The War Service of the 1/4 Royal Berkshire Regiment Part 6

CHAPTER XX

THE ITALIAN WINTER

Happy the Battalion which for a while at least in wartime has no history. We had come to Italy expecting at once to be desperately engaged against the victorious invaders. But the Italians, greatly to their credit, had reorganised their broken forces, and, with their left resting on the mountains, had repelled all attempts of the enemy to cross the Piave, swollen with autumn rains. By the end of December the British and French Armies were fully concentrated, and a period of immobility set in, not to be broken for six months. The 48th Division, which formed part of General Haking's 11th Corps, found itself peacefully installed in Army Reserve. Under the clear Italian skies, in the peaceful Venetian plain, moderately well housed and not overworked, their lot was cast in a fair ground. The two halves of the Battalion reunited on 4th December, and finally settled on the 15th December at S. Croce Bigolina, where they remained six weeks. This village is situated just east of the Brenta, about 20 miles north of Padua, where G.H.Q. were established, and a similar distance south of the foothills of the Trentino Alps, where the line ran through the famous plateau of Asiago. Excursions to these hills in small parties for the purpose of reconnaissance formed from time to time a diversion from the ordinary routine of training.

Christmas was celebrated with great festivity. The officers had supplemented the men's rations by a subscription, stores were purchased in Vicenza and Padua, and a cheque of 50 was received from the County a.s.sociation for the same purpose. Dinners, concerts and suppers were provided for the Companies; the officers were given free use of the house of the Parish Priest, who was entertained by them as the guest of the evening. It was the happiest Christmas which had been spent overseas.

With the New Year winter set in with a hard, bright frost, so keen that all the running streams were frozen. Visits of inspection were paid by General Plumer, the popular Commander-in-Chief, and by General Haking, whose kindliness and geniality in chatting to the men as individuals was heartily welcomed. At this time also the gratifying news was received that the commanding officer had been awarded the C.M.G.

On the 24th January the Battalion left S. Croce amidst general regret.

The excellent priest, who had worked with all his will to promote good relations, in a parting message to Colonel Clarke especially commended the honourable and chivalrous relations which had existed between the troops and the women of the neighbourhood. At Paviola, which was reached after a weary march in a misty thaw over roads reduced to quagmires, the Battalion split up again: B and D Companies, with Headquarters remained in the same area, while Captain Challenor with the remainder moved to the Convent di Praglia, south of Padua, in order to supply working parties to the central school at G.H.Q. Here they remained till the end of February, doing every kind of job, to the complete satisfaction of those concerned. Some worked at the quarries, some at a bayonet-fighting a.s.sault course, some at the musketry school, others at the gas school; finding, however, time between their labours to play a number of football matches with neighbouring units.

By the end of the month all were again reunited; their long spell of rest had come temporarily to an end, and on the 27th they took over from the 2nd Queen's (7th Division) reserve lines on the Montello, that well-known hill overlooking the right bank of the Piave, which was one of the key-positions of the Italian line. The next fortnight was spent in this area, about half in the front line. It was an interesting though, fortunately, not a very dangerous experience, as the losses amounted only to one killed and one wounded. The long hill, which stretched for miles to the west of the river, was furrowed with numbers of deep, narrow dells, in which the platoons were housed.

Along the foresh.o.r.e was a series of disconnected posts, every second of which was armed with a Lewis gun. The majority of these were held only at night. They looked across the wide bed of the Piave, which, like all capricious mountain streams, divided into three or four channels, intersected by overgrown islands and beds of shingle, which heavy rain, as in the June battles, would convert speedily into a roaring torrent. The widest and deepest stream flowed on the enemies'

side. Their inactivity was very marked, scarcely a shot was fired either by day or night, and except for the last day their artillery gave few signs of life. As was proved time after time, the last thing desired by the weary and disillusioned Austrian was to provoke the British.

This interlude was the nearest approach to warfare encountered for many weeks to come. On the night of the 14th March in intense darkness the Italians relieved us without incident, and we turned our backs on the Montello for good. The division now moved west for many days; some short time was spent at a.r.s.ego, but it was not till 3rd April that the Battalion settled down to a three weeks' sojourn at Valle, in the hill country west of Vicenza. The great events, which were shaking the Western Front to its foundations, found no echo here; two British Divisions were, it is true, moved to France, but the 48th was not among them. The Austrians as yet showed no signs of renewing their attacks.

While the Battalion were at Valle they lost their Commanding Officer, Lieut.-Colonel Clarke, who was appointed to command the newly-formed Divisional Machine Gun Battalion. His departure was deeply regretted.

He had led the Battalion through all its serious fighting, and had gained the complete confidence of all. He had kept a strict discipline without worrying the men about trifles; they could all appreciate his administrative ability, his grasp of detail and practical concern for their comfort. We were fortunate in gaining as his successor Colonel Lloyd Baker, of the Bucks Battalion, who had been well-known earlier in the war as General McClintock's Staff Captain, and he brought to his new duties all his characteristic kindness and tact.

Meanwhile the constant exercise in hill-climbing for men and pack ponies, the schemes of attack and defence suggested that our next destination would be northward in the mountains. Nor was expectation falsified; for by the 23rd the Battalion had climbed up out of the warm, showery spring of the valley, and billeted in Italian huts at Granezza, about 4,500 feet above sea-level in storms of snow and hail.

They were in Brigade Reserve immediately behind the lines on the Asiago plateau, which they were destined to guard until the advance to final victory at the end of October.

CHAPTER XXI

MOUNTAIN WARFARE

The new line ran along the forward slope of the hills, which had just been so painfully climbed, and whose reverse sides sheltered in their folds, densely populated with pine forests, the local reserves. The trenches themselves were strangely unlike any as yet inhabited, being blasted out of the solid rock. An impressive and, indeed, magnificent panorama extended itself in front. The valley of the Seven Communes, that curious little tongue of German-speaking territory projecting into pre-war Italy, ran across the foreground. Barren and almost treeless, it had been in the battle-line since the Austrian offensive of May, 1916, which had nearly broken successfully into the Venetian plain. Many villages and hamlets dotted the plain, especially towards the western end, the most imposing of which was Asiago. Though knocked about to a certain extent, they offered a regular and habitable outline as compared with the blank desolation of France. On the further side of the valley the pine-clad shoulders of the mountains were gradually merged in the great snow-covered, cloud-capped bastions of the Alps. Between the lines a vast No Man's Land extended, in many places nearly a mile in width, with miniature hills and valleys, and studded with houses and copses, over which our patrols were able to roam almost at will unmolested. Such was the general calm prevailing that officers in the front line were accustomed to sleep in their pyjamas. The entire casualties during May, most of which month was spent in the line, were three wounded. In a successful raid carried out on the 12th by two platoons of D Company, 2nd Lieut. Stott, slightly wounded, was the only victim. He obtained the M.C. and the Italian Silver Medal for Valour as a reward for his work. It was somewhat difficult to capture the prisoner required for identification, as the only post encountered promptly ran away; one, however, of the elderly Hungarians of the 24th Honved Regiment, who composed it, tripped and fell into a sh.e.l.l-hole, and was carried off by the raiders. The enemy made up for their lack of resistance by bombing their own wire and shouting a.s.siduously until daybreak. On the 22nd the Battalion returned to Cornedo, in the plains; summer had by now fully set in; the vines, the maize, the mulberry and the orange, with many other diverse forms of luxuriant foliage, had completely changed the aspect of the country. The men were glad to wear the suits of drill and the sun-helmet which had now been issued. Thus May merged into June; the fourth great German attack was battering at the gates of Compiegne, but the Italian front had as yet given no sign. On our next visit, however, to the line, it became known that a British offensive was to be launched in the middle of June. The usual conferences and rehearsals took place; detailed orders were issued, the very date became known. It was to take place on the 16th of June.

Twenty-four hours beforehand the Austrians, goaded at length out of their long sleep by the prodding of their Allies, suddenly launched that great attack on practically the whole of the front, which was the last offensive effort of the Hapsburg dynasty. After a somewhat alarming initial success on the Montello and the lower Piave, it changed into a complete failure. We have now to see how it affected the fortunes of our Battalion.

The Austrian attack was planned after the model of Ludendorf's great offensive of March 21st; that is to say, it was preceded by a short but violent bombardment of high explosive and gas directed particularly on the back areas and gun-positions. Its effectiveness was not, however, great, partly owing to the extreme difficulty of searching all the crannies of the mountain country, partly because the level of Austrian efficiency was low. Their gas-sh.e.l.ls, in particular, seem to have been almost innocuous. The sh.e.l.ling began about 3 a.m., and lasted for three hours, when the infantry left the trenches. The two British Divisions in the line, 23rd and 48th, were attacked by portions of four Austrian Divisions; it is said that the latter had been brought up immediately before the battle in lorries, and told that their objective was weakly held by Italians, as their disinclination to face British and French troops was notorious.

However that may be, they advanced against our Division with considerable energy at the outset. The two Battalions of the 145th Brigade in the line were from right to left, the 1st/4th Oxfords and 1st/5th Gloucesters. The enemy succeeded in driving in the outer flanks of both Battalions, and also in pushing a wedge between them to a maximum depth of about 1,000 yards. But attacking uphill over unfamiliar and blind country, exposed to cross-fire from rifles and machine-guns, and heavily bombarded, their progress was soon arrested.

Our Battalion was in Brigade Reserve, and did useful work during the day in joining hands with the two a.s.saulted Battalions. D Company joined the Oxfords at noon, and suffered some loss during the afternoon while forming up in the open to counter-attack. Here its commander, Captain C. Buck, a good and conscientious officer, was killed. He had served unhurt through the whole of the third Battle of Ypres, and was the only officer whom we lost by death during the Italian year.

Next morning very early, with the co-operation of C Company and one platoon of A, a completely successful advance was made to the old front line. All the heart had now gone out of the enemy, the failure of whose effort was patent. They made scarcely a shadow of resistance, and more than 60 prisoners remained in our hands. During the previous day C Company had been already engaged in stopping the gap between the Oxfords and Gloucesters. The latter, who had been isolated on both flanks, were in danger of complete encirclement during the morning and early afternoon, but extricated themselves and joined hands with C Company at 5.30 p.m.

During the 16th the whole divisional front was without exception re-established, and patrols were pushed forward into No Man's Land; the Austrians continued to surrender in little bodies, until the Division had collected over 1,000, with eight mountain guns abandoned and picked up. The casualty list of the Battalion afforded happy proof of the ineffectiveness of the enemy. We lost no more than five killed and 13 wounded. Thus ended ignominiously the great Austrian attack.

CHAPTER XXII

THE LAST SUMMER

The remainder of June was spent pleasantly in rest billets, disturbed only by the first of the great influenza epidemics, which, pursuing a mild course, resulted in no deaths, but caused the evacuation in all of 112 men. On the 20th the Division lost their Commander, Sir R.

Fanshawe, who returned home. He had commanded us for more than three years; devoted to the care of his Division and to the task of defeating the enemy, he demanded in everything the same high standard which he always set himself. A frequent visitor to the trenches, he did not reserve his appearance for quiet times; at Pozieres and Ronssoy, for example, he was on the captured ground at the heels of his infantry. Therefore, he retained the confidence of the men throughout, in good days and bad.

Our sojourn in the plains was prolonged during the first twenty days of July under the full heat of summer, all moves being made in the early hours of the morning. On 12th July the Battalion had the satisfaction of winning the Divisional Signal Compet.i.tion.

The ten days spent in the line were devoid of incident, one man only being wounded by a sh.e.l.l, and on the 30th July a return was made to Marziele for ten days, where a terrific storm one night blew down all the tents and bivouacs. The 10th August found them again in the mountains taking over from the 6th Gloucesters the extreme left of the divisional line. The war had now entered upon its penultimate stage with the splendid Allied victories of 18th July and 8th August; the enemy had lost everywhere the initiative, and was not to have the chance of regaining it. Although the Italians did not feel themselves capable at present of any important attack, the Austrians were not left in peace. Large-scale raids resulting often in the capture of hundreds of prisoners, were undertaken without respite by the French and British, provoking no attempt at retaliation.

Nor was the Battalion without share in these activities. The ground was first prepared for a full-dress raid by offensive patrols. On August 16th Lieut. Baxton attacked and bombed a party of the enemy on Coda Spur, the bombs falling clean among them. On the 15th a similar party under 2nd Lieut. Crawford shot five Austrians, who were patrolling their own wire, and who, when challenged, with fatal stupidity, halted and stood outlined against the skyline, an easy mark.

The time was now ripe for a more ambitious effort. The Battalion was withdrawn for a few days to Granezza, and returning to the trenches on the evening of the 26th, made a successful raid that same night in conjunction with the Bucks on our left. The attack was to be directed against the enemy trenches on either side of Asiago, the point of junction between the Battalions being at the south-east corner of the town. All four Companies were engaged; C on the right was to form a defensive flank within the enemy's trenches; B, on the left, was to seize the front line before Asiago, where A, pa.s.sing through, would secure the support line, and allow D Company in turn, pa.s.sing through them, to explore the southernmost limits of the town, and join hands with the Bucks. The withdrawal was to be in inverse order--_i.e._, C and B were to hold the captured positions until the other two Companies had been safely pa.s.sed back.

Zero hour was 10.40 p.m., and there had been no preliminary barrage.

The Companies had moved out from our outpost line at 9 p.m. and got into striking position after safely traversing the wide intervening area. As they lay waiting for the fiery signal, the enemy began to show nervousness; they had probably heard something suspicious, but could not see far, as clouds obscured the moon, and a white mist hung in the valley. They fired lights and rifle grenades and a few sh.e.l.ls during the last half-hour before the bombardment opened, but caused no serious inconvenience. The barrage worked well; 32 minutes elapsed before it completed its shift from the front line to the final objective, which also it enclosed in a frame of sh.e.l.ls on either flank. Here it remained for one hour, after which it died gradually away, as the withdrawal progressed. C Company reached and held their objective on the right with little difficulty, extracting 50 prisoners from the trenches and dugouts. B were equally successful, though a little hand-to-hand fighting was necessary to force an entrance on their right; they found the trenches shallow and ruinous, with few occupants (they could only collect six prisoners), and the dugouts in the quarry behind were wholly untenanted. The enemy annoyed them during their occupation of the trench with continuous sh.e.l.l-fire. A Company, according to programme, now pa.s.sed through them in small columns, but as their commander was. .h.i.t at this difficult moment, they lost direction and got mixed up with the Bucks, so that only one platoon met the enemy, who showed some fight in houses and dugouts near his support line. D Company successfully reached their objective, the enemy flying wildly before them and leaving four only in their hands. Those houses of Asiago which they searched were neither garrisoned nor fortified. The withdrawal took place with surprising ease, without even being troubled by systematic sh.e.l.l-fire. Prisoners were handed in to the 144th Brigade and receipts were given for 72; but it seems that nearly 100 was the actual bag. Casualties were fairly numerous, amounting in all to 77, but very light in character, only one man being killed and four missing, while of the wounded 26 remained on duty. The majority of wounds was due to sh.e.l.l-fire and unaimed machine-gun bullets, as there was very little genuine fighting. Many awards were made in connection with this well-executed operation; they are given in an appendix. I may mention here that Captain Cawley, who was wounded, received the M.C. and the Italian Silver Medal, and C.S.-M. Alder the same Italian decoration, together with the D.C.M.

September pa.s.sed quite quietly in alternations between the front line and Granezza. The Battalion was now under the command of Colonel Whitehead, who succeeded, but did not replace, Colonel Lloyd Baker. He was a brave man, but of a narrow and unsympathetic school, staled by continuous service throughout the war.

October brought no change except in the weather, which declined suddenly to autumn on the hilltops, with night-frosts and continuous violent rain. The Austrians were still hara.s.sed perpetually by enormous and invariably successful raids, by bombardments and aerial bombing, to which they submitted with the patience of necessity.

The absence of any great concerted attempt to destroy them seemed almost inexplicable to our troops, as they heard of all the great works which were being performed against their enemies elsewhere.

Already had Bulgaria fallen; the last Turkish Army had been dissolved; the German line was crumbling to pieces under the remorseless hammer of the British; and the interchange of Notes with America foreshadowed the end of the war. The Italians, however, were determined to wait until the possibility of failure had been reduced to a minimum, and doubtless they were the best judges of the capacity of their own troops. Thus it was not until 25th October that they launched the blow which was to prove the destruction of the Austrian Empire.

CHAPTER XXIII

VICTORY

The attack was started first on the Piave and the Brenta; and operations further west were contingent on success in those areas.

Accordingly, its effects did not become apparent on our front until 29th October, when the Austrians were already in headlong flight towards the Tagliamento. At that date we were holding the extreme right of the Divisional Area. On that morning, at daybreak, C Company sent out a patrol, which found that the Austrians had abandoned their front lines--a retirement which deserters had foreshadowed for some days past. They pushed on at noon and entered Asiago, a silent village; thence exploring more boldly, they wandered right across the valley as far as Ebene, close to its northernmost limits. There they saw the French patrols similarly engaged in searching the houses. Then the enemy gave the first sign of his continued existence, firing with two machine guns from a little knoll, which commanded the village 500 or 600 yards away. The Bucks, who were out on the left, brought back similar word, and it was apparent that a general retirement had been carried out to their Winterstellung, or Winter Lines, which ran along the northern slopes and barred ingress into the side valleys which led up to the railway of the Val Sugana. It now became necessary to discover whether the enemy was standing strongly in this main line of defence, or whether it could be overrun by a _coup-de-main_. During the night of the 29th-30th, therefore, B Company was sent forward to feel its way and report on the resistance encountered. Captain Winslow now established his Headquarters in the Military Barracks at Asiago, keeping one platoon at hand. The remaining three spread widely over the plain and moved forward. They occupied the villages lying at the foot of the mountains, but it was evident that the enemy was still in strength before them. Here and there they extracted Austrians who had been left behind in houses and dugouts. The left platoon, in particular, discovered 17 in Bosco, including an officer; as they drove this party before them towards Asiago, while it was still light, machine-gun fire was directed upon them from the ridges of Monte Catz, causing several casualties. The prisoners, headed by their officer, were foolish enough to refuse to continue their journey, and their mutiny cost them dear, as, with one exception, they were all killed.

Next day A Company took on the patrolling work, and found the lines still occupied, while the Austrians denied them access to Costa, which had been examined on the previous day. Reports from either flank gave similar information; there was nothing, therefore, to suggest the speedy and dramatic overthrow which was to follow.

During the night of the 31st October-1st November, the Corps decided to make a general attack at dawn, the orders being verbally delivered to Colonel Whitehead by the Brigade-Major soon after midnight. There was thus very little time to make preparations. Fortunately Major Battc.o.c.k was acting as intelligence officer, and set to work with all his characteristic energy and method. He had only rejoined the Battalion at his own request some days previously, and although senior to every officer except that of the Colonel, had volunteered to act in any capacity in which he could be useful. He was living in advanced Headquarters at Asiago School, and succeeded in getting everyone in position by 3.30 a.m. Meanwhile D Company, whose duty it was that night to patrol in front, reported that Monte Catz was still strongly held. This long bare shoulder, which projected southward from the main ridge into the valley, was the objective of the Battalion. It was the key of the whole of this section of the Winterstellung, as it overlooked the trenches on either side. At 5.35 the attack was launched; C and D Companies, from right to left, were charged with the a.s.sault; they advanced close behind a barrage. Each had a section widely extended in advance as skirmishers, the main body advancing in two lines. C Company met with immediate and splendid success. Brushing aside opposition at Costa and on the slopes of the hill, they stood upon the summit at 7.30 a.m.; they had already taken 65 prisoners and had completely cleared their area. D Company had met with a tougher resistance, and being a.s.sailed by cross-fire from both right and left, were held up in the Plain until B Company came into the gap, and seized the machine-gun nests on the south-west slopes of Monte Catz about 7.30 a.m.

Thus our position was satisfactory beyond expectation. The 144th Brigade, however, on the left, were in a less happy condition. Their a.s.sault on the lower slopes of M. Interrotto had not been successful.

The enemy had even pa.s.sed to a counter-offensive, and had thrown them back beyond the uttermost villages of the Plain, Camporovere and Bosco. The evacuation of the latter imperilled all our dispositions, and Colonel Whitehead wisely kept A Company at Asiago in case the enemy should drive a wedge between the two Brigades. It was the more unfortunate that O.C. D Company, acting on one of those vague orders which often circulate during battle, whose source it is impossible to trace with certainty, had withdrawn his company somewhat from the slopes, believing himself to be conforming to the desires of the 144th Brigade. Monte Catz was therefore left in a dangerously salient position on the west, but as the Bucks, and beyond them the French on the east, had been completely successful, it was thought well to take the risk of exploiting the success which the 145th Brigade had already won. The indefatigable C Company, therefore, pushed on up the hill, seized and pa.s.sed the Sichestal Trench (the last organised defence in that area); the Bucks securely protected their right flank; on the left B Company held a line slanting backwards to the Plain, where D continued the line on the outskirts of Bosco, still untaken. All this was accomplished by about 3 p.m. The blow of the Battalion had been decisive, as Lord Cavan mentions in his despatch. They had taken that day 480 prisoners, and more than 30 guns, and had destroyed many more.

Next morning the 144th Brigade seized all their objectives with little difficulty; the Winterstellung existed no longer. The Division held the entrance and both sides of the Val d'a.s.sa, and began to march up it towards their final objective, the Val Sugana, one of the main nerves of the enemy system. The Austrians fell into a rout, which can have few parallels in military history. Famished and without hope in the world, faced at the same moment with military disaster and political collapse, they fled headlong into the mountains, or swarmed down in enormous numbers to surrender to our advancing troops; almost the last remnant of self-respect which they retained was their determination not to become the prisoners of the Italians. The rough mountain tracks were blocked with their debris; and the crowds of unarmed men embarra.s.sed our advance-guards and checked their progress.

Generals and superior officers came down to meet us, sometimes at the head of troops, sometimes as solitary stragglers. A Corps Commander and three Divisional Generals were among the spoil of the Division.

Here and there during the 2nd and the early morning of the 3rd, little bodies of devoted men still resisted; as at Mount Meatta, where a Company of 4th Oxfords put 100 Austrians to flight after a sharp combat. It was noted also that when the red-capped Bosnian Regiment surrendered to our Battalion, the men obeyed their officers smartly, and laid down their arms and equipment neatly at the word of command.

It was curious that these Mahommedans, from the latest acquired of all the Austrian possessions, should have been the most faithful to their military oath. During the 3rd the confusion among the Austrians was, if possible, increased by their mistaken belief that the Armistice had come into force; they ceased even the isolated semblance of resistance, and were herded in the valleys like sheep. Meanwhile the Division advanced inexorably by the Val d'a.s.sa and the subsidiary Val Portule; they crossed the enemy's frontier at 8.30 on that morning, first of all the armies of the West (except for that portion of Alsace which had remained in French hands since 1914). That evening the Battalion lodged in Caldonazza, just south of the Val Sugana; here the enemy had abandoned a vast ordnance park and more than 200 guns. The Advanced Guards were already in Levico, that pleasant little spa in the valley, with its baths and springs, only 20 miles from Trent. Next morning the news came that the Armistice was signed and was to come into force at 3 p.m. The weary troops continued their march up the valley until that hour, taking still vast quant.i.ties of prisoners; then they halted. For our Battalion the war ended at the village of Vigalzano. They had covered 35 miles in two and a-half days over rough paths in the mountains. Not a single man had fallen out. Their casualties in this last glorious battle amounted to 17 killed and 23 wounded. Their individual captures cannot be recorded, but the booty of the Division was unprecedented, and reached 22,000 prisoners and at least 600 guns.

Here I will leave them; I will not describe their subsequent stay in Italy, the demobilisation of the Battalion, the return of the nucleus and its welcome at Reading, or its rebirth in peace under its present popular and capable Commander, Colonel Aldworth, and its excellent Adjutant, Captain Goodenough.

Let us not forget these Berkshire men, who played a worthy part in the changing scenes of this tremendous conflict: who, at the close, amidst the utter confusion of their enemies, bore witness to the truth of that saying, 'He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.'