With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian AchievementDalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron
History
With British Guns in Italy: A Tribute to Italian Achievement
Dalton, Hugh Dalton, Baron
World War, 1914-1918 -- Italy
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 either been driven back
across or into the river by Italian counter-attacks, or had been cut off
and compelled to surrender. We, therefore, came back to the Plateau
without firing a round.
But we did not remain there long. The idea of a mobile Artillery of
manoeuvre was much talked of at this time, and early in July a Brigade
consisting of three British Siege Batteries, my own included, was moved
westwards up into the Trentino. We travelled all the way by road,
through Verona up to Brescia, "the eagle that looks over Lombardy," and
thence beside Lake Idro, up the Val Chiese, past Storo into the Val
D'Ampola.
All this last stretch of country is famous in Italian history as the
scene of Garibaldi's campaign of 1866, which, had it not been
interrupted by the course of events elsewhere, would probably have
hastened the liberation of Trento by more than half a century, and
greatly modified the problems of Italian policy in recent years. The
story is well known of the recall of Garibaldi, which reached him at the
moment of victory at Bezzecca, and of his famous reply, a model of
laconic self-discipline, in the one word "Ubbidisco"--"I obey." The
little town of Bezzecca lay this July behind the Italian lines, but in
full view and easy range of the Austrians. A company of Arditi was
billeted here, with whom I lunched one day, returning from a front line
reconnaissance. The Piazza had been renamed by the Italians "Piazza
Ubbidisco," and under cover of darkness they set up one night on the
mountain side just above the town a memorial stone to Garibaldi and his
volunteers of 1866, a provocative target for Austrian gunners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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