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