rward.

* * * * *

In a village on the Bainsizza Plateau, half wrecked by shell fire, two
old peasants were sitting outside their house. Austrian shells whistled
through the air and burst a few hundred yards away. "These are not for
us," said one of the old men to an Italian soldier, "the shells and the
war are for the soldiers, not the civilians."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FIGHTING DIES DOWN

On the 28th of August the offensive was really beginning again. We were
firing on San Marco at a slow rate from six a.m. for an hour, then
"vivace" from seven till noon, and at noon we lifted and continued
vivace. San Marco was not rocky, and the trenches there should be
bombardable into pulp. In the early morning from Sant' Andrea the hills
all round were clearly outlined, except where some long belts of
motionless, white, low-lying cloud partly hid the Faiti-Stoll range.
Later, with the sun up, a warm haze hid everything. Firing continued
heavy till six p.m., and then slowed down. The attack on San Marco had
failed.

Next day there was a good deal of shelling and some torrential showers.
We set fire to some woods on the lower slopes of San Daniele, with a
high wind blowing.

* * * * *

The Battery's good luck continued. On the 30th, while my Gun Detachment
were at breakfast, a 5.9 burst in their shelter trench, at the moment
unoccupied, and covered every one with showers of loose earth. All the
breakfast vanished, and our shells were thrown about like driftwood in a
storm. But no ammunition was exploded and no one was hurt. Raven, who
had been up Sabotino that day, told us that "San Gabriele is tottering."
Our offensive seemed to have completely come to an end on the Carso and
in the Vippacco Valley. But we were still hammering away at San Marco
and San Gabriele, at intervals of a few days at a time. On the 2nd of
September San Gabriele was still "tottering," on the morning of the 4th
it was reported taken, on the 6th we heard that it had been taken, lost
and retaken, the Arno Brigade having distinguished themselves by some
wonderful bombing. Cadorna's objective now, it was said, was Lubiana,
and not Trieste. The Major and I both agreed that the Entente ought to
put every available man and tank on to this Front and go for Vienna. On
the 8th Raven told us that the top of San Gabriele was held, but not the
lower slopes nor Santa Catarina, which were still precar