WITH BRITISH GUNS IN ITALY A TRIBUTE TO ITALIAN ACHIEVEMENT BY HUGH DALTON SOMETIME LIEUTENANT IN THE ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY WITH 12 ILLUSTRATIONS AND 3 MAPS _First Published in 1919_ TO THE HIGH CAUSE OF ANGLO-ITALIAN FRIENDSHIP AND UNDERSTANDING "Nella primavera si combatte e si muore, o soldato." M. PUCCINI, _Dal Carso al Piave_. "So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received, each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchres; not that in which their mortal bones are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives." _Funeral Speech of Pericles_. "Dying here is not death; it is flying into the dawn." MEREDITH, _Vittoria_. PREFACE So far as I know, no British soldier who served on the Italian Front has yet published a book about his experiences. Ten British Batteries went to Italy in the spring of 1917 and passed through memorable days. But their story has not yet been told. Nor, except in the language of official dispatches, has that of the British Divisions which went to Italy six months later, some of which remained and took part in the final and decisive phases of the war against Austria. Something more should soon be written concerning the doings of the British troops in Italy, for they deserve to stand out clearly in the history of the war. This little book of mine is only an account, more or less in the form of a Diary, of what one British soldier saw and felt, who served for eighteen months on the Italian Front as a Subaltern officer in a Siege Battery. But it was my luck to see a good deal during that time. Mine had been the first British Battery to come into action and open fire on the Italian Front. And, as my story will show, it was either the first or among the first on most other important occasions, except in the Caporetto retreat, and then it was the last. I have camouflaged the names of all persons mentioned throughout the book, except those of Cabinet Ministers, Generals and a few other notabilities. For permission to reproduce photographs, I wish to thank the representatives in London of the Italian State Railways (12 Waterloo Place, S.W.), and my friend and brother officer, Mr Stuart Osborn. H. D. LONDON, _February_ 1919 CONTENTS PREFACE PART I INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER I THE ANGLO-ITALIAN TRADITION AND ITALY'S PART IN THE WAR PART II SOME EARLY IMPRESSIONS CHAPTER II FROM FOLKESTONE TO VENICE CHAPTER III FROM VENICE TO THE ISONZO FRONT CHAPTER IV THE WAR ON THE ISONZO FRONT CHAPTER V PALMANOVA CHAPTER VI AQUILEIA AND GRADO CHAPTER VII A GRAMOPHONE AND A CHAPLAIN ON THE CARSO