lconiac 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
in Italy, and had fired the first British shell against Austria. The
Major in command had the reputation of being the most efficient British
Battery Commander in Italy, and, so far as my experience of others went,
he deserved it. He was a Regular soldier, and had served with a Mountain
Battery in India, a service which requires and breeds a power of quick
decision, by no means universal among Garrison Gunners of the Regular
Army. Personally he was a most delightful man, at his best a very
amusing talker, a pleasant companion and an excellent Commanding
Officer. Few officers whom I have met took as much thought and trouble
as he for the material welfare of his men. From his junior officers he
combined a demand for high efficiency with a sometimes wonderful
solicitude for their comfort, health and peace of mind. He never asked
any of us to do more, or even as much, as he did willingly himself, and
if anything went wrong in the Battery, which it seldom did, he never
hesitated, in dealing with higher authorities, to take all the blame. He
had been twice wounded already, once on the Somme and again in the
Italian May offensive. Later on he was wounded a third time.

Captain Jeune, the Second-in-Command, was also a Regular, but very
young. In mind and manner he was older than his years, and he knew his
work as a military professional extremely well. Some found him
truculent, but he never displayed any truculence to me.

On my arrival I became Senior Subaltern of the Battery. The three Junior
Subalterns, Darrell, Leary and Winterton, provided a variety