rs, which
I shared with Littleton, the Chaplain who had thought that war "might be
tremendously worth while" and three junior officers from Raven's
Headquarters. I was, in truth, pretty done at this stage, chiefly
through want of sleep, compared to which I always found want of food a
trifling inconvenience. It was now about 4 p.m. and we could only make
very slow progress. A rendezvous had been fixed by Raven at Foglie,
where rations were to have been distributed. But there was no one and no
rations there, and it seemed that Raven had taken the wrong road. The
enemy were said to be advancing from the north at right angles to our
only possible line of retreat, and the chances seemed strongly in favour
of our all being cut off.

An Italian doctor ran out into the road and stopped our car, almost
beside himself with despair. He had been left in charge of a number of
severely wounded cases, without any food, medical necessities or
transport. But we had no food and could do nothing to help him, except
promise to try to have transport sent back to him from San Giorgio di
Nogara.

CHAPTER XXII

FROM SAN GIORGIO TO THE TAGLIAMENTO

We reached San Giorgio about 9 p.m. and here I got out of the car, which
two of Raven's Staff took on to try and arrange for transport to be sent
back for the Italian wounded. Having slept for an hour or two in the
car, I felt quite a different being and fit for anything. Stragglers
were coming in from the various Batteries' dismounted parties, and I
collected nearly a hundred of these men into a hall on the ground floor
of an Italian Field Hospital. They lay about on the stone floor,
sleeping like logs. Upstairs a panic had spread among the wounded that
they would be abandoned. Men were crying with terror and struggling to
get out of bed. Campbell, who had now joined us, went up and helped the
Italian medical personnel. Soon afterwards ambulances of both the
Italian and British Red Cross began to arrive, and the hospital was
quickly cleared. From one British Red Cross Driver I got a large box of
Cabin biscuits, which I distributed among our men, some of whom were
ravenously hungry. I also found a tap of good drinking water in the main
street and here we refilled all available water bottles, including those
of several men who were too fast asleep to waken.

The question then arose what to do with these stragglers. I went to the
station, but found that no more trains were running. Latisana w