nteresting 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 ea