. Romano's Battery next door to us threw the remains of their
ammunition into the river, and pulled out and away about 6.30. They were
horse-drawn and did not need to wait for tractors. We wished each other
good-bye, and hoped we might meet again some better day. We too got
orders to destroy all ammunition we could not fire, as there would be no
transport to take it away. So we gave No. 2 a generous ration and heaved
the rest into the waters of the Vippacco.

No. 2 went on firing ceaselessly. So did one gun of the Battery in the
village, and one gun at Rupa. That Battery, being the furthest forward,
was in the greatest danger of the three. About 7 o'clock our first
tractor arrived and took away No. 1 gun with Winterton and Manzoni.
Enemy bombing planes came over frequently. One came right over us and
then turned down the Vallone, and there was a series of heavy
explosions, and great clouds of brownish smoke leapt up beneath her
track.

Why, I kept asking myself, didn't the fools shell Pec village, where a
crowd of men and guns were waiting for transport? Why didn't they put
over gas shell? Why didn't they bomb us? Evidently there were no Germans
_here_! About a quarter to nine No. 2 finished her ammunition, and we
pulled her out. The other three guns had gone now and the other two
British Batteries were clear, all but two lorries. Just after nine
o'clock our last tractor came along and took off No. 2, with Darrell in
charge of her. How the Italians had managed to get all these lorries and
tractors for us, I don't know, for, in the Third Army as a whole, they
were terribly short of transport. Many made the criticism that we should
have kept out in Italy our own transport. But the Italians certainly did
us very handsomely, at the cost of losing some bigger guns of their own.

After the last British gun had ceased to fire there was for about five
minutes an eerie stillness, as though all our Artillery had gone and
theirs was holding its fire. And then an Italian Field Battery opened
again on the right of Pec. For over an hour now I had been expecting,
minute by minute, to see the enemy Infantry come swarming along the Nad
Logem in the dusk, cutting off our retreat, for I knew we had nothing
but rear-guards left up there. But they did not come!

Only the Major and I and about forty men were left now, and we had been
told that there would be no more transport. So we destroyed everything
that we had been unable to get away