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