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