ling 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