride on a _teleferica,_ or aerial railway, slung along a +steel rope across the deeps, seated on a sort of large wooden tea tray, +some six feet long and two and a half across, with a metal rim some six +inches high running round the edge. I was quite prepared to be sick or +at least giddy. But I was pleasantly disappointed. My journey took about +a quarter of an hour; walking it would have taken about three hours of +very stiff climbing. The motion is quite steady, except for a slight +jolt as one passes each standard, and, provided one sits still and +doesn't shift one's centre of gravity from side to side, there is no +wobbling of the tea tray. And looking down from time to time I saw tree +tops far below me, and men and mules on mountain tracks as black specks +walking. + + * * * * * + +There were various theories to account for our being sent to the +Trentino. One was that an Austrian attack was feared there, another that +an Italian attack was intended, but that the intention was afterwards +abandoned, a third that the whole thing was a feint to puzzle the +Austrians. But in any case we did not remain there long. By the +beginning of August we were back on the Plateau. On the return journey, +which was again by road all the way, we were given three days' rest at +Desenzano and I was able to spend half a day in Verona. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +SIRMIONE AND SOLFERINO + +"Leave is a privilege and not a right," according to a hack quotation +from the King's Regulations. This quotation has done good service in the +mouth of more than one Under Secretary of State for War, heading off +tiresome questioners in the British House of Commons. Leave was a very +rare privilege for the British Forces in Italy. In France, taking a +rough average of all ranks and periods, British troops got leave once a +year. In my Battery in Italy, the majority were without leave home for +nineteen months. How much longer they would have had to wait, if the war +had not conveniently come to an end in the nineteenth month of their +Italian service, I do not know. Even in Italy, of course, the privilege +was extended somewhat more freely to junior regimental officers and much +more freely to Staff officers and Lieutenant-Colonels, in view of the +danger of brain fag and nervous strain following upon their greater +mental exertions and their abnormal exposure to shell fire and the +weather. The former class went home about every eleventh, the latter +about every third month. + +The French Parliament fairly early in the war, with that gross lack of +discrimination and of military understanding habitual to politicians, +insisted on the granting of leave every three months to all ranks in all +theatres of war. The Italian Parliament pedantically laid down a uniform +period of six months. The British Parliament, with the sure political +instinct of our race, preferred to leave the whole matter in the hands +of the War Office. The interference in purely military affairs of +unpractical sentimentalists was strongly discouraged at Westminster. + +Why no leave to England could be granted except in special cases, was +cogently explained from time to time during the summer in circulars +written by Staff officers of high rank, who had frequent opportunities +of informing themselves of the realities of the situation, while +visiting London. These circulars were read out on parade and treated +with the respect which they deserved. To allay possible, though quite +unreasonable, unrest, it was determined to open a British Club, or Rest +Camp, at Sirmione, which, as every reader of Tennyson knows, stands on +the tip of a long promontory at the southern end of Lake Garda. Here a +week's holiday was granted to a large proportion of the officers and a +small proportion of the rank and file. Many officers went there more +than once. Two large hotels were hired, which had been chiefly +frequented before the war by corpulent and diseased Teutons, for whom a +special course of medical treatment, including sulphur baths, used to be +prescribed. + +One of these hotels was now set apart for British officers, the other +for men. A funny little person in red tabs was put in charge; there were +various speculations as to his past activities, but all agreed that he +had got into a good job now, and wasn't going to lose it, if tact could +prevent it. This little man used to stand outside the hotel gates as +each week's guests arrived from the steamer, and always had a cheery +smile of welcome for every Field officer; to General officers he showed +special attentions. He took his meals in the same room as the rest of +us, but at what was known as "the Staff table," where he invited to join +him any officers of high rank, who might be staying at the hotel, or, if +there were none such available, certain of his private friends. The food +supplied to ordinary people like myself was good, wholesome, reasonably +plentiful and cheap. At "the Staff table" special delicacies were +provided and additional courses, with no increase of charge. The +profits, he used to say, were made entirely on the drinks and smokes. + +A series of rules was drawn up, that none of us might be led into any +avoidable temptation. All towns within reach,--Milan, Verona, Mantua, +Brescia, Peschiera,--were placed out of bounds. So, too, were some of +the larger villages on the shores of the Lake. The hours during which +alcoholic liquor might be obtained, either in the Hotels or in the Cafes +of Sirmione, were narrowly limited. Beer was strictly rationed. +Carefully regulated excursions on the Lake, by steamer or launch, were +permitted and even encouraged. Likewise bathing. + +I spent a week here, from August 14th to 21st, in gloriously fine, hot +weather. Some said that the damp heat was relaxing and depressing, but +I, in my second Italian summer, was getting acclimatised. The place was +wonderfully beautiful. The end of the promontory is covered with olive +trees, the ground thickly carpeted with wild mint and thyme, surrounded +on three sides by the deep blue water of the Lake, along the shores of +which lie little white villages, backed by groups of straight, dark +cypresses, with mountain ranges rising in the background, range behind +range, and overhead the hot Italian sun, shining from a cloudless sky. +Here, at the point, were the ruins of what are called, upon what +evidence I know not, the Villa, the Baths and the Grotto of Catullus. +Here, too, was an Italian Anti-Aircraft Battery, and the Grotto of +Catullus was filled with their ammunition. + +The Austrians still held the upper end of the Lake, including the town +of Riva. But only Italian motor boats now survived on the Lake, +occasionally raiding Riva. The Austrian boats had all been sunk early in +the war. + + * * * * * + +On the 15th I went round the lower end of the Lake in a steamer and, +passing along the shores of the beautiful Isola di Garda, on which +stands the less beautiful Villa Borghese, landed at Maderno, famous for +its lemon groves. Here a church was being used as a ration store. It had +fine carving on the door. The French had established Artillery and +Machine Gun Schools close to the Lake and several of their officers were +on the steamer. + +On the 16th I went with a young officer from a Yorkshire Battalion, a +most agreeable companion, to Desenzano, which was out of bounds. We +played billiards and lunched, and in the afternoon went to sleep on the +grass in the shade beside the Lake. We were driven back in a carrozza +along the promontory by an old Garibaldino, a Capuan by birth, who in +1860 at the age of eleven joined Garibaldi, when he crossed from Sicily +to the mainland, and held older people's horses at the Battle of the +Volturno. He served with the Fifth Garibaldini in the Trentino campaign +of 1866 and knew intimately the country where I had lately been, the Val +d'Ampola and Storo, Tiarno and Bezzecca. He then joined the Italian +Regular Army, and in 1870 was a Corporal in the Pavia Brigade. He was +present at the taking of Rome and claimed that, although an Infantryman, +he helped to load one of the guns which breached the Porta Pia. If this +claim be true, there must have been either a lack of gunners on this +famous occasion, or a certain degree of enthusiastic confusion. Having +entered Rome, he got very drunk and absented himself from his Regiment +without leave for three days. As a punishment he was made to march on +foot, carrying a full pack, from Rome to Padua. He showed us his old +military pay-book, his medals and other souvenirs. Next year he will be +seventy years old and will begin to draw a pension. Having returned to +Sirmione, we arranged with him to drive us next day to the neighbouring +battlefields of 1859, San Martino and Solferino. Much delighted, he +assured me, quite without necessity, that next day he would put on his +best clothes, would wash and shave, and give his horse an extra bit of +grooming. + +Accordingly next morning at ten o'clock we started off again in the +carrozza. We visited first San Martino della Battaglia, only a few miles +from the southern end of the Lake. This was the northern extremity of +the battlefield of Solferino. It was here that the Sardinians and +Piedmontese, forming the left wing of the Franco-Italian Army, attacked +and drove back the Austrian right wing. A memorial tower has been +erected here, 250 feet high, with great avenues of cypresses radiating +outwards from it. The custodian is a handsome boy, who lost a leg at the +taking of Gorizia two years ago. There is no stair-case within the +tower; one goes up by a spiral inclined plane. At successive stages, as +one ascends, are large and detailed paintings, running right round the +inner circumference of the tower, representing the battles of the +Italian Wars of Liberation from 1848 to 1870. As works of art they are +not of the first class, but they convey here and there a vivid sense of +life and movement, an advance of the Bersaglieri with their cocks' +feathers waving in the wind, Garibaldini in their red shirts rushing +Bomba's gunners on the Volturno, Italian cavalry charging a Battalion of +brown-coated Croats at Custozza, the defence of a fort in the Venetian +lagoons against Austrian warships. + +On a fine day the view from the top is very good, but that day it was +hazy in the great heat. Close by is an Ossario, containing the skulls +and bones of seven thousand dead collected in the neighbourhood, washed +clean with white wine and set out in neat rows, the majority Italian. A +good warning, one would think, against war, and more compact and less +wasteful of space than a conventional graveyard. + +Thence we drove on to Solferino, a little remote village with a single +street paved with cobble stones, seldom visited by foreign tourists. The +plaster on the walls of the farmhouses hereabouts still bears many +bullet marks. As we drove, the Garibaldino pointed out to us some of the +positions where Napoleon III.'s Generals had sited their Batteries. We +were the first British officers seen here during the war, and had an +enthusiastic reception. I was surprised to find that none of our +Regulars had come over from Sirmione, as a matter of professional +interest and duty, to study the tactics of 1859 upon the ground. + +We lunched well at a small _albergo_. There were four good-looking +daughters of the house, who came and sat with us in turn and watched us +eat. They had the naturalness and simple charm of dwellers in remote +places. "Four good cows," said the Garibaldino, with the frank realism +of the South, "but all the local proprietors are too old." After lunch +my companion remained in the village, and I climbed the ridge from which +the French drove the Austrians, a very strong natural position even now. +I went up La Rocca, at its south-eastern extremity, on which stands an +old square tower, also converted into a battle memorial. Here again +there are no steps within, but an ascending spiral plane. The slopes at +this end of the ridge are thickly planted with young cypresses, and the +place will grow in beauty year by year. Even now it is well wooded, with +larger trees just below the tower. The village lies at the foot of the +slope. Just outside it, off the road on slightly rising ground at the +end of an avenue, is another and larger Ossario, containing twenty +thousand skulls and sets of bones, French and Austrian. The building is +full of banners and wreaths and memorial tablets, including one lately +sent by the French troops now fighting on the Italian Front. + + "Ceux de la grande guerre + A ses glorieux anciens. + 1859-1918." + +A few skeletons have been preserved intact, including one said to have +been an Austrian bandmaster, a giant eight feet tall. The nationality of +some of the skulls can be determined by bullets, French or Austrian, +found in the head and now attached by a string. + +I stepped forth from this well-ordered tomb into the outer sunshine with +a sense of personal oppression and of human ineffectiveness. How slowly +and how clumsily do the feet of History slouch along! And yet, if +Napoleon III. had kept faith with Cavour, the fighting here might have +liberated Venetia without the necessity for another war a few years +later. How quiet and silent lie these battlefields of yesterday! Even +so, one day, will lie the pine woods round Asiago, shell-torn and +tormented now, and populous with the soldiers of many nations, yet of a +wondrous beauty in the full moonlight and the fresh night air. I shall +be back up there in three days' time! + + * * * * * + +We drove back in the warm evening, by the road through Pozzolengo toward +Peschiera, along which many of the defeated Austrians fled in 1859. The +roadside was dusty, but along all the hedges the acacias still showed a +most delicate and tender green. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE ASIAGO PLATEAU ONCE MORE + +During August and September we were kept pretty busy on the Plateau. +Concentrations on enemy trenches and wire and special counter-battery +shoots by day and counter-battery support of Infantry raids by night +were continually required of us. We fired high explosive by day and +chiefly gas shell at night. Our own Infantry and the French on our right +raided the enemy's front and support lines very frequently, bringing +back many prisoners. The French constantly penetrated and reconnoitred +the enemy's defensive system on Mount Sisemol. Many of us were inclined +to think that the casualties, sometimes heavy, which were incurred in +these raids, and the great quantity of ammunition shot away, were +largely wasted. We saw no sufficient return for them, beyond a certain +amount of information obtained from prisoners, much of which was of +small and doubtful value. But in view of what happened later, I think it +must be agreed that these continual raids and bombardments did their +share in gradually wearing down the morale and power of resistance of +the Austrian Army. + +There was a persistent rumour that the enemy was on the point of +retiring to a line, on which he was known to be working hard, along the +lower slopes of Monte Interrotto and Monte Catz on the far side of the +Plateau. This line, we learned from prisoners, was commonly referred to +as the _Winterstellung_ (winter position). It would have been stronger, +defensively, than his existing line, and would have had the great +advantage of being able largely to be supplied and munitioned during +daylight, as there was much good cover and roads hidden in the pine +woods leading down immediately behind it. It would have involved the +moral disadvantage of evacuating the ruins of Asiago. But, with the snow +down on the Plateau, every Austrian track and foot-mark would have been +visible from our O.P.'s, and the Austrian situation, bad as it already +was from this point of view, would have become quite intolerable. If, on +the other hand, we had followed up an Austrian retreat to their +_Winterstellung_ by the occupation of Asiago and the throwing forward of +our line across the Plateau, the relative situation would have been +reversed. Our Infantry and many of our Batteries would then be out in +the open, in view from the Austrian O.P.'s, unable to light a fire by +day, and only able to send up supplies by night; and our general +situation would be so much the worse with heavy snow increasing our +discomfort and the visibility of any work we might undertake and of our +every movement. + +For this reason, as has been explained in an earlier chapter, it was +taken for granted that a small advance from our present excellent line +would be worse than useless, and that only an advance at least to the +crest of the first mountain range beyond the Plateau would be of any +military value. The possibility of such an advance being attempted was +evidently still in the minds of the Staff, for our forward or Battle +Position at San Sisto had to be kept in constant readiness for +occupation, and it was suggested by some that the occasion for a big +attack would be the moment when the enemy was in the act of retiring +voluntarily to his _Winterstellung_, necessarily a somewhat difficult +and risky operation. + +Meanwhile the enemy guns were not silent. They were indeed unpleasantly +active, constantly sweeping the road just behind our Battery, putting +down violent, though brief, concentrations on the cross roads at Pria +dell' Acqua, less than a hundred yards to our right, and apparently also +endeavouring to carry out occasional counter-battery shoots after our +own pattern. The British Batteries in this sector suffered a number of +casualties during this period, and one in particular, not my own, was +frequently shelled with great precision by twelve-inch howitzers, most +disagreeable weapons, firing at extreme ranges from the cover of some +distant valley. Many efforts were made to locate these particular guns, +but I am not confident that any of them were successful. Among the +victims in this Battery was Preece, a young officer who had served under +me in a Training Battery in England. He was the only son of a widowed +mother, and, had he lived, might have become a world-famous chemist. His +grave, too, is in the Baerenthal Valley. + +Our own officers' Mess had several narrow escapes, especially on one +occasion when the impact of an enemy shell was broken by a trench cart +and a box of tools, only seven or eight yards away. None of the tools +were ever found again and portions of the trench cart were seen next +morning hanging on the telephone wires beside the road. Only a few +splinters came into the Mess and did no harm, all the occupants, myself +included, warned by the sound of the approaching shell, having flung +ourselves face downwards on the floor. Another frequent exercise of the +enemy at this time was night bombing, which during the full moon became +somewhat serious. But a big raid by our own airmen on the enemy +aerodrome at Borgo in the Val Sugana put an end to this source of +trouble. + +I was able now and then to make short expeditions down the mountains in +the Battery car to Thiene, and sometimes even to Vicenza, for the +ostensible purpose of buying canteen and mess stores and drawing the +Battery pay. Thiene is the ugliest and dullest little town in Italy. But +Vicenza, with its exquisite Olympian theatre, and other fine Palladian +architecture, varied by many smaller buildings which are beautiful +examples of the Venetian Gothic style, with its busy and animated +Piazza, centring round the ever-crowded Café Garibaldi, and with the +wooded slope of the famous Monte Berico, rich with historic memorials, +rising behind the town, never failed to lift my mind out of the dreary +monotony of war into an atmosphere of cleaner and more enduring things. +I remember, too, the strange thrill I had one day, when, having passed +the sawmills and dumps of stores and shells and the huddle of +Headquarter offices at Granezza, I came out on the last edge of the +mountain wall, into sudden full view of the great plain below, full of +rivers and cities, and saw, for the first time from up here, the +sunlight flashing on a strip of distant golden sea. It was the lagoons +round Venice. + +I spent also many interesting days about this time at our tree O.P. on +Cima del Taglio. The Italians had an O.P. in a neighbouring tree, which +they called Osservatorio Battisti. The British Field Artillery occupied +a third tree, and the French a fourth. The pine trees on that summit +were, literally, full of eyes. But the enemy never discovered any of us, +though he sometimes dropped a few stray shells in our neighbourhood. Our +own O.P. was not generally manned at night, unless some prearranged +operation was taking place, but the officer on duty had to remain within +call and slept in a log hut near the foot of the tree, in telephonic +communication with Battery and Brigade. The French and Italians also had +huts close by, and I spent several evenings playing chess with them, or +talking, or listening to the mandolin and the singing of Italian +_stornelli_. One young Italian, in particular, I remember with some +affection, a certain Lieutenant Prato, a mandolin player of great skill +and a very charming personality. + +One day in September, when the news from the French Front was getting +better and better, I remember talking, on our tree top, to the Italian +officer, who was at that time acting as _liaison_ officer to our +Brigade, a member of a family well known in Milan. He knew every inch of +those mountains, now in Austrian hands, along the old Italian frontier. +His Battery had fought there in the early part of the war. He knew, too, +Gorizia and the Carso battlefields. And he was sick at heart, as every +Italian always silently was, at the memory of the retreat of last +autumn. And I remember saying that what was now happening in the Somme +country would happen soon in Italy. There, I reminded him, was a +stretch of country which we had once conquered, inch by inch, with +terrible losses and infinite heroism and insufficient Artillery, just as +Italy had conquered those positions on the Carso and on Monte Santo. And +all those gains of ours had been wiped out in a few disastrous hours +last March, as Italy's had been wiped out last October, and now we were +advancing again over that same country and beyond it, far more rapidly +and with far smaller losses than in those bloody days two years ago. And +so, I prophesied to him, would it be on this Front too. The day was +coming when Italy would win back all she had lost, and far more than she +had ever won before, far more swiftly and cheaply than in her early +brave offensives, and Austria, like Germany, would be broken in +hopeless, irretrievable defeat. He said to me then that he hoped it +might come true, but that he was less certain of the future than I. But, +two months later, when I had proved to be a true prophet, he reminded me +of that conversation of ours. + + + +PART VI + +THE LAST PHASE + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE MOVE TO THE PIAVE + +The second week in October we moved down from the Plateau and lay for a +week at Mestre, within sight of Venice. One clear afternoon it looked as +though one could throw a stone across the intervening water. Every one +took for granted that a big Italian offensive was imminent. The rumour +was that it would be timed to begin, as near as possible, on the +anniversary of the defeat of Caporetto. In Italy more weight is attached +to anniversaries than with us. One felt expectation everywhere in the +air. + + * * * * * + +It was during these days that I fell in with the Rumanian Legion. I had +been in Padua and saw a group of them standing on the platform at the +railway station. They were obviously not Italians. Their uniform was +similar to that of the Italian Infantry, but their collars were red, +yellow and blue, and they wore a cockade of the same three colours on +their hats. They wore Sam Browne belts, too, and carried a _pugnale_ +like the Italian Arditi. I asked a Carabiniere on duty who they were. +He smiled but did not know. "Perhaps Yugo-Slavs," he suggested. One of +them overheard our conversation and came up to me saying, "Siamo Rumeni, +Legione Rumena." Then followed a tremendous fraternisation. We shook +hands all round and began to talk. We talked Italian, which, being very +like their own language, they all understood. Indeed, for an Italian +Rumanian is much easier to understand than many of the Italian local +dialects. + +They were attractive people, of all ages and very friendly, rather like +Italians, but with a queer indescribable racial difference. They were +natives, mostly, of Transylvania and had much to say of the oppression +of their nationality by the Magyars. Most of them had been conscribed to +fight in the Austro-Hungarian Army, but had crossed over to the Italian +lines at the first opportunity. One said, "There are four millions of us +in Austria and Hungary." Then, with an air of restrained fury, "Is that +not enough?" Another said, "But after the war there will be a Great +Rumania--great and beautiful." And another said, "We Rumanians must be +very grateful to Guglielmone.[1] If he had not made this war, we should +not have seen the Greater Rumania in our lifetime. But now, if it was +not certain before, the blunders of Carluccio[2] have put it beyond all +doubt." And another told me that his father wrote and spoke English very +well, having lived for twelve years in America at St Louis. And another +explained to me how the Rumanians had retained, more than any other +modern nation, the speech and customs and dress and traditions of the +ancient Romans, which things they had originally derived from the +legionaries of the Emperor Trajan.[3] When we parted I said, "May we all +meet again on the field of victory beyond the Piave. Long live the +Greater Rumania!" And they all cried, "Long live England! Long live +victory!" And so I was going away, when one of them, a little fellow, +with a rather sad, earnest face, who had apparently missed a parting +handshake, ran after me about twenty yards, and seized me by the hand +and cried again, "Long live victory!" + +[Footnote 1: "Big William."] + +[Footnote 2: "Wretched little Charles."] + +[Footnote 3: This common boast of the Rumanians is quite true. It is +partly to be accounted for by the fact that they were able to retreat +before successive invading hordes of barbarians into the inaccessible +valleys of the Carpathians, and come down again on to the plains when +the danger had passed by.] + + * * * * * + +From Mestre we moved up through Treviso to a Battery position, on which +an advance party had been at work for several days. It grew more and +more certain that the offensive was coming at last. Troops of all arms +were moving forward in unending streams along every road leading toward +the Piave. Prominent among them were many Italian Engineers and bridging +detachments with great numbers of pontoons. Beyond Treviso all troop +movements took place at night, and our defensive (and offensive) +measures against aircraft were apparently sufficient to prevent the +enemy from getting any clear idea of what was going on. It seems that he +expected an attack in the mountains, but not on the plain. The Italian +High Command, on the other hand, considered that the relative strength +and morale of the opposing Armies was now such that we could attack on +the plain without fear of a successful counter-attack in the mountains, +and that, the attack on the plain once well under way, we could pass to +the offensive in the mountains also. This view of things was justified +by the events which followed. Two British Divisions were moved down to +the plain, and one was left in the mountains. The Heavy Artillery was +divided proportionately and, of my own Brigade, one Battery was left in +the mountains but the rest moved down. + +Our new Battery position lay between the ruined village of Lovadina and +the river Piave, about three-quarters of a mile from the nearer bank. +There was a farmhouse, not much knocked about, close to the gun pits +and, with the aid of a few tents erected out of sight along a shallow +ditch, the whole Battery was very tolerably billeted. Another British +Battery was less than a hundred yards in rear of us, and two others not +far away on our right flank. We were once more in a land of acacia +hedges, beginning now to take on their autumn tints. For miles round us +the country was dead flat. Beyond the river we could see, on a little +rise, what was left of Susegana Castle, near to Conegliano, and on a +higher, longer ridge further away the white _campanile_ of San Daniele +del Friuli, above Udine. It was there that, almost a year ago, in the +first newspaper I saw after the retreat, I had read that Italian +rearguards were still fighting. In the far distance rose great mountain +masses. Up there were Feltre and Belluno, and behind, just visible when +the light was very bright, the peaks of Carnia and the Cadore. + +It was an unaccustomed feeling, after months of comparative immunity +from observation behind mountain ridges, to be in flat country again. At +first we all felt a queer sense of insecurity whenever we walked about, +even when thick hedges manifestly screened us from enemy eyes. But the +road from Lovadina to the river bank at Palazzon, which ran right +through our position and within a few yards of our billet, was in full +view, and no movement along it was permitted during daylight. When we +first arrived we found a deep sense of gloom prevailing amongst our +advanced party. They were convinced that our position had been spotted +already, for the Austrians that morning had put down a five minutes' +concentration all round the place. Nothing much heavier than Field Guns +had been firing, but it had been lively while it lasted. It seemed +probable, however, on further inquiry, that this outburst had been +caused by the fact that an idiotic officer belonging to the Battery +immediately in rear of us had marched a working party up the road in +fours, then halted them and allowed the men to stand about in groups on +the road for several minutes. It was at these groups that the Austrians +had apparently been firing. A vigorous protest extracted from our +neighbours a promise that more common sense should be used in future. + +We were to remain a silent Battery until the start of the offensive, and +this was to be dependent on the height of the river, which at that time +was in full flood owing to heavy rains in the mountains. Our guns were +well camouflaged and the chances of our detection seemed small. But one +day we had a lucky escape. It was very clear and there had been great +activity in the air on both sides all the morning. All seemed quiet +again, however, and we had the camouflage off one of our guns, and two +small parties working in the open on shelter trenches behind. A plane +was seen approaching, but the air sentry, whose duty it was to keep a +sharp look out through glasses and signal the approach of enemy aircraft +by two blasts of a whistle, gave no warning. He had been deceived by the +marking on the plane, a very thin black cross instead of the thick one +usually found on enemy aircraft. Not till it was right upon us did he +blow the whistle, and then it was too late. The plane flew very low over +us. We could see the pilot looking calmly down at our uncovered gun, and +our men trying, ineffectually and belatedly, to take cover. He certainly +took it all in and marked us down on his map. The position was 'very +easy to identify owing to the solitary farmhouse and the road close by. +A few rifle shots were fired, but they did him no harm, and he sailed +away toward the river and his own lines. + +We had certainly been spotted. And then we suddenly saw another plane, +this time an Italian, coming from the left, flying high, hard in +pursuit. The Austrian began to rise, but the Italian outpaced him and +got right above him, and pressed him gradually down towards the ground. +We heard the wooden-sounding _clack-clack-clack_ of machine gun fire. +And then we saw the Austrian evidently go out of control, diving toward +the ground, more and more rapidly, and the Italian circling downwards +above him; and then the Austrian went out of sight behind the acacias +and a few moments later a column of smoke began to rise. He had crashed +in flames, just this side of the river, and his valuable information +with him. The Italian flew back over us, triumphantly and very low this +time, and waved his hand to us. And we gave him a grateful cheer. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +THE BEGINNING OF THE LAST BATTLE + +By the night of October 24th the river had fallen a few inches, and +British Infantry crossed in small boats to the Grave di Papadopoli, a +long island of sand in the middle of the stream. On the right a +Battalion of the Gordons crossed, rowed over by Venetian boatmen. I met +one of their officers afterwards. "Everyone of those boatmen deserved a +decoration," he said. "They were all as cool under heavy shell fire as +if they had been rowing on the Grand Canal." Our Infantry held their +preliminary positions here for two days, in spite of considerable +Austrian bombardment and counter-attacks. British aeroplanes flew over +the island and dropped rations in sandbags. Throughout the fighting of +these two days, we were standing by ready to open fire, if orders should +come. But no orders came and we remained a silent Battery. + +But on the night of October 26th, half an hour before midnight, the big +bombardment opened and our guns spoke again. It was to be their last +great oration. It was, of its kind, a fine, thunderous performance, and +the Austrian reply, in our own neighbourhood, was feeble. Evidently they +had not spotted our position, thanks to that Italian airman. Our targets +were enemy Batteries and Brigade Headquarters. We fired gas shells +continuously for many hours, switching from one target to another, until +a strong wind got up, rendering gas shelling comparatively ineffective. +Then we got orders to change to high explosive. The gun detachments +worked splendidly, as always. We were below strength and could not +furnish complete reliefs, but no one spared himself or grumbled. + +On the morning of the 27th, just before 7 o'clock, our Infantry +attacked, crossing from the island to the further bank of the river. +There were no bridges, and the water was breast high in some places. In +places it came right over the heads of the smaller men, but their taller +comrades pulled them through. Where the current was strongest, cables +were thrown across and firmly secured, and to these men held on, as they +forced their passage through the water. + +About ten o'clock I went forward from the Battery position to the river +bank at Palazzon to ascertain the situation. A little man named Sergeant +Barini, half an Italian and half an Englishman, but serving in the +English Army and attached to our Battery, accompanied me. At Palazzon +the river was broad and, under fire, unbridgeable, and we went half a +mile down stream along what up to this morning had been our front line +trench, to the bridgehead at Lido Island. The islands in mid stream were +crowded with prisoners and wounded coming back and fresh troops going +forward, and dead bodies lay about, British and Austrian together, of +men who had fought their last fight, and two crashed aeroplanes. The +Austrians had put up elaborate barbed-wire defences on the island, but +these had been pretty well broken up by our fire. + +Some enemy guns of big calibre were still shelling the crossings and +causing casualties among a Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers, +who were in reserve, waiting on the bank for the order to cross. I tried +to locate as accurately as possible the direction of these guns and +reported them by telephone to our Brigade Headquarters. I saw an +Infantry Brigadier, who said that things were going well, but asked for +some additional Artillery support for his left flank on the other side, +and, if possible, for an enemy Battery, which he thought was near +Susegana Castle, to be knocked out. I looked across the river and saw +the dense white smoke screen which our Field Guns were putting up to +cover the advance. + +These Italian rivers of the Venetian Plain, fed by the melting Alpine +snows, are not at all like the Thames. Where I was, there were about +nine successive channels, varying in breadth and depth, and in between, +stones and sand and rough vegetation on islands varying in size and +shape and number with the height of the river. And it was no uncommon +thing for the river to rise or fall several feet in a night, for whole +islands to be submerged, or for whole channels to run dry. The +difficulty here of carrying out military operations according to a time +table arranged several days in advance was very great. + +Over the main channels pontoons had been thrown, over others light plank +bridges, less strongly supported, through others everybody was wading. +Large bodies of Engineers, mostly Italian, were ceaselessly working at +these river crossings, and working magnificently. For not only was it +necessary to be constantly strengthening and multiplying the bridges +already made, to take the ever-increasing volume of traffic that would +be required to supply the troops across the river, but the enemy's guns +were still firing with terrible accuracy at the crossings, and swarms of +enemy planes were constantly appearing, bombing the bridges and the +islands in a last desperate effort to hold up our advance. Our planes, +too, were never far away, and succeeded in driving off or driving down +many of these attackers. But others got through and were constantly +undoing the work of the Engineers. + +When we had got all the information we could, Barini and I went back to +the Battery and reported what we had heard and seen. On the way I let +myself go and spouted much cheap rhetoric, I am afraid, at the little +man. And he laughed rather nervously and thought me, I expect, a queer +companion in rather unpleasant surroundings. For several shells kicked +up great clouds of earth and stones pretty close to us. But he too, I +know, smelt victory in the air that day. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +ACROSS THE RIVER + +Next day I went over the river and right on, one of the two F.O.O.'s +(forward observation officers) from my Brigade who were to establish and +maintain contact with the advancing Infantry. Three signallers and a +runner came with me, carrying rifles, bayonets and ammunition, a day's +rations and much signalling gear. The other officer had his own party. +We soon subdivided our work and separated. + +The twenty-four hours of my duty do not lend themselves to a sustained +description. I passed and identified from the map one of the targets of +my Battery in the preliminary bombardment, an Austrian Battery position, +which we had bombarded for many hours with gas and high explosive +alternately. Our shooting had been accurate and deadly. The position was +a mass of shell holes. One of the guns had been blown up, a second badly +damaged. A third had been pulled out of its pit and half way up a bank +by a team of horses. The enemy had made a desperate effort to get it +away. But horses and men and fragments of men lay dead around it. It was +a well prepared position, and well concealed by trees. But Italian +airmen had spotted it, and marked it down with precision on the map, +marked it down for destruction. The enemy had done much work here. There +were fine, deep dug-outs, well timbered and weatherproof, comfortable +dwelling places in quiet times and strong enough to resist shell +splinters and even direct hits by guns of small calibre. But we had got +a direct hit on one dug-out and killed half a dozen occupants. And the +others had not been proof against our gas. They were full of corpses, +mostly victims of gas. Some were wearing their gas masks, but our gas +had gone through them. Some had apparently been gassed outside, some +with masks on and some without, and had crawled, dying, into the +dug-outs in the vain hope of finding protection there. However hardened +one may grow, by usage, to the common facts of war, few can look on such +a sight as this, without feeling a queer thrill of very mixed emotion. +My men looked with solemn faces at the work they had helped to do. One +said, "poor chaps, _they_ were pretty well done in!" And then we turned +and went on. + + * * * * * + +It was a very rapidly moving warfare that day. One Infantry Brigade +Headquarters, with whom I kept in intermittent touch, occupied four +successive positions, miles apart, in the course of twelve hours. About +noon I came to a ruined village, Tezze. I went on to reconnoitre it with +one signaller. In a half wrecked house we heard the voices of Italian +peasant women and saw through an open door an ugly, little, dirty child, +probably about a year old, crawling among rubbish and refuse. The +village was only just ours. On the far side of it men of the Manchester +Regiment were lining a ditch, under cover of a hedge, waiting the order +to charge. They warned me to go no further along the road which, they +said, was under enemy machine gun fire. Every few minutes enemy shells +whistled over our heads and burst in the fields and houses behind us. A +wet wind blew down the road. There was no fixed, clearly marked line. +Everything was in movement and rather uncertain.... + +Enemy guns, captured with their ammunition, swung round and firing at +the enemy, big guns and little guns.... + +On the British left the Como Brigade were advancing rapidly in spite of +pretty strong opposition. For a while our left flank had been perilously +in the air, but the danger was past now.... + +All the roads were thick with Austrian equipment thrown away in the +confusion of departure, rifles, steel helmets (grotesquely shaped, like +high-crowned bowler hats), ammunition, coats, packs (handsomely got up, +with furry exteriors), mail bags, maps, office stores, tin despatch +boxes, photographs of blonde girls, bayonets, hand bombs, ... everything +dead thrust into the ditches, both men and horses, the latter smelling +earlier and stronger than the former. (The more I look at dead bodies, +the more childish and improbable does the old idea of personal +immortality appear to me!) ... + +At one cross-roads a huge pool of blood, mingling with and overwhelming +the mud. Here a whole transport team of heavy grey horses with wagons +had been hit and blown up. Close by, in a ditch, two British wounded lay +on stretchers, covered with blankets. One, only lightly wounded, gave us +information and directions. The other was very near to death. His face +was growing pale already, as only the faces of the dead are pale. He was +shifting feebly and ineffectually, with the vain instinct to escape +from pain. He was past speech, but he looked at us out of wide open +half-frightened eyes that seemed to question the world despairingly, +like an animal, broken helplessly in a trap.... + +There were some civilians wandering on the roads, liberated now but +uncertain whither to go or what place was safe, their possessions on +carts. But soon the storm of battle will have passed well beyond them +and they will be able to return to what is left of their homes. One old +woman in black, walking lame, asked me if the Austrians would come back, +and began to cry. I heard some of our soldiers saying in wonder to each +other, "did you see those civies going along the road just now?" Queer, +irrelevant creatures in the battle zone!... + +Others, more fixed, liberated in their own villages, were eager to talk +and to welcome us, but a little lost with the British and their +unfamiliar ways and language, full of tales of the lack of food under +the Austrian occupation, and the robbery of all their livestock and +metal and many other things. But the retreat hereabouts had been too +rapid and involuntary for deliberate burning or destruction or +trap-setting on an appreciable scale.... + +That night I made my headquarters in a wrecked church, from the tower of +which I sent back signals in the morse code by means of a lamp. I slept +for an hour or two under an Austrian blanket, none too clean as it +afterwards appeared, and drank Austrian coffee and ate Austrian +biscuits.... + +All through that day and night and the day following the cannonading +continued, but with very variable intensity at different points and +times. Sometimes a tremendous affair, heavies, field guns and trench +mortars all pounding away together, creeping barrage, smoke screens and +the rest of it. Elsewhere and at other times, nothing, Infantry well +ahead of the guns, going forward almost into the blue, with nothing +heavier than machine guns to support them. + +British Cavalry went through in the dawn, spectral, artistically +perfect, aiming at ambitious, distant objectives, Northamptonshire +Yeomanry who had come from France to Italy a year ago and had been kept +behind the lines all through the war and were having their first show at +last. The next day they suffered many casualties, but they did fine +work. Their reconnaissance officer came into the church soon after +midnight and asked me if the Austrians still held any part of the +village. I told him no, not since yesterday morning. + +Later on in the morning great masses of Infantry moved up through the +village; British Infantry with a look of evident satisfaction in their +faces, but unemotional; Italian Infantry, looking usually even less +expressive, but ready to burst into electrical enthusiasm at a touch, at +a word, at a sign.... A British General, all smiles, rode past on his +horse and stopped to ask me a question or two. He tapped me playfully on +the helmet with his riding crop. "When will you get your guns across the +river?" he asked. "As soon, Sir, as the Sappers can build a bridge that +will carry them," I replied.... + +Now and again Italian planes going on, or coming back from, raids and +reconnaissances, flying very low over our heads, the pilots waving +their hands over the side and cheering, the troops on the roads cheering +back and upwards in return.... + +When I was relieved, I tramped back to the Piave, many miles now, and +wading those of the channels that were still unbridged returned, tired +and footsore but with a song in my heart, to my Battery. + + * * * * * + +Not till later did we come to comprehend the vast sweep and the +triumphantly executed plan of this Last Great Battle.[1] + +[Footnote 1: For a full and lucid account see the official _Report by +the Comando Supremo on the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, 24th October--2nd +November_ 1918.] + +At dawn on the 24th, the same day that the British Divisions had crossed +to the Grave di Papadopoli, the Italian Fourth Army had attacked in the +Grappa sector, where fighting was desperate and progress slow for +several days. On the evening of the 26th the Piave was bridged in three +sectors, and on the 27th three bridgeheads were in being; the first on +the Upper Piave, in the hands of Alpini and French Infantry of the +Italian Twelfth Army; the second on the Middle Piave, in the hands of +Arditi and other troops of the Italian Eighth Army; the third further +downstream, in the hands of our two British Divisions and the Italian +Eleventh Corps. For a while the situation had been critical owing to the +gap between the second and third bridgeheads. But by the 28th fresh +Divisions had crossed the river at all three bridgeheads, and spread out +fanwise, linking up the gaps in the line. The same day on the Asiago +Plateau the enemy at last fell hurriedly back to his _Winterstellung_, +and British troops occupied the ruins of Asiago itself. During the next +two days the advancing troops on the plain swept steadily eastwards. On +the 31st the enemy's line in the Grappa Sector completely collapsed, +with great losses of men and guns. On the 1st of November an attack was +launched along the whole of the Italian Front, from the sea to the +heights of the Stelvio, amid the glaciers and the eternal snows on the +Swiss frontier, and on this day Italian, British and French troops +carried at last, after strong resistance, the whole northern ridge of +the Asiago Plateau, at which we had gazed with eyes of desire for many +long months. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +LIBERATORI + +On November the 1st a reconnaissance by car was ordered, to test the +practicability and the need of accelerating the forward movement of our +guns. Leary and I and two others started early in a car, adequately +armed and carrying a day's rations and a flask in which rum had been +mixed accidentally with _florio_ (marsala). This most original mixture, +which we christened "florium," was excellent, more thirst-quenching than +rum, more sustaining to the spirit than florio. + +That day we travelled 76 miles at the least, in a great curve, through +liberated country. We had everywhere an astounding reception, never to +be forgotten. Everywhere we passed, we were wildly, deliriously, +cheered by the civilian population. Old men ran up to us waving their +hats, old women clapped their hands, young girls waved and threw flowers +at us, little boys ran shouting after us, all crying "Evviva! Evviva! +Liberatori! Viva gl' Inglesi!" The radiant joy of them, and their +smiles, never far from tears, were the manifestation of a form of human +emotion, singularly pure and indescribably moving. Every town and +village was hung with the Italian flag, and at one place an arch of +flowers ran from tree to tree above the road. Everywhere crowds with +smiling, wondering faces, stood watching the Allied troops moving up +along the roads, wave upon wave upon wave, triumphant, unendingly. Here +a few days ago the foreign invader had ruled, perhaps only yesterday, +perhaps only a few hours ago: Now he had vanished, like a bad dream from +which one suddenly awakes, leaving behind him only his dead, and certain +grim marks of his occupation, and vivid memories of many brutal and +cruel and thoughtless acts, to prove that he was worse and more real +than a dream. + + * * * * * + +We crossed the Piave at Spresiano, on a series of wooden bridges and +pontoons, similar to those further down the stream at Palazzon and Lido +Island. On the further bank we came first to Conegliano. Here just a +year ago some of von Below's German troops, who broke the line at +Caporetto, had been billeted, and later a Bulgarian Governor and staff +had been installed, for the encouragement and flattery of the wavering +minor allies of the enemy powers. On the same principle a Turkish +Governor had been appointed at Feltre. The troops of occupation had been +guilty of wicked excesses at Conegliano. The little town had been +ruthlessly ravaged and set on fire and the majority of the houses had +been completely burnt out, only the charred shells of them remaining. + +Hence we turned northwards up into the Alpine foothills, through country +of exceptional beauty, and along the shores of a piece of long blue +water, to the village of Revine Lago. Here were many captured and +abandoned Austrian guns. Some, in the last desperate moments of +departure, had been thrown down a steep cliff which overhangs the lake, +and lay below us, for the time being out of reach. Here I met again +several officers of the Italian Field Artillery, whom I met above Val +Brenta in January, including the Neapolitan Adjutant of Colonel Bucci. +Also General Clerici of the Bersaglieri, who for the moment had his +Headquarters here, a friend of one of my companions. They all +substantiated the rumour that last night, or the night before, Austrian +envoys had appeared with a white flag in the Val Lagarina and had been +taken to Diaz's Headquarters. + +We parted from our friends and sped on to Vittorio Veneto, which gives +its name to this last great battle, being the point on which those +Italian forces moved, whose purpose and whose successful achievement it +was to cut the Austrian Armies in two, separating the Armies in the +mountains from the Armies in the plain. Vittorio stands on and around +the summit of a little hill, itself one of the foothills, the older part +of the town picturesque with little winding streets, the newer part well +laid out with broad roads, shaded with avenues of trees. Here the +Austrian flight had been more rapid and the damage smaller. But we were +still many miles behind the ever advancing battle line. We determined, +therefore, to turn sharply eastward and make for Pordenone, in the hope +of coming up with the fighting thereabouts. For last night, we heard, +the Austrians were still defending themselves on the near side of that +town. + +The road from Vittorio to Sacile grew thicker with advancing troops, at +first all Italian, then, as we approached Sacile, mixed Italian and +British, much Italian Cavalry and Artillery, then British Infantry and +some Batteries of Field Guns. In Sacile itself, which British troops had +liberated, the crush of troops was dense, and held us up for more than +half an hour. Union Jacks hung out from many houses, side by side with +the Italian tricolour. As we waited for a chance to go forward, a +Battalion of the Bisagno Brigade went past along the side of the road, +two deep, at a steady double. Several officers I recognised, whom I had +met at dinner at a little restaurant at Marostica many months before, +and again near Casa Girardi on the Plateau. We waved to one another and +cheered as they passed. When at last we moved on again, we found the +road from Sacile to Pordenone pretty clear for several miles and were +able to get up speed. But what a sight this road presented! Along it a +confused mass of Austrian transport was moving yesterday in headlong +retreat. They were bombarded by Artillery, ceaselessly bombed and +machine-gunned from the air. The slaughter here had been great, the +ditches were full of dead men and horses, and the loss in wrecked and +abandoned material of every kind had been immense. And the civilians, +who had been practically without food for many days, had been cutting up +and eating the dead horses. "Poverini!" said an Italian officer to whom +we gave a lift into Pordenone, "they are all starving and we have little +chance yet to bring them food." + +Pordenone was ours. It had fallen in the early hours of this morning, +but the departing Austrians had burnt and wrecked it. The streets were +full of the debris and furniture which they had thrown out of the houses +and shops in the last mad search for loot. We pushed on, and came up +with British Infantry advancing, and the transport wagons and the +steaming field cookers of two Battalions, and some cyclist companies of +Bersaglieri. But the transport was at a standstill and the dismounted +men only going forward slowly. We soon discovered the cause. The wooden +bridge over the Meduna river was on fire, pouring forth clouds of smoke. +The Austrians had been here only four hours before and had blown up two +spans as they retreated and soaked the rest with paraffin and set it +alight. The bridge was effectually destroyed. Italian Cavalry, we heard, +had gone through the water in pursuit, and likewise some British +Infantry patrols, swimming and wading and making use of various +ingenious, improvised devices. But the Austrian had a good three hours +start, and was running fast and travelling light, it was thought. + +But we, being unable to get our car across, turned northward along the +river bank and drove furiously and, after a mile or two, outran the +foremost Infantry patrols (I think, of the Royal Warwicks), who were +pushing cautiously forward, searching the woods and farmhouses for +lurking rearguards. And so it was that, first of all the Allied troops, +we four entered the little village of Nogaredo. And, as we came in, we +sang, very loudly and perhaps somewhat out of tune, the chorus of _La +Campana di San Giusto_, the forbidden song which to the Italian +Irredentists stands for somewhat the same officially repressed but +inextinguishable emotions, as that once forbidden song _The Wearing of +the Green_ stood for to the Nationalist Irishmen of a now vanished +generation. + + "Le ragazze di Trieste + Cantan tutte con ardore, + 'O Italia, O Italia del mio core, + Tu ci vieni a liberar!'"[1] + +[Footnote 1: All the maidens of Trieste sing with passion, "O Italy, O +Italy of my heart, thou comest to set us free!"] + +So to that village _we_ were the visible liberators. All the villagers +came running towards us, crowding around our car, weeping and cheering, +pouring out their stories, touching and holding and kissing us. It is +seldom that things happen with such dramatic perfection. + +The last Austrians, they said, had been gone only half an hour. We +pressed on along a narrow road, but it was late afternoon, and the light +was failing. The road grew worse, and the mud thicker. Much retreating +traffic had only lately traversed it. At last we stuck deep in two muddy +ruts. The wheels skidded round helplessly. We could go neither forward +nor backward. Three of us got out and shoved with all our strength. +There was a crackle of rifle shots not far away. We were prepared for +an encounter. But nothing came of it. We got the car out at last, but +the road was too bad for further progress and it was almost dark. We +turned and drank up the remains of our "florium" and came back. But that +day had been unforgettable. + + + +CHAPTER XL + +THE COMPLETENESS OF VICTORY + +The end was almost come. On November 3rd we received the official +announcement that an armistice had been signed, and that at 3 p.m. on +November 4th hostilities on the Italian-Austrian Front would cease. That +same day Trento, Trieste and Udine fell. One began to be aware of the +completeness of victory. On this day and the days that followed the +communiqués of Diaz were decisive and historical. + +"November 4th. Noon. The war against Austria-Hungary which ... the +Italian Army, inferior in numbers and resources, undertook on the 24th +of May, 1915, and with unconquerable faith and stubborn valour conducted +uninterruptedly and bitterly for 41 months, has been won. The great +battle begun on the 24th October, in which there took part 51 Italian +Divisions, 3 British, 1 French, 1 Czecho-Slovak and 1 American Regiment +against 73 Austrian Divisions, is finished.... The Austrian Army is +annihilated. It has suffered very heavy losses in the fierce resistance +of the first days of the struggle and in the pursuit; it has lost +immense quantities of material of every kind and almost all its +magazines and depôts; it has left in our hands, up to the present, about +300,000 prisoners with complete staffs and not less than 5000 guns.[1] +The remnants of what was once one of the most powerful Armies in the +world are now flowing back in disorder and without hope up the mountain +valleys down which they came with proud self-assurance." + +[Footnote 1: These figures increased later to more than 430,000 +prisoners and 6800 guns.] + +"November 4th, 4 p.m. According to the conditions of the armistice ... +hostilities by land, sea and air on all the fronts of Austria-Hungary +have been suspended at 3 p.m. to-day." + +"November 6th. At 3 p.m. on the 4th of November our troops had reached +Sluderno in the Val Venosta, the Pass of Mendola and the Defile of +Salomo in the Val d'Adige, Cembra in the Val d'Avisio, Levico in the Val +Sugana, Fiera di Primiero, Pontebba, Plezzo, Tolmino, Gorizia, +Cervignano, Aquileia and Grado." + +Some of these names filled me with memories of a year, and more than a +year, ago. Old Natale's message to the enemy chalked on our hut at Pec +had come true. We had soon come back. + + * * * * * + +The fighting was over! That night of the 4th of November all the sky was +lit up with bonfires and the firing of coloured rockets and white Véry +lights. One could hear bells ringing in the distance, back toward +Treviso, and singing and cheering everywhere. It was an hour of +perfection, and of accomplishment; it was the ending of a story. An +epic cycle of history was finished, the cycle of the wars of Italy +against Austria. The task of completing Italian unity was finished, so +far as a series of wars could finish it. + + "The fight is done, but the banner won; + Thy comrades of old have borne it hence, + Have borne it in triumph hence. + Then the soldier spake from the deep, dark grave: + 'I am content.'" + +The soldier had done his duty, now let the statesman do no less. Let +wisdom and imagination make sure the fruits of valour. + + * * * * * + +The old Austria is dead, and from her grave, which Italian hands have +dug, are rising up new nations, the future comrades of the old nations +and of Italy, who in these bloody years has grown from youth to full +manhood. It has been said that a nation is a friendship, and the common +life of nations in the future must also be a friendship, necessarily +less intimate but in no way less real. The youth of the world must never +be called to swim again, with old age on its back, through seas of +needless death to the steep and distant cliffs of military victory. +There must be no more secret plots, nor seeming justification of plots, +by little groups of elderly men against the lives and happiness of young +men everywhere. The world must be made safe for justice and for youth. + + * * * * * + +Youth was rejoicing that night in Italy, when the war against Austria +ended. And not youth only, nor Italians only. The British troops loudly +and healthily and almost riotously sang also, all the temporary +soldiers and nearly all the regulars. Yet here and there were gloom, and +drab, wet blankets, trying to make smoulder those raging fires of joy. +In a few officers' Messes, especially among the more exalted units, men +of forty years and more croaked like ravens over their impending loss of +pay and rank, Brigadier Generals who would soon be Colonels again, and +Colonels who would soon be Majors. To have been, through long uneventful +unmental years, a peace-time soldier puts the imagination in jeopardy +and is apt to breed a self-centred fatuity, which the inexperienced may +easily mistake for deliberate naughtiness. Yet these brave men, who hate +peace and despise civilians, have many human qualities. They are +generally polite to women, and they are kind to animals and to those of +their inferiors who show them proper deference and salute them briskly. +It is not always easy to judge them fairly. And that night one did not +try. They jarred intolerably. They seemed a portent, though in truth +they were something less. They found themselves left alone to their +private griefs, ruminating regretfully over the golden age that had +suddenly ended, gazing into the blackness of a future without hope. + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +IN THE EUGANEAN HILLS + +_November 12th_, 1918 + +It is all over. For a few days it seemed possible that we might be sent +northward, through redeemed Trento and over the Brenner and the crest of +the Alps and down through Innsbruck, to open a new front against Germany +along the frontier of Bavaria. But that will not be necessary now. It is +all over. + +Our Battery is living partly in a little terra-cotta Villa and partly in +a barn close by. We are among the Euganean Hills, a group of little +humps, shaped like sugar loaves, which rise out of the dead level of the +Venetian Plain, south-west of Padua. Here Shelley wrote a famous and +beautiful poem, and Venice, on a clear day, is visible in the distance +from a monastery perched among trees upon one of the loftiest humps. Our +guns, which will never fire any more, sit in a neat row, "dressed by the +right," along the garden path outside the Villa, their noses pointing +across a grass lawn. Their names, which are the Battery's Italian +history, are painted on their muzzles and their trails in large white +letters, picked out with red upon a dark green ground: _Carso_, _Piave_, +_Altipiano_ and _Trentino_. _Trentino_ is my gun. They look very +ornamental in their new coats of paint, and with a high polish on their +unpainted metal parts. + +It is an hour of anticlimax. There is nothing to do, and one has to +"make work" in a hundred silly, ingenious ways. Next week some of the +men who have been out of England for 19 months will go on leave. Then, +after a fortnight in England, unless something tremendous and unexpected +happens, they will all come back again. And there will still be nothing +to do. Was it Wordsworth who said that poetry is "emotion remembered in +tranquillity"? Wordsworth would undoubtedly have written much poetry +here. Our chief delight is Leary's musical voice. He sings to us in the +evenings after dinner, "_La Campana di San Ginsto_" and "_Addio, mia +bell', addio_" and choice _stornetti_, and "_Come to Ferrara with me_," +a cheerful song of his own composing, set to a music-hall tune which was +famous three years ago, and "_We'll all go a-hunting to-day_," an old +song with a superb chorus. And so the days pass, one very like another. + +I dreamed last night that a regular soldier of high degree and uncertain +nationality appeared to me and said, "Do you not see now, young man, +that peace is degeneracy, and that war is an ennobling discipline?" And +I, chancing my luck, replied, "Yes, the great von Moltke himself said +that peace is a dream, and not even a beautiful dream." Whereupon my +visitor changed into a white owl and vanished with a hoot. And I awoke, +and found that I had overslept myself and that the nine o'clock parade, +which I was due to attend, was already falling in outside. + +Then said I to myself bitterly, "At any rate we here have all survived, +and, therefore, since war is the greatest of all biological tests, we +must all be very fit to have survived, especially that most fit young +man, who came out to the Battery from England a day or two before the +armistice was signed, after three years at Shoeburyness, and the fittest +of all must be those whose survival, apart from such dangers as +influenza and air raids, has never been in doubt, the valuable people +who have been kept in England, because they were members of concert +parties or football teams at the depôts, or officers' servants to +influential _imboscati_, or influential _imboscati_ themselves." + +And then, with a great and well-disciplined effort, I pulled my thoughts +together, and said to myself, "Enough of these musings of the peace-time +soldier!" + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +LAST THOUGHTS ON LEAVING ITALY + +On the 3rd of December I passed out of Italy, after eighteen months +spent as a soldier within her borders. These eighteen months will always +be lit up for me by the memory of a great comradeship between men of +Allied nations. We have lived together through the dark days and the +sunshine, through sorrow and joy, through uncertainty and defeat to +final victory. + +I have been very fortunate in my personal relations in Italy. I have +found always among Italians, both civilian and military, and from simple +soldier to General, the most open friendliness, the most unsparing +kindliness, the most happy spirit of good fellowship. And on my journey +home I closed my eyes and imagined myself back once more at Venice in +full Summer, and at Milan, and at hospitable Ferrara, and at Rome in the +Spring, and on the shores of the Bay of Naples, and out on Capri, and in +the wonder world of Sicily,--and always among friends. And then my steps +went back in fancy to the battlefields, where our guns had been in +action. I saw again the great peaks and the precipitous valleys of the +Trentino. I saw the wreck of liberated Asiago, ringed round with +mountains whose sides were clothed with shattered pine trees, heavy with +snow, and I went down once more by that astounding mountain road from +Granezza to Marostica, with the Venetian Plain and all its cities spread +out beneath my feet, and Venice herself on the far horizon, amid the +shimmer of sunshine on the distant sea. I stood again on the bridge at +Bassano, looking up the Val Brenta, with Monte Grappa towering above me +on my right hand, and then turning south-eastward across the level plain +I heard again the rushing waters of the Piave and, crossing to the +farther side, passed through Conegliano, burnt out and ravaged, and +Vittorio Veneto, a name that will resound for ever, to the broken bridge +over the Meduna, east of Pordenone, and the village of Nogaredo, whither +I came as one of its first liberators. And, as in a dream, I saw Udine, +unspoilt and radiant as she was fifteen months ago, before Caporetto, +and poor little Palmanova, as I last saw her, wreathed in the black +smoke of her own burning, and the cypresses and the great church of +Aquileia and the lagoons of Grado. + +Then the flying feet of memory carried me beyond the Isonzo, up the +wooded slopes of San Michele, where the dead lie thicker, and along the +Vippacco, running swiftly between banks thick with acacias, and among +the ruined suburbs of Gorizia, up towards those desolate lands, which +for future generations of Italians will be, I think, the holiest ground +of all,--the bare summit of Monte Santo, and the mountain-locked +tableland of Bainsizza, and the rocky, inexorable Carso. These rocks +have, perhaps, been more deeply soaked with blood than any other part of +the entire Allied line on any continent. Here died many thousands of the +bravest and the best of the youth of Italy. "Nella primavera si combatte +e si muore, o soldato." How many great lovers, fathers, thinkers, poets, +statesmen, that might have been, but never were, lie here! These lands +will ever be more thickly peopled with the cemeteries of the dead than +with the villages of the living, lands desolate and barren, yet strange +and beautiful. Clear and clean is the beauty of those graves in the +noonday brightness, delicate and tremulous in the early dawn and in the +soft light of a fading day, and for us, who think of those dead with a +proud and tender emotion, that beauty is, in some sort, a frail +consolation. The dust of strong men from the great mountains is buried +here, and of men from the historic cities and the small unknown towns +and the little white villages of Italy, and of peasants from the wide +plains, and of brave men from the islands, and a handful of Frenchmen +and Englishmen along with them, and very many of those tragic soldiers, +drawn from many races, who died in the service of the Austro-Hungarian +State, fighting against their own freedom. I see again, as vividly as +though it were yesterday, those high-hearted legions of Italy, sturdy +men and fresh-faced boys, going forward with a frenzied courage, +supported by an Artillery preparation which elsewhere would have been +thought utterly insignificant, to assault positions which elsewhere +would have been declared impregnable. + +"The world," said Lincoln at Gettysburg, "will little note nor long +remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. +It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished +work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced; that +from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for +which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly +resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." So may it be! They +died for the dream of a greater, a free and a secure Italy, and, the +more reflective of them, for a better, more coherent world and no more +war. A part of their dream is already come true, but part is a dream +still, a debt to them that only we can pay. It will need to be a far +better world, with a progress sustained and ever growing through +centuries to come, if this tremendous sum of wasted youth, of broken +hearts, of embittered souls, of moral degradation, of wounds that cannot +be healed until all this ill-fated generation has passed away, if this +great sum of past and present evil is to be cancelled by future good in +the cold balance of historic reality. Of the dead we may say, their task +is over, their warfare is accomplished. But not of the living. The +future is theirs, to make or mar. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's With British Guns in Italy, by Hugh Dalton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY *** + +***** This file should be named 10107-8.txt or 10107-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/1/0/10107/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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