er
the dead body of the Battery Staff Sergeant Artificer. He had dropped
asleep on one of the guns and, as the tractor moved on, he had fallen
forward, head downwards, beneath the gun wheel, which had passed over
him, along the whole length of his body, crushing him to death. They
said he died before they could get him out. He was a good man and a very
skilled worker, full of pluck and spirit. The last thing he had done for
me was to get everything ready for rendering the guns unserviceable in
case we should have to abandon them. There was no chance of decent
burial for him here, but I had his body placed upon an empty trench
cart, which was being towed by a lorry of another Battery, and put two
of our men in charge of it. They buried him the next day or the day
after in a cemetery near Portogruaro.

About 7 a.m., as I was still making my way back through the traffic
towards our guns, it was reported that enemy cavalry patrols had been
seen to the north of the road, and that shots had been exchanged. For a
moment there was some panic and confusion, but a scheme of defence was
quickly organised. No one had supposed that they could yet be so near. I
found Bixio rallying some Infantrymen, with eloquent words and great
gestures, and an Italian Infantry Major, calm and smiling, was putting
out a screen of machine gunners and riflemen across the road itself and
along a hedge five hundred yards to the north of it. All was in
readiness for putting our guns completely out of action. There would be
nothing else to do, if the enemy appeared, for we had no gun ammunition,
and it was impossible to get on, until the whole traffic block in front
of us had been shifted forward. But I told Bixio that I should do
nothing to the guns, unless there was some evidence that the enemy was
really approaching with a superiority of force over our own.

The enemy, however, did not at that time reappear and the best bit of
hustling traffic management that I had yet witnessed during the retreat,
now took place. The northern road was at last clear at Latisana, and the
authorities turned their attention to us. A breakdown gang appeared and
a number of new tractors and lorries with refills of petrol. Civilian
carts whose drivers remained, were ordered to drive on, those which had
been abandoned were overturned to one side into the ditches, and dead
horses and wreckage due to bombing or the brief moments of panic were
likewise thrust off the road. Rela